Toddlers and Technology

In class on Tuesday we talked about how kids in this generation are growing with technology. I mean, I did grow up with a Playstation 1 and things like that, but now kids are learning to play games and use technology before they can even read and write. Apart of me wants to be like ‘that’s horrible for the child. How is a 4 year old going to learn how to play on the iPad or play the Wii before the child is even able to learn to write his/her own name”, but at the same time I’m like ‘well, this could be a good thing since kids are learning to think and use a different side of their brain which could possibly help them in the long run.’ Also, there are a lot of educational games that can be played on the Wii and iPad to help children learn and think through things that they may not get in class otherwise. So in the future if they do end up making a Primer that tailors specifically to my child, I think that I may end up getting one for him/her (depending on the price).  I feel like it can help with my child educationally, developmentally, and mentally, and what mother doesn’t want that for their child?

This is TOO CUTE!! :)

Buffy (the Appropriately Dressed) Vampire Slayer

Tuesday was the first time that I watched Buffy, since it when it originally came one. And I must say that I really enjoyed it! Even though it was filled with clichés, which I think made the show even more enjoyable. But, the thing that I made me really love the show is that how Buffy dressed appropriately to kick evil’s butt. As we discussed in class, if I were an heroine, I would need my hair to be tied back and away from face and I would need to have clothes that I could move in and be able to kick butt in without worrying about a wardrobe malfunction. I feel like some producers never really understand the fact hair in face and clothes that could cause a wardrobe malfunction is something that true heroines really need to be concerned with. Even though, I know that ‘sex sells’ and they want the heroines to be sexy as possible, to me it’s just not logical. Women can still be sexy will kicking butt in an appropriately dressed outfit and the producers/directors need to realize that and start making changes. I want to see more Lara Crofts, Buffys, Alices, and Selene (in the movie not the comic book) dressed heroines. 

Alice

                                                                                                         

Selene

                                                                                   

Estraven = the Bad Guy…?

During the first half of The Left Hand of Darkness, I pictured Estraven as the traitor and the bad guy. However, my viewpoint of him changed drastically after reading Chapter 14. The first sentence of Chapter 14 (written from Estraven’s viewpoint) really got me thinking about if he was truly the bad guy in the book. Page 185:

“When Oble and Yegey both left town, and Slose’s doorkeeper refused me entrance, I knew it was time to turn to my enemies, for there was no more good in my friends.”

As I was reading further into the chapter, I was thinking, ‘What in the world is he going to do?’ And then I realized that Estraven is going to bail Genly out of the Pulefin Farm. Then I thought, ‘Hey Estraven may not be such a bad guy afterwhile’. During this chapter, Estraven pretended to be a guard and acted like Genly was dead to take him outside where he then took Genly away from the Farm. The whole time while I was reading this scene, I was thinking to myself, ‘this guy spent most of his money and time to save Genly and HE’S being called Estraven the Traitor. That is crazy!’ Just think about it, a person that many of the Gethenians called a traitor and Genly, himself, never fully trusted Estraven, just broke him out of jail and saved his life.

 So, maybe the next time you met someone named ________(insert name) the Traitor, you might think twice about NOT trusting him/her. They could help you plan your jailbreak.

Aliens and Acceptance

In class we discussed the word, ‘alien’. We decided that the word meant strange, different, and unfamiliar. I looked up the word on dictionary.com  (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/alien) and the definitions that really popped out at me were: a foreigner, a person who has been estranged or excluded, a creature from outer space; extraterrestrial, and unlike one's own; strange; not belonging to one. Personally, when something is unfamiliar to me, I try to familiarize it to my own personal experiences to make my understanding of it better. Throughout The Left Hand of Darkness, Genly tried to familiarize the Gethenians, especially with the gender roles. Genly used “he” a lot more than “she” in the book and tried to give them specific genders, even though he truly couldn’t. However, in chapter 18, he finally realized that Estraven is both a man and a woman. Page 248:

“And I saw it again, and for good, what I had always been afraid to see, and had pretended not to see him: that he was a woman as well as a man.  Any need to explain the sources of that fear vanished with the fear; what I was left with was, at last acceptance of him as he was. Until then I rejected him, refused him his own reality. He had been quite right to say that he, the only person on Gethen who trusted me, was the only Gethenian I distrusted. For he was the only one who had entirely accepted me as human being: who had liked me personally and given me entire personal loyalty, and who therefore had demanded of me an equal degree of recognition, of acceptance. I had not been willing to give it. I had been afraid to give in. I had not wanted to give my trust, my friendship to a man who as a woman, a woman who was a man. ”

Not only did Genly finally accept Estraven and his people for what their truly are and he also finally gave Estraven his trust and friendship. Genly had a journey with Estraven on the Ice, but he had one with himself.  He learned to be open and accept things that are different.  Acceptance can be hard to do, specifically when it’s something that is out of realm of understanding. Genly taught us an important lesson about acceptance of things that we may feel that are 'out of the norm'. Be open to different things because who knows, you may actually end up falling in love with it.

What's Up With This 'Kemmering' Thing?

While I was reading the book called The Left Hand of Darkness, which has a planet with genderless people. The author, Ursula Le Guin, finally started talking about how these people change into a certain gender and make babies. And they do that through a process called ‘Kemmering’. Now, here is where things started getting deep. These people don’t have any sexual frustration, there’s no rape, no sexual assaults, and one’s mind doesn’t wonder off throughout the day because they are thinking about sex. There just isn’t a need for that on their planet!

That got me wondering about what if humans went through kemmering, how would that make our world different. I found a website which has all of the reported rapes from all around the world.http://www.rape.co.za/index2.php?do_pdf=1&id=875&option=com_content For an example about how scary rape statistics are in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, somewhere in America a woman is raped every 2 minutes. Only 2 minutes! That’s only 120 seconds. That’s shorter than it takes a bag of popcorn to pop in the microwave (for me atleast)! Just imagine if we went through kemmering, all those rapes and sexual assaults would be 0%. For me, that’s crazy to think about the world wouldn’t have any sexual violence. However, everybody being genderless is even crazier to think about. But, I think I could get over people being genderless for no more rapes and sexual assaults.