We Should All Be Feminists

"Not long ago, I wrote an article about being young and female in Lagos. And an acquaintance told me that it was an angry article ant that I should not have made it so angry. Gender as it functions today is a grave injustice. I am angry. We should all be angry."

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

We Should All Be Feminists

A few days ago, I reposted an article on Facebook. It was an article on the subtle forms of discrimination, things that women experience often at the hands of wonderful, if sometimes thoughtless men. "8 Ways Men Don't Realize They Are Subtly Shaming Women." It's a good article. It points out things that many women experience and, sometimes, often, explaining why these behaviors, while seemingly harmless, aren't okay. The post got many likes, from both men and women. But it had some unintended reactions.

Two men, men that I knew personally (not just 'facebook friends') and thought highly of commented on, commented in negative ways. The first commented with "If you're offended by the way a large group of people (i.e. "males as a gender) speaks, the problem is not without, but within." This worried me. This man was telling me that my experiences in which I was treated as 'less' and many women who have had similar experiences with subtle systematic discrimination that the problem was all in our heads. This very behavior, is a large part of the problem, this writing off and discounting our experiences as women as 'inadequate.' I proceeded to call him out. Another man, one that had worked with over the winters responded, "This is a double-edged sword. Alleviating all woman or any victim of any and all responsibility to predict, prevent, or even subconsciously invite abuse, is to reduce them to hapless, incapable creatures, and in fact, re-victimizes them. Woman can think for themselves and don't need terms like 'internalized misogyny' or 'privilege' to victimize them and make it seem otherwise." 

This astounded me. The response in itself seems absurd. The responsibility for any action should not fall on the subject. It is not the oranges fault that it is peeled by the child. It is not a mans fault if he is shot in a theatre. It is not the elderly couples fault if someone breaks into their house and steals their possessions. It is the child who peels the orange, the shooter who shoots the man, the burglar who robs.Why then is it deemed okay for this faulty logic to be used in cases of women? Why is it that when a women is raped, the question is always asked "why didn't she take the precautions to avoid the situation?" "Why was she walking home alone at night?" Why is it okay for the statement to even be thought "She must have been asking for it?" 

These questions are not okay. The fact that society thinks that they are just shows the underlying assumption that women are, somehow, inherently guilty. This is absurd. It is not a woman's fault if she is raped, any more that it is the mans fault that he was shot, or the oranges fault that it was peeled. This same logic follows to small infractions, that happen and happen often.

The conversation digressed from there, and you can read all of it in the picture, but this was the part that really bothered me. This inherent blame of women, this very blatant discrimination. This idea that I was thought of as inherently less than these men due to the nature of my gender, regardless as to my skill set, my intelligence, my various merits. This idea that no matter how 'good' I was, I would

always be less. That I would never be an equal. And while this is something that I had experienced countless times at the hands of strangers, it was something entirely knew to experience this behavior and judgement from people who I had thought of as friends.

"The problem with gender is that it prescribes how we should be rather than recognizing how we are."

We Should All Be Feminists is a book by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and is adapted from a TED talk of the same name. I fled here after this interaction in order to find a better vocabulary to express how I felt about this interaction, as well as to find community and comfort in reading the writing of someone who has experienced the things that I have felt, especially after I had been told that it was all in my head (you think I wouldn't be bothered being told that I'm crazy, or on my period, or hysterical, for being upset at poor, but socially acceptable, behaviors in others, but I have this irrational need to be liked). This speech is phenomenal. 

Everyone should read this book. Everyone.This book is so important that every 16 year old in Sweden was bought a copy. It is only 48 pages long, so there is no excuse not to read it, and if you don't want to read it you can watch the TED talk. In it, Adichie talks on the effects, and absurdities, of sexism, and outlines the reasons that everyone should be a feminist. She talks on the effects, how it would be beneficial to not just women, but men as well. She explains why sexism is bad for not only women, but for men as well. And she does so extremely eloquently. 

Sexism is something that almost all women, on all continents and in all cultures, will have to face. The few who don't are extremely lucky. It is not, however, a problem that we have to live with. It may be our culture now, but "culture does not make people. People make culture. If it is true that the full humanity of women is not our culture, then we can and must make it our culture." We must do better. Cause were we are now is not good enough.

When Breath Becomes Air

"You can't ever reach perfection, but you can believe in an asymptote toward  which you are ceaselessly striving."

Paul Kalanithi

When Breath Becomes Air

Death is something that is always present, but something that we never want to think about. When it does present itself, it often seems like a slap in the face, especially when it seems sudden, "before ones time." Paul Kalanithi examines our relationship with death, in the medical field and in literature, in his book When Breath Becomes Air.

At the age of 36, Paul was diagnosed with late stage lung cancer months before the completion of his training as a neurosurgeon. This book, published by his wife after his death, chronicles his journey, from his undergrad studies in literature to Stanford medical school to being a patient himself. He discusses the difficult decisions he made throughout his life: his choice to study and be a doctor, to strive to connect with his patients on a deeper level, to have a child with his wife even if there wasn't infinite time. He does this eloquently and thoughtfully, looking deeply into how we handle morality in our lives all the while facing his own.

This book was fantastic and sad. It was fantastically sad, and sadly fantastic. Well written, thoughtful. Kalanithi captured the essence of the human struggle, and he did it with compassion, logic, and love for his friends and family. This book was beautiful.   

Lab Girl

'After a pause he closed his eyes and asked, "Am I a tiger yet?"

I looked him up and down slowly, and then answered, "No."

"Why not?" he asked.

"Because it takes a long time," I answered.

"Why does it take a long time?" he pursued.

"Why? I don't know," I admitted, then added, "It takes a long time to turn into what you're supposed to be."'

Hope Jahren

Lab Girl

This book was so many things. It is a fantastic memoir of a woman who is so many things. It is a wonderful piece of writing on science and the way plants work and how we perceive them in our world. It is a magnificent examination of a relationship. It is funny, sometimes darkly hilarious and sometimes hopefully bright. If anyone only reads one book a year (which is a rather silly thing to do, books are awesome and everyone should read at least two) they should read this one. And I am sorry I am telling you about it now instead of in April when it comes out...so, pre-order your copies or reserve them at the library. Because this book is the bee's knees.

It is so hard to pin down exactly what I loved so much about this book. I don't know if it was finally reading a memoir of a woman who didn't stop doing what she loved cause she had a kid (why can't we have our cake and eat it too?), or the fact that she is so unapologetically passionate for science, and specifically plant science (if you missed kindergarten, trees are really important). I don't know if it was the honest critique of the way science funding is doled out in America, or the way Americans feel about curiosity driven research. "America may say that it values science, but it sure as hell doesn't want to pay for it." Maybe its how eloquently she writes, the grace with which she describes the natural world, and the humor she uses to explain how she feels about it. Maybe its the wonderful relationship she has with her lab partner that is so fantastically platonic, with no pressure to have something more, and how they see each other as they are. Maybe its the way she put word to how sexism has made me feel doing things that I love all my life, defining it as "the cumulative weight of constantly being told that you can't possibly be what you are." That thing that has often made me feel inadequate when I am more than qualified. Maybe its all of these things.

And for this book, I would like to thank her. This book meant so much to me. It made me feel that I am not alone in feeling the ways that I sometimes feel. It made me feel that its OK that I'm uncertain, OK that I'm not where I thought I'd be or that I don't have all the answers because things take time. 

And to everyone else: I highly recommend this book. It is truly on a different level.

Three-Body Problem

Let me list what this book is, and has, and does, so wonderfully. Not only is it good science fiction. But its science-y science fiction, with really physics, and principles that have been tested and proven in the real world. It is set in China, and not just China in modern day but peoples revolution China. Its well written, it conveys complicated abstract ideas beautifully, and it accomplishes all this translated from Chinese (it even has foot notes to explain historical nuance and puns that exist in Chinese and not in English). This book was fantastic. Liu Cixin is truly a writer to be reckoned with, and I cannot wait to read the next books in the series.

Set against the political backdrop of the peoples revolution in China and the prosecution of scientist and intellectuals, the story follows the life of a scientist who is involved in a top secret research project looking for extraterrestrial life, a physicist working on nanotechnology, and a cult that worships a lord that demands the killing of scientists.

This book was fantastic. I loved it. I think this was honestly one of the best science fiction books I've ever read, and I highly recommend it to everyone.

Gold Fame Citrus

Hey Everyone!

This one was published in the Durango Herald on 1/22/16, you can read the original review here .

I loved this book. It was a fantastic story, well written, and had amazing characters. Check it out!

SPQR

"Ancient Rome is important. To ignore the Romans is not just to turn a blind eye to the distant past. Rome still helps to define the way we understand our world and think about ourselves, from high theory to low comedy. After 2,000 years it continues to underpin western culture and politics, what we write and how we see the world, and our place in it."

Mary Beard

SPQR

Rome. By 63 BCE the city was made up of more than a million inhabitants, sprawling on the banks of the Tiber. It has captured our imaginations, from the assassination of Julius Caesar to Commodus' battles in the gladiatorial arena (the movie, it turns out, isn't to far off). Marcus Aurelius is still taught in schools and the fact that we still are responsible for the sidewalk in front of our house are remnants of this time.

But how did Rome become a large and powerful state? Mary Beard examines the rise of Rome from a small town in central Italy to an extravagant empire that stretched from Spain to Syria over the course of of a millennium. In doing this, she changes our historical perspective, instead of examining the lives of the great men (and in the case of Rome, they were all men) she looks at how the Romans themselves were effected by the lives of these great men: what they thought of republic and empire, how they responded to terrorism and revolution, how their thoughts on freedom and slavery changed. She also examines the stories often overlooked in traditional history, those of women, slaves, conspirators, and those on the losing side. The effect is marvelous.

Beard is extremely readable. She breaks down the history of Rome into several important events, looking at the large, overarching trends rather than the complicated events. This gives a unique and extremely interesting view of Roman history, examining the big shifts in thinking, the large changes in politics, looking at how stable society as a whole was during different times. 

This book was phenomenal. A well researched, well written history of a place that still greatly effects the way we think about things and the way we govern ourselves today. A fantastic read that I highly recommend to anyone who has been to Italy (I definitely wish that I had read this book before I went), would like to go to Italy, or who has ever uttered the word "republic."      

Our Only World

"So far as I can see, the future has no narrative. The future does not exist until it has become past. To a very limited extent, prediction has worked. The sun, so far, has set and risen as we have expected it to do. And the world, I suppose, will predictably end, but all of its predicted deadline, so far, have been wrong."

Wendell Berry

Our Only World

Climate change is, in my opinion, the toughest challenge humanity will ever have to face. Part of the trouble stems from a slew of 'deniers,' refusing to acknowledge that there is a problem at all. The other difficulty comes from how complex the issue actually is. From greenhouse gasses, to energy production, rising sea levels, and thawing permafrost. There are so many different facets, so many things leading into the problem, and we must try to find a solution to every single part of the equation. 

In Our Only World, Wendell Berry examines how we use the land we have for production of food and timber, and has come to the conclusion that this method of production is unsustainable. In this collection of ten essays, he looks in depth into how we cannot sacrifice land health for production, and how we might remedy that, and reasons why we should support local farmers, who are more likely to take care of their land year after year. 

I thought that this collection was fantastic. It is so often that the climate change problem is written of as a "find that one big solution" problem, and its not. Not only must we find cleaner ways of producing energy and ways of making our energy system more efficient, we must find ways to use less (make your car last 20 years instead of buying a new one every 5), not only must we find ways to capture the methane emissions of cows, we must have less cows (eat less meat, outside wrote a great article on it). It is a fantastic solution, one that may not always jib with the consumer society that we live in. It will be difficult. But the consequences are to dire for us to balk at the challenge. As Dumbledore once said, "we must choose between what is easy, and what is right."