Author: admin

The thing that hit me the most in Esther’s section is not even one single event but the buildup of everything feeling fake and forced. the New York trip is supposed to be exciting but it just keeps making her feel more disconnected. The photo scene is what really pushes her over because everyone else has a clear idea of who they are supposed to be and she doesn’t. When they try to turn her into “the poet” with the paper rose it feels empty and staged, and she knows it. That is what triggers her the worst, realizing she can’t fit into any of the identities being handed to her and also can’t come up with one of her own, so her crying feels unavoidable at that point like it’s been building the whole time. Even earlier with Hilda and the Rosenbergs there’s already this sense that something is off and cold and inhuman, so by the time of the photo she’s already emotionally unstable.

For Jane, the red room does a lot more than just scare her. It messes with her mentally, especially with the whole ghost idea and the way she starts to panic, but it also forces her to think about injustice in a really direct way. She starts questioning why she’s treated so badly and realizes it’s not actually fair. That moment where she calls it “unjust” is important because it shows she’s not just accepting what people say about her anymore. So the red room both weakens her and strengthens her at the same time. It gives her fear and anxiety, but also awareness that becomes part of her character later. It’s not just trauma; it’s also the start of her independence in a weird way.

With Isabella, her clothing stood out to me because it shows how out of place she is in her situation. She is still dressed in this light, almost delicate outfit, even after everything she’s been through, and it makes her seem exposed instead of protected. Compared to Esther and Jane, Isabella’s situation feels more physical, as her appearance shows she wasn’t ready for it at all. Her status and wealth don’t actually help her. The moment with the ring, in my opinion, is more important than anything about her clothes because it shows she’s trying to break away from Heathcliff and what he’s done to her. Her confidence is not really there at first, but you can see it starting to form when she rejects him.

Overall, all three feel connected through this idea of being trapped in roles or expectations, but reacting differently. Esther collapses because she can’t define herself, Jane starts to build a sense of justice out of her suffering, and Isabella is in the middle of realizing her situation and trying to escape it.

I haven’t actually started drafting my paper yet, but I do have a really solid and detailed outline that I spent a lot of time building. Instead of drafting right away, I focused on organizing my ideas first because I wanted to be really clear on my argument and how all of my sources connect. My topic touches on both scientific articles and poetry, so I felt I needed a strong structure before jumping in to write.

The section I will PROBABLY start drafting first is my literature section (the one with the poems), because that’s the part I feel most confident about. It’s also the most interesting to me since it’s where I can actually analyze language, imagery, and tone instead of just summarizing research. I think starting there would make the drafting process easier and help me build momentum.

Because of outlining, I’ve learned more about my topic. At first, I thought this paper would mostly be about stigma around menstruation, but now I see that it’s more about the connection between knowledge and LIVED experience. The outline helped me realize that my argument isn’t just “menstruation is stigmatized,” but that science and literature work together to challenge that stigma in different ways. Science explains what’s happening in the body, while poetry shows what it actually feels like to live through it. That particular connection became way clearer as I organized my outline by sections.

What has been easy so far is making connections between sources. Once I grouped them into sections (like stigma, science, literature, and agency), everything started to fit together pretty naturally. What has been more difficult is actually starting the writing (lol). The outline feels very complete. I took a very long time on it, so that way it is a really good resource to use, and basically form my paper. But it’s a little intimidating to turn it into full paragraphs. I also haven’t decided exactly how to balance analysis vs. explanation in each section, especially in the science part.

Next, I’m planning to start drafting the literature section and then move into the science section after that. I think that order will help because the poems will ground the paper in real lived experiences, and then I can connect those experiences back to the scientific explanations. After that, I plan on working on the intro and conclusion once I have a better sense of how everything comes together.

In Marianne Moore’s “no swan so fine,” everything feels very artificial, like the swan isn’t even alive, but somehow that makes it more perfect. It’s made of china, decorated, and pre-owned to purposely show whose bird it was.” I think beauty here depends on control. The setting is overdone, with all of the details piling up, almost overwhelming . I especially liked that last line, “the king is dead” because it drops in and reminds you that all this elegance is sitting on top of decay or maybe denial or both.

I think there is a notable similarity between all of Demitrus’ poems. The common factor is that all these poems are suspicious of beauty, and they don’t trust it. Like the swan for example, can be perfect and lifeless at the same time.

Creating my outline for this research paper was a lot more challenging than I expected, especially because I had to switch some of my sources halfway through. That forced me to rethink large parts of my structure and reorganize my ideas, which is a big reason why my outline ended up being submitted later than planned, and now this post as well. Even though that part was stressful, it ultimately helped me understand my topic better and what I really want to argue.

When I was choosing the format for my outline, I decided to go with a structured and numbered format that so I can easily see where my core argument is. I started with the broader issue of stigma and silence around menstruation, then moved into scientific understanding, and finally focused on literature (poems) as lived experience. After that I worked toward combining those ideas and connecting them to a larger feminist lens. Organizing it the way I did helped me see how each section supports my main argument instead of just listing ideas randomly.

While outlining, I realized that my topic is really about the balance between knowledge and lived experience. At first, I was mostly focused on the scienctific aspect of menstration and womens bodies, but putting everything into an outline made it clear that my strongest argument comes from combining both. Science explains what is happening in the body, but literature shows what it actually feels like to live through those experiences. That realization helped me shape my thesis in a much clearer and more meaningful and personal way.

In the beginning of this reading, everything feels chaotic with Lyra running around Jordan College, but the more you actually pay attention, the more unsettling this book gets. The whole idea of daemons being your soul existing outside your body is very weird, but then I realized what the Church is doing with intercision, and it completely shifted the tone for me. This isn’t just fantasy. The fact that kids end up empty after being separated from their daemons is difficult for me to understand. It all seems extremely disturbing.

As I continued reading, the world itself started to feel way more oppressive than it first seems. The Church isn’t just background influence, it controls everything through the Magisterium, and the mention of John Calvin and how power shifted into this system makes it feel like an alternate version of history that went very wrong.

What really stands out to me is how everyone else seems to know more about Lyra’s future than she does. The Master and the Librarian are talking about her like she’s part of something that she can’t escape, and the idea that she’s going to betray someone without even realizing it is the creepiest part of this.

For this assignment, I ended up doing a lot of different kinds of searches, more than I wanted to, but I wanted to make sure that I found sources that actually worked. At first, I was just looking up general things like “menstruation stigma” or “periods in literature,” but those were kind of too broad and didn’t always give me useful results. What helped more was being more specific, like searching “menstrual suppression” and “psychological symptoms in menstrual cycle.” That’s how I found articles that were useful to me. For the poems, it was easier because my professor gave me a lot to work with, thankfully, so I could just search the titles directly.

One thing that went well was finding strong scientific sources. There IS a lot of research about the menstrual cycle, especially the biology and mental health side of it. That helped me feel like I had a solid foundation for explaining how the body actually works, not just the social side. It also connected really well to Period Power since that book talks a lot about understanding your cycle. I also think my mix of sources is good because I have both scientific articles and poems, which makes my topic more interesting and not just one-dimensional.

Something that was kind of difficult was finding sources that directly connected menstruation to stigma in a literary way. There’s a lot of science, and there are poems, but not as many sources that bring those two things together. I kind of had/ will continue to make those connections myself instead of finding articles that already did it. It was also a little hard to find sources that talk about menstruation in a positive or empowering way, because a lot of research focuses more on problems or symptoms.

I was surprised by how many sources talked about mental health and the menstrual cycle. I was pleasantly surprised that there are resources that talk about how much hormones can affect mood, anxiety, and overall mental well-being. That made me think differently about some of the poems, because now I can see how those emotional experiences might connect to real biological changes! I also didn’t expect to find as much research about menstrual suppression and how it’s considered safe and even helpful.

Reading As You Like It and Twelfth Night, I noticed that being a woman in these plays is treated like a limitation, especially when it comes to your body and how people see you. Both Rosalind and Viola have to change how their bodies are presented just to exist more freely. They don’t change who they are, but the second they put on men’s clothes, everything about how they’re treated shifts. People listen to them more, trust them more, and give them more space.

It made me think about how much of “being a woman” in these plays is tied to appearance and not just beauty. Rosalind talks about how being a woman on the road is dangerous and how her body makes her a target. So when she disguises herself as Ganymede, it’s not just for fun, it’s for safety. Even now, women are way more aware of how their bodies are perceived in public spaces, such as what they wear, how they walk, and how they’re looked at. Rosalind’s decision feels less like a joke and more like a way to survive.

Viola’s situation is similar, but very sad. As Cesario, she gets close to Orsino in a way she never could as a woman. He trusts her, confides in her, and even prefers her company over others, but only because he sees her as male. This led me to a question, which is whether he would value her the same way if she looked like herself?

There’s also how women’s bodies are tied to emotion and instability in these stories. Orsino argues that women can’t love as deeply as men, as if their feelings are weaker or shallower. Meanwhile, Viola is right there, proving him wrong.

Blog Post: Overview of My Topic and Plans

For my research project, I’m focusing on menstrual health, hormonal cycles, and body autonomy as a way of empowerment. My main source is Period Power by Maisie Hill. I chose this topic because I feel like periods and hormones are still not talked about enough, even though they affect so many people. It’s something really normal, but there’s still a lot of stigma around it, which just makes it more confusing than it needs to be.

For the journal, I’m thinking about something that connects to both health and personal experience. I want to relate it to the poem Menstruation at Forty, because that poem shows that menstruation isn’t just something that matters when you’re young; it’s something that affects people at different stages of life. That’s one of the reasons I like Period Power, because it isn’t just for one age group. It’s helpful whether someone is just learning about their body or is still figuring things out later in life.

For the assigned reading, I included several poems, and specifically picked out an excerpt from the part of Period Power where Maisie Hill explains the anatomy, like the vulva, clitoris, and other parts of the body. I think this section is really important because a lot of people don’t actually know the correct terms or fully understand their own anatomy. It’s something that should be basic knowledge, but it’s often skipped or avoided. Having the class read this could help normalize those conversations and make people more informed. Right now, I already know the basics about the menstrual cycle, but I want to learn more about how hormones affect things like mental health, productivity, and decision-making. I’m also interested in how understanding your cycle can be empowering instead of something people feel awkward or negative about.

Overall, I just want to understand this topic better and see how more awareness could help people feel more informed and more in control of their bodies, no matter their age.

When I think back on the literary papers I wrote in high school and college, I realize how much my writing has changed over time. In high school, most of my essays followed a very strict set of directions. Almost every paper was the classic five paragraph essay which icldues introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. At the time it helped me stay organized and focused on the task at hand, but it also made writing feel boring. Sometimes it felt like I was just filling in a template instead of actually exploring ideas and arguments.

My favorite papers to write in high school were the ones where I could dig into characters or themes that interested me. I liked figuring out why a character acted a certain way or what certain symbols in the story might represent. Those assignments felt more interesting because they were less about repeating what happened in the story and more about interpreting it in my own way. Looking back, I think my strongest papers were the ones where I had a clear point and backed it up with examples from the text. When I could point to a certain quote or moment and explain why it mattered, the whole essay felt stronger. My weaker papers were usually the ones where I relied too much on summary. Instead of analyzing what something meant, I would end up just explaining the plot, which doesn’t really add much to the discussion.

AI GENERATED: The article argues that Victorian medical discourse often linked menopause to hysteria, insanity, and social uselessness, portraying older women as physically unstable and no longer valuable once they lost reproductive ability. Doctors such as Robert Barnes and Henry Maudsley described menopause as a “bodily crisis” that could trigger nervous disorders, reinforcing the idea that women were naturally prone to mental instability. Louise Benson James compares these medical views with Rhoda Broughton’s short story “Mrs. Smith of Longmains.” In the story, a middle-aged woman has a disturbing dream that her neighbor will be murdered and insists on visiting her despite others thinking she is irrational or insane. Her behavior resembles the symptoms Victorian doctors associated with menopausal hysteria. However, the story’s twist reveals that the narrator’s vision was correct and that her presence actually prevents the murder. Through this narrative, Broughton satirizes Victorian medical and cultural assumptions about women’s bodies and minds. The story shows how female intuition, independence, and unusual behavior were often wrongly interpreted as hysteria. Ultimately, the article argues that Broughton’s fiction challenges the idea that menopausal women are irrational or socially redundant and instead highlights their agency and value.

This AI-generated summary sounds AI-like because it relies on repetitive academic phrasing such as “the article argues,” which creates a robotic tone. The structure is also very neat and compressed, moving quickly from medical background to the story and then to the conclusion, which doesn’t make it sound reflective. It also simplifies important nuances from the article. For example, it does not fully mention the narrator’s self doubt, or the role of her daughters in questioning her authority. It also leaves out the idea that menopausal women were seen as socially redundant in Victorian society. These details help explain the social context and just the entire point of the article. Finally, the language is very technical and abstract, when it uses terms like “medical discourse” and “cultural assumptions”. While the terminology is accurate, it makes the summary feel detached from the story’s tone. Overall, the summary communicates the main argument correctly but lacks some voice and detail, which can make it read as more robotic than personal.