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Puzzle Pieces

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After a slight pause, her eyes wavered as she shifted in her seat. It was the first time I had ever seen Fiona Shea look uneasy. “My brother has severe autism, which is probably the most interesting thing about me,” she says. All it took was fifteen minutes to learn that it’s not. Fiona is a 22 year old French Studies major, with an unwavering love for SZA and the determination to make others happy. “She’s truly a one of a kind person,” her friend Bergen explained gleefully. Fiona’s from West Hartford Connecticut, a large town about two hours away from both Boston and New York. Close enough to visit her family when she’d like, but far enough to gain independence. She talks about her town with excitement. Each description bounces off the other. “There’s not much to do in Hartford,” she says, “but I’m obsessed with where I’m from, everyone has a sense of pride about our town.” It’s one of those places that people don’t tend to leave. With a proud smile she adds that her m...
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2 Miles

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             It was a typical afternoon on the West Side of Chicago. A 12 year old Tony McNeal had just finished football practice in Seward Park, only a couple blocks away from his childhood home. Afterwards, a group of his teammates asked if he wanted to hang out with them and some local gang members. The boys were only in seventh grade, but desperately wanted to fit in with the older kids in their neighborhood. Their plan was to buy weed from the group, in hopes that they would let them stick around after.   Tony declined the offer, and despite ridicule, proceeded to walk home alone. Later that evening, the area his teammates were in was attacked by a rival gang. Two boys were caught in the violence. One survived, but the others injuries were fatal. “They weren’t even gang members,” Tony says, “just in the wrong place, at the wrong time, hanging around the wrong crowd.” Unfortunately, this was a common fate for inner city ...
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The Feel of Life Reflection

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While reading this weeks article by Herman Gray, I was instantly reminded of other "youtube sensations" like Sweet Brown (linked below), who became an internet sensation similar to Antoine Dodson. Sweet Browns news interview also went viral and became an autotuned song that became popular across the nation. The exploitative nature of both circumstances is almost eerily similar when you compare the literal structure of the video interviews. Both Dodson and Sweet Brown come from impoverished neighborhoods and seem to be talking with a strong sense of pathos as mentioned in Grays article. While yes, their vernacular and choice of language is comical the clear intent of their interviews was to simply explain an issue that happened within their community. However even the simple juxtaposition of their voices wth the news reporters creates such a clear and disturbing sense of the other thats hard to justify. I feel like I have an understanding and appreciation for their candid resp...
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Lemonade Reflection

As a huge Beyonce fan myself, I was very familiar with Lemonade prior to this unit in class. However, getting the chance to watch it again and re-analyze the visual album was very interesting. I remember the first time I saw it I was completely in awe of how meticulously structured the entire thing is. You can quite literally see Beyonce's artistry come to life through the visual elements, color, landscape, acting, and poetry accompanying the music. That mixed with the power ballads on the album had me instantly sold. However, as Bell Hooks points out there are flaws in the piece as well. Most of her critics lay in the capitalist gains surrounding Lemonade along with its somewhat conflicting message. While, she makes decent arguments I'd have to counter them by noting that you have to put everything into a realistic context. For example, Bell Hooks states that Lemonade is "the business of capitalist money making at its best." She calls out the fact that Beyonce promot...
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Disability // Alison Kaefer

Alison Kaefer's novel "Feminist, Queer, Crip," starts with an introduction discussing the various reactions to her disability that she's observed over time. She first notes that through her own physical appearance, it seems that to others, her future is written on her body. I think this idea of making assumptions based on peoples disabilities is one that everyone can relate to. The word disability in itself means a limitation within someone due to an uncontrollable circumstance; therefore creating the damning connotation that people associate with disabilities. Further in the intro, Kaefer refers to all the outrageous and hurtful things people told her once she became disabled such as recommending suicide, warning her of loneliness, and extreme dependence. I think the idea that disabled people are helpless is highly perpetuated in society. Being able-bodied, while obviously preferable, isn't and shouldn't be considered as superior as it really is.  In all of h...
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Transgender Transtivity

Jack Halberstam's article on the transgender population and the generational divides on the subject made me think of Magic Johnson's Son. EJ, or Earvin Johnson the third, became a sensation in HollyWood a couple of years ago when he starred on "Rich Kids of Beverly Hills" on E. I'd personally never heard of Magic Johnson's kids before or about their sexuality at all until all of a sudden EJ became the center of conversation. He's a big guy, 6'6, with a loud personality, and an affinity for fashion. This combined with him being a black man and an openly gay caused quite a ruckus online and in my own social circles. I found that in the black community especially, theres a major generational divide with the acceptance of gay and trans men. It seemed like everyone my age either didn't care about EJ at all or thought his openness was cool. The only disparaging remarks came from older people that I knew or backhand compliments given from older women at...
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Jackie Aina // Feminist Kill-Joy

When I read Sarah Ahmeds piece on feminist killjoy's I was instantly reminded of the famous YouTuber Jackie Aina. Jackie is a black woman who runs an incredibly popular beauty channel and during her time on YouTube she's accumulated almost 1.7 million subscribers. I've personally been watching her videos for years now and find her content to be refreshing, funny, and honestly incredibly helpful; however in hindsight you could say she's the "feminist kill joy" of YouTube. In the past couple of years Jackie has been able to use her platform to raise awareness on the racial inequality within makeup companies. Her main point being that many beauty brand cater their products only to white or fair skin tones which leaves out a huge portion of people, both men and women, who want to purchase it. Usually, this point is brought up when she's sent PR packages from brands who have a clearly skewed shade range with possibly 10 shades of light foundations and 4 dark...
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