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

Ana’s comments from the Our Shared Shelf group.

You are right, the action genre has often considered women as dainty creatures who are in need of the hero's protection (and love), or else the sexy villains. Fortunately this is slowly changing. I'm thinking of Rey in the latest Star Wars movie, of course. :)

I know, I know, this is a book club, but hey, literature is often intertwined with other arts. However, should the mods feel this thread is not really useful, please feel free to remove it. My apologies in advance!

So! Cinema. Feminism. Women! The depiction of women and women issues in the world of cinema. After spending the most part of my life with my nose buried in a book, I am on a self-imposed mission to watch more great films, and this should be an ideal chance to incorporate feminism to the criteria for such films. Recommendations, debates, everything is welcome here.

I'll tell you why I started this thread - it's because of Fritz Lang's old masterpiece, 'Metropolis.' For some reason, it came back to my memory today and suddenly I thought, hey, there's an interesting female character here. Those of you who have watched the film sure know who I'm talking about - Maria. Maria is a character where a very interesting contrast can be observed. There's 'good' Maria, the one who ironically stands by the working class while being sweet, modest and, if I remember correctly, religious. And then there's 'bad' Maria, a devilish, worldly creature full of evil and recklessness - a late 1920s reincarnation of Lilith, if you will. She's positively gorgeous, she's unapologetically sensual, and she'd bring the world to an end if she were to be allowed armed with her womanly charm. What a message, right? I immensely enjoyed this film and have revisited more than once, but I was also aware of the key role played by Maria from the very beginning. Freder would not make it to the end of the film without her - without the good, tamed version of Maria, that is.

Thoughts? :) Recs? :)

chun wrote: "so have you all read the book (中國剩女：性別歧視與財富分配不均的權力遊戲)? Is it available in your place?

I found it inspiring and got to know the scenario of gender inequality in China."

Hi, Chun! Is the book available online? Would there be by any chance a simplified Chinese version? I am not a native Chinese speaker so reading simplified characters is already challenging enough for my poor brain, haha. It sounds very interesting. Actually, I would love to read more on 'remnant women'.

It is also inspiring to read your words, girls (and boy, haha). Back when I was in China, the topic of feminism did not seem to be a popular one among my Chinese friends. Admittedly, it always took them some time to warm up and share their thoughts on controversial topics, but I did notice many signs of gender imbalance, not limited to Chinese but rather including people from other East Asian countries. While I am just a foreigner, I think it has been disappointing to see how freedom, in many ways, has actually been diminished under Xi Jinping's government. I have read that initially, when he came to power, there were reasonable hopes for a new, more open period in China re: freedom and human rights. However, he has cracked down on lawyers, academics and activists galore, including feminists, such as last year. What do you guys think about it? How did the media cover these incidents? I mean, if you're up to talk about it. :)

As I said, I'll keep an eye on this thread, it's just that interesting to me.

26%, and I just woke up with a terrible throat ache, so I guess I'm about to make some progress while I sip a cup of extra hot tea. :(

26%, and I just woke up with a terrible throat ache, so I guess I'm about to make some progress while I sip a cup of extra hot tea. :(

Yay for all of you lucky people! Nay for all of us poor devils who are out of London. As if she was gonna come to my place. Duh. :(

Marcos wrote: "Et quelqu'un qui parle français?
Il y a beaucoup de personnes ici et j'ai le examen de b2 l'année prochaine jajajaj"

Je crois que c'est mieux si tu cherches un autre groupe pour ça! :) Ici on parle espagnol et puis c'est pas pour améliorer notre niveau d'une langue étrangere mais pour débatir les livres que nous avons lu. :) Si tu essaies Duolingo ou Facebook? :D Bisous!

¡Hola, gente! Encantada de conoceros, me llamo Ana y soy española. :)

Ahhh, no, es lo malo de estas iniciativas internacionales, que no queda otra que coger el inglés como lingua franca. :( Este libro se publicó en octubre del año pasado, ¿no? Demasiado pronto para tener traducción. Yo me lo estoy leyendo en inglés que logré encontrarlo por ahí. ¡A ver qué nuevas lecturas van saliendo!

Hi, Joanna! :D My name is Ana and I am 26. Here are my two cents all the way from Spain! (BTW, New Zealand? Totes jelly, I wish I could go someday!)

In my opinion, your parents might have a hard time swallowing the 'OMGFEMINISM' pill in a straightforward fashion. By this I mean, unless they change a lot, it seems unlikely that they will ever engage in well-documented debates or activism. They will not go around saying 'I joined a feminist book club!', if you know what I mean. The word 'feminism' is still (unfortunately!!) rather strong for many people, and many who actually believe in gender equality or would secretly wish there were improvements in this field in their daily lives still reject to identify as feminists because they are influenced by the negative discourse of the media, street prejudices, etc. Sooooo here's what I would do - I would try and engage them with simpler, more day to day interactions. Try and make them reflect on the issues that worry you through daily life, random reflections on questions that hit close to home for them, etc.

Good luck with this! I grew up in an open-minded house where I was taught that I was able to be and do whatever I wanted regardless of my gender, and even I have to listen the ocassional 'oh you and your feminism, AGAIN' comment. Hang in there, girl!

To be honest I'm tired of this James troll, I have seen him around and he has yet to make a single positive remark. Hey, if you're so clearly disgusted by, and possibly scared of feminism, I suggest you go to a manly men forum where you'll likely find real men and submissive women ready to embrace your views, when and how you tell them to do. Seriously. I'm flagging you, too. I mean we're gonna have more like you but it's worth a try to keep this site nice and clean.

大家好！

:) I am going to sleep right now (it's indecently late here in this part of the world!) but I will be more than happy to follow all of you guys and girls in this thread. I returned from Beijing last July, much to my despair, and I try to make the most of each and every opprtunity to talk to Chinese people, because to me it's like gaining back a small piece of what I left behind, until I can go back to my beloved East Asia, and of course back to your country. I hope you don't mind this 老外 sticking around for a bit!!

For reals. I am a cis, straight girl but I clearly remember the first time I heard discriminatory comments against bisexuals. The most shocking thing is, they came from my friends. Shocking, not because they're my friends and so they should be lovely folks, no. Shocking because they are otherwise perfectly modern, open-minded, educated and loving people. Yet there they were, happily repeating the same old story about bisexuals being vicious, unstable people, and I was shocked.

Unfortunately, later on I realised that they were not a minority. Also, a good friend of mine was described as a 'freaky amoeba', an odd asexual being,...why? Oh, yeah, because he did not have a girlfriend and had not get laid, as you should.

It's just sad. I don't know. I know that I don't need to be LGBT, or any other minority, for that matter, to try and show some tact and understanding towards others.

Ahhhhh, interesting topic here. Admittedly I just read the first two books, when I had to stop precisely because I despised Bella. If I remember correctly, she was about to spend her whole college savings in a motorcycle to risk her life so that Edward the One and Only came back to her. Also, well, the fact that she seemed hardly able to go through the motions once he left. But I have watched the films following those books!

I cannot really elaborate more now because I'm actually procrastinating from a very boring but urgent assignment, haha, so I'll come back later. However, by now I just wanna say that I do not believe that 'Twilight' is a feminist novel. Not even slightly. Now, if you said 'Jane Eyre', yes. Perhaps within a historical framework, but it is. 'Twilight'...not really. It's the story of a girl who shortly after getting to a new city inexplicably falls in love with a guy who ultimately, either actively or passively, tears her apart from everything and everyone she cared about, and she gladly obliges because fate and loooooooove.

At some point, I heard that Stephanie Meyer is in fact LDS (Mormon). To be honest, it made sense to me in many aspects. This is not to say that there are not LDS feminists, because I know for a fact there are, but...well, it did provide some context and to me, it took the series away from any feminist approach even more.

Oh my goodness. Oh, I absolutely forgot a total must. 'Daisy Sisters', by Henning Mankell. You just must, even if it doesn't make it to the bookclub's list. I would most definitely say that it is linked to feminism, and overall it is yet another of Mankell's great novels. I'm still sad that he died. Dammit. :'(

For the most part I tend to read several books at once, haha. Well, several as in, three, four at the very most, haha. I do end up focusing more on one of them, I guess? It's an old habit of mine that admittedly has not translated so well into adulthood, because the books I used to read as a child, while not the usual ones, were definitely simpler than those I read now, haha. Also, I had way more free time. But it's hard to change now.

Over the last couple of years, however, I have noticed that I read way less than I used to, because I've been abroad for extended periods of time with limited access to paper books in the languages that I can read fluently, was busy studying and whenever I had free time I would spend it outdoors haha. It never worried me much, though - rather, it pissed me off. But I've always felt I could easily return to my old reading habits whenever I had some more time, like now, kind of.

Man, books are one of the most important things in my life, haha. Over the last years, I have started to feel self-conscious that I did not know much about music and cinema, and so I have started to focus more on these, too. However, neither of them will ever have the same place in my heart. To me, literature is above everything else re: hobbies and interests. <3

Marcos wrote: "Hi. I'm Marcos, I'm seventeen and I'm from Toledo, un Spain.
I've decided to join un this group because I want to learn more about feminism. I thik that we live in a chauvinist world and I want tha..."

Cuando veo a chicos jóvenes interesarse por estas cosas recupero un poco de mi fe en la humanidad, jaja. ¡Ni siquiera ahora que tengo 26 conozco muchos tíos que se declaren abiertamente interesados en el tema! :D

Aglaé wrote: "Does anyone know if it's written in "simple english" (I'm French)?"

Ahhh, I'm afraid it's not. I would say, however, that you should be able to read it with relative ease. I'm not a native English speaker either, and I sometimes have to look up the occasional adjective, but other than that I'm fine. However, I would advise not to get too caught in the vocab that you don't know. Look up those words that pique your interest the most in order to learn them and otherwise enjoy the book. :)

Got it yesterday, already at 15%! Ahhhh, I wish I could just sit down and read. Alas, I cannot. But I'll do my best to finish it within the month! So far, I have already highlighted quite a few quotes. Steinem sure seems to be a brilliant, inspiring storyteller.

James wrote: "Feminism Is not equality it is female privilege over men and boys."

Oh, lookie. I was not mistaken when I saw another of your messages in another thread. Barely days in and we already have our first troll. Don't get too upset and let the adults talk, boy.

James wrote: "Just get a man and or the state to pay for it...I mean don't they both own women everything?"

Huuuuuh?