In high school, it has been engrained in my mind to write in a certain structure: intro, evidence, commentary, evidence, commentary, conclusion. Since I've started college, however, I realized that there is more than one way of writing. In my ESEM class last semester, I found it quite liberating to write as I felt; to present my ideas in such a way that made sense to me, not to the instructor, not to the other students, and especially not to the oh so standardized curriculum. Most importantly, I found it refreshing that I do not have to submit my writings to turnitin.com, a website that supposedly prevents any type of plagiarism; it even considers copying your own ideas from a past paper plagiarism.  Academic writing, as I've found this past semester, is not limited to a certain structure; its credibility does not solely depend on the number of sources one quotes from. But rather, it is a genre of writing whose boundaries and borders can conform to whatever you need it to be.

 

After reading the Goblin Market, I felt like there were many ways to interpret the meaning of the story, but after coming to class I did not realize just how many ways you could see the story until Prof. Dalke was listing off the list of theories people have written in response to the Goblin Market. Whether Christina Rossetti intended the audience to read it in one way or another, it’s fascinating that there are people who see it in a more separate way than the tradition feminism idea (like the idea that Lizzie’s experience represents the ills of Consumerism).

For me, I felt the bond of the sisterhood represented the bond that all women should share with each other; not necessarily in a homoerotic way as some writers have responded to the Goblin Market, but in a way that all women should trust in other women and to stand together against men who will hurt us.

Feminism should necessarily be about how females are better than males or that females should be seen higher than males in society, but more the need for equality. Both men and women can hurt. Both men and women can love. There should not be a difference. It reminds me of a quote from a plaque my mom hung in our restroom back home.

“Woman was created from the rib of man.
She was not made from his head to be above him,
nor was she made from his feet to be trampled on.
She was created out of his side to equal him,
under his arm to be protected by him
and near his heart to be loved.”

I went to this class just to see what it would be like, because it fit in my schedule and I thought it might be interesting, but by the end of class I loved it and I'm so excited to learn what comes next.

My thoughts on Goblin Market seemed much different from everyone else's, but I was surprised that many people had pretty solid opinions on what it was about. Although I could just be seeing what I find familiar, I felt like it was telling a story of a woman who had an unhealthy relationship, and then regaining what she had lost.  It reminded me of the Twilight series (which is, in my opinion, a prime example of an unhealthy relationship) when Edward breaks up with Bella and she launches into a months-long bout of depression. Of course, Bella doesn't have a lesbian best friend to help her learn that she doesn't need a vampire (literal or literary) to use and abuse her in order to feel happy and satisfied in life.

It seemed to me like she was giving in to temptation, simply because you're not supposed to and you want to satisfy your curiosity. The concept of the "bad boy" has been sexy since at least 1865 and has evolved from goblins to the Fonz to Edward Cullen.

This first week of class has given me a lot to think about, but I’ll start with my thoughts about the course in general. I think that as students at Bryn Mawr or Haverford we are expected to take responsibility for our learning, but I’d never really thought about taking responsibility for helping others learn as well. Framing the course as a potluck in this way resonated with me, and helped me to understand that we all see things in different ways. By using our different experiences with feminism and literature, we can help each other to see different sides of the text or issue we are considering. In addition, the style of evaluation is very new to me as well. There is a fair amount expected of us, but I think that withholding evaluation until the end of the course will help me to think of my work as a cumulative portfolio, and make connections that I may not have if every one of my papers were being graded individually.

  For as far as I can remember, academic writing has been driven by extensive research (from the writer and sometimes the readers after reading the essay) and supported evidence. Academic writing may allow writers to present their opinions as long as they do not overshadow the facts. Although academic writing requires additional research, I strongly believe that some disciplines (Science vs. Humanities) are more open to having a writer’s opinion complement research.