Podcast 2: Giggling and Gabbing- Literacy Lenses

Olivia: Concepcion, Theresa. "Supporting #MeToo shouldn't mean dismissing Junot Diaz's rape trauma." The Washington Post, The Washington Post, 25 May, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/05/25/supporting-metoo-shouldnt-mean-dismissing-junot-diazs-rape-trauma/?utm_term=.d19cb3b2f339 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

      This article was about how Junot Diaz was raped as a child and accused of sexual misconduct by several women later in life, and that his trauma may have affected his life. She doesn't claim that it excuses his actions, however. This had me thinking about how his view on women, which may be skewed, evidenced by his actions, may have been manifested in the female characters in his book. He writes a lot about sex from the women's perspective in the book and how this has negatively affected their lives. He may avoid writing about how it affects Oscar because it could remind him of his childhood.

Eric: Vitzthum, Virginia. “Junot Díaz's Pro-Woman Agenda.” ELLE, ELLE, 9 Oct. 2017, www.elle.com/culture/books/reviews/a14353/junot-diaz-interview/.


In an interview with Junot Diaz, Elle magazine asks Diaz about his book, "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" Diaz talks about how he wanted to relate his ideas of feminism and masculinity into the book and how they affect the relationships that Oscar has. In the interview, Diaz explains firstly how Oscar was written to not have emotions in a way or at least he doesn't try to show these emotions to other characters too often because men are asked not to be vulnerable. He states that men are expected to cheat in a lot of relationships and this has become a societal norm. Diaz describes that he always tries to incorporate some sort of concern in his book about racism, genocide and in Oscar Wao's case: sexism. Diaz is an activist and leans more towards the left side of the political spectrum. "If you have a book that represents a bunch of sexist, rapist lunatics and they all end up being awesome and wonderful and winning everything and the book is clearly affectionate to them, then this might be problematic. On the other hand, if a book has some pretty average guys, and their way of thinking about the world, about women, and their habits around intimacy and relationships don't produce positive results for them or for the women in their lives, that that is not problematic." This quote demonstrates Diaz outlook on not only modern-day literature but on how he believes that male characters need to have some growth with their sexuality or sexual behavior in order to show their growth as a character. This article helps shed light on how Diaz views sexism and relationships after writing Oscar Wao.

Cynthia: Lee, Sarah. “Junot Diaz: a life in books.” The Guardian, Date Published Fri 31 Aug 2012, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/aug/31/life-in-books-junot-diaz

In this article, the writer talks about how all of the books that Junot Diaz have published relates to his life living in the Dominican Republic and in the States. This has provided insight into both the novel and the feminist lens by Junot Diaz had been rape when he was eight. This relates to why he writes about how women are sexually assaulted in his novel. This allows him to reflected himself in that situation and also give closure to himself. Each of the characters relates to Diaz in a certain way, especially Yunior with appearance and experiences. This is a quote that Junot Diaz mentions in an interview is "I'm of African descent and my sister looks completely black, but I didn't look black. I was the super-nerdy kid who was also willing to fight. I love comics and SF but am hopeless with technology. I am still better with a pick or shovel, even with my bad back, than I am with computers."


​      In Giggling and Gabbing's second podcast, we discuss chapters 3, 4, and 5 of "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz. This week in our book club, we had a really thoughtful conversation about the feminist lens between all the women that were mentioned. We decided that women are the losers no matter what they look like and the men are the winner because of their power. We decided this because the narrator mentions how the women have no say, but to follow the men. Hope you giggle while we gab about Oscar Wao. Link to the podcast below

Comments (18)

Christina Santana (Student 2019)
Christina Santana

I loved your podcast! It was extremely interesting and well produced. It kept my interest the whole time. I really loved how you used the feminist lens to focus on how the narrator of the female characters in the book is vastly different from that of the males. It should me how the author’s personality and actions in real life dictates the way he chooses to portray women. Overall, I thought you guys had a really insightful and sweet conversation. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Nile Ward (Student 2019)
Nile Ward

I liked how natural it was – you even had Mr. Symonds drop in and give some insight, which was nice and added to the authenticity of the whole podcast. I also like how this lens was able to bring up personal connections to culture.

Julia Hood (Student 2019)
Julia Hood

I really liked how you talked about the author in relation to the work and how his experiences may have effected the way that he writes about things. Your conversation was very natural and I really liked it!

Afi Koffi (Student 2019)
Afi Koffi

I love how natural this conversation is and how honest you all sound. I appreciate that you went from the feminist lens and even into new historicist by analyzing the author and his intent. This was a very good conversation. The podcast itself was well edited and clear.

John Sugrue (Student 2019)
John Sugrue
  1. I think you made important points as to female roles in different cultures - Leila had some really good insights into Latinx culture and how it treats men and women. It's also important to consider who the author is and how he's writing his characters when thinking about these other lenses (even when you're not looking at the new historicist lens)
  2. Getting insight from Mr. Symonds was so good - intentional or not! I loved that so much.
Amelia Benamara (Student 2019)
Amelia Benamara

This podcast gave me the feel that it was completely natural and unplanned — which honestly is what made it so good. The introduction, especially. I admire the way you guys made it clear to the listeners of what was happening, and acknowledging that others haven’t read the book.

Vivian Pham (Student 2019)
Vivian Pham
  1. How did this podcast expand your literary lens knowledge? I think this expands my knowledge on the feminist lens and how a lot of that plays a role in gender rolling and sexual issues and the topic of slut shaming. I think it was interesting how perfectly this lens fit into the story and how much a lens can embody a piece of writing.

  2. What did you like about the production of this podcast? I love the atmosphere of this podcast as a whole, it sounded like a real conversation and not something that was rehearsed and that's a really good element to a podcast that is interesting to listen to.

Jakob Klemash-Kresge (Student 2019)
Jakob Klemash-Kresge

I liked how your podcast sounded and felt like a real conversation, and I liked how you had a special guest, Mr. Symonds. Overall it was productive and entertaining because did a good job analyzing.

Kimberly Gucciardi-Kriegh (Student 2019)
Kimberly Gucciardi-Kriegh

I really like your podcast! I think next time adding even one sentence of recap on what the book is about would help! I understood everything you are talking about and learned a lot about the characters but was a little confused what the plot was. I think your lens was used really well, I think you could have gone even deeper! I Really like the analyzation of the writer's details in relation to the feminist lens. Interesting connection to the author by the group and Mr. Symonds. That gave me a lot of insight into your book. I think this editing is seamless. I think some quotes next time would make your analysis even better!

Wedage DeSilva (Student 2019)
Wedage DeSilva

I really liked the intro to this podcast. It was inviting and energetic. Throughout the podcast, I was able to understand that the lense you discussed was the feminist lens. The conversation felt natural and friendly. You also used good textual based evidence to back up your claim and I could follow along easily.

Marcin Czapla (Student 2019)
Marcin Czapla

1) You guys did a great job of analyzing the actions of the female characters, recurring themes between them, and the natural changes they went through using the feminist lens. 2) The intro was very loud but in a good way, it gets the reader interested because of how excited you guys sound to discuss the book. There was also never a moment of awkward silence, everyone had something to say, and everyone was heard clearly.

Majo Bostani (Student 2019)
Majo Bostani

I echo what Alex said about how it felt like a real conversation. I love how Cynthia said "Okay. About sex-", and everyone laughed. That just made it seem like it wasn't scripted. Leila provided some really nice insight into her culture. And also, there was a lot of debatable stuff that could be discussed such as when Leila said that "People who are more attractive make a greater salary." This raised a couple of questions in my head, like what if people who make more money have more money to spend on looking better, … Point is: This podcast uses the feminist lens to start a genuine conversation, by employing genuine conversation.

Bronwyn Goldschneider (Student 2019)
Bronwyn Goldschneider

I loved how natural this conversation felt! There was no awkwardness or staged feeling about the podcast. I also felt that you guys did a great job analyzing through your feminist literary lens from the jump. Good job overall! :)

Benjamin Seing (Student 2019)
Benjamin Seing

As a group, it is interesting that everyone brought up how the character went through changes. With the feminist lens, I found the idea of what the female character does or does not do in the novel with other male characters. The discussion of the character going through changes in a mature way and how it affects how she is being involved in the character's world. Everyone also talked about what the author's intention was and how it affects the relationship between the characters. A teacher coming into the podcast is amazing lol. The podcast itself is very productive and is entertaining. It didn't bore me out. The only thing is that the audio had some noise that felt distracting.

Alexandrea Rivera (Student 2019)
Alexandrea Rivera

I liked how it felt like a real conversation. Throughout the podcast, you mention the feminist lens to connect. More mention of the author to express more of the ways as to why these characters were made this way. The sound is very clear, and it sounded very genuine.