Berkeley Undergraduate Journal

This study examines how the United States Federal Courts have framed questions of fetal viability, fetal rights, and women's rights in abortion cases from the past three years, from June 2019 to January 2022, using the following frames: the right to abortion, the post-viability fetal right to life, the pre-viability embryonic right to life, the recognition of fetal heartbeat, and abortion as a crime. In cases in which the court supported abortion rights, the most common frame found in their opinions is the right to abortion, often specified as a civil, human, or women’s right. Yet the conditionality of this right is emphasized in two-thirds of the cases, with the courts clarifying that abortion is only a right prior to fetal viability as stated by Roe v. Wade. On the other hand, cases in which the court restricted abortion rights most often used the frame of the pre-viability embryonic right to life. Unlike the pro-abortion rights argument which focused more so on legal precedent and the protected rights of the pregnant person, this argument is more morally focused on the belief that life begins at conception. Fetal viability matters far less to the anti-abortion rights argument as they are far more focused on the potential for life rather than whether the fetus or embryo could survive outside the womb at an exact moment in time.

In the field of electronic literature, there is an interest in understanding current digital writing practices, termed third generation electronic literature. Many scholars claim that third-gen e-literature lacks an “aesthetic of difficulty.” This is a term introduced by Jessica Pressman, who applied it to first and second generation e-literature to describe the complex interpretation that must occur in their analysis. I claim that there is an aesthetic of difficulty found in third-gen e-literature, which I access through my concept “local intertextuality.” This phrase draws on the mathematical definition of local to specify intertextuality within a limited range of texts. Local intertextuality can be defined in two parts: firstly, the content directly connected to it through the platform it exists on, through creation by the same author, or interaction from the same users, among other possibilities; secondly, references to particular meme templates, fonts, and filters.

By scrolling through the poster's feed and encountering memes in different presentations, a reader can draw out difficult hermeneutics of the original meme. Moreover, utilizing Michel Serres’s concept of the parasite, a reader can draw out difficult politics of the original meme, in our case liberatory politics against monopolistic social media from the outside in. The meme enacts this by realizing the gap that exists between the power of social media and the users it subjugates. At its heart, what this paper argues is that third generation electronic literature can hold an aesthetic of difficulty—you just have to read between the memes.

After the three-decade-long one-child policy and the six-year-long two-child policy, China announced on May 31, 2021, that Chinese couples are recommended to have three children. To understand the Chinese public's responses to the new family planning policy, this research analyzed data from reposts and comments on thirty-five relevant policy posts published by verified news media accounts on Sina Weibo between May 31, 2021, and June 30, 2021. The results showed that Sina Weibo users found the policy disrespectful and difficult to fulfill in multiple realms. First, many complained that the new policy disregarded the one-child policy's influence while promoting a similarly fixed reproduction goal. They believed that the three-child policy mainly came from the nation’s need for more labor forces. Meanwhile, policy compliance was linked to patriotism. Second, without more governmental support, raising three children would be hard financially for many Sina Weibo users. High expenses in housing, education, healthcare, and elderly care overwhelmed many, who had to work hard despite stressful work conditions. A common suspicion was that the three-child policy would widen the wealth gap. Third, women suffered from workplace discrimination and low status in family life, and lots of users argued that the new policy would make it worse. The overall responses on Sina Weibo reposts and comments were negative, accompanied by sarcastic emoticons, homophones, and acronyms. As a result, the three-child policy would likely have a limited, if any, impact on China's demographic patterns without strong policy support addressing social issues in other realms.