YHatori

I watched Bowling for Columbine by Michael Moore when I was ten. The absurdness of people’s attitudes towards the gun and the fact that a bank was giving out guns for opening an account was humorous, but the subject matter is not funny at all. In fact, I was so shocked that there was a school shooting. I couldn’t process the terror these students must have felt, huddled up and waiting to be picked off like sheep. This movie drastically changed the way I saw gun violence and gun policies in general. Yet, in 2018, I was not surprised about the Florida shooting. In fact, I expect it. There’s something to say about the fact that as students, the mentality about school shootings is not about if, but when.

There was a lot of back and forth as people were introduced to speak or ask a question to Marco Rubio. There was plenty of booing throughout when Marco Rubio spoke, but Cameron Kasky, a junior from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida said, “And guys, look, this isn’t about red and blue. We can’t boo people because they’re democrats and boo people because they’re republicans. Anyone who is willing to show change, no matter where they’re from, anyone who is willing to start to make a difference is somebody we need on our side here” (CNN). For a student, those are really wise words.

 

This whole situation is terrible, and there’s no way to spin it positively, except for the possible growth and change of people’s mindsets. Besides the obvious issue of gun control, an underlying issue is people’s refusal to just listen to each other. With evolving technology comes the ability to filter what views you want to see. If you don’t like it, just don’t look. It’s so much easier to avoid the other person’s opinions by clicking out. It furthers the bias that your idea is right, and anyone with different viewpoints is wrong.

 

On March 14, 2018 at 10:00 am, Santa Clara University students walked out of class in protest of gun violence. As I joined a giant stream of students walking from the cafeteria to the church, I wondered, “How many people in Congress will actually listen?” Are people blind to the issues of gun violence? More so than just believing your opinion is right, there are statistics that show stricter gun laws decrease gun violence. In 2014 there were just six gun deaths in Japan, compared to 33,599 in the US. The counterargument for having guns is personal protection. One instance that supporters cited was a female student who scared off a potential rapist with a handgun. The argument is that small weapons like knives and stun guns would require too close contact for a frightening attacker like that, but pepper spray is a long range weapon. There’s plenty of ways to protect yourself that isn’t with a gun. Of course there will be situations in which someone could have been saved from a crime with a gun, but that’s the case with anything. In this case, having guns results in massacres of students who go to school and have to worry whether they’re going to die or not. Guns shouldn’t be outlawed, but the process for allowing who can get ahold of one should be made a lot stricter.

Japan’s model is as the following:

“If you want to buy a gun in Japan you need patience and determination. You have to attend an all-day class, take a written exam and pass a shooting-range test with a mark of at least 95%.

There are also mental health and drugs tests. Your criminal record is checked and police look for links to extremist groups. Then they check your relatives too – and even your work colleagues. And as well as having the power to deny gun licences, police also have sweeping powers to search and seize weapons” (BBC news).

In general Japan’s crime rates are much lower than in the US, though that might be attributed to the culture. For example, my sister forgot her change in a convenience store and the cashier chased her down while calling, “Miss! Miss! Your change!!” The amount that she was owed? 40 cents.

 

Sources:

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38365729

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/22/politics/cnn-town-hall-full-video-transcript/index.html

My sister

 

(Spoiler alert!)

At the end of Oscar Wao’s tragic story, he is killed by his lover’s abusive ex-boyfriend. With the simple word of fire, Oscar Wao is shot in the head. When I read that that was his end, I was shocked and awash with a feeling of numbness. So really, what was the point of this story? Here he is, a fat nerd who finally found love. Granted, she probably wasn’t the best person to fall in love with, considering she had a dangerous abusive police officer boyfriend, but he found what he longed for for so long. Human connection. And then it all ended.

I felt frustrated and sorry for Oscar. The first person he has feelings for, is the essentially the beta version of Ybon. Except now Ybon actually loves Oscar. He gets beaten almost to death, and everyone in his family warns him to stay away from her, but he returns to the DC to be with her, knowing likely that it would be the end of him.

The most tragic aspect of Oscar’s death was the fact that he always stayed true to himself. During his final speech, he refers to himself as an avenger. He’s an avenger to his own death, but also the Avengers from the comics. He also referred to the goons that was with Capitan as Grod and Grundy. Even when he’s about to die, he still has his nerd references, because that’s who he is.

It wasn’t until the professor said that she feels that Oscar Wao is the epitome of an anti-hero, that I finally realized the point of his story. Though his story felt dull and dreary, that was the point. He was the hero of his own story, regardless of how sad it may seem to the outsider. His goal is always his goal, even if other people only pity him.

While reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, I could not help but note how much focus there is on appearance. Oscar is overweight with acne and crazy hair. His sister is attractive, and his mom was a bombshell in her youth.

I think the juxtaposition of Oscar and his mother’s social life based on each person’s appearance is very important. Oscar is ashamed of his body and thus his own body image issues directly affect his interactions with people. He’s shy and desperate for love. He’s busy fantasizing about rescuing one of the girls he admires in hope that one day, they will feel the same way. The first girl to give him attention, Ana, ends up getting back together with her abusive ex-boyfriend, while still turning to Oscar for comfort.

 

Oscar’s mother, Beli, was the opposite of Oscar. Though she too was somewhat of a social outcast, she was absolutely stunning with the type of body that attracts a lot of men. She too, let her own body image dictate how she interacts with people. Mostly, because she knew that men liked how she looked, she would use it to her advantage. Still, Beli ended up dating and being with men who didn’t treat her well. Her first “boyfriend” used her and as soon as she became a liability, sold her out. Her second partner was a gangster, and her last, the father of her children, left her.

 

I think the author focuses on Oscar and Beli’s appearances to show that, one way or another, life is hard regardless how you look. Oscar thinks that life would be so much better if he was attractive, but look what happened to his mother. She was beautiful, but her beauty also caused her pain. Being attractive can help you, yes. People are biologically inclined to like pretty people more. But ultimately, it’s personality and your own life choices that will determine your life. Beli could have used her attractiveness to find a good man who would treat her well, but she chose men that only wanted her for her attractiveness and treated her poorly.

An anti-hero, according to the Dictionary, is “ a central character in a story, movie, or drama who lacks conventional heroic attributes.” Though I’ve read several books in high school about characters who are anti-heroes, like Gatsby in The Great Gatsby, Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, and Satan in Milton’s Paradise Lost, all of these books are written in a historical context, and therefore are less relatable. Moreso, they are all male characters.

The Young Elites by Marie Lu is about a girl named Adelina Amoteru. She was afflicted as a child with a disease that changed her appearance and gave her a special ability. Unfortunately for her, people like her are shunned by society. This book is about her story and readers will notice how her traits become more and more anti-hero-like. Still, she has the reader’s sympathy because they know that she had pure intentions. From the beginning, she is just an outcast who desperately wishes to be loved and belong somewhere, but her personality is hardened by the people who reject her and take advantage of her vulnerability.

I personally relate to Adelina. I struggle with a lot of anxiety that results in me not treating people as well as I want to. I still have good intentions towards others, but I doubt society would consider me a “hero,” since I have anxiety, which is decidedly not a heroic trait. Like Adelina, I am not the most beautiful woman who will be rescued by a man who understands the “true” her. Regardless of others, I will continue to be myself, because I know that I am doing my best. I don’t have to be the smartest or the most outgoing or the most or the most beautiful, because just being me is good enough.

There are heroes and anti-heroes. Typically people think, either you’re a villain or a hero. But that’s not exactly true. Sometimes, you’re the anti-hero. You don’t have the typical traits of a hero, but that doesn’t make you any less of one. Anti-heroes are the more realistic versions of heroes.

Dictionary definition: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/antihero

During class, we defined a new type of anti-hero from Prometheus by Lord Byron. Though by our definition, Prometheus was good and tried to help people, he was still punished by Zeus. That really made me think “what does good and bad really mean?” They’re really just our own definitions. For example, killing a killer. As a society, we understand that killing someone is wrong. But what if we kill someone who kills people?

In order to explore the ideas of anti-heroes more, I’ve looked for common anti-heroes in literature and Jay Gatsby is a prime example. He earns his money through dishonest ways, and yet he has the reader’s sympathy because of his deep pain and strangely romantic obsession with Daisy Buchannan. He is a tragic figure because of his fatal flaw: his belief that he can go back in time and win back the Daisy that he was in love with. Though he is not the typical hero who worked hard and earned money honestly as well as winning his love interest, there’s still much to learn from his story, which is the point of the anti-hero. Not all lessons in life are “Be the hero! Be good and everything good will happen to you!” In this case, Gatsby’s lesson is that there isn’t a way to return to the past. Being stuck is what causes anguish, and is thus a cautionary tale. The negative, but just as important life lessons, are taught by anti-heroes.

In addition to life lessons, I think society’s obsession with anti-heroes is a way to try to understand the point of view of people who do terrible things. Unfortunately, right and wrong are not black and white values and so we try to empathize and understand the why.

Mad Max Fury Road is a thrilling action movie, full of giant car contraptions and fighting. Imperator Furiosa is a soldier under Immortan Joe, and she defies him with his Five Wives in order to escape his control.

Imperator Furiosa is played by Charlize Theron, a 5’10 blonde model. However, the movie does not capitalize on her good looks. In fact, Furiosa is an amputee with shaved hair and grease all over her face. There is great effort to downplay how attractive she is because the focus is on her character traits, rather than her beauty.

It’s really important how Furiosa is integrated into the plotline because the movie’s goal isn’t to sell “FEMINISM,” rather than to show a story that happens to have a powerful female character. Though the recent Wonder Woman with Gal Gadot was well received by the public, I feel that there was too much effort on making sure viewers understood that she’s a female superhero. Many of Gal Gadot’s fight scene cuts interlude with a focus on her soft clean feminine face and bouncing shiny hair, but Furiosa’s fight scenes are focused on her brutal attacks and bloody face. Even in youtube comments for both respective scenes, in Wonder Woman’s “Warehouse fight scene” people comment about how beautiful Gal Gadot is multiple times with plenty of “likes”, while the scene with Furiosa fighting with Mad Max people comment more about the actual fight scene and the way it was shot.

In Mad Max Fury Road, Furiosa is a byproduct of the story, and viewers can see the subtle qualities that make her a feminist hero. In Wonder Woman, the story is a byproduct of feminism. Though I truly enjoyed the movie Wonder Woman and the fact that Gal Gadot was portrayed as a strong superhero who can be both beautiful and badass, ultimately the movie felt as if directors were building a story around feminism, instead of a plot.

 

Link to “warehouse fight scene”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klidfZG9oZQ

Link to Furiosa vs. Max : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vcgn4EY5_S8

 

 

On January 20th, 2018, I went to the Women’s March in downtown San Jose. The minute I got to school where ACM -W (Association for Computing Machinery -Women division) was gathering before the march, I felt a sense of dread. I knew two people out of about fifteen people. We all went to the bus together, and I got separated from the herd of freshmen girls. Instead, I was struck by the door when it opened because there was no space to back-up.

This is the worst, I thought. I texted my mom, “I want to go home. I’m not even kidding.” I felt lonely and uncomfortable and embarrassed. The other girls, for the most part, new each other because everyone lived in the dorms.

 

The march began. I conveniently planted myself next to one of the people I knew, and I continued the conversation in hopes that I wouldn’t be left behind. Gradually, I talked with the other girls in the club while we walked. We bonded over movies and commenting on interesting or funny posters as we marched.

 

By the end of the event, I felt like I had made new friends. We looked out for each other and made sure members of the group didn’t stray or get lost. It was this sense of camaraderie that made this event meaningful.

 

In addition to the outward and obvious insecurities I had, there were also internal ones. Do I have what it takes to be an engineer? I’ve never taken physics before, I’m only okay with math, and coen feels repetitive. Lately, I’ve been questioning whether I really can make it as an engineer. But being at the march reinvigorated me. Here all these people around me, marching for the same cause and celebrating the accomplishments of women. People stopped our group and complimented our “STEMINIST” signs. If all these women around me can make it, so can I.

The Marvel movie “Dr. Strange” came under racism allegations by casting Tilda Swinton in the role of the Ancient One, a character that is  a Tibetan male in the comics. In an email exchange, Tilda Swinton reaches out to Margaret Cho, a Korean-American comedian, and actress, in an attempt to understand why Asian-Americans were offended.

The reason why Tilda Swinton is confused is because “I [was]impressed that, for once, they aimed to disrupt the ‘wisdom must be male’ never-ending story – and, by the way, for once, wanting to feature a woman who’s a badass, over 26 and not simply bursting out of a bikini. The biggest irony about this righteous protest targeting this particular film is the pains the makers went to avoid it.”
Essentially, the problem is this: Asian-Americans asked for an Asian actor (or actress!) to portray a male Asian character. The directors responded by finding a white actress.

Yes, it is forward-thinking to have a woman in a male’s role, but Asian-Americans are asking for a very simple solution: PUT AN ASIAN ON SCREEN!!!
“Ghost in the Shell,” a Japanese manga starred Scarlett Johansson as the main actress. Granted, the main character is a cyborg, so it is a bit hard to tell the race. “Dragon Ball Z” a manga turned into a movie, is not as ambiguous as Ghost in the Shell. Son Goku is based on Son Wu Kong, the Monkey King from Chinese folklore. Emma Stone was cast as a Chinese-Hawaiian in the film “Aloha.”

Typically the argument for not casting Asian leads is because they are not famous enough, and thus people will not come watch the movie. But it’s not like there is no movie industry in Korea, Japan, China, or other Asian countries. If they cast an Asian actor or actress, their over-sea fans will come watch the film. By not casting an Asian in a movie, the backlash ends up hurting its ratings anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DhoBuU1Dtc

Of course, the anger over white-washing is not shared by all Asians. In fact, many Japanese people don’t care at all, or agree that white people should take these roles. Those some points I do agree, because Naruto is a white character with his blonde hair and blue eyes, it is easy for Japanese people not to care about white-washing because they’re always represented in Japan. It is the Asian-Americans that feel frustrated over the lack of representation.

Sources cited:

Tilda Swinton article : https://jezebel.com/tilda-swinton-sent-us-her-email-exchange-with-margaret-1790203875

 

I love Star Wars and I watched all the old episodes! When I was seven. Honestly, I was mostly fascinated by the fight between the nice old man with long hair and the scary red dude with horns; I must’ve watched that scene alone at least ten times. And personally, I think Yoda looked like a nasty green disease attached to Luke’s back during his training.

So maybe I’m not exactly a superfan. Still, I have been watching the new ones, and I lined up with the best of them to watch The Last Jedi. The movie went as expected. Pew pew, explosion, etc. But when I saw Poe Dameron get indignant with Vice-Admiral Holdo, I was on his side. “What’s this old lady doing?” I scoffed. “CLEARLY Poe knows better. Who the heck made her the Vice-Admiral? She’s nuts!” Subconsciously, stereotypes bubbled to the surface to reaffirm this idea.  Here is this tall, waifish woman with purple hair, the color a stark contrast to the bleak orange and browns of Resistance fighter clothes. She is the opposite of Princess Leia, a small firm woman with a hard face and fine leadership skills, yet she has now stepped into Leia’s position. How can she lead the Resistance? And then another thought. “Did Princess Leia make a grave mistake by having Holdo as the Vice Admiral?”

The director waited until the very to disprove my thoughts. In a fantastic silent scene, Vice-Admiral Holdo is shown sacrificing her life in a brilliant move to save the few remaining Resistance fighter ships.

Vice-Admiral Holdo is one of the many types of female role-models shown in this film. Rey, Princess Leia,  and Maz Kanata are all heroes in Star Wars. What makes Vice-Admiral different from them is that she embraces her femininity. She doesn’t have to wear baggy clothes that hide her soft shape or cover her hair or stop expressing herself the way she wants because she is a hero by her own merits.

When did “Feminism” become a bad word? Ashley Judd, an American actress, and political activist read the poem “Nasty Woman” during the Women’s March on Washington in 2017. During the 2014 VMAs, Beyonce was illuminated by the word “FEMINIST” during her performance.

But recently, Katy Perry was quoted saying, “I’m not a feminist but I do believe in the strength of women.” So why are women backpedaling from the label? Why has feminist, a powerful word backed by the millions of women who fought for suffrage and equality, been reduced to a dirty word connoting a man-hating monster?

So I went and looked up opinion pieces addressing why “I am not a feminist.”

Blog link: If you read the blog, my responses will make more sense) http://feminismisahatemovement.tumblr.com/post/55334540059/9-reasons-why-i-cant-stand-modern-day-feminists

1. They constantly victimize my gender, and I find it insulting.

My response: Feminism isn’t about victimizing gender. It is realizing that women are faced with certain issues that men aren’t.

7. Feminists fail to see the redundancy in the modern-day feminist movement.

My response: You don’t have to be living in a third world country where women are raped and not even allowed to go outside without an accompanying man to still feel victimized.

That’s like yelling at a burn victim “IT’S NOT THAT BAD OKAY?! OTHER PEOPLE ARE DYING IN THIS HOSPITAL!” Your feelings of shame and disgust when someone catcalls you are still valid.

8. Feminists refuse to acknowledge that the gender pay gap is the result of women’s choices, not sexism.

My response: While it is true that women do tend to take jobs that are not so STEM-related, which would earn them a higher income, this person does not acknowledge those who DO and the struggles they face. Feminism is for those women to find solidarity in shared experiences and support. My aunt spoke of the inherent sexism she faced as a woman in engineering. People would refer to her as “sweetheart” and talk down to her, thinking that she didn’t know as much as them. Even now, she owns a company she started with her husband that deals with computer security and investors ask to speak to her husband instead of her.

To quote Jennifer Lawrence,” I don’t know why that word is so scary to people. It shouldn’t be, because it just means equality.”

Perhaps the meaning of feminism has been tainted, but I urge people to reconsider the original purpose of feminism. Feminism is about women not being blamed for wearing revealing clothes and drinking a bit too much, not feeling intimidated by a roomful of men in a STEM environment, or not feeling ashamed for being confident and self-assured. Feminism is to empower women and support them.

Citing : http://ew.com/gallery/celebrity-feminists/jennifer-lawrence