Katelyn’s Comments (group member since Jan 07, 2016)

Katelyn’s comments from the Our Shared Shelf group.

Hi Alicia,

Thanks for the recommendation. In the interest of organization, we do not allow individual threads for book suggestions. You can suggest it for the group by following the directions here: How to Suggest a Book
Additionally, you can suggest it in relevant book lists in the book suggestion folder. Those lists are based on subject matter, genre, etc. You can start your own list if you don't see one for a particular subject or genre already, but please check first, as we will remove duplicate threads.

I think the Book Suggestions topic Hormonal Cycle might be a good place to suggest this book. If you don't feel it fits there, you could ask the OP to edit the topic title perhaps to something like "Hormonal Cycle and Menstruation," or you can start your own post for books about periods.

Hope this helps!

Locked and Archived

Or anything else by Maggie Nelson?

Do you have any advice or strategies for first time readers who are new to this book/author?

Briony wrote: "Sounds like a really interesting book choice - I'm looking forward to reading it. Just rang my small local bookshop to see if they had it in stock and before I'd even finished saying what the book ..."

Excellent news :)

What a great idea for a thread! Thank you, Hamza!

I think of the first four books, my favorite has been The Color Purple.

But I really like what Ana said: there is a certain amount of nostalgia and sense of beginning associated with My Life on the Road, as well. As that one is definitely in my heart for that reason (not to mention all it has to offer!).

I'll also mention that I've started reading The Argonauts early, and I'm only about a fourth of the way through, but I'm really enjoying it so far, so it might give TCP a run for its money ;)

Moved to Miscellaneous

We will be discussing How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran on Sunday, May 1st, 4:30-6:30 pm at our usual location, the Argo Tea at 16 W. Randolph St. in the Loop.

Hope to see some more faces there!

And don't forget to join our Facebook group, which is where we've been organizing meet up times: https://www.facebook.com/groups/16803...

Kressel wrote: "Nobody's brought this up, but there's an awful racial stereotype called a JAP a/k/a Jewish American Princess. Perhaps it's not well known outside Jewish circles, but it is so distasteful, I NEVER w..."

I grew up in the NYC metro area, so I'm very familiar with the stereotype. It was thrown around quite casually when I was in high school, by Jewish kids as well as others. It was also applied to everyone regardless of their religious/cultural background, though it was more often applied to Jewish girls for sure (which is tied up in socioeconomic differences in the community as well between more affluent reform Jewish families and the lower-middle-class white families and families of color). It wasn't until later on, when I left the bubble of that community, that it ever occurred to me that it was in any way offensive (aside from the typical high school teasing).

It seems sort of on par with the "guido" stereotype as depicted on Jersey Shore. In fact, wasn't there another TV show called Long Island Princesses (or something to that effect) that was basically a Jewish version of Jersey Shore (although not all the women on that show were Jewish, but the implication was that the culture they were apart of was Jewish... perhaps by virtue of the "princess" mentality).

Anyway, thanks for making that connection, Kressel! Even though I recognized after growing up a bit that the stereotype is harmful, whether or not it is used by the girls themselves, I hadn't really examined it thoroughly, so this was a good opportunity to do that.

Bunny wrote: "I'm reading Rebecca Traister's book All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation and I just noticed a passage that seemed to me a good example of int..."

I read that book last month. I had some problems with the general polemic, which relied on a sort of binary understanding of single vs. married, but I really liked that she spent a lot of time pointing out how relationships and families have differed in communities of color historically. IIRC, she also separated chapters based on wealth and poverty? I might be confusing with another book... either way, it was appreciated :)

Malin wrote: "Katelyn wrote: "Emma wrote: "It would be really interesting to calculate the metrics of the Meyers Briggs test results of everyone from OSS. I wonder if certain types of personalities are more like..."

Well, it's not usually necessary to take stats from a full population to get an idea of general percentages of things like this. The issue would be how differently personality presents in different cultures. I think most would agree that while some personality factors are "natural," or somehow genetic and hereditary, most are influence most heavily by culture and socialization. So it makes sense that in different parts of the world, different personality types would be fostered, valued, inadvertently cultivated, etc. ... Whether or not this would make a huge difference in the stats, I don't know. But using the U.S. as a representative of the entire world is generally a problem, whether or not it changes outcomes. It's important to seek diversity, even in small sample sets.

Just stepping in to say that I am keeping my eye on this discussion. Let's all be respectful and not make accusations or personal attacks against other members.

Use this thread to coordinate book borrowing between members! Hopefully everyone who wants to is able to read The Argonauts.

Please use this thread ONLY for offers of and requests for Paying It Forward. All other comments about the book and where you got it from can be posted in other relevant topics, such as Emma's May book announcement at the top of the discussion board.

Our Pay It Forward initiative is strictly with regards to LEGAL methods of book sharing (for example, sharing hard copies or Kindle sharing). Any posts regarding illegal scans/PDFs/file sharing will be deleted without warning.

Hi Jennifer,

Thanks for the recommendation. In the interest of organization, we do not allow individual threads for book suggestions. You can suggest it for the group by following the directions here: How to Suggest a Book

Additionally, you can suggest it in relevant book lists in the book suggestion folder. Those lists are based on subject matter, genre, etc. You can start your own list if you don't see one for a particular subject or genre already, but please check first, as we will remove duplicate threads.

Locked and Archived

I'm also excited about this because originally they were planning on adding one woman to the currency, so it's really great that they've decided to expand that plan.

Glad to see MLK jr. included, too.

I'm interested in reading her interview with Gaga, I'll have to look into that. I thought that section of the book was one of the strongest. Maybe it's because I'm inclined to appreciate her music journalism background however it's presented. I just found her brief gloss of the importance of popular culture very compelling, and Lady Gaga's performances are a good example of that. I didn't know who Katie Price was before reading, so that bit didn't really mean much to me. But the comparison of Gaga to Katy Perry was a very good point, in my opinion.

Bunny wrote: "Katelyn wrote: "Thought I'd share this too: http://www.buzzfeed.com/lanesainty/th...

"These Photos Show Trans And Gender Diverse Kids As They Want To ..."

Oops! In this thread?? I must've missed it! Sorry about that :D

Thought I'd share this too: http://www.buzzfeed.com/lanesainty/th...

"These Photos Show Trans And Gender Diverse Kids As They Want To Be Seen"

Thanks for the link, Mimi! I'm looking forward to checking it out.

I am so impressed with your background and the hard work you are doing. Thanks for sharing!

Great topic!

I don't know enough about their training to have an opinion on any of that, other than to say that regardless of whether it is equally doable for men and women, it needs to include sensitivity training, and these kinds of workers (as well as people in the field of medicine in general) need to be conditioned to take women's symptoms and experiences more seriously than they do currently. "She is on her period, bad cramps, probably didn't eat," could potentially be why she fainted, but if she's never fainted before, I kind of feel like that's unlikely? I've had experiences, both in a normal medical appointment, and in emergency room situations, where my symptoms were clearly being dismissed, or reduced to my period, because the doctor assumed I was being weak or overdramatic. (view spoiler)[Once when I was having bad cramps and passing blood, the emergency room workers asked me more times than I can count: "Are you sure it's not just your period?" No, it's coming from my BUTT. (hide spoiler)] And these things happen whether the doctor/emergency worker is male or female, thought I agree it's far less likely for a woman who may be more sympathetic to another woman's issues. Also, there really do need to be women available for calls like the one you describe, because that really is very intimidating.

Sorry for the rant! Haha

I don't know that Moran is necessarily addressing feminists with this particular passage, or the book in general. She obviously identifies as a feminist, and wants others to as well, but based on a lot of her attempts at persuading readers to be feminists, I don't think she's assuming that they all are. So yeah, I think there's a certain level of explaining these things to people who aren't as informed about a lot of issues. I don't know if she necessarily does a good job of that, but I think Bunny might be right, that to many of her readers (a lot of members here), these things aren't all as obvious as they are to those who have had more exposure to them.

This passage specifically does not seem to address feminists, the way I read it at least. I assumed the word "we" to be more collective, rather than "the specific subset of society that identifies as feminists and also have a good education and have been exposed to these things."

I definitely didn't mean to imply that there isn't room for claiming some historical space for women. There definitely is. I just don't think it's wrong for Moran or anyone to point out that there isn't a parallel history, because there isn't, and the fact that women have been written out of history, have worked under pseudonyms or anonymously, all of those possibilities, contribute to the lack of parallel history. So yeah, these women existed, and yeah, they should be recognized, but they haven't been. If we want to get down and dirty with these terms: what actually happened is the past, while history is the translation of the past for us to understand today, so it is obviously biased and informed by the historians' personal views (as objective as they may attempt to be). So I think all of that contributes to a lack of parallel history. A lack of parallel literal past, however, might be more up for debate. Still probably lacking, though, given lesser opportunities.

Who's to say if Moran had these distinctions in mind, though?