Post six: Interpretation

Interpretation:

I’m not quite sure how to explain my experience or reaction after reading “When It Changed” because everything came so unexpected to me. While reading this story it seems that men are the dominant one and women are not. The men try to come in and take over and rule their world, when the women are doing perfectly fine without them. Who cares about the society norm, if a women wants to be in charge she should be allowed to. I like how “When It Changed” is different from other stories. These women don’t believe in having men around, hence they consider them aliens, but also they depend on one another. The women of this planet know what they are doing and how to keep their world running smoothly. They have figured out ways to reproduce without using men, they raise their children just as they would if there were a man in the house, and they don’t care about the society norm. Because these women took control and believed in one another, made this story interesting to me, I like how it was not original and reminded me that there is no norm, we can do whatever the hell we want (well kind of).

Anyways, when the men come to their world and try to tell them that they need to have men in their lives, and need to reproduce the right way, it made me angry. No woman needs a man in her life, especially the women of Whileaway, because they have gone almost 30 generations without them. Needless to say this story at times did make me feel a little uncomfortable, but I liked it at the same time. It made me think outside the box more, and I wasn’t so quick to judge the women, because they had good morals and were happy with their way of living. Other stories that we have read these past weeks were just as good and interesting to me, especially “The Fact of Blackness”. Let me tell you, talking about that in class, was a bit weird to me. “When It Changed” for some reason just grabbed my attention the most, and changed my outlook on certain things. 

Post five: Gender Complexities

Gender Complexities:

Gender roles play a huge part in every day life. Over the years our society is slowly becoming equal but at the same time, there are still things that girls “aren’t” supposed to do or “look down upon” when doing. Personally I think it’s a bunch of bullshit. Why does someone get the ability to decide weather a girl can or can’t do something? If someone wants to be gay or bisexual so be it. If a man wants to do cosmetology or a girl wants to be a construction worker, they should be able to, without being judged by their gender. Our society functions off what we call the “society norm”, but what is normal nowadays? I mean what happened to, the guy is supposed to ask the girl or the moms stay home and be a housewife. Over the years so much has changed from what it used to be. Hello, normal doesn’t exist anymore.

After reading the stories this past week, Id have to say, “When it changed” relates to the controversy of genetic differences in gender the best.  The first issue to arise in the story is when the plague hit their planet and all men vanished. For about 30 generations there had only been women, until one day the “aliens” showed up (who were actually men) to tell the women that they needed to reproduce with real men, not test tubes. The women are in shock and don’t really know how to react because they are so used to not having men around. Janet plays the “male” role and gets very offensive when these men try to take over. Another issue throughout is the gender inequality, how is it fair that the moment the “aliens” arrive they have instant power? Janet feels threatened and doesn’t like what’s going on, so she grabs her gun and threatens to kill.  Going back to the society norm, these women were perfectly happy. They were raising kids, living the life, and everyone was equal. Janet would rather die then live life the way these males wanted her to. In a way I agree you should live the way you want, not how someone tells you to. 

Genetic difference in gender is a huge deal and will be for many years to come, this is a topic that I could rant on for days. I think a lot is unfair and still needs to be changed, but that’s just my opinion. All I have to say is hell if you want be gay be gay, if you’re a guy and want to wear make-up, do it! It’s your life, live it how you want to.

-Rebecca Jones 

Post Four: Reflection

Reflection:

As I stated in my first blog post, I never really understood the meaning of sci-fi not only because it means something different to everyone, but because I never took the time to actually think about it. After this part of the course my expectations for sci-fi have most definitely changed, I find myself enjoying more of the stories and theyre actually keeping my attention. Its weird going into this class I didn’t think I’d enjoy it, because sci-fi wasn’t my thing.

 Something I like about the stories we have read is how unreal they are but yet how realistic the author makes them. Our discussions in class always lead to more questions, like; could this really happen, did the person actually die,  to what happens next, and etc. I like how the authors make the stories tricky for us and have to make us think. After learning about the style, morals, climaxes, characters, tones, and themes, I have to say my expectations have risen. “Algorithms for Love” was one of my favorites to read because it was so weird and hard to relate to, but all the creepy, psychotic parts kept me reading. Writing my paper on it and going in depth and finding out more about the characters and tones, makes me like to read more. Now I actually think about the meaning of stuff and don’t just read the words. Although I liked that story I don’t think it represented sci-fi as well as some of the other stories.

 “ Burning Chrome” was definitely a good sci-fi story to me. It had a good plot and made me have to think about what was real and what wasn’t. Trying to figure out if Chrome was human are not aggravated me but I liked having to keep reading to figure it out. The love triangle made it seem realistic, and made the story more relatable.

 All the stories we have read turned out to be very helpful with my understanding of sci-fi. As the weeks go by I find myself enjoying the class more than I expected to. It also helps that we have a badass teacher, educating us, and showing us things we would never have come across without this class. I can’t wait to see what the next section has to hold.