Current Events: A Taboo being Un-Taboo-ed

The discussion about masturbation, the stimulation or manipulation of one's own genitals, especially to orgasm; sexual self-gratification, is such a taboo. No one ever really discusses about it due to the awkwardness and the weirdness about it. Masturbation is usually done in private. However, in the book Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, the main character, Callie and her crush known as the Obscure Object performs a sexual act in public on the front porch swings. Although the act of masturbation is done here, there are many arguments that the obscure object is a significant character that doesn't just appear as Callie's crush but also she's finding her path to finding herself. She's exploring her desires, she is living the dream of finding her desires through this obscure object what I would call her is a sex toy because she can do anything to this object. But anything until the object refuses to do a certain act, Callie will obey and stop the action. Callie uses the obscure object genitals to fulfill her sexual desires, "And then with our eyes wide open but confined in that way my thumb slipped inside her. She blinked, her eyes closed, her hips rose higher, and I did it again" (390). Callie was gratified using someone else's private areas.  

      Although the book does not deal with the act of masturbation, two interesting article I found from the websites, The times of Israel and Zee News were about religious self-gratification. Some religions believed that the act of masturbation was immoral and some believed that there is a religious and kosher way of dong the act. In the article from the Times of Israeli website, an Orthodox Jewish therapist named Max Grunberg believed that, “In Jewish tradition female masturbation is allowed when it’s for exploring oneself and one’s sexual feelings,” Grunberg said. “It is valuable for gaining knowledge about the different parts of your anatomy through touch, which is needed to be a sexually knowledgeable women in order to communicate without fear your sexual needs to your partner” (Liphshiz, 2013). In short, religious and moral masturbation should only be done when exploring and desiring of sexual feeling and helps gain knowledge about your body using your touch sense. And in terms of Callie's situation, Callie is exploring another female body to explore her desires and also to explore her sexual feelings towards another. She is also familiarizing with a female's body exploring what's right and what's wrong in terms of anatomy. Therefore, it is fine to be exploring one's desires through touching oneself or another's, with permission of course. Callie is trying to discover her desire or her sexuality, capacity for sexual feeling. She explores what she is comfortable with.

Reference Links:

http://www.timesofisrael.com/orthodox-slowly-lifting-taboo-on-female-masturbation/

http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/israeli-film-breaks-ultra-orthodox-taboo-on-masturbation_1544075.html

Original Creative Response: My Beautiful Focal Point

My Beautiful Focal Point 

She is my focal point.
She is my masterpiece.
She is in my my center of attention.
The red headed girl I see everyday
in my English class.

When she walks down the hallways,
I stop.
And stare.
The only one in this hallway,
in this room,
in her house,
is only her and I.

The obscure object,
Mysterious,
Beautiful,
Foreign.
Everyone is watching her, staring at her

That touch...
She touched my hand!
She held my hand!
I felt a spark!
That strong chemical energy flowing through our bodies.
Just one touch,
that was all I needed.

Oh how you make me crazy
You are all I see, my beautiful.
my focal point.
My beautiful focal point.


This poem relates to the strong liking of Callie liking the obscure object. Callie is so interested and invested in her every move. For example, one of the scenes that stood out to me was the scene when they were practicing their lines at the obscure objects house and there was this end point of the scene where Callie and the Obscure Object were fooling around and at one point she felt her hand touch her hand along with the breath on her face. The way Callie described the moment seemed intense and it felt intimate and real for her, "Without letting go of my hand, she leaned closer and I heard, felt, very softly, her hot breath in my ear. 'Hi Tiresias,' she said, giggling," (336). Her words seem really seductive and her word choices had a feeling like she really enjoyed the feeling of her hot breath and her hands touching hers.

Text-to-Text: Hamlet and MiddleSex

There is an interesting part in the book Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides in the chapter "The Obscure Object" towards the end when Callie meets a red-headed girl who is from the Charm Bracelets. In the book, Callie classifies her as the "Object" or the "The Obscure Object" and towards the end of the chapter she gets closer and closer to her both emotionally and physically. They get closer and closer due to a project play called Antigone Mr. Da Silva assigns the whole class to present to the school. "The obscure object" plays the part of Antigone and Callie plays the part of Tiresias. During the opening night there was a shocking incident that occurred during the play, "It wasn't stage fright. An aneurysm had burst in Maxine Grossinger's brain... But Maxine's mother, knowing exactly what pain looked like on her child's face, shot up out of her seat. 'No,' she cried. 'No!' (338). The reactions from her mother along with the red headed girl reminded me of the known Shakespeare play called Hamlet. It reminded me of the scene when there was a play within a play. Hamlet created a play for his stepfather, King Claudius to reveal the truth about the death about his father. The purpose of the play was to observe King Claudius's reactions to the play, Hamlet was specifically looking for guilt in his face to prove to the audience especially his mother about how he killed his father. After King Claudius watches the play he says, "Excellent, i’ faith; of the chameleon’s dish: I eat the air, promise-crammed" (III.ii.84–86).

The reactions between Maxine's mother and King Claudius are really similar they are both shocked due to the death that is shown during the play; King Hamlet and Maxine. Both their reactions seem really dramatic and shows total emotion throughout the characters. It also touches and effects the audience due to the word choices and the tone the characters present it.

Key Passage Response: An Abnormal Positive Reflection by Cal

"But nothing seemed unnatural. My slight build, my thin waist, the smallness of my head, hands, and feet raised no questions in anybody's mind. Many genetic males raised as girls don't blend easily... My skinniness disguised me. The early seventies were a good time to be flat-chested. Androgynous was in" (304).

This is an interesting passage because of the reactions of present Cal because it seems like he is taking a huge and abnormal situation really calmly. No one was questioning not even the mother. If I was Cal's or Callie's mother I would be concerned of my child after I recollect all the abnormal transformations my daughter is going through. I wonder if Callie was wondering any of this during the whole puberty process and did she have any questions herself for example, questions why her breasts weren't growing in nor her periods and how she was undergoing a growth spurt and hair growth. My favorite lines in this passage are; "My skinniness disguised me" and "Androgynous was in". I really like the "skinniness" one because it's a stereotype that most females are skinny however, it was during the seventies when many females were flat-chested so that would explain as to why many people weren't too concerned about her abnormal body growth. I also like the quote, "Androgynous was in" because androgynous in the seventies was a fashion trend and I guess it was the only way why Callie wasn't too concerned and wasn't so depressed due to her body shape.

I also appreciate her tone. Her tone seems calm, and she didn't really seem to know the differences between a male and a female I'm assuming. Her tone also seems like she was proud due to her interesting word choices and her straight-forwardness. She avoided opinion and focused on the positive. This is a really important passage because these are the reactions that Cal had on himself when he was a female at heart. It's important to reflect on your life. This passage had a really positive outlook on her abnormal transitions which I also appreciated.

Personal Experience: Fictional Burning Buildings and Real Water Floods

The book "Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides has various significant events such as the snipers roaming through the city looting stores and burning buildings all around the neighborhood. This strong imagery in this book relates to the recent event a few years ago in New York City which was a treacherous hurricane, hurricane Sandy whom has caused a lot of disaster in New York City. Currently people now are still trying to clean up Hurricane Sandy's mess.

It all started on October 28, 2012. I was at my aunt's house in Elmhurst, Queens the skies were gray and it looked like it was going to be a long stormy night. The reason of going to my aunt's house that day was because of a small get together my aunt hosted at her house. As time went by it was soon to be 7 in the evening and people were starting to leave soon. It was now 8 pm when all our family friends left and it was only family left. It was already getting late, the winds were getting stronger and the rain was a bit harder than it was during the early evening. All I was thinking was, "what if there is no school tomorrow" suddenly I had a gut feeling after I heard the strong winds hitting my aunt's living room windows. I told my family to check the news about the absurd and treacherous weather we're having. Grabbing the remote all we saw all over the news was a weather warning alert. A hurricane named Sandy was heading towards the east coast. Minutes later, on the bottom of the screen on the Fox News channel ran across a notification that said that, "Schools are cancelled tomorrow due to the extreme weather conditions". My cousins has already left and my parents were telling my sister and I that we better get going now it's already late. My sister and I were afraid to even step out of my aunt's house, we were afraid to go outside towards the hurricane; "what if we have a car accident", "what if there was a flood" "what if a tornado hits NYC?" All these questions started to question in our minds and we repeated them to our parents. We were convincing our parents to stay for the night because there was no school anyways so why not. I remember I even double checked on my school website to see wether or not there was school tomorrow for me...and it was true.

After 10 minutes my parents finally agreed for us to stay the night however my parents unfortunately, unlike my sister and I had to go to work tomorrow and my dad had work tonight so they had to go home.

My parents left around 9 pm. After 10:30 pm the storm was getting worse, lightning stroked NYC every now and then. 11:30 my mom called and told my aunt and I about how the security management in our building knocked on the door telling her to leave and evacuate the apartment. Back in my aunt's house we were hearing FOX News and all other news channel telling District one, literally near the East River which was where I live to evacuate immediately. My mom told us that she agreed and she told the security that she has to pack up her stuff to get ready to leave. I was nervous for her. Call ended.

12 pm: my mom called me again that she saw Con-Edison explode. She now had no electricity gradually also having no water. My mom was even more frightened. My mom alone at our house, while my sister, my aunt, my uncle, and I were all at my aunt's apartment in Queens where there is a far distance between the river and the apartment.

The third call was the most shocking. It was around 3 or 4 am my aunt picked up the phone, my sister and I were asleep already. However, my aunt told me when we woke up the next day. It was about my dad. His journey back home from work. My aunt told us the story, my dad had to park more than 4 blocks aways from home due to the harsh floods near our house. He had to swim home, the water was as high as his stomach was. The lobby door of the house was blocked by a few sandbags. It was incredible on top of all the water how my dad moved all the sandbags to get through the door. But my sister and I was relieved that my dad got home safely but not relieved that my dad's clothes were all soaking wet due to all the swimming he had to do to get home.

Hurricane Sandy was one of the most significant experience my family and I have gone through. Similar to Cal's stories about the burning buildings and the snipers looting the stores, Hurricane Sandy has impacted my family's life and has emphasized that Cal's family and my family has gone through a lot to survive through a treacherous event in our lives.

My Creative Mind

Journal Prompt #3: Describe your creative mind. Think about what happens when your mind is creating something—a thought, a move, a drawing, an equation. What’s going on?

As I walk out of my parent’s apartment entering the elevator I think of songs I want to hear whilst my journey to school. I open the back door beginning the long path of the light gray pavement. I walk towards the bus stop and I suddenly see the top of the bus, notifying my nerves to run to the bus before I miss it. I finally get on the bus. As always the bus is always jammed pack with men in suits, dolled up students, elderly asians, and toddlers with their school backpacks. As I am waiting for the arrival of my bus stop, I stare out the window looking at the pale faces waiting for their rides in the bus along with the rushed taxi cars on the crowded streets. Whilst I stare through the window, I get pushed around by tall, short, young, and old people. Making me feel in some sort of angry, annoyed, but calm and patient person in the inside. Staring outside the window I start to think of crazy situations that can occur during a bus ride to school. Situations and scenes like, chaotic altercation between the people behind me or car crashes or coffee spills or even drug transactions along the dark alleys.

After I start to think to myself that this is reality anything can happen. I start to think of personal situations leading to questions I have for the future to come. Questions like “is anyone going to care if I die right now right here on the streets?” “Is anything going to change or is it just going to ‘continue on’?” or “is anyone even going to my funeral, like my friends, or family or teachers?” Although these questions seem over the top, many people like me do think what will happen when your time comes, everyone is afraid of death.

In addition to the dark side of my creative mind, we move on to the brighter path of my imagination. Things like having a perfect prom in a puffy cinderella dress holding hands with a handsome prince charming or maybe just a simple but perfect prom where all of my bestest friends dressed in their beautiful gowns and perfect makeup on all going to prom together in a limo and later on having to go to the beach watching the sunrise.

Although I do get many of my inspirations from life situations, my imaginations are also triggered by many of the books, plays, television shows, and movies I watch and read. I’ve been recently been inspired by the wonderful and glorious William Shakespeare, his plays like Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet have inspired me the most so far. It’s so amazing how much Shakespeare can influence my little but outrageous mind. Many of my favorite shows such as Eye Candy, Walking Dead, and Pretty Little Liars all inspired to think out of the box and most of my dark ideas come from thrilling TV shows, which is a little of a surprise since all the shows I watch are mysterious and maybe a bit gruesome at some points.

In conclusion, writing my imaginations down on paper possibly into a play helped me realize all my imaginations are just wild as a horse galloping around a field dozens of times. They also jump from one image to another. The number of pieces of hair on a wild hairy beast can represent the amount of ideas and fiction stories played in my head.

"The Taming of the Shrew" Act 4 Scene 5

Here is the published video:
 vimeo.com/120541445



Summary:

In this video, we are informing that Shakespeare is trying to reinforce gender roles due to the male manipulation and men’s strong desire for women. We reinforced it by adding color to our costumes. For example, we had the actress, Amy as Katherine wearing a pink sweater with a skirt to show a bit of feminism and we gave Petruchio a bit of facial hair along with a dark sweater to show a bit of masculinity. Also at the beginning we had a sword for Petruchio and Katherine was holding a fan. Not only did we enforce clothing wear in the two genders, but we also use strong tone to strengthen gender roles. For example, Petruchio played as Annisaa, attempted to have a strong, demanding, manipulative and mischievous tone. Katherine played by Amy, in the beginning showed stubbornness but afterwards under Petruchio’s suggestion, Katherine attempted to have a “girly” or feminine, weak, which shows men authority towards women. Towards the end of the video, to enforce our idea of reinforcement of gender roles we included a mini victory nod and cheer to applaud the shrew, Katherine, being finally tamed to show male dominance in relationships.