While you all comment on the blog this first week, please be sure to include your names in your post - especially if your handle for this blog is different than your actual name. This way, I can make sure to give you credit for your thoughts.
As we enter the second week of class, I believe it's important we keep connecting all the new ideas discussed in class. This kind of connection will not only help you with crucial critical thinking skills, but help you streamline your ideas for the upcoming essays for this class.
Like I mentioned in the syllabus, please use this space as a place to further explore what we've already covered in class - "Girl", Sylvia Plath's journal entry, Ted Hughes' defenses and explanations. All the documents I've used so far (aside from Plath's poem, Mirror) is available either in the textbook or on the Literactive CD. This blog is a free forum - say what you want to say, to the best of your ability, as long as you remain polite and thoughtful. This is especially important when responding to others' blogs or ideas.
So, here's a prompt for those of you a little unsure where to start:
I personally am intrigued by Kincaid's use of the word slut in this book - especially after hearing the word read aloud in last Monday's class. The narrator (who was actually Kincaid) made the word sound beautiful. How is this word still used today? In common conversation, as insult, or even just as greeting between friends? Why do you think this word still holds the weight it does? Why do friends use this word to address each other if it still has such a negative connotation? What expectations is put upon those who are addressed as a "slut"?
The word "slut" is a very strong and insulting word to many people. The word today is used in many ways. You see a girl just throwing herself out there, people will automatically think she is a slut (dirty, promiscuous girl). Also i know my friends use it as a greeting when saying hi. I guess it is a way girls talk to one another, I on the otherhand do not talk or approach someone or a friend as a slut. If someone knows they are joking, girls would not take it offensive unless they present themselves in public as a slut or who sleep around with many people.
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with Dona. I hear the word "slut" alot being used as a greeting, or even girls calling their enemies such. I personally do not like it because it is just unecessary. It is rather offensive and insulting to be called that, just like some people calling eachother "retard" or "loser." Yes, it could be in a joking manner, but most people get very sick of hearing it. Just like swearing, it becomes unecessary. I believe the expections that are put upon those that are being addressed "slut" is to take it in a joking way, even if they are not comfortable being addressed to it.
ReplyDeleteMeghan Viola
I think the word “slut” is commonly used in today’s world. Most people use the word as a common greeting between their friends. I believe people who use the word “slut” as a common greeting are usually referring to an inside joke amongst themselves . I think when people use the word they associate it with people who have no respect for themselves or people who have no respect for their own bodies. If a girl is dressed inappropriately then people will automatically assume she is a “slut.” On the other hand, many girls do not get offended by the word “slut” unless the girl presents herself as one by dressing scantily clad and acting in a promiscuous manner towards the opposite sex.
ReplyDelete-Amanda Bordiere
In the story “Girl” I feel that Kincaid used the word “slut” in context of the daughter, not necessarily putting herself inappropriately out there towards men, like the common use of the word today, but in a way that suggests the daughter did not act lady-like. That a slut did not hold up to the expectations of what her mother thought her daughter should be, for example, polite, very clean, and did not act like a boy. Likewise the word “slut” today does have a similar feeling but more towards just the sexually permiscuous ideology of it. Amongst my group of friends if we call someone a slut, its because they sleep around a lot, we very rarely use it as a greeting or a joke. This is so because when thinking about the word slut, for me personally it just brings up girls that sleep around and that is something I feel that no one should be none for.
ReplyDelete-Ashley Piper
While the use of the word 'slut' is more potent when read on the page, its daily use in conversations today takes on a different form when observed within its context. The use of derogatory phrases or words as casual teases in friendly conversations has become quite commonplace outside of the professional and business atmosphere. It can demonstrate the casual or trusting nature of the individuals speaking, that would normally seen as vulgar language and not normally observed outside of such scenarios.
ReplyDelete-Will McMullan
Amanda Simon
ReplyDeleteThe word slut is used today as an insult or in a joking manor. The word slut can be a very big insult if it is used in a certain way. If you use the word slut toward a girl that sleeps around or hooks up a lot then is it an insult. The other way of using the word slut is to a friend in a joking manor. Like for example saying, “You are such a slut.” The word slut does not always hold the weight that it did because people are using it more often. Some friends still use this negative word toward friends because they know there friends do not really mean it they are just joking. The expectations of someone that is called a slut is someone that sleeps around or hooks up with anyone even if it hurts one of their friends.
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe word ‘slut’ is heavily used in today’s society and is almost always associated with the promiscuity of women, usually having to do with the way a woman dresses or her sexual conquests. The word is used almost specifically for women, and as far as I know there is not a word for a man that has the same negative connotations. Used between friends it has almost no weight at all, the same goes for the use of other insulting phrases. If the word is used in its true way it can be very hurtful an insulting. No woman wants to be called a slut. They are characteristically dumb, dirty and detestable individuals who no one likes. I think this is why the mother in the story ‘Girl’ tries to lead her away from the kind of activities that she feels will corrupt her daughter. In that way she ends up suffocating her daughter from living her life how she feels fit. It even seems like the mother thinks ‘slutty’ activity is anything outside of the bubble she builds around her daughter, not just sexual activity. The levels of the word must depend on the individual.
ReplyDelete-Jessica Costello
(sorry about deleting my first two comments, getting the hang of this.)
In my opinion the word slut can be interpreted in many ways, depending where you are coming from. If it is a friend speaking to another, it doesn't offend the person because it becomes an inside joke, that those two people have that goes around that word. But a slut is also a woman who presents herself inappropriate and is sexual. But if we look at cultures, women who just simply hug a guy are seen as slut because in the culture's view, women are not suppose to touch men in any physical way even if it is as innocent as a hug that is used as a greeting between friends. Slut is a very controversial word; the meaning depends very much on the person who is saying it and in what context.
ReplyDelete-Patricia Campos
In our society today, many words have lost the severity that they once had in our lives plainly due to the passing times. The term "slut" in the short story was such a powerfull word because of how it was enterpreted in that day and age. Today however, our youth freely swears and continues to act in a way new to our elders. However this is a term that is mainly hurtfull towards women, and depending on who says it, who it's said to, and how it is said, can help in truly defining whether this is a word among friends or an unmentionable curse word.
ReplyDeleteThe word slut is used today to describe females who engage in sex with multiple partners. But the original meaning refers to a person with a disheveled or untidy appearance. This could mean either a woman or a man who is not presentable to the public. People generally use this term when talking about someone in a negative manner, although sometimes friends will use the word to tease each other when talking about relationships. This is because they are close enough to understand that it isn't an insult, but rather a compliment in disguise. Usually, people discriminated as sluts are viewed as low class, even trash, and are often mistreated because of a simple misconception.
ReplyDeleteStephen Denninger
The term "slut" can be interpreted in many different ways in today's society, although it varies by person and culture. For example, the use of the word "slut" by America's youth, from my own observations, is very common, and often used in a playful way rather than strictly derrogatory. However, it is also can be used viciously, such as when a person is actually being criticized for being sexually "irresponsible". Still, the word is less harsh to the younger generations than in the eyes of our grandparents. I can even recall the transition of the word's intensity in my own life from the time I first learned what it meant. When I was younger, "slut" carried a much heavier meaning which gradually diminshed as I went through middle and high school. Nowadays it's used in everyday conversation and nobody seems to mind, which eventually happens to most judgmental words of the same nature: "ho", "fag", "retard", etc. I don't know whether this is because the words are holding less and less value, or if the morals of society are becoming less important with the emergence of each new generation, or maybe both.
ReplyDeleteThere are a few factors that pushed both Emily and Aileen into the positions they are in. Both cold be viewed as murders but i feel they were pushed nto that role. although Miss Emily was viewed as a monument of the town this wasnt always in a positive light. she was talked down a lot about. I feel like Miss Emily knew about this which caused her to go inti a selclusive state only to come out in rare occasions. When she finally fell in love with Homer and found him talking to other people about how he wasn't a marrying man, i feel that this was her snapping point, which resulted in her murdering him. As for Aileen, I feel that repeated abuse over the years from a patriarchy society caused her to ill all those men. Growing up with the childhood she did it threw her into a lot of bad situations which caused a chain reaction to the rest of the events in her life. After abuse from all the men that raped her it made her snap, resulting in her killing them. The only time i can relate to something this important as a life changer would be when i transfer from St. Joesph college to WSCU. It was hard for me to decide whether to transfer or not because I was happy there and the school as great. But it was too expensive and in the long run I am happier I did transfer because I won't have as many student loans and I will still get a good education, and I feel better being closer to home.
ReplyDelete-Ashley Piper