When I left class today my head was buzzing with different random ideas that I didn't now how to fit in to the conversation we had today.  For starters, I know we had the question about the smell of Orchids.  I don't know if Orleans tells us what the ghost orchid smells like but she does talk about the scent of other orchids.

Some orchids have straight-ahead good looks but have deceptive and seductive odors.  There are orchids that smell like rotting meat, which insects happen to like.  Another orchid smells like chocolate.  Another smells like an angel food cake.  Several mimic the scent of other flowers that are more popular with insects than they are.  Some release perfume only at night to attract nocturnal moths. p. 46.

So that was the answer to one of the questions we didn't get around too.

I've also had a question buzzing around my head.  In class it was mentioned that the full title of the novel is The Orchid Thief  A True Story of Beauty and Obession...but how can you have a true story about beauty?  We've been talking about this idea of truth and fiction and perception and I think beauty is a perception that can have no truth.  Beauty varies between societies and between individuals.  I don't like that she calls this a true story about beauty, it leaves me with this big question like "Beauty according to who?"  

dchin, sekang, and I wrote this Mantrafesto from bell hooks's statement and with Sara Palin in mind.

Mantrafesto:

The voices of “power feminism” tend to be highlighted in mass media. (42)

Media rewards those who reinforce structures that are already in place.

Structures in place put Sara Palin in the McCain campaign.

The campaign exists within a structure that bell hooks wants to break free from.

Break free from reform, engage in revolution.

Revolution and presidential campaigns do not coincide (?) cannot coexist (?) one does not lend itself to the other (?). 

From pejordan, michelle.lee and MC

feminist Politics is necessarily radical 
feminists Are made not born
Language is limiting 
statements are oppressIve 
just say No

dear.abby, rayj and aybala50

From FrigginSushi, jdsisco, and amophrast:

Working-class women already knew that the wages they received would not liberate them.
Liberation is difficult.
The fact that it's difficult means it's worth fighting for.
Palin was not fighting for liberation for working-class women.
Working-class people supported Palin because they found her relatable.
By relating to the average person, Palin earned hollow support.
If you knock on a hollow tree, it's very loud, but ultimately dead inside.

During our question-writing session in class last week most of my questions focused on the politics of a career choice. 

"What are the politics of selecting a job?

Of starting a career or learning a trade?

What are the differences between learning a trade and having a career in our social dictionary? What are the consequences of these differences?

Is anything "just" a job?"

A lot of my feminist reading as of late has been on the debate of the political vs private, and how the private more often than not, and whether we want it to be or not, is political. It's rather overwhelming to think that every decision I make is impacted by the political environment I move through, but it makes sense. It makes me hyper-aware of what and how I consume and speak, as well as the consumption of others. As a feminist (specifically aware that I am a white, upper-middle class, female-identifying, non-religious feminist) is there any decision I make that could be considered free of political thought? 

READING

Screen into the world

What pages are we all on?

Tools for creation

READING

Power, access, tools

They are useless by themselves

Do you have the tools?

READING

What blocks your pathway?

Barriers to creation

You make the meaning

Tool kit cultural tool kit

Media can be our windows and our barriers

Filtering out undesirable images.

Keeps things in and Keeps things out

Sanitized and pristine

Cultural toolkit used to unpack

Dominant discourse and

Screen Racial profiles.

OH GOSH, 200 PAGES OF READING TO DO!

Turn the PAGE.

Start with a blank page

So we can get on the same page.

Same page.

-Brittney and Amanda

When we read, the Learning
curve is really Important; after all,
Access works both ways, the text as
A veil
Protection
Division
Desire
Control...
We touch and manipulate, we
Turn a page of the
Stars of a constellation.
To be of use, here, we are
Building and
Learning. Leaning on
Generational differences, our own Urban dictionaries.
There are
endless opportunities, but
the supplies are not
endless. Access to resources,
Different resources for different tasks,
Cultural capital, these
are the problems we face.
It’s the Danger of a single story:
reading and co-creating and becoming

By Emily, Julia, Manya, and Allison