Ana’s Comments (group member since Jan 08, 2016)

Ana’s comments from the Our Shared Shelf group.

Kodak wrote: "Simon wrote: "The club is only 2 weeks online and we're already the biggest?!
Can't believe how many people are actually joining us, it's amazing!"

Definitely :)

Now I'm off to panic about this ..."

Good luck, Kodak! I am writing endless paperwork related to my application to grad school and, well, panicking is my full time job now, haha.

Adam wrote: "The difference between artificial intelligence and us is that our intelligence is the result of billion years of evolution and we design machines from zero. Nevertheless, we still are too stupid to..."

"Anyway, it's obvious that there's no God and that all that is crap for the weak but just in case you refuse to see reality."

Which is why there are no religious scientists, am I right? I'm sorry, but atheism can also be offensive sometimes. Believing in a superior force, although certainly depending entirely in ourselves and not resting in any scientific proof, does not equal being weak. Come on, I thought people who are here were above such statements. I am not talking about a church. I am just pointing at the belief in God or whichever thing you wanna call such notion.

Ryan wrote: "I didn't even bother to read any of the above opinions. I'm just chiming in to give you FACT. If you researched every single religion that humanity has conjured over the past 8,000 years (4,200 cur..."

What makes you think we should bother to read yours in that case? :)

Because I actually did, where do you want to get exactly with your post? The first paragraph of your post some will agree with you (like myself, for the most part), some won't and they'll have quotes in hand to try and prove you wrong. The second paragraph, well, that's something everybody knows as well. It's actually fine to choose only parts of a religion, at least if you don't want to claim full identity under said religion's banner. And frankly, I don't think that most of the people who end up choosing parts of a religion are concerned about that. In fact, as a lapsed Catholic myself, I find more and more interesting the idea of just adhering to a worldwide current of spirituality, mainly composed of positive values of tolerance, open-mindedness and willingness to learn from others and do good in your small circle, which will then hopefully spread to broader scopes. You could say this is all a pile of wishful thinking, fear of death and whatnot, but it is still fine for me.
Feminism is about gaining equal rights for women and men. In such a context, it is rather reasonable for me to think of women (and men!) who will be feminists *inside* their churches precisely because it is much needed to be so in order to make progress within communities that are significant to them. I think we can all agree on the fact that different collectives get to feminism through different ways, right? For example, black feminists, disabled feminists, LGBTQ+ feminists, even a mix of all these categories together. Therefore, it is not so difficult to see where religious feminists would have a place in this discourse.

As for half of society falling below 'an average IQ'...whoa, that's a very bold statement to make. Care to provide some figures? Also, what does that mean? Is religion something for the less-than-bright masses? I do not think so.

Kelsey Marie wrote: "I finished the book this morning. This book has been the best book I've read all year and is easily in the Top 10 Favorites of mine. This book had me smiling, laughing, in tears, and in awe. This b..."

Taking into account that 2016 has barely started, that's quite the bold statement, hehe! :P Nah, but I know what you mean. So good, right? I finished it today too and it left me thinking, gah, what am *I* doing?

I finished it! For now I don't really have the time to write a full review which I'll try and have ready in time for discussion. However, oh, man, I really enjoyed the book. Sure, it had its ups and downs - for example, I got a bit lost at the political campaigns chapter. Not really my cup of tea. It was interesting but I totally lack the knowledge on US politics and names. However, she gained me back towards the end of the book. She has had a truly inspiring life. It is a rather dense book if your read it the right way, so maybe not for everybody, but it definitely got me on track for more. :D

Esto lo conocerán más bien el resto de españoles del grupo, pero el resto puede dar su opinión también, sobra decirlo. :) Ya que hablamos de feminismo, ¿qué os ha parecido estos días toda la historia de Carolina Bescansa y su bebé en el Congreso? Yo no acabo de tener clara mi opinión. :)

So I just had my daily dose of The Guardian and it seems like Tsai Ing-wen is highly likely to win today's election in Taiwan! I know what her victory would mean for the relations between China and Taiwan, and just like Chun said, I do not wish to stir up controversy. :) From a merely feminist point of view, I just thought it was exciting because she would be Taiwan's first female leader and the most powerful woman in the Chinese-speaking world.

70% in my Kindle. Hair-drying turned out to be a really useful moment to catch up!

Merche wrote: "¡Hola! Yo soy española. Me estoy leyendo el libro en inglés porque efectivamente no hay traducción todavía y no estoy segura de que la vaya a haber. La decisión de traducir un libro o no está en ma..."

Antes incluso de leer el final de tu mensaje ya sabía que eres traductora. ¡Muy poca gente fuera de la profesión escribiría eso! :)

Saludos de una compañera desde Granada :)

Mike-Lee wrote: "IN life you realise every day the real context when you are faithful. There is a simple explanation of being in faith. The meaning of love in regard to the individuals who are with you from your me..."

Haha, oh boy, TGIF.

It's true that there's something about taxi drivers worldwide, haha. They tend to be much quieter in my hometown, or perhaps I do not talk to them that much here. However, go to Beijing and you'll see. They have a reputation for being highly knowledgeable in politics and overall the noble art of 'small talk.' They love talking to clients, although this might be especially true for foreigners.

I remember this particular case during my first time in Beijing when my taxi driver said, so where do you come from? I said I was Spanish, and then the man proceeded to say something I did not understand, because my Mandarin skills were much crappier than now. He did not give up, though. He started making funny sounds and eventually let go of the steering wheel for a sec to make the sign of horns over his head. Finally, light dawned upon me. This man was talking about fighting bulls.
There was also that other day, years later and back in China, when I was going to Beijing Int'l Airport to catch my flight to Tokyo. Of course, by taxi. The taxi driver said, 'Oh how exciting that you're going to travel. Where to?'
'Tokyo'
'Oh.'
I counted the seconds with my fingers. One, two, three...
'You see, I don't like Japan.'
In fact, I remember many more. Add to that the fact that I do not drive, either, and this was easily one of my favorite chapters in the book, haha.

Lindsey wrote: "Elizabeth wrote: "It depends on what religion you follow and how devoted you are to both feminism and religion. One needs to come first. They can't be equally important or they'll end up clashing. ..."

She lost me at not believing in rights for trans women, but she had some interesting points nonetheless. :)

Lindsey wrote: "I am a Christian and a feminist. I believe that God made us equal. We are all God's children so why would he make one superior than the other? Unfortunately I believed the same thing you did but as..."

Exactly. Why do people care so much about the source of our belief in equality? My version of God is a loving, compassionate one that regards all of us equally as His (or Her! Have you seen God's actual face?) children indeed.

It is true that I am no longer an active member of the Catholic Church, one of the reasons being my disagreement over many issues. However, I do believe in God, so I guess I can still be labeled as 'religious'. To me, religion is a most inner, private dialogue with your concept of God. I fail to see how would that pose a problem with being feminist at the same time.

Adam wrote: "That's why Bible treats you like crap, because you're so valuable."

Yeah, and that's why we have a brain, to pick the parts from the Bible that ring true and meaningful to us and live accordingly to those. We can also choose and stay within the church to change those things that are unfair, little by little, if we wish to devote our energies to such a goal. We can even just pick the bit about believing in something superior to us and do just fine with that. And on top of that, we can be feminists.
Same can be said of other religions, by the way.

Adam wrote: "No."

Which one of her questions did you answer? Because if it is the first one, 'Can I be feminist and religious?', I'm afraid your answer would be wrong. Yes, yes you can.

I was raised Roman Catholic, I still identlfy myself as such (admittedly though, I'm a cafeteria Catholic!) because of my roots, and surprise surprise, I am also a feminist. I am pro-choice, pro same-sex marriage and LGBT rights, the full pack probably.

Now, can you be a religious fundie of any denomination AND a feminist? No. But that's rather obvious.

Astrid wrote: "It's been added to the list: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T...

And yeah, fuck cancer!"

Thanks a lot, Astrid! It's been a terrible week, now that we mention this illness. :( From a celebrity point of view, I mean. Lots of people die from cancer everyday even though we do not know their names.

Mélodie wrote: "I must be the most unoriginal person around, but you could give a try to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and her essay, 'We Should All Be Feminists.' It's also available on TED talk format! :)

Thanks for..."

Thanks a lot! :) In fact, I am happy that I get some work from time to time, and well paid this time no less! The assignment is for sure more boring than reading...but I'll survive. :D Happy reading for you! Also, I remembered another rec: 'Women as Lovers', by Elfriede Jelinek.

However, don't you find outrageously expensive many of the books there? I mean, it's an ebook, Amazon. Charge accordingly. Steinem's book, say. I think it's pretty expensive and students, for example, may very well find they cannot afford the book.
This is not to say I do not like my Kindle. If my old one died, I would immediately pony up the cash to get a new one (one with light and a touch screen, LOL). However, ebooks should be definitely cheaper.

Mélodie wrote: "I got my copy today, and am half-way through it.
It has been kind of hard to really get into it, mostly because I just recently got into reading that kind of stories.
I am finding it very inspirati..."

I must be the most unoriginal person around, but you could give a try to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and her essay, 'We Should All Be Feminists.' It's also available on TED talk format! :)

On an unrelated note, I got a translation assignment (yay) which added to the rest of my to-do stuff means that I won't get to make any progress on the book for the next days. :( Adult life, bleh.

Daisy Sisters

Regardless of the list of books in our club, I'd love to recommend you all this book by the recently late Swedish author Henning Mankell. I think it is one of those novels wherein feminism is very much present, if not directly, at least through the struggles of the main characters and the author's look at their lives.

For now I'd rather not spoil you any details, but I'd be more than happy to discuss the book with anybody who has read it as well. As I already mentioned in the first book recs thread some days ago, I still feel sad about Mankell's death. By the accounts of him, and from his works, I think he was not only a really talented writer, but a good person as well. Sigh. F*cking horrible cancer. :(