Brittany Singleton-Blog 6
1147 words by bsingle2
My Project is coming along slowly. The implementation time is coming right around midterms. I had planned to do my first donation in the beginning of October but I failed. I could not find the time to do it and study, and get assignments done and turned in. I have also been saying that I was going to go to the XAB in the UC and see when the bloodmobile comes but I haven’t gotten there yet. I don’t think I have missed them thought because I usually pass around where they park all week and I have yet to see them. I have been thinking about the posters that I will make but I want them to have good statistics on them, so I will wait until I compile the stats for next blog to make the flyers. As efficient as my project is I am still not taking off quite like I thought I would. I think I am just a procrastinator at heart and so I’m going to have to try harder to make sure that I get at least my own ass to a donation center soon. There seem to be a lot of donation centers off of Tulane so I will be trying to check those out ASAP.
At first glance, this class has nothing to do with my goals as a professional. I currently want to become a veterinarian specializing in large animals, marine life, or something exotic. I want to help people with their animals or I just want to help animals in the wild. I am gaining a greater interest in primates lately, and I might head in that direction. In general, I want to be a successful person and help my community, my city, and my race achieve higher standards than the current ones. I want to make good money and be able to live comfortably. What does this have to do with biblical studies? I think that the authors of the bible were trying to do a lot of different things. Sometimes they wrote stories to uplift and encourage their audience. Sometimes they wrote to unify their people. They wrote about laws, social standards and parables to teach their people about what they thought was the right way to live. They were human. They made mistakes. But they wanted people to learn from them. They wrote their history and traditions to teach their people about the past and leave knowledge behind for the future generations. In general, I think that the authors of the bible meant well for their audience and they were just trying to use their voices to change the world for the better. This goal is not so different from my own or those of people today. I think that all of us are trying to find ways to better ourselves, our families, our communities, our race, and our cities (state and country too). We all want success for us and ours. We all want to encourage and unify our own. We all want to leave behind us a legacy of words and actions that will stand as a positive foundation for the current and next generation to stand upon. My profession deals with science and medicine, which has sort of become the opposite of faith and religion. I think that science has taken a lot of the faith out of the world, which is one of the largest aspects of the bibles. I do have faith in some aspects of my religion. But biblical studies is not really religion. Religions form from the bible and its teachings but biblical studies can have a lot of faith involved or none at all. I guess what I’m trying to say is that by studying the Bible itself as a book written by people for specific purposes, one can gain a respect for these people and their faith. Studying the Bible this way reveals that its authors wanted to empower, unify and create success for their people. In the most general way, these are the same goals that that I and many others work towards. By learning about the heritage of these people in this class, I find that they are not so different from me and all of us.
Feminine Criticism is a useful tool because it flips the script. It can look at the Bible in a totally different way than other criticisms. The Biblical authors are all male, and so, tell a biased tale. The Bible is a misogynistic text. Feminist Criticism is an interdisciplinary range that covers literature, history and anthropology. Feminist Critics seek to understand the strategies that men use to justify control and abuse of women. They also want to know why women accept this treatment. Men are portrayed as physically powerful while women are portrayed as evil, domestic child bearers who deceive these men. Adam and Eve are the prime example of evil in women. Supposedly it was woman who brought evil into the world and brought the downfall of the human race. In Samson’s story the emphasis is placed on the evil deceitfulness of his wife Delilah and not on the repeated stupidity of Samson himself. The Feminists seek to understand and uncover the unbiased truth to the stories. These stories in themselves betray a fear of women and of female sexuality. They try to justify controlling women and placing them in the subordinate positions of society. Men, who are afraid of being powerless, pick on women to make themselves feel powerful all the while keeping women down. Feminists want an end to all of that. Through Feminist Criticism, we can see a whole other perspective on the Bible.
I think that I did pretty well on the midterm. It was hard but the more attention you paid in class and the more of the readings that you did the better your grade probably was. I had not done all of the readings but I had done some. I had studied pretty hard so I felt mostly prepared for the test. When I got it I was glad that Dr. Homan had given us the study guide because we needed it. The test was long and covered a lot of information. I actually felt a little proud of myself for writing my name in Hebrew I think that I knew a lot of the information but I wish I had read more of the actual Bible readings, so that I would know which things happened in which book. The hardest part was probably the map because you just had to draw it from nothing. Had you not studied any maps, I don’t think you would have been able to do it. Hopefully I have at least a B.