I find it interesting that Jane is pregnant and needs her job for the obvious support of her child but she is so driven and such a documentarian that she may be willing to lose her job to show what the meat industry has done and is doing to the human condition. Sorry for the run-on there. On page 211 Jane sends a letter to the infamous John Wayno saying that she is ethically troubled portraying the meat industry in a false light. She explains that the research that she has obtained is proof that the meat industry is a direct cause to sterility in men and the cause of some cancers. With this being said I think we can go back to my discussion of overpopulation that I brought up in discussion leading. Whatever your opinions may be about our Earth's sustainability, having seven billion mouths to feed makes it difficult to produce meat at an effective rate, which is why our cattle are pumped full of antibiotics and hormones which then negatively effect us. Why don't we ever talk about regulating the human population? Why do we always recognize problems, discuss problems, but then do nothing to correct them? I also was offended that male hamsters have a more effective sperm count than human men :1
We also see Akiko breaking free of John's grasp, as well as breaking free of the Japanese traditional housewife image and the idea that her job is to make babies for John. She writes a fax and in it she describes how life changing the episode with the lesbian couple was for her and the episode with the "black woman". She doesn't want to be John's wife and she sure as hell doesn't want to have his kids and she feels as if her life has been a lie. All of this is due to the authenticity of the families that have recently been documented in My American Wife! and the realness that the show is portraying.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI liked the fact that Akiko finally reached out to Jane. Not just because we have been waiting for their ways to cross, but also because I think it was important for Jane and the story. Pat, I agree with you here that Jane herself helped changing Akiko's believes, as I see how much influence she has over her life. Jane understood that too! She finally realized her responsibility towards the Japanese people – not just to the American housewives – as she "gets to know" one of them. I think this realization will help her to say what she really wants to say and criticize the meat industry. It seems like she gets braver in that aspect and I think that Akiko helped her with that, and that might be Akiko’s biggest importance in the story. I also think this shows how much power media can have over people in shaping attitudes, often without us knowing it. Hopefully Jane and Akiko can get their revenge on Wayno too, now when he’s coming to Colorado – he’s such a horrible person!
ReplyDeleteI also think we saw the best active writing choice so far in the story, as she writes “John put down the letter” on page 233. We thought Akiko read the fax, but as we flipped the page we realized it was Wayno. Finally some action; I feel like I have been waiting forever for something interesting to happen in the story. I think chapter 9 was the best chapter so far!
I completely agree with this! And I think that sometimes people think they are helpless to handle problems that seem to big to them, just like when Akiko
ReplyDeleteTried to tell John about her fertility(I am doing this on my phone so I don't know if everything is showing up haha)
ReplyDeleteI think people don't talk about the over population problem because the answers to it aren't answers that people respond positively too.
ReplyDeleteI mean the most obvious answer to overpopulation is having less children. China already struggles with having such a huge population in relation to their resources that they instituted a policy to curb their population back down to a manageable size: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-child_policy . That supposedly affected 36% of families and prevented some 200 million births. However, there is no shortage of people who say that taking away someones freedom to have children is a major offense. Not to mention that mistakes still happen and people do..unsavory things..when backed into corners.
Overpopulation is a huge problem in the world today, especially with dwindling resources. Unfortunately it doesn't get needed attention because no one wants to be told they can't have children. No politician wants to be associated as "that guy who said I can't/shouldn't have kids." So instead, it just doesn't get talked about and everyone hopes it will either go away or we will find some way to make it work.