She Couldn't Call it "Rape"

For the last blog of the quarter I read an article in People (yes, I know, People, but it was an interesting article). Tory Bowen was 21 when she woke up to find she was being raped. She tried to stop the man, but he said that she had consented the night before. She didn't remember this though. Eventually the police did arrest the man who had raped her and the case went to trial in 2006 in Lincoln, Nebraska. The Judge was Judge Jeffery Cheuvront and before the trial he met with Bowen to discuss the case. To her surprise the Judge said that she, "could not use the words 'rape' or 'sexual assault' while testifying, nor could she say she thought Safi [the rapist] drugged her" (84). This caught me off guard and I had to read it a couple times to understand what that meant. To think that you were raped and now this was thrust upon you seems horrible to me. I can't fathom how this could even happen, it's America, we have freedom of speech. It says so in our constitution. I had to double check that the story was actually happening in the US. The Judge defends his view by writing, "To many people the connotation of the word 'rape' involves a vicious and violent assault involving force" (84). This, "would be 'inflammatory' to use it" (84). But no matter what way you put it, there is nothing that excuses this injustice. The first amendment gives us Tory Bowen the right to call it rape, sexual assault or an elephant. If we take this right away, the next thing you know they'll be blaming the victim for the assault. Weisensee, Nicole Egan. "She Couldn't Call it 'Rape.'" People. Oct. 27 2008: 83-84.

Film Reading

This weeks blog must be about film and photography and I couldn't find anything to read, but then my mother emerged from the basement with a book called Understanding Film. It seemed to easy, but it worked perfectly. The college text book, by Louis D. Giannetti, is split up into many different sections, I read one on lighting. The book talks about how much harder lighting movies is compared to photos. When lighting a movie the designer must make it so that everywhere a character goes there is good lighting. Unlike a photo, where the subject doesn't move. Also, it talks about the different feelings light gives us. Giannetti describes light as a, "...security, and any blockage of light is therefore a threat to this sense of safety..." (25). The most interesting part of the reading is when it talked about how Hitchcock would tease the audience with his use of light. He would, "...deliberately reverse light-dark expectations to puncture our smug sense of security" (22) This was a very interesting read. It gave me a lot of information about the different types of lighting and how we instinctively react to it. Giannetti, D. Louis. Understanding Films. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1976.

The Awe of Music

Laugh or the World Laughs at You

"Laugh or the World Laughs at You" is an article by Mark Leibovich that talks about when you're a politician and a public figure. The center point of this piece is Senator Palin and the recent jokes she has fueled. One of Leibovich's examples is her recent interview with Katie Couric talking about a clip, "...featuring her assertion that Alaska's proximity to Russia bolstered her foreign policy experience, fast became YouTube classics." Saying it caused Republicans to get the "heeibe-jeebies." Although, these jokes don't have to define your political career. He proves this using Dick Cheney as prof. Explaining it by saying Cheney has, "...provided a lifetime of heart-attack and hunting-accident humor...but will clearly go down as a serious, contentious and multidimensional figure in history." So, it seems that as along as you don't let the joke play you, it can't be too bad. Even if you are seen as a punch line, it could be good for your campaign. Don't you believe that there is more talk about Palin since the Tina Fey videos? In the end, is it good or bad to the the butt of jokes?

Leibovich, Mark. "Laugh, or the World Laughs at You." New York Times. 5 Oct. 2008, 3.

Homer: Feminist or sexist? Good Question. Let me answer it for you.

Homer portrays the goddesses as these powerful, cunning beings. So, one would think that he is an amazing feminist and I agree, to an extent. When it comes to the goddesses Homer is a very big supporter of women. He shows us their power by having Athena guide Odysseus through his travels. She is also the one who helps him fight off all the suitors. The goddesses are on a pedestal, they're angelic creatures and that's how Homer portrays them. Even when they are do wicked things, they're doing it with smarts. Plus, in the end, someone always benefits. Although, Homer's like of women doesn't go much further than the goddesses, so maybe when it comes to them he is only on their side because of their standing in ancient greek society.
On the flip side of that, Homer betrays regular women as helpless or just good for sex. Odysseus' wife is at home just waiting around for him and refusing to be with anyone else. This shows how Homer sees women as very weak and how much they depend on their man for normalcy in life. During his travels, Odysseus sleeps with many women making it seem like, really that is mostly all their good for. Or that was is what they're supposed to be used for; sex and reproduction, not much else. Some might see Homer as a great feminist, but once it comes down to it, he only sides with the goddesses because of their power. Everyday women, to him, are nothing to get excited about.

In Praise of My Bed

I read "In Praise of My Bed" this week. It's a poem by Meredith Holmes. I was looking through a book of poems trying to find one to read and I read this one. At the time I was very cold and extremely tired, having just gotten home from school and the poem said exactly what I was feeling. The line that hits me most is when Holmes says, "I do nothing, but point/my bare feet into your/clean smoothness" (275). It made me miss my warm, cozy bed and want to run upstairs and fall into it.
This feeling is not strange to others, our bed is a safe place where troubles just dissolve and our worries slide away. That's what the poem reminded me of. That's how the author views her bed, too. She explains how she can, "feel your quiet strength the whole length of my body" (275). We feel safe in our beds because they are so familiar and seem to have a magical way of making us want to melt into them and never leave. It also brought back the memorie of waking up on a below freezing winter morning and borrowing into your blankets, feeling the breeze on the top of your head. Your bed holds endless stories of sleepovers and nightmares making your bed on of the most worn out and loved places in the house.

Holmes, Meredith. In Praise of My Bed. Good Poems. Ed. Garrison Keillor. New York: Penguin Group, 2005.