Salisbury University hosts Poms Fall Dance Showcase Nov. 11
The Poms Dance Team pirouetted and flitted across the stage. They performed songs such as “Mambo No. 5,” “Power,” “Burlesque” and “Hallejuah” with a variety of dance styles.
Salisbury University hosted the Poms Fall Dance Showcase Nov. 11 to give students the chance to see them perform. About 700 people attended the event.
Alexis Ruslander has been dancing since she was 2 years old. She said she likes the way dancing makes her feel, and dancing helps her to relieve her stress when she is having a bad day.
She decided to further her dance career and learn more dance moves by joining the Poms Dance Team.
“I wanted to continue my dance career,” Ruslander said. “This is such a great group of girls…and we get along so well.”
Rachael Fox has been dancing for the past 18 years. She said her body feels free and she is able to express herself when she is dancing.
She said she wanted to join a Poms team in high school and regretted not joining, so she decided to join the SU Poms Dance Team. She said she is proud of the hard work that went into the showcase.
“It was awesome seeing it all come together after the months of hard work that we’ve had to put into it to make each dance look as good,” Fox said. “We don’t do just one kind of dance; we are capable of multiple genres.”
Kelsey McNulty said she has been a cheerleader her whole life, but this is her first year dancing for the Poms team. Her roommate is the president of the team and convinced her to join.
McNulty said she felt stressed while she was preparing for the event, but she was happy with the way the event turned out.
“It was really hectic in the beginning; we had a lot of setbacks,” McNulty said. “But, it was just really fun the way it came together really fast and everyone was energizing each other, so that was nice.”
Demi Lovato is ‘Simply Complicated’
YouTube’s original documentary “Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated” is raw, riveting and emotionally captivating.
This documentary is an extremely personal and intimate look into her life, which makes it truly a love letter to her fans, to her “Lovatics,” without whom Lovato does not believe that she would be alive.
Fans are easily able to identify with Lovato’s story because she is so brutally honest about all of her experiences and struggles.
“The last decade has taught me a lifetime of lessons,” Lovato said. “I’ve learnt that the key to being happy is to tell the truth and being okay without all the answers. This is my story. This is ‘Simply Complicated.’”
Lovato’s music has always had an edge to it. She has always made sure to make her music as authentic as possible.
She focuses heavily on her own personal experiences in her music and wants her fans to be able to relate to her experiences and her vulnerability. Music has always been an outlet of expression for Lovato, who began singing at the age of five and playing guitar at the age of eight.
“I’m on a journey to discover what it’s like to be free of all demons,” Lovato said.
Her documentary is honest and powerful, full of jarring moments such as her description of her cocaine addiction, her strained relationship with her late biological father, Patrick Lovato, the death of her grandmother, her ongoing battle with her eating disorder, her break up with Wilmer Valderrama, punching her back-up dancer in the face and her heart-wrenching descriptions of extremely intense and cruel bullying in middle school.
Lovato struggled with being held to a standard of perfection and long work hours while on the Disney Channel.
“All of the sudden, she had to be a role model,” her manager Phil McIntyre said. “And I don’t think she was ready for that.”
Lovato says that she is proud of herself for not relapsing into drugs or alcohol and maintaining her sobriety for over five years. But, she still struggles with her eating disorder, which consumes many of her thoughts.
Lovato says that from a very young age she was extremely depressed and was always concerned with her body image. She also had manic episodes where she would stay up all night writing songs.
When she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which is a mixture of manic and depressive episodes, it “made sense,” Lovato said.
This documentary chronicles Lovato’s life from her childhood of being a Texan pageant girl with a powerful singing voice to an empowered woman with six albums worth of incredible, inspiring, evocative music.
This documentary includes many of Lovato’s songs, such as “Sorry Not Sorry,” “Tell Me You Love Me,” “Sexy Dirty Love,” “Only Forever,” “Daddy Issues” and “Games.”
These tracks all add to the emotional intensity of the film. Her new songs are very soulful and also explore Lovato’s sexual side.
“When I feel comfortable in my own skin, I feel confident,” Lovato said. “When I feel confident, I feel sexy, and when I feel sexy, watch out.”
Toward the end of the film, Lovato performs the power ballad “Tell Me You Love Me” with a back-up choir.
The documentary ends with an emotional compilation of fan covers of “Stone Cold” which transitions into Lovato’s original version, which plays over the end credits.
Her documentary is a vivid and enthralling look into her life, exploring everything from her recording process to her personal struggles. This film truly captures the many complexities of her personality.
Though this documentary is short, it covers so many aspects of her life. Lovato bares all in this film, and she does not hold back.
“Mother Moon” Poem – Melissa Reese
The world is tinged in melted kaleidoscopic hues
As the sun dies,
Mother Moon casts brilliant spectrums of light.
In the moonlight, we may find solitude, inner peace, and a quiet introspection,
Which gives way to melancholy.
The rise of great forlornness is not weakness, but strength of mind.
I know that my womanhood lies not in my breasts,
But in the stars of my eyes.
My eyes see the light of essential moral and philosophical truths.
The gentle, curving valley between my thighs
Cannot possibly hold the same power as my shining eyes.
Under the grand, sweeping view of the stars,
We see points of reason lighting our way home.
Sense, O great sense is the reason for everything,
It is my reason for being.
Reason is the root of all that is just, noble, and civic-minded.
Why then does the gentle stir of the wind invoke my immortal soul?
Why is the essence of existence encapsulated in the rapture of sensibility?
Sensibility, though she be but a fair maiden,
Her compassionate honesty is far crueler than any blade.
It is sensibility that doth stir my fingertips in the night.
Swirls of tender remembrance twirl my heart into a heaving sigh
That gets lost in my lungs and caught in my throat.
My hands run through my wispy strands of hair
As my inner words hold my heart in a tight vise-like grip.
So I remain in quiet servitude to sense, my kind and charitable companion.
Sense tells me that I need to listen to what enlivens my mind,
Gives me reason to think
And to yearn for the kaleidoscope of infinite possibilities.
I must listen to the faeries that fly in my bloodstream.
To truly know one’s heart,
One must purposefully break it.
The heart will then rebuild itself.
It will glow in the golden embers of the dying light.
Though sense is moral and sensibility is passionate,
I know that we need both intellectual and spiritual truths
In order to fully exist.
The reforestation of my heart gives way to great oak trees,
Full of luscious jade leaves.
The sunlight streams through the windowpane again,
And my body aches from numbness.
Where, O where, is Mother Moon
In the dreamy, ethereal sunlight?
Is Hope for the Future Illogical and Without Reason?
It is extremely difficult to feel hopeful when everything is going wrong, both personally and politically.
I miss my dog, Sammy, so, so much. He passed away in March. All I want is to be able to pet him and cuddle with him again. All day, I feel like all I do is look at pictures and videos of dogs on Facebook and Instagram.
I am currently at university, and I feel lonely a lot of the time. My family is not here and I just do boring homework in my room. I try to go to events on campus and I am in a few clubs, so I feel like I am socializing a little bit. I think that transitioning to a new phase of life is always difficult.
In the political sphere, everything is going wrong. No matter which side you are on, you cannot deny that you are angry. I cannot think of a single person who is satisfied with the current political climate. Everything that Donald Trump and every member of his administration (especially Betsy DeVos and Mike Pence) says and does is horrifying to me. I have seen and heard things in my own country that are devastating and horrifying, but some sick people actually think that the Muslim Ban, the repeal of DACA, Trump’s response to all the hurricanes, cutting funding for education, thinking that climate change is not an issue and not signing the Paris Agreement, homosexuality conversion therapy, and DeVos’s repeal of Title IX, which protects victims of campus sexual assault, are all acceptable. Everything that is happening is disgusting and abhorrent.
Hillary Clinton won by 3 million votes, but the electoral college decides everything, so our votes do not even really matter. As a woman, I still think that it is important to vote because I have to honor all the women who came before me, all the women who fought and died for my right to vote. I did not earn my right to vote. I just won the birth time lottery. If I were luckier, I would live in a time where the idea of a woman being president was actually feasible, that it would not be a question of sex, but a question of values and morality.
I want to have a logically sound reason to have hope for the future of our country and our world. I want evidence to substantiate the claim that we are not doomed. Is hope irrational? Is there a reason to be hopeful right now?
My family members tell me that they truly believe that the world will end soon, that it is impossible for humans to peacefully coexist with each other. Is there any evidence to the contrary, any reason to be hopeful?
Are they right? Probably. Trump will probably destroy the world.
Most intelligent people have very negative, pessimistic views about the current state of the world and our future. I have very low, pessimistic expectations. Does that mean that I am smart?
It is really rare to find intelligent people who are optimistic about the world, people who have true hope, not blind faith without reason. There are millions of people who simply think that everything is going to be fine, but they do not have reason to support their claims. I want to be intelligent, well-informed, and still feel hopeful for the world. I do not want to hope for a bright future against reason, against logic, but because of these things. Is that possible?
Daydreaming About Love
I feel like all I do is daydream about love. I am obsessed with the idea of love and it does not help matters to see and idolize all these perfect couples in novels, movies, and shows. I think about all the things I will say to my future lover and all the things that they will say to me. I have this perfect idea of precisely what my lover and my love life is supposed to look like. Is the reason that I am all alone because I am unwilling to settle for anything less than what I want? I am 21 years old and have never even been kissed. I think about what I want it to feel like constantly, how I want to feel this synergy between us, how it will start gentle and his lips will feel cool against mine, then it will build in intensity, but it will always feel smooth, how he will gently put his hands on either side of my face. Most likely, I will not find this in real life. Life is not a romance novel. I have this exact image in my head of what I want him to look like–curly brown hair, bright, radiant green eyes, crooked smile, high cheekbones, 6 feet tall. I want him to be a true feminist, to share my passions of music, books, movies, and shows, to be respectful and civic-minded, to be genteel, to never pressure me, to always support me, emotionally, and in my endeavors, to be British, to be extremely intelligent and witty, to be knowledgeable about literature and art, someone I can have conversations with for several hours and never get bored with them or feel like I have to make stupid small talk, someone I can travel the world with, and fall asleep in the arms of every night. It is so silly, but I imagine falling asleep in this perfect person’s arms every time before I go to sleep. I wrap my arms around myself, and I imagine that they are his arms. I do not care about sex. All I want is someone to hold me at night and have beautiful, intellectually stimulating conversations with me. I imagine having the longest, most in-depth conversations all day long. Conversation is the most important component in a relationship. I just desperately want someone I can talk to forever, someone who will have interesting stories and thoughts to tell me for the rest of my life.
A Different Perspective on Overpopulation
In my Nature in Literature class, my professor opened my eyes to a new perspective on overpopulation.
I had always thought that there were not enough resources for everyone in the world. The population is projected to hit 9.8 billion people in 2050. These people are already here, in a way. It is inevitable that these people will be born because their parents are already here. I always thought that there is no way that we could actually supply resources to that many people. It is just a hard fact of life that people in developing nations will be the ones who are without these resources.
My professor said that we have not hit the population limit, that there are actually enough resources for everyone, but we are not allocating them equally.
In the United States, we are quite gluttonous with the amount of food, water, shelter, electricity, and oil that we use. The U.S. makes up less than five percent of the global population, but uses 25% of the world’s resources, especially natural gases for oil.
I am trying to imagine a world in which we all had an equal amount of resources. Selfishly, I would not want to live in this world because I like having semi-unlimited access to food, water, shelter, and electricity. If we all had an equal amount of resources, each person would have almost no resources at all, just because there are so many people, so that is not the solution (not that this solution is even feasible), so what is the solution?
‘Gaga: Five Foot Two’ Review
Netflix’s documentary, “Gaga: Five Foot Two” is an intimate, vivid look at the life and music of Lady Gaga. The documentary starts slow, but builds in intensity.
Lady Gaga, whose given name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, has undergone many transformations and has greatly evolved from the woman who wore a meat dress. She has grown musically, stylistically and personally exponentially.
Now she is ready to embrace her rawness and vulnerability more than ever. For Gaga, it is all about embracing the music and allowing it to speak for itself rather than using outlandish fashion choices to detract attention from the music.
She is shedding her former personality and public image. She no longer needs to don her wigs “to make a statement.” She said, “I’m trying to elevate everything, but I can’t elevate it to a point that I become Lady Gaga again.”
The documentary includes a dramatic montage of the many wild, exotic pieces of clothing she has worn over the years. Now she dons a simple tee white tee shirt and black shorts with a high ponytail, but she still rocks a cat eye.
Her new sound is less pop and more soulful. It is a dramatic departure from her previous electronic dance pop albums.
The documentary explores many aspects of her life from her self-reinvention, to her new album, “Joanne,” to her various roles in “American Horror Story,” to her synovitis, to her relationship with her music producer, Mark Ronson, to her failed relationship with Taylor Kinney, to her feud with Madonna, to her NFL Super Bowl performance.
The documentary begins with Gaga hanging from ceiling wires for her Super Bowl performance and transcends into her having conversations with her music production team into hitting her producer, Mark Ronson’s car, which was her first car accident.
Gaga calls the end of her engagement to Taylor Kinney and the decision to make a record afterward “very painful.” She said, “I had to go into the deepest pain in my life. I had to go into the part of myself I didn’t wanna face.”
Gaga and Madonna are in a feud because Madonna criticized her in the media. Gaga said that because she is Italian, she wants her to confront her head-on instead of talking about her in the media.
“Joanne” is her most personal, revealing album yet, with a very personal title. The album was named after her great aunt, who died of lupus at the age of 19. In the 1970s, lupus was unknown and untreatable.
She played the title track for her grandmother, which is about her great-aunt. Her grandmother repeatedly called it “beautiful.”
Gaga has synovitis, which may be a symptom of lupus. She has a broken hip and aching facial muscles. Her condition may be due to her over-activity, as she always gives such energetic performances.
While filming the music video for “Perfect Illusion,” Gaga expressed concerns that her fans would not like her new sound or her new look.
Gaga said, “I don’t think the world was ready to see who I really am because I wasn’t ready to myself. I’m saying this is me with nothing.”
Gaga greatly appreciates her fans. She said, “My fans are my heart and soul.”
Marlene Gerais won the iHeart Radio Contest to meet her. Gerais said that Gaga saved her life over and over with her music. She said, “My favorite song of yours is definitely ‘Born This Way.’ I think it’s really inspiring, and whenever I’m feeling down or anything, I go and put that track on and it, you know, inspires me.”
Even though she has the support of her fans and her team, she still feels lonely. There is a scene of her doing an underwater photoshoot when she says, “I go from everyone talking at me all day to total silence.”
Gaga was greatly disappointed when her full album leaked online because a record store in Belgium decided to sell the album early.
The documentary ends with Gaga’s rehearsal process for her NFL Super Bowl performance, where she performed in place of Beyoncé, who was unable to make it.
This documentary is extremely fascinating, entertaining and beautiful to watch. It perfecting captures the essence of Gaga’s spirit and shows her in a raw, vulnerable light for the first time.
The Handmaid’s Tale Review
I watched the The Handmaid’s Tale, and I must say that I am traumatized for life. I honestly thought that show was going to be about nuns in the 1800s or 1900s, just from the way the women in this show are dressed. Even though they are wearing red and not black, they still look like they are nuns or they are Amish.
Oh, no. They are actually concubines. They are sex slaves who are raped once a month in the hopes that they can provide the high-ranking, barren wives with children. They are situated between the woman’s legs while the Commander enters them at the other end of the bed. These wives are complicit in the rape. They are accomplices. They hold the hands of the handmaids the entire time to make sure that they do not fight back and they are not aroused in any way. They try to disguise how malicious, reprehensible, and disgusting this is by calling it a “ceremony” and praying before. This series is set in the modern day with iPhones and all (though the novel was published in 1985). I thought that this show would be based on a Victorian novel. I did not realize that Margaret Atwood wrote a contemporary dystopian novel about a totalitarian government. The fact that it is set in the modern day makes it all the more disturbing because I can see so many similarities between our own society. I can see how women do not have ownership of their own bodies or their finances, how women are taught to be meek and never speak openly about how they feel, especially about how badly they are treated by men, how people use religion to justify the horrific treatment of women, how people become fanatical in the face of religion, and how the group think manipulates everyone into believing that this acceptable and that it is the norm because it is what everyone else is doing.
The only remotely happy moment in the series is when June and Hannah make chocolate chip pancakes together, and that scene is still plagued with the fear that the government will find them.
It was useful to me to read an explanation of this insane world after a few episodes because I really could not wrap my head around this bizarre society. I truly did not understand what was going on.
Women become handmaids when they are damaged in some way, if they are adulterers, if they have had an abortion, or (most disturbing of all) if they were raped. So, their punishment for being raped is that they will be raped again and again, but this time for the purpose of making children. They honestly believe that it is a woman’s fault if she is raped because she should have prevented it and protected herself somehow. Very sadly, this belief persists in our real world. People victim-blame and shame women all the time and make them believe that they are responsible for their own rape. There are even places where the woman is killed in an honor killing if she is raped because she has brought dishonor upon her family by “allowing” it to happen to her. There are two-finger tests to see if the hymen has already been broken, to see if she has already lost her purity by having sex outside of marriage. If she has, she is not considered to be raped, because she has already been damaged. I think that most people do believe that rape is wrong, but it matters so much and so deeply why you think rape is wrong. Do you believe that rape is wrong because it destroys a woman’s purity and honor or do you believe that rape is wrong because it is a physical, emotional, and mental violation and attack on a woman’s dignity? The hymen is so small, but women are being killed and publicly shamed over it.
How can Serena Joy and Commander Fred Waterford actually believe in this religion?! They know that it is false and made up because they are the ones who actually made it up. They fully believe in their own lies and mass deception.
The series begins with June, her husband, Luke, and her daughter, Hannah, on the run. They were running to cross the border to Canada. Apparently, everything is fine in Canada. It is just the U.S. that is completely fucked up (Yes, I am swearing and you would be, too, if you watched this show). Later on in the series, the Commander makes a deal with a foreign nation. It is revealed that he is not just trading oranges as June thought, but he has a much more nefarious plan. He is going to trade these women, these human beings, these people.
The handmaids in this society do not have names. It took me a couple of episodes to realize this. I just thought that Offred (the main character) was a strange name. I did not understand how at end of the first episode she said that her real was June. Why did she change her name? I thought that she was hiding her true identity in this insane new world. It turns out that “Offred” actually means “Of Fred,” as in belonging to Fred, as in the property of Fred, her commander. This was a sickening and horrifying realization which I only came to after I read the names of the characters on IMDB. I thought that Ofglen’s name (played by Alexis Bledel) was “Auckland” because that’s what it sounded like when they said her name. No. She is “of Glen.” Commander Glen is her owner. Later, she is traded off to Steven and becomes “of Steven.” Disgusting.
This is a show about women who are owned and oppressed like sex slaves to the hyper-religious government. They have invented a new religion called Gilead in the United States. It is similar to Christianity in the sense that they believe in God, but it is a million times more intense and worse. The Aunts who are in charge of the houses use a taser whenever you even slightly misbehave (according to their standards). They beat you. They cut off your finger if they catch you reading. They cut off the whole hand for the second offense. They gauge your eyes out. If you are gay (They call these people gender traitors because they forbid this word. Psychos. Being gay is NOT a sin.), they remove your vagina (or some part of it). I actually don’t know what specific part they cut out of Emily (her real name, not Ofglen or Ofsteven). They told her that she would not want she could not have. She now associates her sexuality and who she is with severe physical and emotional pain, but I believe that she still thinks about and loves her wife.
I could go on and on about the million things in this show that disturbed and horrified me. These scenes will stay with me and haunt me for the rest of my life. These rape scenes focused in on June’s face (Yes, I am calling her by her real name. I refuse to call her by her slave name.) and showed how she silently tolerated it. One line that really disturbed me and stuck with me was when she was outside and thought to herself, I can smell his cum inside of me. You can tell how sickened and violated she feels. Emily has her vagina cut out. Emily witnesses a woman being hung while she has a mask that prevents her from speaking or screaming on her face. We also see a church full of women who are hung and a scene of the handmaids cleaning up blood and guts that are all over the church. Janine has gone completely insane after they tortured her and gauged out her eye, and she thinks it is fun, that it is like painting.
Things that may not have been so obviously disturbing as the graphic rape and violence include when they showed the children of Gilead. These children will never have any life experiences beyond this religion. They will never be allowed to read a single novel because all books, art, and even magazines, have all been destroyed. There is a scene in which Aunt Lydia tells the handmaids that a man raped a handmaid while she was pregnant. She allows the handmaids to beat him to death until she blows the whistle, signaling that they should stop. While I believe that all rape is detestable and abhorrent and all rapists deserve to die, I really want to know why they do not acknowledge the Commanders’ assaults as rape. Before the “ceremony,” June is forced to bathe, to make herself clean and perfect “like a prize pig.” June is late with her period and everyone, including the wife, thinks she is pregnant. When she tells her that she got her period, she apologizes to her, and she slaps her and keeps her locked up in her room for 13 days. How did she even survive? Did they give her food and water? The door is not locked, but she knows that she still cannot leave, and that this is a clear reminder of who is in power. She finds a Latin phrase carved into her closet, presumably from her predecessor, the former Offred, which translates to “Don’t let the bastards grind you down.” She thinks that she is really brave for having written this. She finds out that this woman actually committed suicide because she found her life so unbearable. I would have, too. There is no reason whatsoever for women to live in this cruel world. I honestly would have killed myself before I even got to the house. I would have killed myself when they said that women were not entitled to any property or jobs of their own, and when they were burning all the books and art. That was unbelievably disgusting and abhorrent. There is a scene when she is walking down a hotel hallway and hears all the moans of all the women being raped behind closed doors. There are cringe-worthy scenes when June plays scrabble with her Commander and is forced to flirt with him because that is what he wants. She was terrified of what he wanted when he said that he wanted to meet with her alone, which is forbidden. Even though they are just playing Scrabble, there is this ever-present fear of rape. She always lets him win, just to boost his already inflated ego and for fear that he will chastise, beat, and rape her if she doesn’t. He told her that she had to kiss him like she meant it. Afterward, she viciously and voraciously scrubbed her teeth until they bled with a gross toothbrush that they gave her, which looked like an old paintbrush. Emily said that she was a professor in her previous life. The fact that she was well-educated and had a job which gave women an education made her a bad woman in their twisted view. They were going to send her to the colony, but she had two good ovaries, so they decided to make her useful. They also “forgave” her when they found out she was gay and gave her a new owner to make babies for. They admonished June for not telling them she was gay. She only knew because she mentioned her wife in passing. Aunt Lydia slapped her for saying the word “gay” and tased her when she said that she did not tell her because she was her friend. Janine actually thinks that she is in love with her Commander and that he loves her and they will run away together. Later, June willingly has sex with her Eye, Nick, (the person who watches over the house and reports to government officials). This was so awful because the Eyes are responsible for defiling Emily’s body and cutting out her vagina just because she is gay. She says that she could say that she has sex with him as a “fuck you” to the patriarchy, as an act of rebellion, but those are just excuses. She has sex with him because she is lonely and thinks that it feels good. She still feels like she is cheating on her husband, who she learns is alive. Honestly, their marriage should not even matter to her at this point, after all the ways she has been defiled and abused. Serena Joy instructs her to have sex with him again, while she watches, because she thinks that the Commander might be sterile and she has to get her pregnant. It is so disgusting that she actively plots her pregnancy and does not give her any agency whatsoever. June is looked at as an adulterer (who they gave a second chance as a handmaid) because she had sex with a married man, Luke, and married him. I think that the man should be held responsible for what he did. He knowingly had sex with her even though he was married, but all the blame is placed on her. Aunt Lydia says that she should be grateful for the second chance that she was given after she lived a life as a disgusting whore. So, she should be grateful that she is being raped, beaten, and physically and emotionally tortured and defiled because God hates her, but he still has a purpose for her. The only purpose that women have in this world is making children. All of the women at June’s work at the publishing house were fired, and she asks why just the women? Military men were standing around to make sure they left the building within ten minutes. Her credit card was canceled because women are not entitled to their own money or property. She is confused when her card is declined because she just deposited $4,000 (This was the reality of the world up until very recently, in the 1980s when women were finally allowed to have their own name on their credit cards). The coffee barista said she should come back when she has money. He called her and her friend whores. She had to transfer all her funds to her husband’s credit card. Her husband reassures that he will take care of her financially and that she should not worry. He does not understand how this is misogynistic, condescending, and patronizing. The truth is that women do not want to be taken care of because we are never taken care of properly. We want the freedom to be able to take care of and support ourselves. He also shows his misogyny and small-mindedness when he asks her if she and Moira had sex in college, assuming that women cannot be good friends without there being a sexual element to it. June is given a second chance, after being an adulterer, to make herself useful as a handmaid by giving Serena Joy children. The cruel, detestable irony is that her husband is most likely sterile, as almost all the commanders are, so she is most likely being raped for nothing. When she goes to the doctor, he even offers to have sex with her for a couple of minutes just so that she can get pregnant because she might not be able to get pregnant any other way. If a woman is unable to conceive after a certain length of time, she will be sent to the colonies where her job will job to clean up toxic waste for the rest of her life. All of the women are terrified of being sent to the colonies, but in my opinion, where they are is a million times worse. They are systematically raped so that the wives can steal their children, which are loathsome products of rape. I was horrified when one of the handmaids actually said that she thinks that they are nice to her. How could she possibly say that? June is asked by the woman who is charge of the trade deal if she chose this life and if she is happy because she thinks that it is such a difficult life. She tells her that did choose this life and that she was happy because she thinks that she will be killed if she does not say what her Commander, Serena Joy, and Aunt Lydia want to hear. She finds out that they are actually trading women, so she finally tells this woman how badly they have been treating her. She tells her how much she hates her life, how she did not choose it and no one did, and all the things they are doing to her and everyone else, how they are only going along with it because they are afraid of being tortured and killed. She finally says that they rape her, out loud, hoping that she can change her mind and save these women. She says that she is very sorry, but she cannot help her. This is so maddening! She asks her what they will trade them for, Mexican chocolates, like the ones she gave her?! She tells her that they are human beings!
Some lingering questions that I have include, what happens when the handmaid gives birth to a child? Does she still have to create more children? Why are almost all the wives and husbands barren or sterile? Why is it so hard for women in this show to get pregnant and give birth to a living, healthy baby? What happened? What happens to the children of Gilead? Will they be raped to create even more children or are they above that because they belong to the high-ranking wives?
One thing that surprised me about the show is that this society fostered a new sense of environmentalism, that creating a simplistic lifestyle for women where they are only allowed to bear children and do nothing else would pave the way to a cleaner, healthier world. But, at what cost? Why, at the cost of the systematic rape, oppression, and degradation of women. This is something that I had not even considered. In the real world, the way that the environment is treated is directly related to how women are treated. People who do not have respect for women, the mothers of Earth, do not have respect for the planet, our home, either. We have seen that from the way that people talk about these things to governmental policies. The Earth is our mother and we must treat it with the same respect that we would give to our mothers.
I had to finish watching this series, disturbing as it was, because I needed to know how it ended. This show is the most disturbing thing that I have ever seen, more disturbing than Gone Girl, and maybe even Amore Perros, this horrible movie full of graphic dog fighting violence and disturbing images that I was forced against my will to watch for Spanish, but this story grabs your attention and forces you to examine all of the issues women face in the world. I hoped against reason that it would end well and June would overthrow the government despite her fear that keeps her quiet. The story in the novel ends with June killing herself, as anyone would in her place would have done. This is honestly a happy ending because death is her only escape from this horrible, painful life, with no reason for existence. There is going to be a season two, so this might happen. At least, Moira and Luke were able to escape as refugees to Canada and they consider each other family now. June finally got to leave that awful house after refusing to stone Janine to death, for attempting suicide, but I have a feeling that she will end up back there again, in their clutches once again. Serena Joy revealed just how awful she really was when she locked June in the car while she talked to to Hannah. She told her that it was best for everyone if she never saw her again. June calls her a heartless, insane bitch in several different ways, like she deserves! Serena Joy calmly responded, “Don’t get upset. It’s bad for the baby.” What a bitch. June then asks her Commander, her rapist of all people, to protect her baby from Serena Joy. How could he ever protect her baby? He is a rapist and will probably sexually assault and abuse her baby. When June finds out that she is pregnant via a contraband pregnancy test that Serena Joy forced her to take, there is a really important scene when Serena Joy says that it is the miracle they had all been praying for, to which June responds, “You think I prayed for this? You think that I would pray to bring a baby into this house?” I think that this is a well-written and well-acted show and that it explores all of the sexist, misogynistic problems inherent in our world, but it is far too disturbing and painful to actually look at this show and confront the reality of our disturbing world that is set to further shame women for rape with Betsy DeVos’s policy on campus sexual assault which limits the punishment of the perpetrators and places all the blame on women.
I am taking a Women in Literature course, and it is very illuminating to further examine all of the feminist issues present in our society in class. This story tackles all of them in the most brutal way imaginable. She said something that really hurt me and made me so sad for the world. She has been teaching this class for several years, but she said that the rape statistic has not gone down in all that time because she is teaching this class to the wrong audience. Our class is full of women. There is only one boy in our class and I don’t think that he even wants to be there. The vast majority of rapists are male. Instead of teaching women about the horrors of rape culture, we need to be teaching the men to be respectful of women and their bodies. The truth is most men are terrified to call themselves feminists for fear of appearing sensitive. They are afraid to take this class because it is about women. Men need to stop being afraid of women. There is no logic in this irrational fear of the beings who create life and inspire and free the world when they are given a proper education. When women are free, the whole world is free. Feminism is not about dominating men. It is about equality, justice, and free will. We want the choice to have an education, to define our lives for ourselves, and to be who we want to be. We want to stop living in this perpetual fear of rape everywhere that we go. We want to wear what we want and feel safe, secure, and confident in what we are wearing. I wish that all men would be willing to take a Women in Literature class, that our class would be an equal ratio of men and women because, let’s face it, all of literature and art has been male-dominated. We live in a world of hyper-masculinity and women have to think about themselves from the male perspective more often than not. Women are able to imagine things from the male perspective and empathize with men because that is what that they have been subconsciously taught to do their entire lives and women are also naturally empathetic creatures, but men are unwilling to do the same for women because they have never had to. Every English class that I have ever taken forces me to read from male authors 90% of the time. Many of these authors are sexist and misrepresent the women that they write about. It is important that we have a feminine perspective of the world in literature and art because we make up half the population, so we should make up half of what the world produces. Our voices are uniquely important, and we deserve an audience.
Girl Meets World Week
I spent the week watching every episode of Girl Meets World. I cannot believe that this show was canceled. I had the time of my life watching every episode. They were all hilarious, emotional, moving, and poignant. This show tackles many social and societal issues such as feminism, sexism, women in STEM, bullying, Asperger’s Syndrome, and being a single parent or a child without a father.
I have so many emotions, especially about the Ski Lodge episode. It was hilarious when Cory was repeatedly hitting the board with his teaching stick. He kept yelling “Nature!” over and over again. I think that he is definitely the funniest character on this show. I loved how he called himself and Topanga “America’s sweethearts.” So true, Mr. Matthews!
The thing that got me the most emotional is Joshaya. All of their scenes together gave me life! Josh and Maya are now going on my endless list of OTPs. He called her a little ferret and she called him her husband! She also calls him Uncle Boing. I did not think that my ship would sail because he is three years older than her, but I was delightfully proven wrong. Josh talks about he is very good at observing people. He said that Maya had the greatest capacity for love he had ever seen. I was thrilled when he let her hold his hand that entire conversation and when he said, “I like you, too.” It made my heart soar when she said, “I like you. It’s you I like.”
I also really love Rucas. They are very similar to each other. They are both eternal optimists. Riley is my favorite character because has such a bright, happy, positive outlook on life and she is very dramatic. She is also unbelievably loyal to Maya. She stepped aside from Lucas when Maya thought she had feelings for him.
Maya goes through an identity crisis and acts like Riley. Josh makes her realize that she only liked Lucas while she was Riley because she wanted to protect Riley and make sure that he was good enough for her. I always knew that Maya never really liked Lucas. All she does is make fun of him. I have no idea how people can actually ship them.
Shawn and Katy got married, so now Shawn and Maya get to finally be happy! Shawn is like Maya’s dad now!
I cried during the episode when Riley was being bullied. She talked about how humiliated she felt and how she did not want to tell anyone, and that is exactly how I felt when I was being bullied. It hurt me very deeply how Riley was being bullied just for being herself, for being optimistic and silly. A girl filmed her “Riley Awards,” which were just to give herself encouragement when she does a good job. Every time that Rowan Blanchard or Sabrina Carpenter cry, it cuts me very deeply. They are both really talented.
Auggie and Ava really got on my nerves (especially Ava–what a selfish and bitchy little girl). I think I really just hate little kids’ voices because they sound eternally nasally. It is as if they have been congested their entire lives.
Another thing that made mad is how Maya bullied Lucas just for being from Texas and how it was supposed to be because she liked him. Bullying is not nice, friendly, funny, or romantic. It is just mean and annoying. I also think that she bullied Riley a little bit when she kept saying “Rileytown” when she was being dramatic even though she knew that it deeply bothered her.
There were a lot of throwbacks to the original Boy Meets World series with the appearances of Shawn, Mr. Feeny, Eric, Cory’s parents, Josh, as well as many other characters, the Feeny call, flashbacks, and many references. I think it is so hilarious when Cory shows his preference of Shawn over Topanga and Topanga is like yup, this is how it has been my whole life!
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