This week provided a lot of really interesting material related to queer theories and its development.

Patti Duncan and the “history of disease” provided me with a look into Duncan’s world as the child of a Korean woman struggling to live with oppression and illness in a white dominant male culture. Duncan struggles herself with the false stories she recycles through her mind to maintain her sanity while playing the role of caregiver to her mother. She goes on to explain in her writings how, “The sickness is no longer her mother’s. It belongs to her” (Duncan, p.160). The expectations by this dominant culture, assumedly appear to be that Korean women are obedient, speak little if any English, are to remain silent unless spoken to and able to tolerate a great deal of pain.

Malea Powell and “Listening to Ghosts” offered a native perspective that I could relate to in many ways, just as I did with Duncan. Powell (2002) makes an interesting statement, “When I enter a classroom, in my student’s eyes I enter as a teacher who is “also” an Indian.” This struck me. Last week, I had a presentation on cultural competence in career counseling for one of my doctoral classes. I had planned to lead with , just that, acknowledging my own identity and sharing a bit of my story. The class environment, however, made it seem unsafe for me to do so. Powell talks about getting her first tattoo the summer she wrote her master’s thesis. I too got my first (only) tattoo, nearing the end of my master’s, after completing a ritual on the Paiute reservation. Powell talks about tattoos, “Leaving a space to mark the presence of absence…Ghosts.” I could not agree more.

Cherrie Moraga and “Loving in the War Years” is a collection of so many wonderful and painful expressions of life and living. Moraga shares so much of herself in her writing. Something that was insightful to me that I took from the readings and did not share on blackboard with the rest of the group was when Moraga discussed the death of Marsha Gomez. She provided a perspective saying that, “I still want to believe that at some point Marsha made a decision toward life, that she offered up her body to save her son from himself…” (p.208). A surrogate family raised me with six brothers because my biological mother was killed when I was nine. Two years ago my youngest brother killed my surrogate parents. It’s a pleasant thought to think Nay (tagalog for mom) saved my brother Eyward from himself or from hurting others that night and gave her life instead.

Marlon Riggs and his film “Tongues Untied” was a powerful and artistic piece to view. While I understand that I am different from Riggs in our identities, there were so many ways that I related to him. Things he expressed that touched me, “I try to appear strong and silent.” Riggs also talks about not fitting in anywhere and the idea of being, “cornered by identities I never wanted to claim.” These statements seem to be key to the development of Riggs’ theory. Silence also seems to be a theoretical concept of Riggs. He repeatedly states that silence is his “shield”, “cloak”, and “sword” and that “your silence will cost you”. Silence seemed to be a general theme with all of the theorists this week. It is understandable why.