No Name Woman

"No Name Woman" is the first chapter in Maxine Hong Kingston's novel The Woman Warrior. The story that Maxine's mother tells her about her no name aunt illustrates the importance of the daughter withholding the family honor in Chinese culture. This story reminded me a lot of the disney movie Mulan. In China women are obligated to follow the orders of men and expected to be silenced when told to do so. Maxine is told about her father's sister whom committed suicide because she had an affair and became pregnant. That act would also be considered disgraceful in my culture. However, what bothered me the most of the story is how the aunt only got blamed and the man who got her pregnant was never heard from. She might've even got raped, but she was the one to get her clothes ripped off and her house destroyed. Even nowadays men blame women for a baby that took two to make, not only in Chinese culture. To me that is very sad.

TED Talk

A while back in class we watched a TED talk called "The Danger of a Single Story featuring Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie where . I really enjoyed Adichie's story. Her tone was very mellow and she was also very humurous. I watched her speech a few times over and went on to watch other TED talks. I watched the model Cameron Russell talk about how looks aren't everything and Amy Cuddy tell us how our body language shapes who we are. Russell who is a model herself opens up about having her own insecurities even though she won the genetic lottery. Amy Cuddy informs us that these body language motions are even evident in the animal world. These TED talks are very informative and motivating. After watching Adichie speak about listening to a single story is harmful I decided to watch other TED talks about other topics because of how much this one reeled me in. TED talks are a great way to open a persons mind.