If The Plot Were Juat A Tad Bit Different

If Precious' had not been a victim of incest, sexual, mental, emotional, and physical abuse would Sapphire's audience even be interested in Precious' story, sad thing is probably not. Nobody is interested in reading books that the protagonist doesn't have some kind of struggle. I strongly believe that Sapphire's main point of the novel was to critique social instituitons of large cities.

The novel also leaves the reader inquiring about if whether they turned a blind eye to someone in their time of need. Because you never know if you let someone down by not asking the right questions or not following through on something you turned over to the officials. But this critique alone thickens the plot.

Nobody is soley interested in reading the internal thoughts of someone while they are being raped by their father. Nobody is quite in love with the fact that your body may physically be pleasured by something while your also in utter disgust. But without this the novel would be dry.

I don't know, maybe the rambles have me questioning myself as a part of the audience. Why was the plot so interesting??

Learned Helplessness

I  am a psychology major. I initially started out my high school career with the intentions of being an education major. But that surely changed through my experience at my first real job. I worked at LEAP. It was a program in which under privileged children could receive an enriched academic program that was sited in the empowerment zones of new haven. After working with these children and their parents so closely I decided that education was not the field for me. Because I have seen that these children have such struggles in their lives due to their environment. Like in Push, the main theme was overcoming a sense of learned helplessness.

Precious had been sexually, emotionally, and physically abused. I have worked with kids who have been through similar circumstances. But what had Precious stronger was her ability to understand that the life from which she came from did not have to paint the same portrait of her future. I learned that working with these in the manner in which I could that I would never be able to get my message across if I do not get to the source and it is their  parents.

My goal is open up parenting facilities, drug rehabilitation program for men and women.  I intend on being able to reach the source in order for them to instill a stronger foundation for children like Precious and others that I have worked with in the past. To break the curse of the learned helplessness that has been all they know.

Push-ed

I haven't gotten to find a free copy of PUSH by Sapphire, but I have seen a few youtube videos displaying her reading excerpts of the novel. I have tried to watch the movie Precious, whose plot is based primarily from the novel written by Sapphire but directed by Lee Daniels. But the movie itself was way too much to bear witness to without shedding tears.

The novel is the story of a 16 year old girl named Clarece Precious Jones, raised in Harlem, who is pregnant, a victim of insect, illierate, who is abused. That was already hard to stomach. The novel is told from inside the head of the protagonist.

All the excerpt readings that I have heard have all opened with the part of the novel where Precious is being disruptive in her Math class due to her being unable to figure out how to identify the page that her teacher wanted her to turn to. She lands herself in the principles office due to her cursing her teacher out. From there the excerpt jumps to her mother beating her senselessly in the kitchen in which is the place she births her child. Then she reveals to the nurses that she is a victim of incest because she did not know any better.

Isn't that weird how people who have been mistreated all their lives never knew they were being mistreated? Even after someone from the outside may point it out, it still may be something that the victim is unaware of or able to believe.

When I tried to watch Precious when it came out, I couldn't. It was too painful. The point in which I stopped watching it was during the 'beat down' in the kitchen. It reminded me of a scene in my own life. Everything about the setting seemed to come alive for me. Even down to the thought process from within. It all came together for me.

Wathcing these except readings made me search for more. I learned that the novel wasn't based upon the life of one person its a compliation of stories from people. That was deep. Sapphire touched me.

Saving Our Youth

Thinking about one of the facts along with a few other pieces, what do girls need in High School besides "Sex Ed" in order to not get pregnant, etc.?

I went to one of the most notorious high schools in New Haven. Everybody assumed that every student in the school would be one/some/all of these statistics: pregnant, suffer an early death, or drop out. And I know a lot of people who have fallen victim to these statistics. But I feel as though they followed the wrong path because they needed guidance.

Guidance from someone who chose the correct path and not their friends. Or even a parent that knows where the wrong path can lead you. And is willing to support and motivate their daughter to keep them on the correct track. Girls these days need positive role models. Everyone is so concerned with the "pathway to prison pipeline" for GUYS because they need fathers.  People should start to pay attention to devastatingly high rate of pregnancy in these children. What exactly do they believe that these girls are looking for when they find themselves pregnant. They aren't looking for gumdrops and lollipops. They are looking for love from men, to fill a void within them.

Girls do not get pregnant by themselves. Come on these are not the days in which immaculate conception still exists.

Younger people in general not only need guidance, they need protection; someone who can secure their youth/innocence. Children do not stay children for long due to the fact that people do not believe in censorship anymore. Children do not watch Disney movies anymore. I mean the Disney channel exists, but the kids on those shows are all chasing love.

In addition to guidance and protection, high school students need love. Motherly, Fatherly, Sisterly, Brotherly Love!! If these girls felt love, they would stop looking in all the wrong places

Be Your Clitoris

"She told me my clitoris was not something I could lose. It was me, the essence of me. It was both the doorbell to my house and the house itself. I didn't have to find it I had to be it."

This is probably one quote that bought the whole book of monologues together for me. When I was younger my mother used to say that I had no business having sex because I didn't even know myself or what I was doing. I used to think she didn't know what she was talking about, but as I take this journey into adulthood I now understand completely what she was referring to.

She wasn't talking about the act of sex in totality, but she was talking about knowing myself outside of sex. She meant that I had to know myself as a person, not a vagina my anatomical organ. And those words taught me a valuable lesson, that I will pass to my daughter if I am blessed to have one. I want her to learn what it is to be a women, not a vagina, coochie, or cunt a WOMEN!!

Angry Vagina

This is the Ninja Maxipad. Comical Huh?
Earlier today I found myself watching television and I seen a few tampon commercials, and the first thing that came to mind was the Angry Vagina Monologue. I found this monologue funny from the very first line.

All commercials for sanitary products depict the menstrual cycle as a blissful feeling. Which is the complete opposite of what the monthly experience actually feel like. Most women can say they have some discomfort whether it is from cramps, fatigue, bloating. But I can bet for sure that women won't tell you they feel like a flower in a garden or a happy fish in a dry pool. And from those few commercials they struck a nerve of curiosity. I wanted to compare commercials that were targeted towards women and commercials targeted towards men.

I looked at a few condom commercials and tampon commercials on youtube. And I noticed that most of the condom ads include both men and women willing to purchase or use condoms, and in all tampon ads I noticed that there is either a male or a female in the commercial. And depending upon what the purpose is, determines which of them are present.

All men hate buying tampons for women, but safe sex is both the responsibility of men and women. Interesting thought huh?  

Taking a Stand for Women

Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologues may initially draw some readers away, due to the explicit title. People automatically assume that the book is saturated with sex. And it is not, although sex sales. This book is primarily about women and their struggles in the skin they're in. These monologues have the ability to touch every women in the audience, the stories are so relate-able.

Both men and women can benefit from watching a production of the monologues or from reading the book. They can learn valuable lessons that are applicable throughout everyday life. One of the biggest things I took from the book was a new found love and appreciation for myself and other women.

Women have overcome so many struggles, from not having the right to vote, to finally being accepted in the workplace that it is disgusting that women still are being mistreated. Not just solely by the hands of a man, but by society in general. Ensler touches on the many instances where women have been wronged; from women being used as sex slaves,  women being sexually mutilated, and etc.

Women are seen as sexual beings and not for what they truly are HUMANS, with red blood, hot breath, with arms and legs. We should all take a stand and care for the rights of women!