Reading parts of the book reminded me of a migrant's journey, particularly with assimilation on 70, 81, and 87. Binti makes due with what she has available to keep her culture with her, like many immigrants with recipes #BSUENG490

"You fear your children will grow up to join the patriarchy and testify against you, we fear our children will be dragged from a car and shot down in the street, and you will turn your backs upon the reasons they are dying."

"Refusing to recognize difference makes it impossible to see the different problems and pitfalls facing us as women" #BSUENG490

#BSUENG490

YouTube video by TED Nnedi Okorafor: Sci-fi stories that imagine a future Africa | TED

"Still, not all science fiction has the same ancestral bloodline, that line being Western-rooted science fiction, which is mostly white and male... She goes out as she is, looking the way she looks, carrying her cultures, being who she is."

Too many times have I seen the men described in this theory use slurs of groups they are not a part of and justify that usage with the parts of their demographics that are marginalized, particularly gay and working-class men #BSUENG490

Trying to keep up with all the rules Cassie be breaking #BSUENG490

Cassie has become too emotionally to the case to where both of her lives are blurring together dangerously #BSUENG490

Cassie's guard is being dangerously let down the more involved she becomes with the group. The "no pasts" rule makes it easier to integrate herself without anyone questioning her, even as she plays a faked role in these real, tight-knit relationships #BSUENG490

Listening to the audiobook and I remember this is told in the past tense and I just need to pause every 10 minutes each time a new secret is revealed #BSUENG490

Is Barbie a feminist icon? It's complicated The Barbie movie is being celebrated (and slammed) as a feminist film, with its themes of female empowerment and critiques of the patriarchy. Can the same be said for the doll at the center of it?

"Rather than stressing collectivity or the concerns of women per se,... The young women is addressed as a potential subject of great 'capacity'" (624).
***
"So she's got that body, no husband, and the ability to make a living in a real field"
#BSUENG490

"God forbid we know her cycle was regular!" (Liv and I when discussing how O'Kelly gets squeamish over female body functions)
#BSUENG490

I love how you describe them as "rich!" Her "alters" are all individual and complex. I liked this especially with Asughara when she uses Igbo speaking mannerisms, and it feels she has more of a connection with her Nigerian home. #BSUENG490

Ada had dissociated throughout their life. Ada's trauma, in a way, helps them find these words to help describe their mental health, gender, and transformation to who they are #BSUENG490 (2/2)

I tried not to read at first from a trans perspective when we initially learned the author is NB. Continuing showed more acknowledgement of terms like gender dysphoria and liminal spaces with gender binaries, terms that are not in everyone's immediate field. #BSUENG490 (1/2)

We also see Saint Vincent come out more, as "He dressed Ada in skinny jeans from Uniqlo, thick cotton T-shirts, and a binder--a tight black vest that flattened our chest into a soft mound of almost nothing" (164), contrasting what might be gender dysphoria on 123-4.

When Ada goes through her panic attack, she finds comfort in the masculine part of herself, one more docile than Asughara. I find their dynamic interesting, as Ada finds comfort in the man spiritually inside her, one she is not allowed to talk about, despite her experiences with men
#BSUENG490

The Cyborg Manifesto reads like a sarcastic piece on identity being shaped under the stress of Western perspectives. In a sense, it reminds me of A Modest Proposal. #BSUENG490

"The Ada felt like a trickster, which felt right. She could move between boy and girl, which was a freedom, for her and for us. But when she turned twelve and started bleeding, everything was ruined... we were in a cage that obeyed other laws, human laws" (123)
#BSUENG490

On page 50, when Ada finds herself between Black Americans and international students, I have found myself feeling similar as I would not "fit in" with other Fil Americans, instead finding more similarities, less "check boxes" with other diasporas. It feels like a rip between identities.
#BSUENG490

If the "reality" of gender is constituted by the performance itself,. . . Indeed, the transevstite's gender is as fully real as anyone whose performance complies with social expectations (488)
(2/2) #BSUENG490

The transvestite, however, can do more than simply express the distinction between sex and gender, but challenges... the distinction between appearance and reality that structures a good deal of popular thinking of gender identity. . . (488)
(1/2) #BSUENG490

"We" also does not refer to a specific gender. While the Ada ("first daughter") is referred to with she/her, the usage of we seems like first-person for the pronouns they/them.

Knowing the author is nonbinary (NB), I could see many elements alluding to being transgender--specifically NB. For example, the plural "We" creates a distant, less individualistic perspective that sometimes feels dissociative from the world, which can feel like gender dysphoria. #BSUENG490

Reading 'The Wonder' #BSUENG490

At first, I was confused how Critical Refugee Studies (CRS) took root in feminist theories as it approaches limitations in emotions. This article helped to understand how we may dehumanize others, to objectify them as we distance ourselves with emotions becoming detached. #BSUENG490

"You like Nan the best?"
"But she wouldn't be me."
Lib shrugged. "A woman can change her name..." (154)
#BSUENG490

"How to quantify the quality of being alive?" (107)
If all the riches in the world cannot equate to a living thing, how may we determine one's worth? Through the body? How the mind is shaped and used? Through expression of self in the names we use? How do we sustain life, or being alive? #BSUENG490

awareness of her realities and how her self-image changes in others' perspectives. Moving between worlds, Barbie shifts how she and others may practice their autonomy, their femininity. It is her "messy," complicated experience that empowers her and makes her "real" to herself again. (2)

I found myself thinking of the Barbie (2023) movie with her transformations of mind and body. The daughter, initially, and Ken's shift to toxic masc. point to Barbie's dangers on what the female body "should" look like, relating to the "docile body." It changes with Barbie having an (1) #BSUENG490