I think that these early magazine articles we have read about seduction and fallen women have been… different. During the first half of the semester, I was unfamiliar with the readings about fallen women and witchcraft because I had never read anything like that before. With these newer readings of seduction, I feel like I understand it more because I have been exposed to readings like these before. Well, sort of like these. I just think we are more familiar with the story of the seduced young girl who was betrayed by an older man looking for one thing, but the stories we are familiar with are modern, like the modern day rakes. I did feel more comfortable reading these stories, but I do not think that I necessarily like them more than the previous ones. I know that to a lot of people they seem funny, but to me, these stories of the young girls are kind of sad. I guess I feel this way because I have known girls that really do react this way to men who “seduce” them. Because of his betrayal (and their naivety) these girls I knew thought so horribly of themselves and that their lives were practically ruined. Although they were just stories, these magazine articles of seduction reminded me of modern day instances where seduction was involved, and how they share quite a few similarities.
The texts that dealt with the topics concerning domestic abuse and teenage pregnancy were really different than what we are used to reading in this class. As stated in the prompt of this week’s blog, it is interesting how the texts didn’t spark much discussion. I think that when I read these articles the first time, I didn’t really understand what was going on completely. I felt like the topics like domestic abuse and teenage pregnancy didn’t fit into what we were previously reading, so I had a difficult time accepting these readings with such modern topics. It is interesting to see how the depiction of women in the readings progress with time.
I’m not sure why these readings did not create much discussion in class. Are we not fazed by issues of domestic violence and teenage pregnancy because we are so used to them in our everyday society?
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2 comments:
Hi Katie,
I enjoyed reading your post. Yes, the texts we have read in class are relatively sad. However, when I read them I keep in mind that a considerably portion of the tale could have been embellished for instructional or entertainment purposes, which makes them less upsetting--at least to me.
I liked your thoughts on our recent readings. I agree that the seduced and abandoned young woman is someone we can more easily relate to, because we still see her today. Perhaps we even personally know a woman who's had a similar experience with a modern-day rake. So while our familiarity with the subject makes us more comfortable reading and understanding these texts, they can also strike an emotional chord, as they did with you.
I agree that a couple of this week's readings (for me, the domestic abuse article in particular) were out of the ordinary. And I also felt a little unsure about what to take from them. So reading this round of blog posts has been helpful and interesting.
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