PLRS OVERVIEW
Pandora’s box speaks about the experience of a transwoman and her sexual experiences. Similarly, this article by vogue speaks about the experience of transwomen, opening up about insecurities and sex life after surgery. Both readings express the same conclusion about sex life after surgery, in how it’s such an amazing out of body experience and puts transwomen closer to their identity and feeling secure about not only their bodies but themselves
LOS PHOTOS
The first picture above is from photographer Dulce Pinzón, and the second from photographer Graciela Iturbide their dynamics are quite similar in both of these photos. Notice how in both pictures the subject is looking off somewhere. In the first picture, we do not see what the subject is looking at, but the direction he’s looking at is somewhere up to the left. In the second, however, we see the subject looking up either at the birds and sky. Both pictures create some wonder in the subject because of this framing with the subject in deep focus. what is the subject looking at? is the subject of thinking? what can they possibly be thinking about? personally, I believe the photos resemble freedom in confidence and security This dynamic of the picture is what makes these photos so engaging.
La Guera, Cherrie Moraga
Mexican Heaven
Jose Olivarez wrote the poem, Mexican Heaven. I feel it’s important to include this poem because the poem is a big metaphor of Immigrants (which in this case he’s talking about Mexicans) coming to America, in what they believe is a sanctuary land, and the way immigrants view America like Heaven. Below is a movie clip from the film “Instructions Not Included” about a Mexican father with his American daughter navigating life in America as an Immigrant raising his American daughter.
“There are white people in heaven two they build condos across the street and ask the Mexicans to speak English… I’m just kidding there are no white people in heaven” is a line from the poem that relates to the movie clip above. In this scene, the daughter’s American mother is trying to win back custody from the father, after she comes back from abandoning the father and her daughter for years. She tries to persuade the judge by highlighting The fathers weakness being an immigrant not knowing english after being in the country for years. So you can see how these lines in the poem correlate with the video clip.
Kimberly
Kimberly is a story of the volatility of a codependent friendship. Kimberly is someone of many moods, a lot of downs, and a couple of ups. the songs in this playlist coincide with the characteristics of Kimberly, someone who is somber and bipolar in her lifestyle, songs like 1-800, Fall Apart, and Numb contribute to the attitude Kimberly portrays in the begging of the text, a real downer. “I was, I really was. She was asking me to keep her from killing herself. There was no method chosen yet — it could have been slashing her wrists, or lying down on the train tracks outside of town”. The later songs like Reborn resemble a switch and almost more confident Kimberly. the last song ”Lay Me Down” very much correlates with the end of the story as it tragically comes to an end “But it was too late: there, above her shoulder, was this year’s seasonal kill, waxy and white but for the purple areolas and the meat of her sex. She was ordinary, familiar, and the glass of her eyes captured a portrait of Kimberle and me”.
