Body as media.

In some rural towns in Cameroon women's bodies and their physicality of their bodies translate messeges that are unwanted, sexual ones. Much like women across the world, breasts naturally develop with the age of the female. However in Africa some tribes women actually manipulate their bodies by mashing, pounding or massaging their own daughters breasts to make them practically non existent -- or at least delayed. To change the message their body is communicating as media.

According to the cultural dynamics in the tribes, a man most often will rape a woman whom has matured breasts, so it is the hopes of their mothers that delaying the natural breast development, they can protect their daughters a little longer.

For long periods of time, months, if not years, a mother will continually pound their daughters breasts everyday after school with an intensly hot stick, stone, or rod that actually destroys the developing breast tissues and creates scar tissue that further delays growth.

Interestingly enough, due to a lack of police or government to protect their daughters from rape, these women have done the next logical thing: prevent it themselves.

Oryx + Crake

This book was an interesting read. It was like molasses to get started, but eventually it picked up when he went on his journey for the lab. I feel that it mostly had to do with the dry flashbacks and so much backstory. I didn't feel it was needed to practically recap his entire life. I suppose it did parallel the aside that Margaret brought up with righteous men at sea or on epic adventures journaling their entire existence in hopes someone would read how their fate came to be. But none-the-less I felt she could omit a major of the first 3-4 chapters.

She riddles the book with fun and inventive vernacular like Pigoon that keep the read somewhat entertaining rather than abysmal. The tricky dystopian aftermath from Crake's experiement gone wrong is illuminating into Atwood's soul, but doesn't speak much for humanity. It questions the reader to think "Are we really important or can we be extinct as easy as the dino's?" She parlays back and forth with the SARS scare or the Black Plague sort of idea but eventually lands on something hidden and deadly.

I suppose I caught glimpses of the love triangle you had warned us about in class, but I felt that it was more about humanity post humanity. I find it strange that Snowman has the power to retool history to the children of Crake. Teach them basically from scratch what's right and whats wrong, whats going to kill you and what wont. Imagine the world without the internet, are any of us truly better off?

DUN DUN DUN.