For my final project, I chose to portray the duality inherent in one’s identity. As this is a personal project, I highlighted the juxtaposition between growing up with a modern- Orthodox Jewish background, and attempting to reconcile that belief system with life as a modern American woman. In addition to examining the bifurcation between Jewish […]
Though viewed as a medical spectacle, hermaphrodites are more readily accepted into society than transsexuals. Those born with mixed genitalia are regarded as having been born that way, destined by God to occupy a place on the fringes of mainstream society. However, transsexuals are viewed in a harsher light, as critics claim that it is […]
Although predominantly recognized as a tale of a sexual identity crisis, Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex also devotes a large part of its focus to the role of family. This shifting institution includes characters such as Uncle Pete, who prides himself as being a medical expert with the authority to instruct Milton about the proper time to […]
One of the worst aspects of an individual contracting AIDS is dealing with the public stigma associated with the disease. Even today, a great deal of misconception surrounds those with HIV and AIDS. Surprisingly, the highest risk group is women over the age of 50, as believing that they are past the age of menopause, […]
Despite the vast differences between the upbringings of Sula Peace and Nel Wright, the two bosom buddies in Toni Morrison’s 1973 novel Sula have one aspect in common: both were reared by overbearing maternal figures. For Nel, this controlling female comes in the form of her mother Helene, whose own parentage is so spotty, as […]
The latest phenomenon to hit the literary world is Wendy Moore’s How to Create the Perfect Wife, which chronicles the real- life quest of the progressive yet eccentric Thomas Day to cultivate his perfect wife. To conduct this experiment, at the age of twenty-one, Day adopted two twelve- year- old orphan girls and took them […]
This week’s readings highlight the confusion of young women as they floundered between the old world morals and the new rules of modernity in play during the 1920s. Ladies were given mixed messages regarding their roles in society, as they were permitted to pursue higher learning in college and to enter the work force, which […]
Vladimir Nabokov’s 1955 novel Lolita is equally greeted with acclaim for its rich literary style, and horror at the author’s attempt to rationalize sexual abuse of minors. If this written work were to have been based on a true story, much of the praise would be exchanged for gasps of outrage. However, perhaps due to […]
The disconcerting fact, or perhaps, the charm of the Museum of Sex, is the constant zigzag of the exhibits from the realms of pornography to education. Needless to say, the experience is entirely subjective, as is the visit itself. What I took away today in an instructional setting was, I imagine, entirely different from the […]
This reading challenges the stereotype of the Victorian era as a sexually monolithic period of repression and prudishness. Instead, the readings challenge the reader to explore the different sexual attitudes prevalent in the period, and how socio-cultural frameworks helped to shape those very attitudes.
