03/04 discussion: Boster and To Kill a Mockingbird
Daniel Huffman (DH), Elena Marshel (EM), Eliana Black (EB), Kim Eastridge (KE, note taker)
EM: liked the varied perspectives; related to our reading, to kill a mockingbird; the way that Mayella used Tom Robinson to do physical labor and to sexualize
KE: historical background; hypersexuality of black men and women; historical cases of sexual assault between black men and white women; even with consensual relationships
EM: still commodifying black bodies but under the guise of empowerment; with black women in media
DH: fetishizing bodies and communities; plus size models, trans people, POC; colorism, there is exceptions to what people “are into”
EM: how we view sexuality; people’s attractiveness is inherent to their value
KE: connection of Tom Robinson’s injury to enslavement/sharecropping that is discussed in Boster’s introduction
EB: hyper-sexualization has been normalized in society as “that’s just my type”; still applicable today
EM: connected to dehumanizing the oppressed group
KE: with Tom Robinson saying he felt sorry for Mayella was seen as wrong because black people “weren’t allowed to feel pity for white people”
EM: excited to finish the book; Tom Robinson inadvertently came across as too human by saying he felt pity; would put him morally above white people which was not allowed
KE: Boster’s disabled versus handicap; if society was completely accessible, there would be no “dis” in front of it. Most likely won’t happen in society during our lifetimes, but the idea of having a fully accessible world is fascinating
EM: heard of it before but was kind of against it, but reading Boster’s piece swayed their mind; disabilities goes beyond physical barricades
DH: we should look at it as too different focuses; handicap vs. disabled; umbrella terms are important but the individual differences and issues should not be neglected
EM: line you have to walk; having too many terms versus overgeneralizing
EB: difference between changing how society sees it versus grouping people together under similarities; differences need to be acknowledge and accessible; almost undermining it
