Reading 2: Sharon Moalem, “Changing Our Genes: How Trauma, Bullying, and Royal Jelly Alter Our Genetic Destiny” and Wang, “High-Functioning”
In her essay “High Functioning,” writer Esmé Weijun Wang shares her journey as a high functioning person with schizophrenia and how both family and environment has impacted her mental health along this journey. Meanwhile, in a chapter from one of his books titled “Changing Our Genes: How Trauma, Bullying, and Royal Jelly Alter Our Genetic Destiny,” medical doctor and researcher Sharon Moalem draws our attention to the impacts that environment and lifestyle can have on how our genes are expressed and how this can be passed down to future generations. Both readings engage questions of the role that “nature and nurture” play in our development, socialization, and happiness. With that in mind, create an argument about how nature and nurture intersect in unexpected ways in our development and mental or physical health.
Further questions to consider include:
How do these forces affect how we recognize and cope with our genetic as well as cultural histories and realities?
How do “nature and nurture” intersect in our expectations of what it means to be “normal”?
How do our understandings of “normal” change in different social, physical, and familial contexts?
