Pam’s Comments (group member since Dec 29, 2016)

Pam’s comments from the Our Shared Shelf group.

Pamela wrote: "Maybe not the right thread, but do we know why Emma has disengaged with Our Shared Shelf on Goodreads?"

Hi Pamela,

You can check out Emma's note on the subject here.

Ok. What's the question or reason for this post?

From the last chapter: China's Patriarchal Authoritarianism

The eugenic undertones of China's population planning policies are unmistakable. Even as officials encouraged college-educated Han women to marry and get pregnant, they are discouraging, sometimes through coercion, ethnic minority women they regard as low-quality, Uyghurs, from having more children. "

They do this by
- Paying more to minorities who have less than the allotted number of children.
- Offering bonuses to inter-ethnic couples with one Han Chinese partner in an effort to dilute the bloodlines
- Banned muslim names popular in the Uyghur population.
- Banned Uyghur women from wearing traditional veils or men from growing traditional beards.


Discussion Starting Points:
- How does this compare to your own country's history with minority populations, native or otherwise?

- Why would China be interested in diluting the bloodlines of their minority populations?

Among the majority Han Chinese population, the growing numbers of Chinese women resisting marriage and childbearing pose a challenge to one of the key means of the Party's security apparatus to bring trouble making citizens into line - by threatening the troublemakers own spouses, parents and children, and making them responsible for monitoring their relatives.

For example, one believes that state security subjected Wu Rongrong to more sever abuse than the other members of the Feminist Five because she had a husband and child. It was very easy for the government to use her family members to threaten her.

The others were not married and did not have children so it was much harder for security agents to find something with which to threaten them.”

China is not the only agency or power structure to use family members to keep people in line. Mafia, gangs, and other institutions have been known to use these tactics as well. But I, in my naivete or immense privilege, never imagined that a government entity would do the same.

Many times in history it's outliers or those who don't follow tradition that make waves. In the case of the Feminist Five, Two women were members of the LGBT community. One member of the Feminist Five was survivor of child abuse and had no love for her father or what the Party may say to him.

What is it about outsiders that attracts them to these causes?
If you are a mother or father, how does this make you feel?
If your are childless by choice ... How do you react?

Thanks for the feedback!

My goal is that there would be something like 2-3 leaders per book. We read a book for 2 months. But the leaders would decide what those two months look like.

So for example:
One leader would write the introduction to the book. One leader would write topic prompts for the first month. Another leader would write the topic prompts for the second month.

Or

Two leaders would connect together to write the introduction. One leader would host a zoom call or join the squad on the OSS Skype chat one day out of the two months. Or they would have a thread that was specifically an Ask Me Anything thread where they would respond to any questions from the members for the whole two months.

Or some other version. I don't want to determine what the format would be, but rather let it change based on what the Leaders would like to do.

But the the commitment would not last longer than 2 months.


one stipulation...these leaders would have to commit to reading the book before we read it together if they are introducing it OR they have to have a background in the material. For example: if we had community leaders earlier I would say if we were reading My Life on The Road, a great Community Leader would be someone who was a feminist since the 1970's. Or if we had this in place for Betraying Big Brother it would be someone living in or had lived in China, Hong Kong or Taiwan.

Does that clarify things?

Thanks Clara! I'll check those out!

Women Building Peace

This is also a sublime, but dense text on the subject. It really looks at peacekeeping throughout the time span of pre-war, during war, and post war and specifically how limited women's power is in each stage. And not for lack of trying! It really shows you how harmful and destabilizing it can be when you ignore women and our part in a culture.

This topic comes back to Eco-feminisim so I think this folder is fine.

Thanks Florian!

Great feedback, thanks Florian.

Community Guides?
Engagement Guides?

Julia wrote: "Hi all! I am new to the club (alas I missed its golden days), have been reading the last threads and I think having community leaders would be awesome! Since it is literally the one and only club o..."
Thanks Julia! Welcome to OSS. With your help we can bring about an OSS renaissance!

I will be posting a request for Community Leaders for So You Want to Talk About Race before we start reading it AND the poll for the next book. So check your mailbox around July 19th!

This thread is more to beta test this concept.
- Is there an interest in this?
- Does the name work? Or should we call it something else? (Community Leaders? Community Engagers? Engagement Leaders? Something else?)
- Are there any other things to say to make it clear?

Love to hear your feedback!

Ooh. That's a fantastic list. Love Kat Blaque!

Ran across this video from Red Table Talk by Jada Pinkette Smith, her daughter Willow Smith, and her mother Adrienne Banfield Norris.

Among the wonderful conversation the ladies with guests Dr. Angela Davis and Tamika Mallory discussed how white people have to dismantle white supremacy and men have to be the ones who dismantle patriarchy.

Much like how women finally won the right to vote, the group that benefits from this power imbalance must be the ones that do the work to stop and fix it.

https://www.facebook.com/redtabletalk... (start around 22 mins for this specific section)

Mod note: Moving this discussion to the Overdressed folder in which we were discussing fast fashion.

Thanks for your questions Florian.

In the past when Watson was still here she or the book authors would introduce the book we would read. Kicking the book off and explaining its value to Feminism and why we are reading it.

Às Watson is gone, I propose instead that we turn to our our community to introduce the books and lead discussions.

These individuals would not be moderators.

These individuals would differ every two months based on the books we read.

These individuals would help facilitate dialogue between all of us around the book topic.

I would say no more than 2-3 leaders per book..

Hello OSS!

Lately I have watched a tremendous outpouring come from the feminist sisterhood. Social campaigns like "Share the Mic Now" amplified voices of community members and connected individuals to experts in the field.

I would love to do something similar with OSS going forward. As a moderator, my role is to make sure the OSS platform is working for the community; it is not here to be a gatekeeper. The community is here to read amazing books, learn from each other, and share collected experiences around these topics.

So with your help I would like to find a few individuals who are willing to be our Community Leaders. We would have new Leaders with each book we read together so as to amplify as many voices as we can. These Leaders would introduce the Member Selected Book and/or lead discussion topics, too.

What do you think? Are you interested in being a Community Leader? (Or some other name)

It's a man's world out there. No where more true than in China under the effects of the One-Child policy. In which families were forced to only have one child. Faced with this policy, many were forced to choose between having a son or a daughter as their single child. Many chose sons who could inherit the family name and legacy.

The policy "was strictly enforced in urban areas, with reports of forced abortions and sterilisations, as well as heavy financial and social penalties for those who dared to transgress the one-child law." (1) "The rest could have more children, conditional on where they lived, the kinds of jobs they had or their ethnic makeup." (2)

"The one-child policy has imprinted itself deeply into the lives of almost everyone in China, creating a hugely imbalanced population that has too many single men and too many retirees. The pressures are felt – and will continue to be felt – across every social level, from “bare branches” – rural men unable to find brides – to college-educated urban women stigmatized as “leftovers” if they stay single" (2)

Article 1
Article 2

This one policy created the China and the cultural allowances that included the following items.
- Rampant sexual discrimination the work place
- A high rape culture with almost complete disregard for victim's rights
- An attempt to socially engineer a baby boom to keep woman as mothers first
- A complete disregard for Lesbian, Queer, or Trans women rights

How do you react to this gender discrimination happening in China?

How does your country handle gender discrimination in comparison?

Welcome welcome Rita and Brooke!

Sandra wrote: "i've been an activist, demonstrator, street marcher, and advocate since the 60's - first on my college campus, then in the streets, on the phone, and with the written word.

in doing so,..."

Thank you for sharing Sandra.

Do you have any advice for new activists, demonstrators, or marchers from your wealth of experiences?

Pam wrote: "My question is how is BBB similar to Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein?."

One answer may be:

BBB is similar to Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl as they both are about a group of women who are actively pushing against the patriarchy.

- BBB focuses on the Feminist Five vs China's patriarchy

whereas...

- Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl highlights the punk band Sleater-Kinney raging against patriarchal ideas within the the music industry.

Question
How is BBB like Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn?

Time for another round of compare / contrast! This is a game to create connections and insights by crowd-sourcing all of our collective brilliance.

To play... all you have to do is answer the question from the post before yours and then ask a new question to the person who comes after you.

The Theme:
I want to explore how Betraying Big Brother compares to other books on the OSS Bookshelf. How is this book different from other books we have read together? How is it the same? What connections can we create together?

Let's see how many questions we can answer correctly without repeats!

For Example: My question is how is BBB similar to Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein?

Thanks everyone for voting!

OSS will be reading

So You Want to Talk About Race

in August and September.

Find your copy today!