topic reconsidered

Like my students, I've been tweaking my own inquiry thesis. I had started with an interest in stigmata and "worn" religion. After a few of my students picked up self harm and suicide questions, I started thinking that wearing religion doesn't need to be so "seen." Like my students, I got a little "cloudy" and struggled to say what I wanted to say. I found myself writing around ideas instead of into ideas.

I moved into an interest in doppelganger in mythology and started seeing that this was an extension of my interest in "self as other." Again, it doesn't have to be outside of the self or seen, I wanted this to be more about interiority. I was looking at and discussing, at the same time, Atwoods' Edible Woman. I haven't read the book yet, but I am basing my idea around the concept of a woman's body being consumed.

I am studying the social conditioning of the kitchen and its permeation in American dialogue regarding women's bodies. I will be looking at my own experiences to position the observations of women in the kitchen, women as "food objects." Then, I will ask other people for experiences and descriptions of women being described as "tasty" or food equivalents. I will look for literary examples and study the psychology of kitchens and the social norms of kitchen culture. I am hoping to get into the physiology of taste and consider why taste is equated with sexuality as a larger, more reaching question.