The first 10 years of my life I lived in a small town in Ukraine. Considering that everyone is white, I never learned what race really meant. I saw people of color on TV but I never put much thought into how their lives differed from mine. However, most of all, I never considered them to be inferior to me. I just considered them to be different than me but that’s as far as that thought went. I then moved to America at the age of 10 and spoke absolutely no English. I was put into an English Second Language to learn English. The diversity of people in the class was enormous. There were people from all over the world and we all looked different. You would think that there would be some sort of culture shock but there wasn’t any at all. We all got along very well and became really good friends even though we could barely speak the same language. Continue reading “My experience with the term race”
A Wound That Cannot Heal
In class last week, Professor McCoy asked the question, “what does it mean when you have a wound that cannot heal.” This question interested me particularly in regards to people who have gone through unique situations and obstacles in life, which very few can relate to. PTSD is something that is seen throughout Morrison’s Home. After returning from war, Frank seems to have lost his meaning for life. In describing his hometown he says Continue reading “A Wound That Cannot Heal”
Ownership and Consent
As a college student in particular, I feel like it is so important to understand the concept of consent. I feel as though I have been put in many situations where my consent is something that I turn to knowing that I have a right to accept or decline a situation. However, reading Octavia Butler’s, Fledgling, I have found myself struggling to accept the way in which consent works in the world of the Ina. Keeping Clay’s Ark in mind, I have to remember that the Ina are not human, therefore their needs in terms of consent are different than those of humans. Knowing that they need to feed off of humans to survive has been something I learned to keep in mind and accept, yet I realize that Octavia Butler is pushing me beyond my limits of what I am comfortable with. Continue reading “Ownership and Consent”
Our “Good” Deeds
When we were in class talking about medical “voluntourism” it was easy for my classmates and I who were clustered up to talk about how absurd this idea might be. Even reading it, it seems crazy, that a retired police officer was performing circumcisions and delivering babies in these countries that “need it”. Now if you keep reading you learn that it is not really about going to a place that was in dire need of this assistance, but more about the volunteers coming in for their own needs, their need for something good on a resume. Continue reading “Our “Good” Deeds”
Integrating Medical Cultures
In reading Alyssa’s blog post, Home Remedies, she discusses different familial home remedies used in different cultures, such as a special soup when an individual is sick. Other cultural home remedies I have used came to my mind, such as sitting in front of a pot of boiling water to let the steam clear your sinuses, drinking orange juice when you feel a cold coming on, and a cold washcloth on your forehead for a fever. Although these home remedies have some medical backing, they are common treatments passed down through family generations. Different cultures have different home remedies in their cultures. When looking at different families in different cultures, each family will have different remedies when approaching healthcare. These different cultures have different healing practices deep-seated into their society. When medical care from different cultures come in contact with each other, integrating the different medical techniques is often difficult based on the ingrained cultural meaning behind the medical practices. Continue reading “Integrating Medical Cultures”
The Price to Get Ahead
Looking at the most current data from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), in 2017, less than 50% of applicants that applied to medical school matriculated with a medical school (21,030/53,402). The number of applicants does not even reflect the actual number of those wishing to continue their education in medical school–many other students are unable to apply because they need to pass the prerequisite courses, maintain a competitive GPA, or achieve a good MCAT score. Additionally, high school students, aspiring to be future physicians, attempt to maintain a high GPA and above average SAT scores to apply to schools with programs geared towards pre-meds. With so many high schools students and undergraduate students wanting to pursue a career in medicine, it takes more than just statistics such as their GPA and test scores to reach that goal. Many undergraduate colleges and medical schools look for experiences in medicine that set these applicants apart. Continue reading “The Price to Get Ahead”
Need vs. Morals: Where’s the line in symbiotic relationships?
In response to today’s class, there are a few points I would like to make.
I had stated in class that we, as readers, tend to focus more on the humans. Yes, we are human, and yes, we will read things with a human perspective (obviously). However, that doesn’t mean that we cannot try to grasp or understand a different culture or society, whether it’s between other humans or other species. Humans today have trouble doing that in interactions between different parts of the world, for example, the US and Middle East relations – differences in culture, education and understanding. When we look at the Ina culture in Butler’s Fledgling, they share similar aspects of culture that we do: history, language, use of resources, etc.
Furthermore, when we read this book, a big theme is the idea of mutual symbiosis. The idea that there is a mutually dependent relationship between organisms – in this case, humans and Ina. However, we tend to focus on the power structure and the culture that goes into this complex idea. But let’s start with this: culture aside, the biology of the mutual symbiosis makes them NOT equal – there is a tendency to overlap and make the words “mutual” (held in common by two or more parties) and “equal” (a person or thing considered to be the same as another in status or quality) one and the same in this text, when they are not synonyms.
I had also stated in class that humans are independent of the Ina, they exist with or without them. Humans can survive, live and thrive without ever becoming a symbiont. However, the Ina NEED something, or someone, to feed on. They are more dependent because of that need. Humans are born independent, the Ina, dependent. Their relationship is not mutually dependent from the get-go, because Ina are the ones in need of this interaction. A person’s need can place them at a disadvantage, which we do see with the Ina, and Shori’s initial relationships with her symbionts. And Locke would advocate this, seeing as his philosophy is based on being able to take what you need without being greedy, and therefore avoiding a state of war.
Culturally speaking, between the Ina and humans, is a different story: the Ina and symbionts have their own culture. There is an understanding of making informed decisions between the two species. And the Ina do explain the circumstances of a new culture, and lifestyle, to them. Then there’s also the point that symbionts talk to other, possible, soon-to-be symbionts. This occurs between Brooke and Wright. Brooke states, “Iosif told me what would happen if I accepted him, that I would become addicted and need him. That I would have to obey. That if he died, I might die . . . But he told me all that. Then he asked me to come to him anyway, to accept him and stay with him because I could live for maybe two hundred years and be healthy and look and feel young, and because he wanted me and needed me. I wasn’t hooked when he asked. He’d only bitten me a couple of times. I could have walked away – or run like hell” (Butler 161). Continue reading “Need vs. Morals: Where’s the line in symbiotic relationships?”
Misguided Consent
As our class period came to a close today, Dr. McCoy told us a little anecdote about her own life and essentially left us to do what we wanted with it. This has brought an idea into my head that I had not previously considered in our discussions of consent in class thus far, and that is the notion of misguided consent. Continue reading “Misguided Consent”
Does Tragedy Bring People Together?
It seems as if every morning that I have woken up in recent months I have awoken to horrible, gut-wrenching news. Continue reading “Does Tragedy Bring People Together?”
The ‘Love’ Hormone
The question Stephen asked Rone in Clays Ark was “What is the Chemical composition of Love?” I did some research on Oxytocin, otherwise known as the “love” hormone. Oxytocin acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain that regulates social interaction and sexual reproduction. This hormone is released in situations like sexual encounters, breastfeeding, birth, and when we hug or kiss someone we love. When this chemical is released in the brain it allows a person to trust and love another.
When thinking about the chemical composition of the Ina’s saliva that causes attachment and unconditional love of the Human symbionts, it’s easy to assume that oxytocin could have a part in this. The ‘love’ hormone is necessary to human being survival because it bonds not only protection and (in some cases procreation) pairs of people, but also parents and their children. Like human beings use of oxytocin for survival, the vampires need human beings to trust and obey them to survive. Before Wright Continue reading “The ‘Love’ Hormone”