The Bluest Eye

Posted by Jalen Bowman-Whitaker in College English · Pahomov · B Band on Tuesday, January 10, 2023 at 9:19 pm

Welcome back to The Bluest Clues podcast, inspired by the book The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. Featured in this second episode are B-Band’s very own Jalen Bowman-Whitaker, Michael Rojas-Sandoval, Rylee McMillan, Sarahi Franco-Morales, and Tahlia Nguyen. In this episode, we explore the novel through a feminist lens and go through the topics of power dynamics, masculinity vs. femininity, and gender roles, just to name a few. Listen to learn more!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lmuaHZSFejhypPZJ-D1HpX6wHRUs8N2n/view?usp=sharing

Annotated Bibliographies:

Sarahi: “The history of beauty pageants reveals the limits of Black representation” article speaks on large beauty pageants in America and how the beauty standards have centered on “whiteness” for a very long time. The impact the media have had on the image of beauty is powerful. When a race is continuously excluded from beauty pageants it roots racism in our society. Women of color have historically been excluded, teaching young girls they don’t belong in the media’s definition of beautiful. As we see in The Bluest Eyes these young girls are already wishing they had blue eyes, because they believe that will make the superior and “beautiful” — a sick mindset that is instilled in young girls when they don’t see representation.

Jalen: The article “Feeling Ambivalent about Motherhood is Normal” highlights the obstacles and challenges that mothers can face during their pregnancies. From anxiety and medication to postpartum depression and suicidal thoughts, it reveals to the readers what the dark side of becoming a mother can be like. In the Bluest Eye, we are made aware of the relationship that Pecola has with her family, especially her mother. It makes us question their relationship, but more so question how this affects Pecola as she’s growing and going through her teenage years. She lacks ultimate guidance from her mother, which leaves her feeling empty, hopeless, and self-conscious in a lot of ways.

Rylee: In 1912 the Heterodoxy club was formed for the unusual and proudly unruly women. It consisted of mostly college-educated women, which was a rarity in the early 1900s. A few of the members of the group were married, some in scandalous relations, and others in same-sex unions. These women were known for their uniqueness among society with their “short haircuts and flowing batik-print tunics.” A historian and author named Joanna Scutts wrote a book about this group called “HotBed: Bohemian Greenwich Village and the Secret Club that Sparked Modern Feminism.” The article speaks about how Scutts individually went over each of the group’s most popular members and depicted their leading character traits. Ending her book off with a brief comparison of their life back then, to our life now and how women and feminists continue to fight for the rights they deserve.

Michael: This article has relevance to our podcast and conversation we’ve been having during class because it talks about how sexism fuels like a boys club. It puts these thoughts into the younger generation that they’re superior to the women when in reality it’s not like that. One quote in it is “If you do it, you’re all in.” This is peer pressuring them into doing something that’ll give them validation and power that only a man can give. But in reality it’s just a stupid club they made that excludes girls and makes them think they’re superior to them when in reality it isn’t. It relates to the book because in that time they still think men are superior to women and they do whatever they want to them without them talking back.

Comments (8)

Leila Hamilton

I do agree with Sasha on how well the conversation was and how it flowed smoothly. This is a book that numerous amounts of people need to hear about and read. It's a shame that the little white girl didn't want anything to do with the doll or dolls of colour. She [the little girl] is making it seem like it's wrong to own an African American doll or it's wrong to be in the presence of a black person in a sense. I do agree with Sarahi not only because it's true, but because it's still an issue today that's not discussed enough. When it comes to beauty and how it's viewed, black beauty isn't talked about enough and it's not talked about as much as it is with generic models. Society's beauty standards today are so jacked up, women go to extreme measures to live up to it so they could "fit in" or be seen as "normal."

Sasha Charles

The conversation felt really natural and flowed well. You guys asked great questions about femininity vs. masculinity and toxic stereotypes/expectations and everyone gave really thoughtful responses.

Cindy Bui

I love the music in the beginning, it adds welcoming energy. I loved their discussion about masculinity vs. femininity. The flow of the conversation was natural and enjoyable. They did a good job on connecting to the novel. They had quotes supporting their points. They all showcased they have knowledge on femininity and the novel.

Cindy Bui

Abigail Singleton

First of all I want to say this is such an authentic podcast, because of how the conversation flows and how you all build off of each others points made and general contributions. You all also make great analysis as well! For example how the main character never refers to their family using their relation to one another, like "father, mother, brother, sister." As well as how the brother tells his mother that he needs to kill his father after he beat his mother, and someone posed the question "Does that make him different from the other men in this time period." I enjoyed listening!

Luccas Fonseca

I like how you guys started with a recap as well as building on your previous podcast. Great comparisons on how masculinity has stayed relatively the same. Toxic feminity is something I haven't heard of before until you guys said it. Your conversations are very fluid and I really like how you all show each other that you are listening. I like how the conversations were split into two parts and others were encouraged to speak.

Oluwadamola Akinboro

I think you guys did a good job with the different themes and lenses and related everything well to the book. In the podcast, nothing felt forced and felt really organic and I was never confused with the characters despite never reading the book.

Katelyn Chen

I think how well you guys tied this feminist lens into the book that you guys are reading really well. There were equal parts to talking about the lens and the book.