Category: Uncategorized

Disclaimer: The following blog post focuses on topics such as pro-choice and pro-life. It is mostly research-based with my stance on reproductive rights at the end. Please read at your own discretion.

Women’s reproductive rights have been a battle in society that has gained widespread support in only the last couple of decades. According to The CUT magazine, “In the 18th and early-19th centuries, abortion was legal before “quickening,” the point at which a woman could feel her fetus move… abortion after that was considered a common-law misdemeanor.” From that point on in the United States, there have been battles and negotiations over women’s reproductive lives. Below is a timeline of the history regarding reproductive rights, that have helped me educate myself on this topic.

Continue reading “Pessary and Reproductive Rights”

The poem “Facing It” by Yosef Komunyakaa has taken precedence in my mind since we were asked to recite it a couple class periods ago. The power struggle that is described between the viewer and the memorial was one that unnerved me despite the complete rationality of its presence. After all, was that not the purpose of a memorial? To make you remember? To initiate the process of reflecting? To remind us of how we got to where we are now?

(WARNING: Analyzing poetry is not my strong suit so proceed with caution)

Continue reading “The Onyx: Life of the Niess”

“Pick up your book”, “Be quiet!”, and “I told you to..” are all examples of commands, directives, and instructions that we in one way or another have encountered throughout our lifetime. But, what makes us obey them? Well, we obey our commands due to the idea that a figurehead or authority figure told us to do so. These individuals include, but are not limited to: our parents, teachers, family members, and many more. Continue reading “Power + Authority in Damaya’s Narrative”

I love animals. I constantly give into my dog’s wishes for constant attention (one of the major reasons why I procrastinate everything to do with any kind of work), I accidentally fall into watching videos about animals, and I volunteer at a couple different rescues and shelters. Some of my favorite animal videos to watch are the ones about dogs or cats getting picked up off the street and having an amazing transformation into adorable house-worthy pets. Continue reading “Wildlife in the Stillness”

“How do you decide what to include?“
“Where do you start?”
“How do you decide if the narrator is reliable?”

“How reliable does a narrator have to be for you to believe them?” Continue reading “Writing SciFi”

Over this past summer, I lived my childhood dream of seeing the sequel to The Incredibles. It took FOURTEEN YEARS but it finally happened. From the original movie, Edna Mode and Jack Jack Jack were my two favorite characters because of their quirkiness and quintessential roles they played in the film. Edna was the older, seemingly crazy character that obviously knew more than she was letting on and Jack Jack was the youngest character, full of potential and coming into his own. Continue reading “The Power of Children”

As I was reading The Fifth Season, I thought about the sea and why Syenite had expressed disinterest in going near or in the water. I had originally thought that there was no moon so why would there be anything to fear, other than otherworldly sea creatures that is. I also had thought that since there was no moon, there were no waves or currents in the water. So I was especially confused once Alabaster and Syenite went to Meov and it was a community that thrived off of ransacking the Stillness’s ships. Then I did some research on the moon and how it affects our Earth. Continue reading “Making Waves”

Queerness has always been categorized by a degree of nonconformity. The term has previously been used to define what’s perceived to be strange. Yet, the strangest aspect of this is not the object or individual to which this term is given. In fact, the most unusual part of this is the public’s inability to perceive a change in normality as progress instead of a threat. Usually, when queerness enters literature or film, there is a common plotline for all characters. The importance of their existence is centered around their sexuality. Writers choose to not give a character a solid arc or personality and opt out to produce two-dimensional fillers. Jemisin has refused to fall into that tradition and instead has written queerness as a normal ideal rather than a defining factor.

“Queerness is essentially about the rejection of a here and now and an insistence on potentiality or concrete possibility for another world” Continue reading “The Future Is Queer”

One day I was trolling the internet looking for inspiration for a blog post when I came across Jemisin’s own blog. The particular post that I had read discussed why Jemisin chose to split Essun’s story into three seemingly different stories. Basically, Essun needed to jump the “empathy gap”, as Jemisin describes, and including stories from her childhood and young adulthood made the book overall more interesting. Continue reading “Building Blogs off of What I Find on the Internet”