{"id":2051,"date":"2018-06-19T18:05:37","date_gmt":"2018-06-19T18:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wagsfp.urop.lsa.umich.edu\/?p=2051"},"modified":"2020-08-28T14:10:57","modified_gmt":"2020-08-28T14:10:57","slug":"reading-reflection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/wagsfp\/2018\/06\/19\/reading-reflection\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading Reflection"},"content":{"rendered":"

[su_heading size=”50″ margin=”80″]Middlesex\u00a0<\/em>by Jeffrey Eugenides[\/su_heading]<\/p>\n

One book I read recently coincidentally fits nicely with this program’s theme of gender is\u00a0Middlesex<\/em>, by\u00a0Jeffrey Eugenides.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Middlesex<\/em>\u00a0 follows the life and history of Callie Stephanides, an intersex man, whose body did not fit the standard definition for a male or a female body. The story begins by detailing the life of his grandparents’ migration from Bursa and eventual marrying, which unbeknownst to them causes a genetic mutation in their children that will eventually cause the 5-alpha-reductase deficiency in Callie that gives him certain feminine traits. It concludes with Callie’s early life and discovery of his unique gender identity in none other than the east side of Michigan.<\/p>\n

I loved this book on so many levels. The writing is beautiful and well-thought out. It’s depiction of the Detroit area in the late 20th century was especially interesting to me because it mirrored my parents’ own stories from their childhood. Additionally, I thought the author did an amazing job of conveying the feelings Callie went through as he dealt with identifying as a member of either gender. For most of his young life, Callie is labeled as female. The author described the many expectations and experiences that go along with this identity, many that I have experienced myself. When Callie later identifies as male, the author’s description of the changes in people’s response to Callie’s actions and their expectations of him is very eye-opening. The juxtaposition between living with each gender identity is very well written and thought-provoking.<\/p>\n

I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone, but especially to people in this program with a strong interest in gender perception and identity. Let me know if you read it and love it as much as I did!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[su_heading size=”50″ margin=”80″]Middlesex\u00a0by Jeffrey Eugenides[\/su_heading] One book I read recently coincidentally fits nicely with this program’s theme of gender is\u00a0Middlesex, by\u00a0Jeffrey Eugenides. Middlesex\u00a0 follows the life and history of Callie Stephanides, an intersex man, whose body did not fit the standard definition for a male or a female body. The story begins by detailing the… Continue reading Reading Reflection<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1654,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reading","category-samantha","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/wagsfp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/wagsfp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/wagsfp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/wagsfp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1654"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/wagsfp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2051"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/wagsfp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3042,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/wagsfp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051\/revisions\/3042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/wagsfp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/wagsfp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/wagsfp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}