I am sad

I am going to miss this class so much! :(......

They do it too/Abusive Asshole

I've notice a lot of people when they have been talking about the intimacy problem with the ship who sang and not being able to touch is a huge issue they seem to keep bringing up old people and sex. I've noticed people saying "some do" or such like that. Old people do have sex. I know ha ha very funny or ew gross but it's a fact. I know some may have anophobia or a fear of old people and do not want to think about grandma age people having sex or being sexual but why can't they be? Alot of comedy movies lately have been making a joke out of older women having sex and I really do not see the humor in it. Also the media's always emphasizes how important it is to be young and vibrant and how you should hide your age by dying your hair or using wrinkle creams. I know that people have a problem with old men too but there is so much pressure on older women and so much judgement. Post metopause women are treated like they have a disease and are treated with HRT. I honestly see menopause as sort of another right of passage like menarch is. I know this is a little off topic from the readings but I just thought I should point it out and another class I am in has been discussing woman and aging so it just sort of sparked up.

Going back to the readings the ending really sort of confused me. Pallon seems like such a jackass and all the things he says to her like calling her a metal plated retard (or w.e. he says) just makes me so mad. The relationship does not seem healthy to me. He is obsessed with her in a creepy, crazy way. When someone is obsessed with another they ususally end up becoming abusive in different ways and since he obviously can't hit her cause she is a ship (and that would really only hurt him) he does it verbally. I really want to read The Partner Ship to see how this relationship works out.

Required to Donate and Helva's Motherly instincts

It sort of took me back when I read on page 56 that those who had great physical and mental qualities were required to donate their eggs. It did not seem that important in the book but I find this to be a big violation of reproductive rights. There are a lot of people for egg donation and against it and those women should have a right to choose to donate or not to donate. It's also almost genecide of for lack of a better word stupid or ugly people. It reminded me of that Harvard graduate trying to sell her eggs for thousands of dollars because she knew people would want her "smart" genes. It also made me think of how women can now abort pregnancies if the child is going to be deformed or even if the child is not going to be the gender they wanted. I just do not think this is fair. I understand that raising a child who is disabled or diformed is hard to deal with but that is the egg that was chosen to recieve life. I'm not really all for one side of the issue or the other but I just feel imperfections is the way of nature and everyone coming out "normal" or "smart" would just make the world boring. Imperfection can be more beautiful than perfection.

I also noticed on page 61 how once again a female character is showing motherly instincts. Even though Helva is incapable of having children (or is she?) she still wants to protect the donated eggs at all cost like they are her own. She also felt close to them in a strange way because they were encapsaled just like she was, obviously not forever though like her.

I was very happy when Helva gave Kira an idea of how she could have children with her beloved, lost husband. When Kira turns around and says that Helva could do the same thing with her mother's eggs and Jennan's father's sperm this confused me. She is a ship... could she be able to raise a child? This just blew my mind with so many questions and possibilities... I would rather not look to much into it but wow was that a strange thing to suggest!