Class Entry

This week in class we read a number of short stories (like we do every week) and discussed them. The first story we read, titled “What Are Homosexuals For”, dealt with the way gay people are acknowledged and treated in our society. I didn’t particularly care for this story since I don’t really like gay people. No I’m definitely not what you would call a homophobe but honestly, gay people make me feel uncomfortable and just the thought of them disgusts me. I did however, find that the article had important information to convey. For example, I have always wondered why gay people are more inclined toward theatre and other art forms. According to the author, this is due to the fact that many of them are still in the closet, and find the need to express themselves subtly so as to not be detected ( Of course they do this by partaking in theatre and developing speech affectations). This makes a lot of sense since another key point of the article was that gay people are often shunned in society.

Another story we read was called “Safe-Sex Lies”. This story, by far in my opinion, was the most annoying one of the week. Basically some woman decided she was fed up with the safe-sex campaign in the U.S. and decided she would write an entire essay in which she repetitively bashes the idea of using protection and attacks those who choose to be safe. To be perfectly honest, I can’t see how on earth she got so fed up with it. I personally haven’t heard a safe-sex slogan since those corny movies I watched back in freshmen health class. Since then it’s been like, “your on your own. Do want you want. This is your life.” After awhile it just gets annoying hearing this woman complaining about how we shouldn’t be overly safe when, for straight people, HIV is barely even a threat. If people want to be overly safe let them be overly safe. What the big deal? I don’t get it. If you hate it so much than you can go and have unprotected sex with every guy you meet. I don’t care. Its your life, your choice.

The last story we read during the week was titled “The Yellow Wallpaper”. It told the story of a woman, with a history of mental instability, who is confined by her husband in a room with unattractive yellow wallpaper. Eventually her confinement leads her to become even more mentally unstable as she begins to see things in the wallpaper. Finally, her husband discovers her in the room, maniacally crawling around the room biting the furniture and clawing at her surroundings. This story was particularly unsettling. It reminded me of the typical story behind a Hollywood horror movie. The kind of story that gives you nightmares. I’m not totally sure why we even read it in the first place. Usually there is always some deeper meaning behind everything we read in AP lang- so we can have drawn out discussions in which members of the class voice out their peculiar opinions. Oh well, its always entertaining to watch from a distance.