"God Sleeps in Rwanda"

The entire time that I was viewing this short film, a lot of emotions and thoughts occurred to me. First, I felt an overwhelming sadness for these women and children that had suffered for something that they were helpless to change. While the situation was vastly different, I saw certain parallels between this transition and the transition of American women after WW2. Rwandan women had very little rights prior to the genocide but following its conclusion they had to change their roles. Women finally gained their rights because of the absence of men; unfortunately, it wasn't because people had finally decided women were no less than men but they needed them in order to sustain society and survive.

I enjoyed the film because it did show how women were capable of surviving and capable of taking care of others. The women used their experiences to take care of others and raise the children in a new generation where they wanted them to be better and have better than they had. This female subjectivity is what helped change their position in society. With the absence of men, women are finally allowed to show their strengths and abilities. While incredibly sad that this atrocity is what it took for women to gain these rights, this film shows that these women are leaders and can rebuild whole societies.

Tutsi Genocide

I had previously heard details about the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda but this short film reflected more on the aftermath. I had no idea that over 200,000 women were raped and some infected with HIV. With most of the fathers dead and gone these women are going through hell economically and their health is failing. I do think this film displays Black female subjectivity. On one had the women were being used and objectified however that imagery was withheld. The film focuses pretty much only on Black women in africa and explores the different elements of their life and their struggles, from a empathetic viewpoint.

The Big Lie

The "Big Lie" that is presented to us in romantic novels and scripts is a misconception of how things actually play out regarding our intimate encounters with the opposite sex. Young women are almost brainwashed into believing in some clichè process of falling in love while young men are receiving a different message. What Manatu said about young boys learning about the opposite sex via porn and young girls via romance films was spot-on. Alot of women grow up dreaming of an ideal wedding for their future, and if not they've definitely gave it some thought. I have yet to encounter a male with a similar thought process. With that being said, once the two genders come together problems may occur, and viewpoints may collide all due to different expectations. Happily Ever After certainly doesn't reflect the rising divorce rates in today's society.

Blog 13

I have viewed part of the short film, God Sleeps in Rwanda, before, so I knew what it was about; however, this was the first time I viewed the short film in its entirety.  From the short film, I learned that before the genocide, women's lives in Rwanda were plain and somewhat boring because they did not have any rights, so all they did mostly all day was just take care of their family.  Many of the women were only teenagers when the genocide happened, so they lost their mothers and fathers at a young age, and although they had to face these hard times without their parents and some of their siblings, the women started to gain more rights after the genocide, such as becoming more political, voting, being able to go to school and get decent jobs, etc.  Even though the women's lives still may not be perfect because they still have those terrible memories, and some are still fighting to feed their families, they have hope that their children's futures will be much brighter and will be given more opportunities.
For the most part, I think this short film, God Sleeps in Rwanda, presents Black female subjectivity.  During the genocide, the women were raped and beaten, which drastically increased their chances of getting HIV/AIDS, so that makes the Black females objects because they are only seen as sexual.  However, after the genocide, Black females were seen as subjects because they were becoming political and being elected in higher roles, they had real jobs that men used to only have, such as police officers, and they were still going to school at night to get an even higher education and get even better jobs, such as lawyers.  The Black women were doing all of this still while taking care of their families and supporting all of their children; therefore, the short film represents them as subjects because it shows that they can do it all on their own without needing help from anyone.

God Sleeps in Rwanda

Dear Class,

Please find below the film God Sleeps in Rwanda, which is the film that you are asked to discuss in your blog due April 29th.

God Sleeps in Rwanda from Kehau Ahu on Vimeo.

"The Big Lie"

I really enjoyed this reading by Mantu, which discusses "The Big Lie," the heteronormative idea that women sit around and wait for men to come sweep them off of their feet and save them from whatever circumstances they are faced with. This is problematic for a few reasons. One, like Lacey said, this is a heteronormative idea, meaning that this only works for people who are heterosexual (women seeking man, vise versa) which is excluding a pretty big chunk of people in the first place. Secondly, these ideas depicted in film and literature are definitely not what every woman or man is looking for. Thirdly, this is not the kind of idea society should be feeding to young men and women. For example, pop artist Katy Perry has a song titled, "Not Like The Movies," where Perry sings, "It's not like the movies/that's how it should be"  Like the title of the chapter says, it truly is a big lie. Life is just that, life, it is real and different for everyone person who experiences theirs, films and music and books, they're often a work of creative fiction. Setting yourself up for a love 'like the movies" may not get you very far and more than likely will have negative effects rather than positive ones.

The "Big Lie"

The facade illustrated by romance novels and films is the notion of "happily ever after."  There is a strict storyline that romance novels and films follow that doesn't always coincide with real life.  The idea in romance narratives is one of heteronormativity.  It is the idea that women seek their one true love their whole life and eventually find him.  The two may go through a few trials and tribulations, but when all is said and done, they live "happily ever after."  This repetitive plot found in many mainstream films (and multitude of novels) makes an unspoken promise to women that this is how life is; and if one's life does not correspond with that sort of narrative, then it must not be true love.  The unspoken promise aforementioned results in a society of women looking for the picture perfect romance.  This can have some pretty negative consequences, one being on one's self-esteem if "true love" is not found or doesn't play out the way it's "supposed" to.  This can also result in a mixed up world, especially if the fact that men get their ideas about relationships from porn reigns true.