After reading Berman's selections I took a double take at the title. I realized that it angered me. I couldn't believe that she just so casually referred to the woman with anorexia and bulimia as "disappearing acts". These are very serious diseases. I personally think that this referral was rude and insensitive. I imagined the pain that this would cause me if she were referring to me as "disappearing". I also wonder if there wasn't something behind this title that she as a writer/photographer was trying to hint to the reader. On the upside, I found it really interesting that Berman chose to write these essays in the first person. I wonder if it would have made a difference if she wrote it from her own point of view. You never really hear any of her opinion through out these essays. I almost want to say that I was disappointed with the ending because of this. I thought she would have added her own opinion. I did notice a pattern in each essay. Each girl named another in their life that they either blamed or used as reason to continue their disease. Its ironic actually because don't you always blame another for something. Even if it was something as minute as not having the correct change at a tollbooth. I wonder if Berman was trying to point that out in each essay.

Reading Response #2 (to Greenstein's "Learning to Be Superior")

Just by looking at the title you get a feel for what this essay is going to be about. It's talking about how guys are superior to girls, but mainly about what has influenced this. I agree with the essay that there has to be many aspects of life that were involved in this idea of mail dominance to occur. From when boys are born this idea that they are superior to girls is fixed into their life. Their parents, teachers, relatives, outsiders, etc., treat them like they are superior to their opposite sex.  Some of the unanswered questions to where the gender boundary came from are pointed out in the essay. I think media is the key reason why this view of gender has resulted. Gender effects teachers, parents, movies, and even the boys who begin to fell that they are superior to girls. However, the idea of male superiority goes all the way back to the cave era, but the essay doesn 't refer to those circumstances. I was wondering while I was reading this essay what the author thought was the cause of this boundary before the media existed. Before books, and magazines, and TV, movies, etc., how was did the idea of male superiority come about. In my opinion it is a question that has no answer. Every one has their views on why girls are treated lesser then boys, and how this started but there is no definite answer. As time goes on and the years go by maybe there will be a definite reason what caused the gender boundary. I really don't think so. This is an issue that will never have a certain answer how it came about. 

Reading Response #3 (Reflection After Class Discussion of Amy Tan's "Two Kinds")

      Amy Tan's chinese mother wanted her to understand that she could be anything or do anything she wanted to living in America. Her mother began to test her every night, hoping that she was some type of "prodigy." At first, Tan seemed excited about exploring her talents. She even imagined being a dainty ballerina, floating on her tiptoes. After harder tests and more exploring, Tan only saw the dissappointment on her mother's face and something inside of her died. She could no longer find the prodigy side of her and refused to let her mother change her into someone she was not. Although Tan's mother gave up hope, several months later she decided that her daughter would take piano lessons. Tan had a terrible piano recital and wanted to give up.  Unlike her mother, she did not believe that she could be anything that she wanted to be. She could only be herself. When her mother died, she had the piano tuned. She played two songs, "Pleading Child" and "Perfectly Contented."  After playing them, she realized they were two halves of the same song.
      As Sonia said in her freewrite earlier, the story is full of splits such as: disobedient vs. obedient, prodigy vs. Tan herself, the two songs, and Chinese tradition vs. American tradition. I recognized these splits and I realize that they relate to the end of the story, but I'm not exactly sure how. I do understand that the immigrant mother lives her childhood through her Chinese-American daughter, seeking unlimited opportunities. Maybe towards the end, Tan realizes that her mother was only trying to find the best in her, as she begins to play the piano. I'm not sure, but maybe "Pleading Child" was her mother living the child inside of her, through Tan. She was desperate to find something in her daughter that she never had in herself. "Perfectly Contented" could be Tan's character because she didn't think she could be anyone but herself; she accepted herself.