Maria Blough (Bordo26)

Meredith Green (Pratty65)

Laura Timmerman (hJacobs09)

English 120

3-1-02

The question is often asked, “Who would you be if you could be anyone, past or present?” In our project we were able to experiment with this question by being an author from the past. Our collaboration is an answer to the question: what would happen if three authors, one from a completely different era, were linked together through technology and discussed their views in light of a particular essay? Our dialogue, via a chat room, explores how these authors might interact if they were all alive today. We worked from a perspective that these authors found each other through a link on an author web page and thus found their way into this discussion. The emoticons used by the authors in this chat room may be read as follows: J smile, K gloomy face, and L frown.

You have just entered room "Harriet Jacobs."

Bordo26 has entered the room.

Pratty65 has entered the room.

hJacobs09: Hello! Welcome to my chat room.

Bordo26: Hello.

Pratty65: Hello.

hJacobs09: I am Harriet Jacobs, the author of "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl." How are you all doing?

Bordo26: Good...I'm Susan Bordo, author of the essay "Hunger as Ideology."

Pratty65: I'm Mary Louise L. Pratt, author of "Arts of the Contact Zone,” and I am very well, thank you.

hJacobs09: Okay then, does anyone have any questions or comments for me?

Bordo26: I read your autobiography and I found it very captivating. I was shocked of all you had to go through.

hJacobs09: Yes, it was very rough!

Pratty65: What was it like to go through all that?

hJacobs09: Well, I was never able to form solid attachments with people, because once I grew attached to someone, they were sold somewhere far away from me.

hJacobs09: It was hard to lose my children and loved ones.

Bordo26: That's horrible. I found it especially awful that you could not marry the one that you loved.

Pratty65: K

Bordo26: L

hJacobs09: Yes, it was awful! My master told me that I could only marry one of his slaves. I was forbidden to marry the man I wanted to (485).

hJacobs09: L

Bordo26: Basically your master controlled your whole life didn't he?

hJacobs09: Oh, of course! That is how he wanted it to be. Once he told me that, "I was made for his use, made to obey his command in every thing; that I was nothing but a slave, whose will must and should surrender to his" (470).

hJacobs09: Oh what shame it was to be a slave!

Bordo26: How awful!

Pratty65: Wow, that's unbelievable!!

Bordo26: It sounds like he controlled you like the media controls women today. You could not be who you wanted to be, you had to be what he wanted you to be, just like women have to be what the media wants them to look like.

Bordo26: "Women are continually bombarded with advertisements and commercials for weight-loss products and programs" (139). Women are expected to be thin, because slenderness has been equated with beauty and success.

hJacobs09: Yeah, the media is really controlling.

Pratty65: I've seen that in many advertisements.

hJacobs09: My life was controlled every day when I was a slave.

Bordo26: Yes, like you had to succumb to your master's will, women have to succumb to the pressure of being pretty and thin.

Bordo26: Women who do not fit the mold probably feel undesirable or unloved.

hJacobs09: I feel undesirable all the time. It was especially bad when I had to live up to all the expectations of my master.

Bordo26: Yes, women have to live up to expectations every day too. Not only are they expected to look good, they are also expected to prepare the food.

Bordo26: Men eat and women prepare. "Food is equated with maternal and wifely love throughout our culture" (159). In 1992, Hillary Clinton made the comment "Well, I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas" (158).

Pratty65: She was probably viewed as a rabid feminist, wasn't she?

Bordo26: Exactly. She went against the expectations of women and people did not like this approach. To prove her true womanhood, she produced her favorite recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

Bordo26: This is the way she used the norms of society to fight back against the negative views people had of her.

Pratty65: That's very autoethnographic, because the women used the false representations that people had of them to fight back.

Pratty65: What I mean to say, is that this is similar to how an ancient Inca scribe, Guaman Poma, who used the Spanish language to tell the King of Spain about the unjust treatment the Incas had received.

hJacobs09: I admire people who are oppressed and fight back against their oppressors.

Bordo26: Yes, I do also.

Pratty65: "Guaman Poma took over the Spanish genre for his own ends" (585). He told King Phillip III how the world should really be, instead of the way things were.

Pratty65: The Incas received harsh treatment in the same way that your people did, Harriet.

hJacobs09: What kind of treatment did they receive?

Pratty65: There was "a passionate denunciation of Spanish exploitation and abuse" (588). The Spanish were “decimating the population of the Andes at a genocidal rate"(588).

Bordo26: Yes, it does seem like both the Incas and the slaves were treated similarly.

hJacobs09: Yes, both groups were persecuted in one way or another. My toughest time was when I desired to marry. Remember that sweet young man I told you I wanted to marry?

Pratty65: Of course I do. What happened?

Bordo26: Yes, what happened?

hJacobs09: Well, my master yelled at me for telling him I wished to be married to that man, but I spoke back to him. I told him that it was good for us to love each other (485).

Bordo26: But that did not do any good did it?

hJacobs09: Not a bit. In fact, that was the first time he ever struck me (486). It was horrible. He wouldn't listen to anything I had to say.

hJacobs09: At times, "I so openly expressed my contempt for him [my master] that he would become violently enraged, and I wondered why he did not strike me" (480).

hJacobs09: Then there is my uncle Benjamin…

hJacobs09: Boy, what an uproar that caused!

Bordo26: What happened with your uncle?

Bordo26: Is he the one who struck his master?

hJacobs09: Yes, he was a brave lad.

hJacobs09: Once when his master summoned him, he did not respond immediately. Therefore, his master whipped him, but Benjamin resisted. The two of them fought, and Benjamin threw his master to the ground (472).

hJacobs09: After this horror took place, Grandmother urged Benjamin to change to humble ways so his master would forgive him.

Pratty65: Did he seek forgiveness?
hJacobs09: He most certainly did not! He rebuked my grandmother saying, "Forgive me for what, mother? For not letting him treat me like a dog? No! I will never humble myself to him. I have worked for him for nothing all my life (473).
hJacobs09: He was so determined!
Bordo26: Good for him!
Bordo26: J
Pratty65: His defiance reminds me of Guaman Poma's message to his oppressors. He mirror[ed] back to the Spanish (in their language, which [was] alien to his) an image of themselves that they often suppress and will therefore recognize"(587).
Pratty65: By sending them that message, he was trying to convince them of their wrong doings, and Benjamin's statement could be interpreted that way also.
hJacobs09: I wanted so badly to defy my master the way that Benjamin had and the way Guaman Poma defied his oppressors, but I knew that I could not because I did not want to endure the same punishment as Uncle Benjamin did.

hJacobs09: So, instead of defying my master, I warned him that I would go to my grandmother for protection if he hurt me, but "he threatened me with death, and worse than death if I made any complaint to her" (480).
Bordo26: It sounds like you had lost almost all control of the situation, you needed some kind of escape.
Pratty65: You probably had no way to escape the life you were born into, which is similar to Guaman Poma. His only hope for escape was to advise the King of Spain through his 1200 page letter.
Pratty65: Unfortunately his attempt was also ignored, just like yours was. Guaman Poma’s letter was not even deciphered until 350 years after he originally wrote it.
hJacobs09: Yes, Guaman Poma might have yearned for an escape as I did. I just had to escape from my master. I had no idea what to do until, "I became desperate, and made a plunge into the abyss" (489).
Bordo26: L

hJacobs09: I met a white unmarried man who seemed sympathetic of me, and he wanted to help me. Being only fifteen years old, I saw no other choice, but to give in to my idea (489).
Bordo26: So you got pregnant as your way of escape.
Bordo26: You felt you had lost control and that was your only way out.
hJacobs09: I wouldn't have done it if I saw another way.
hJacobs09: L
Bordo26: That is why so many women suffer from eating disorders today. They feel they have lost control and there is no other way out, it is their escape.
hJacobs09: The feeling of having no control is an awful position to be in.
Bordo26: I am sure there would be a lot less eating disorders if the media did not put so much pressure on women to be thin.
hJacobs09: Yes, I also felt I had to give in to the pressure of sleeping with Mr. Sands as a way to get back at my master.
hJacobs09: I assumed my master would be enraged and sell me, and I hoped Mr. Sands would buy my child and me and give us freedom. However, my master would never sell me, because he was too enraged to let me have my way.
Pratty65: So, what happened after the end of your essay?

Bordo26: Yes, I always wanted to hear more about your life.
hJacobs09: I gave birth to a second child by Mr. Sands. And although he never purchased me, he did purchase our children. He allowed them to live with my grandmother, but he never set them free.
Bordo26: What happened to you?
hJacobs09: I escaped from my master and fled to New York, and met up with my children. Eventually, a magazine editor bought my children and me and gave us both our freedom.
hJacobs09: J It was the happiest day of my life!
Bordo26: J
Bordo26: Well I have to go, it was nice talking to you.
Pratty65: Yes, my son is calling, I must go also.
hJacobs09: It was a pleasure to share my story with you.
Pratty65: Yes Harriet, I enjoyed your autobiography.
hJacobs09: Thank you! Goodbye. J

Bordo26: Goodbye.
Pratty65: Bye.

Harriet Jacobs essay “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” uncovered the horrible treatment Harriet received during her days as a slave. She was treated like property, not even allowed to marry the one she loved. Although it is good that this information was recorded, nothing can be done to change it. In this way, her essay is similar to the letter written by Guaman Poma to the Spaniards described in Pratt’s essay “Arts of the Contact Zone.” In his letter, Poma described the unjust treatment the Incas received, but the letter was not even discovered until hundreds of years later. Jacobs’ essay also relates to Bordo’s essay “Hunger as Ideology.” Jacob’s master controlled her life while she was a slave. Similarly, the media controls society’s view of women. Advertisements and television put forth the expectations of women to be pretty and thin, and to also be the ones who prepare all the food for the men. From these ideas, we brought together this idea of what a modern day conversation on the computer between Jacobs, Pratt, and Bordo might be like.