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Hello Andrea, 

Hooks while writing an emotional page turning reading piece inputs a lot of her own personal bias towards her writing. While I do agree with some of the aspects that Hooks state most I feel is dramatized in order to prove her point across to the reader; to demonstrate how unequal the field is even while fighting for equality in the Feminist Movement. Hooks goes into great detail how unequally women are treated even by each other, it shows the truth behind it. How many times have we personally been cruel to each other for no particular reason whatsoever just simply because we are self-consciously envious of one another? Reading Hooks actually makes me more aware of my own behavior towards others, including men, to go into anything with an open mind and accept others before casting any prejudice over them. 

Lots of Feminism

I have mixed feelings about the Bell Hooks reading we had to read this week since I agree with feminism but, at the same time I disagree with some of the things she points out in her article. I understand that equality is important and everything I just feel like she is somewhat sexist in the article. I mean not all men are terrible insensitive pigs that have zero respect for women and the authority they may hold. I kind of got that vibe from this article and I disagree completely that we should ostracize men that way.

I read chapter 10 first for the wiki article we had to turn in and I thought the conversation she had with her fellow colleague was interesting at first. They discussed the differences in teaching methods and even how college students react to different methods of teaching. They compared themselves to “dictators” in realizing that the students may feel intimidated by the power the professor holds in the classroom. I can personally agree with that since it is true that the professor may come off as intimidating since they are the main authority in the class and what they say goes. However, after that part in the conversation it strays off completely into feminism which left me more than a little confused.

Hooks starts discussing how she herself as a feminist sees the struggle with gaining common ground as a woman, a writer, and a professor in her age. I realize these are all good issues to discuss and it must have been hard for her but, I don’t see the connection with what this has to do with teaching. I thought she would at least try to connect back to what she first said at the beginning of the conversation or at least mention something else connected to teaching in the classroom but, nope she just kept talking about feminism. Don’t get me wrong though it was all very interesting but the remarks she made just made me feel like she was bias about the whole thing.

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Hello Naylea, 

Hooks does go into great detail in where discussion on how women tend to see each other as competitors and how harmful it is for the movement  since it shows how if we do not see each other equally then how do we expect, as women, to be respected and viewed equally by men if we ourselves still have issues over color?  Hooks takes a different approach to the issue and by stating an insight look into the issues as well as a point which is rarely seen as- a black woman who is seen as a minority in our society. Hooks book was a page turner which made me read from the cover to the last page and becoming more knowledgeable on how different feminism is compared to my initial concept of it. In the beginning, I thought feminism was made up of women who loved each other and only fought for equal pay and to be recognized in the main patriarchy society. I was wrong. Feminism is a movement where not only women are a part of but as well as men and anyone who is willing to show that united we can change for the better. 

It’s Called Diversity, People!

Bell hooks presents the idea of gender equity in her book, “Teaching to Transgress.” In chapter seven, bell hooks primarily talks about why white and black women don’t get along even among feminist groups. The reason goes back to when slavery was very prominent in the United States. White men desired black women and would rape them. White women would see their female slaves as sexual competitors and would highly implement laws and public opinion about white men and black women to be taboo. They would secure their position as the served while their black female slaves were the servants. Black women hated their white “masters” because of it. Instead of helping each other and forming a bond or sisterhood, both races did not get along. Even now, feminist groups fight for the rights for gender equity but only for white race females and forget about their African American sisters. This brings me to how do we teach feminism in the classroom and/or how do we incorporate it. We have to make them approachable and free to be discussed. It may be uncomfortable for some teachers to teach it and for some students to learn about it but it doesn’t mean that it wasn’t part of our history. We have to know the views of different teachers, especially African American teachers, who have experienced gender inequality. The textbooks only describes the point of views of the white females but they don’t go into detail on the other races. While we had the discussion in class, a classmate of mine made a comment about a history professor she had and how he would dodge the section of the feminist movement. He wouldn’t address it. I then thought of my previous history teachers and history professors and tried to remember whether or not they spoke about the feminist movement as well. Out of all of them, only my eighth grade history teacher went into depth about the subject. We even had to randomly choose a name from a cup and do research on how they contributed to the feminist movement. Because of my eighth grade history teacher, I got even more interested in feminism. Unfortunately for me, that was the last time I went in depth on the subject. My other teachers and my history professors would only touch the subject for half a class period or just made one statement about it which was something like “this was happening to women, it was bad, and women fought for their rights….the end.” Why don’t teachers want to go into depth on feminism?

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This week while reading “Teaching to Transgress” by Bell Hooks we discussed feminism. While we like to believe that we have a good idea on what feminism is we are most likely mistaken to know that we each have a different meaning to how we define feminism in our own dictionary. To some, feminism is best to define as the fight for equality among both sexes while to others it can be known as a radical move by females to find independence in the main patriarchy society. As stated,  Feminist can be best defined differently to each individual. 

What Hooks shined a light to me was the different branch of feminism- which can be known as White Feminism. White feminism is best known as where individuals fight for abortion rights and equal pay; the people who fight for these rights are mainly white females hence the name of ‘white feminism’. While the black feminist fight for issues larger than the equal pay they are most of the time not paid as much attention nor given enough credit for their work. Hooks goes into discussion how work is under appreciated from black women since they often live in the shadows of white women whose work is more recognize and publicize even though more than often women who are getting the recognition come from wealthy families who have not endured hardship and they have not had to overcome any hardships at all. 

Hooks talks about how the fight for equality is more difficult when the Feminist movement is separated from within. Women see each other with envious eyes from men, to wealth, and other aspects.  Hook describes how often women who have nothing to struggle with become friends with women who do struggle to exploit their problems and connect it to them while believing they are making a good thing. In fact, they are exploiting other’s problems and giving no recognition where it is much deserved. Basically, Hooks is expressing how to be Feminist we must stand together and give credit to those who deserve it despite colour, social position and other aspects that may be an issue to society. 

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“The Phenomenology of Error” by Joseph M. Williams. Published in May of 1981. 

It was shocking to read on the last page of the article that there were approximately one-hundred errors that had been done purposely. Even more shocked how my mind automatically read over those errors with no hint of mistakes being there. 

I do agree with Williams how mistakes are often done in our books but we mainly do not make this mistakes known since the people who do these mistakes are known as 'experts' in their field or at the very least good. What makes me curious is how we blindly read over them without us questioning those errors due to the fact that they come from someone in which we believe are over silly mistakes like the ones they commit. Do we find these mistakes acceptable since they come from them? Also, who defines what is wrong and what is write?  

While reading this passage more questioned bubbled up rather than that what was answered. I would like for this article to be brought up and further discussed in class since it was more of a further thinking articles that we have had read during this beginning of semester. 

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Week Three

While reading “The Composing Process of Unskilled College Writers” by Sondra Perl the article focuses on three primary questions those of, "(1) How do unskilled writers write? (2) Can their writing processes be analyzed in a systematic, replicable manner? and (3) What does an increased understanding of their processes suggest about the nature of composing in general and the manner in which writing is taught in the schools?" (Perl 317).

 Tony, who is a participant/student is viewed as an okay but unskilled writer, demonstrates how even after just writing two lines begins to edit.  Which often unskilled writers will do. However, I believe this is more of a habit rather than a poor choice of skills. The reason in which I sympathize with Tony is because I remember being in high school being constantly reminded by teachers to put an extra effort to fix silly mistakes such as grammatical errors. To me, fixing grammatic errors was prioritize over having a solid thesis. Those students who are defined as 'good writers' belittle grammatic errors until the end of their writing process and primary focus of the context and how it will nicely flow together. What needs to be the focused of high school educators is to not grade grammatical errors as harshly as they do and concentrate on grading what is actually being written by the students and their understanding of the subject as a whole.

Also, what catches my attention from this article is how it is mainly focused on students who are average in their writing. Not those who seriously need to be taught basic writing skills. I am most curious as to why this research did not include those students who lack a basic understanding or who struggle immensely in the writing subject. Is it because this research was initially done for those average class settings? Or simply since ‘bad’ writers wished not to volunteer?

Another aspect which caught my attention is how interesting Perl’s formula is by noting the process of the student's thinking, speaking and writing. It is so well planned out and explained that it was easily understood how the process was conducted. It demonstrates how much work Tony underwent in order to write an essay.

Finally, an aspect with which I disagreed was how Perl makes a point to explain how Tony/participants take who their audience is going to be by granted. I believe that whoever is reading our work must be somewhat interested or knowledgeable in what we are written for them to be reading about it. For example, if we are reading a book on a dog's diet the author does not expand a great deal of time talking about what is a dog rather than what type of food a dog should eat. The author already has in mind what kind of people are going to be interested in his/her writting- which in this case would be anyone who owns a dog.

In conclusion, I found this article to be informative since it outlines things in which I do while writing. After reading this article I found it silly to focus solely on grammatical errors and focus primarily on the context of what I am writing and if I deeply understand what I am writing about.

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#triggerwarning 

HE SHOULD NOT GET AWAY WITH THIS

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Introduction: Aurora

Hello! My full name is Aurora Isabel Veliz but I simply go by Aurora. I am planning to major in English with a teacher certification. My goal is to educate students from 7 to 12 grade, still not sure what grade level I want to teach exactly. What I hope to get out of this course is to strengthen my writing to a more confidence one. Going out of High School I was not at all confident in it due to the fact that my previous instructor's feedback would always be negative to the point where I dreaded the writing subject. One of my goals as a future educator is to build confidence in students' writing with better feedback than the one I was given as well as to encourage them to experiment and expand their writing skills. One of my favorite hobbies is to read books! Whenever I'm not reading a good novel I am listening to music. At times I don't have time to read as much as I would like too since I am a full-time student here at the University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley and a part-time worker as well. Mainly, my life revolves around school and work as well as taking care of my pets- which are two dogs by the name of Wendalyn and Coco. 

I think this serves as a brief summary of my current lifestyle. The image I have chosen ties in into my love for books and how I am always devouring book after book!

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Whenever This Man Goes Diving, This Shark Comes To Cuddle With Him [They’ve Been Cuddle Buddies for 7 Years]

culturenlifestyle:

Australian man Rick Anderson is a superbly unique individual because he has a female Port Jackson shark as a friend. Whenever the majestical sea creature spots him she swims over to cuddle with him.

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15 Majestic European Libraries to Visit Before You Die [PART I]

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Eric Garner’s Daughter Wants You To Vote For Bernie Sanders— Here’s Why

Gifs: Bernie 2016

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Watch: In another clip, Sanders explains the real reason he got into politics.

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Michael Jackson once told Oprah he didn’t want a white actor to play him

In the middle of a controversy over white actor Joseph Fiennes’ new role as Michael Jackson in an upcoming British TV movie, who better to hear from than the King of Pop himself? In 1993, Jackson explained his pride in being black. That didn’t stop Fiennes from coming up with an excuse for his casting.

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Hoshinchu Introduces Floating Air Bonsai That Defies The Laws Of Evolution

Hoshinchu, a small company based in Kyushu, Japan has designed a marvellous device that generates a magnetic field which can make small bonsai plants levitate. The project, known as Air Bonsai, is a successfully run Kickstarter campaign that  has received an incredible response in funds from the popular crowd-sourced funding platform.

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