1.) My favorite book is a recent read. It is called “Eve” by Cat Bohannon, and it’s about the evolution of the female body. As a cisgender woman myself, it is no surprise that I gravitated to this book. Although I live every day as a young woman and all the consequences of it, I never really stopped to think why my body is the way it is. This book made me realize that the sexism I face every day and consider background noise is just scratching the surface of the oppression that I and other women face. The introduction to this book discusses how healthcare for women lags significantly behind that of men and the cascading effects of this disparity. The fact that women are more likely to die of heart attacks than men, simply because doctors fail to recognize the unique symptoms in women, is depressing. For many years, only men were considered in drug trials, which means that many medicines of today only work as they should for 50% of the population. With more examples discussed, it’s hard not to get frustrated when reading this section. The societal fear and misunderstanding of the female body is disheartening as someone who has one. There is so much wonder about our bodies that seems to be disregarded. “Eve” discusses many of these feats that our bodies can accomplish by examining ancient ancestors who first exhibited specific traits and the impact they had. It is hard to understand what possible evolutionary advantages having periods has, but “Eve” discusses that too, as well as why we have breasts, produce milk, and give live birth. Reading a book like this felt like a reconnection with myself and the parts I don’t love, like my lumpy thighs and my periods. Through this deepened understanding, I realize that the parts of myself I dislike are the gifts of my palm-sized ancestors who still walked on all fours, and it all has a purpose: to keep me alive. We all should stop thinking of how to be the perfect image of a woman, because societal expectations don’t align with how nature built us. We are perfect as we are, and every woman deserves to know that. While it’s hard to separate ourselves from the unique societal pressures we face as women, realizing that our bodies are made the way they are for a reason helps us to stop and catch a break. It certainly helped me with self-acceptance. 2.) One scientific fact that blew my mind when I first heard of it was that the color magenta isn’t real. We humans see colors through wavelengths of light, which range from 380 to 740 nanometers. Different wavelengths trigger different receptors in our eyes, thus allowing us to perceive a wonderful range of colors all the way from red to violet. If you look at the wavelengths of light available for us to see, you’ll notice that magenta isn’t within that range, so how is it that we can see it? There is a cut-off point for both red and violet, and a wavelength of light that is a mix of red and violet doesn’t exist. So, when the cone receptors in our eyes sense both red and blue light, this input is processed by our brains to be a magenta color. The world we perceive is filtered through our minds. When you think of how magenta isn’t “real”, you can go down a rabbit hole of how everything else you know is just what you “think” it is.