Friday, December 18, 2009
Final Exam
I submitted my final questions separately so it would not be one long post. I hope that is okay.
Final Exam: question 4
I decided to write a poem about one part of my body that I love: My legs!
These Legs
In the past these legs might have been
too white, too short , too wide, too thin
now that I know where they have taken me
they are the very best part I see
My legs are some times hairy, some times tired
maybe some times not at all admired
when i need them they are always there
it does not matter where, they don't care
they never leave me, never stray
my legs let me go where ever I may
I can't trade them in, why would I want to
they never fail, even if I am sad or blue
I am a waitress you see
without them how would I have any money
my legs go perfect with my favorite jeans
they are the best pair by any means
These Legs
In the past these legs might have been
too white, too short , too wide, too thin
now that I know where they have taken me
they are the very best part I see
My legs are some times hairy, some times tired
maybe some times not at all admired
when i need them they are always there
it does not matter where, they don't care
they never leave me, never stray
my legs let me go where ever I may
I can't trade them in, why would I want to
they never fail, even if I am sad or blue
I am a waitress you see
without them how would I have any money
my legs go perfect with my favorite jeans
they are the best pair by any means
Final Exam: question 3
1) Why do some girls feel like male attention is what they are missing in their life? (Pop Culture Gone Wild, Jessica Valenti)
2) Why do we have such a "terror of aging" in our society? (The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf)
3) Where did this beauty standard that we all have to be thin come from? (The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf)
4) When is a person considered fat, if they think they are fat, or if society thinks they are fat? (Conquering The Fear of a Fat Body, from Body Outlaws, Regina D. Williams)
5)What clicks in a person's head that makes them stick something down their throat to make thenselves vomit, just to be skinny? ( from Body Outlaws, Shrink Rap, Jennifer C. Panning)
2) Why do we have such a "terror of aging" in our society? (The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf)
3) Where did this beauty standard that we all have to be thin come from? (The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf)
4) When is a person considered fat, if they think they are fat, or if society thinks they are fat? (Conquering The Fear of a Fat Body, from Body Outlaws, Regina D. Williams)
5)What clicks in a person's head that makes them stick something down their throat to make thenselves vomit, just to be skinny? ( from Body Outlaws, Shrink Rap, Jennifer C. Panning)
Final Exam: question 2
2) Pop culture is made up of music, music videos, fashion, television, advertisements, and much more. These are all things that, as a society, we are subject to on a daily basis, and they can have a big impact on the way we live our lives. The whole reason it is called pop culture is because it is popular. Some important aspects of our lives that pop culture can effect is our beauty standards and our body image. It can have both negative and positive effects.
One of the negative effects it has had was to normalize the use of pornography in the media. As Jessica Valenti says in Pop Culture Gone Wild "pop culture is becoming increasingly pornified" (p 41). She speaks on the fact that pornography is becoming more and more acceptable. This can effect beauty standards because it can make females (especially young girls) feel that they have to flaunt their selves to be pretty, or to get a guy to like them. This could also make them feel that they must be more and more promiscuous to be accepted. This can harm their body image if they do not want to compromise their morals or their body and they are ridiculed for it.
Another negative effect pop culture has had is the rise of "raunch Culture." Not just pornography but also things like there are young girls that walk around in shorts with "juicy" written on the butt. I really think it is about people losing track of their morals these days. Young girls are not told to stand up for their morals and values, they are taught to shake their asses. As it is stated in the book Female Chauvinist Pigs, "only thirty years ago (my lifetime), our mothers were burning their bras and picketing Playboy, and suddenly we were getting implants and wearing the bunny logo."(Levy, 2).
This brings me to one more negative effect of pop culture, cosmetic and plastic surgery. I know that some say it is good because it can boost body image of self confidence, but I think that it just hurts it. Are you really going to be happy thinking about the fact that you had to go spend thousands of dollars and go through a painful procedure just to fit into the beauty standards of our culture? I think not. I think this is very sad and hurts our beauty standards because it makes them even harder for girls to live up to them, and this can have adverse effects on their body image.
One positive effect pop culture has had is that it shows us that we can express ourselves in so many other ways than in the past. There is so much expressionism compared to times before. You can pretty much be whoever you want to be and there will be a place you will feel accepted. I am not saying you will be accepted to the mainstream beauty standards, but there seems to be a lot more room for defying those precedents for beauty in the past. This can be good for body image because it can make people feel that there is some place in the world that they fit in.
Another positive aspect to pop culture is that I think it has brought about room for other races and ethnicities to be a part of our societies beauty standards. I know we have discussed in lecture that before (like in the 90's) really the only beauty standard was of a tall bleach blond, blue-eyed, Baywatch babe. Now there are so many other images of beautiful women in the media. They might not have a fair share, and they might be depicted differently that white women but I think there is more room for differing beauty standards now.
The other positive effect pop culture has had on body image is that we have been made more aware of the adverse effects that eating disorders can have on our bodies. There have been many movies and documentaries that expose just how bad they can be for your body. I think this has helped Body image because pop culture has at least tried to 'deglamorize' eating disorders.
One of the negative effects it has had was to normalize the use of pornography in the media. As Jessica Valenti says in Pop Culture Gone Wild "pop culture is becoming increasingly pornified" (p 41). She speaks on the fact that pornography is becoming more and more acceptable. This can effect beauty standards because it can make females (especially young girls) feel that they have to flaunt their selves to be pretty, or to get a guy to like them. This could also make them feel that they must be more and more promiscuous to be accepted. This can harm their body image if they do not want to compromise their morals or their body and they are ridiculed for it.
Another negative effect pop culture has had is the rise of "raunch Culture." Not just pornography but also things like there are young girls that walk around in shorts with "juicy" written on the butt. I really think it is about people losing track of their morals these days. Young girls are not told to stand up for their morals and values, they are taught to shake their asses. As it is stated in the book Female Chauvinist Pigs, "only thirty years ago (my lifetime), our mothers were burning their bras and picketing Playboy, and suddenly we were getting implants and wearing the bunny logo."(Levy, 2).
This brings me to one more negative effect of pop culture, cosmetic and plastic surgery. I know that some say it is good because it can boost body image of self confidence, but I think that it just hurts it. Are you really going to be happy thinking about the fact that you had to go spend thousands of dollars and go through a painful procedure just to fit into the beauty standards of our culture? I think not. I think this is very sad and hurts our beauty standards because it makes them even harder for girls to live up to them, and this can have adverse effects on their body image.
One positive effect pop culture has had is that it shows us that we can express ourselves in so many other ways than in the past. There is so much expressionism compared to times before. You can pretty much be whoever you want to be and there will be a place you will feel accepted. I am not saying you will be accepted to the mainstream beauty standards, but there seems to be a lot more room for defying those precedents for beauty in the past. This can be good for body image because it can make people feel that there is some place in the world that they fit in.
Another positive aspect to pop culture is that I think it has brought about room for other races and ethnicities to be a part of our societies beauty standards. I know we have discussed in lecture that before (like in the 90's) really the only beauty standard was of a tall bleach blond, blue-eyed, Baywatch babe. Now there are so many other images of beautiful women in the media. They might not have a fair share, and they might be depicted differently that white women but I think there is more room for differing beauty standards now.
The other positive effect pop culture has had on body image is that we have been made more aware of the adverse effects that eating disorders can have on our bodies. There have been many movies and documentaries that expose just how bad they can be for your body. I think this has helped Body image because pop culture has at least tried to 'deglamorize' eating disorders.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Final Exam: question #1
1) I think body image is an idea that an individual has about the way he or she presents their self and also how that individual thinks they are perceived by other people. Body image is what a person sees or thinks of when that person pictures their self. It is not only about looks. Body image is also affected by the feelings that a person has about their self and by their mood and mental state. Another contributor to body image is the feedback that a person receives from other individuals. If someone tells you that you are fat, you will probably think you are fat, unless you have a great deal of self confidence. And this will most likely make you picture yourself as fat after that. This will now be part of your body image.
Your mood can contribute to body image because I think your body image changes often. When you feel depressed or sluggish, you might have a more negative body image. When you are happy or energetic, you might have a more positive body image. Your body image also changes throughout your life course. When you are in young or maybe when you are in love you might tend to have a more positive body image of yourself. However, when you are older or when you do not have a romantic partner you might tend to have a more negative body image. What a negative or positive body image "looks like" depends on the individual and the culture.
There are many different ideas of what beauty is and these various ideas of beauty are what most people would like to aspire to. When people do not think they look like or act like the specific ideal beauty in their culture, this can put stress on that person. They might have a negative body image. It is not that they are wrong to look like they do, they just think it is wrong to look like they were born to look. It baffles me that we let other people tell us how we should and should not look. What is so bad about the way people were born to look? Who decides what is beautiful and why do they hold everyone to this ideal? This is very important to understand when discussing body image because it is influenced so much by what the beauty standards are in their culture. In the Body Outlaws text Amelia Richards states "we must take this opportunity to seize control of our bodies and the forces that manipulate them-mostly the advertising and entertainment industries."(p 199) This is where the beauty myth comes in.
Naomi Wolf describes the beauty myth as " a violent backlash against feminism that uses images of female beauty as a political weapon against women's advancement"(p 10). This basically means that society holds women to this standard of beauty in order to hold women back, or get back at them. For so long women have been oppressed, not able to vote or have the same jobs that men have. Now that we can do just about anything a man can, they are still trying to oppress us with this one thing, the beauty myth. The only reason this is successful is because it is so closely linked to our body image. When a woman is unhappy with or questions her body image, this affects her self esteem, which can effect other aspects of her life. With a negative body image comes low self esteem, and this can hinder women from being powerful and successful. Naomi Wolf states "recent research consistently shows that inside the majority of the West's controlled, attractive, successful working women, there is a secret "underlife" poisoning our freedom; infused with notions of beauty, it is a dark vein of self hatred, physical obsessions, terror of aging, and dread of lost control." (p 10) This is exactly how the beauty myth can effect a woman's body image in a negative way.
The discipline of Women's and Gender Studies intersects with body image and beauty culture because our history as women and the different waves of feminism seem to be what has caused the beauty myth and the beauty culture, and from this comes our body image. Naomi Wolf writes "as women released themselves from the feminine mystique of domesticity, the beauty myth took over its lost ground, expanding and waned to carry on its work of social control." (p 10)
I think the top three body image issues are 1) eating disorders like anorexia, bulimia, and overeating; 2) promiscuity; and lastly 3) abuse. The reason I chose eating disorders for number one is because they are so prevalent. I have read about eating disorders in each text that we read, and heard about it in just about every film that we watched. There was even a whole film about eating disorders that we watched in class. Amelia Richards says that she used to suffer from bulimia in the Body outlaws text (p 200). There was even a guest speaker who talked about eating disorders. Another reason I chose this topic is the severity of the problem. Eating disorders can severely damage your body or even result in death. Promiscuity was second on my list. Some might not think that this is a body image issue but it makes sense to me. When a woman or girl feels like she is not good enough whether it is physically or mentally sometimes she will make up for it by being promiscuous because sometimes sex is mistaken for love or approval. Lastly, I chose abuse. I think this is a problem when it comes to body image because women who have a more negative body image are more likely to let men abuse them because sometimes they have a distorted reality and they think they deserve it. Also, men who have a distorted view of body image might think it is okay to abuse women because they see their selves as being better than the women, or maybe they believe that the women deserve it. I think this is one of the biggest problems because of the consequences. Abuse can leave permanent mental scars on women and often times their children. Abuse can also lead to death.
Your mood can contribute to body image because I think your body image changes often. When you feel depressed or sluggish, you might have a more negative body image. When you are happy or energetic, you might have a more positive body image. Your body image also changes throughout your life course. When you are in young or maybe when you are in love you might tend to have a more positive body image of yourself. However, when you are older or when you do not have a romantic partner you might tend to have a more negative body image. What a negative or positive body image "looks like" depends on the individual and the culture.
There are many different ideas of what beauty is and these various ideas of beauty are what most people would like to aspire to. When people do not think they look like or act like the specific ideal beauty in their culture, this can put stress on that person. They might have a negative body image. It is not that they are wrong to look like they do, they just think it is wrong to look like they were born to look. It baffles me that we let other people tell us how we should and should not look. What is so bad about the way people were born to look? Who decides what is beautiful and why do they hold everyone to this ideal? This is very important to understand when discussing body image because it is influenced so much by what the beauty standards are in their culture. In the Body Outlaws text Amelia Richards states "we must take this opportunity to seize control of our bodies and the forces that manipulate them-mostly the advertising and entertainment industries."(p 199) This is where the beauty myth comes in.
Naomi Wolf describes the beauty myth as " a violent backlash against feminism that uses images of female beauty as a political weapon against women's advancement"(p 10). This basically means that society holds women to this standard of beauty in order to hold women back, or get back at them. For so long women have been oppressed, not able to vote or have the same jobs that men have. Now that we can do just about anything a man can, they are still trying to oppress us with this one thing, the beauty myth. The only reason this is successful is because it is so closely linked to our body image. When a woman is unhappy with or questions her body image, this affects her self esteem, which can effect other aspects of her life. With a negative body image comes low self esteem, and this can hinder women from being powerful and successful. Naomi Wolf states "recent research consistently shows that inside the majority of the West's controlled, attractive, successful working women, there is a secret "underlife" poisoning our freedom; infused with notions of beauty, it is a dark vein of self hatred, physical obsessions, terror of aging, and dread of lost control." (p 10) This is exactly how the beauty myth can effect a woman's body image in a negative way.
The discipline of Women's and Gender Studies intersects with body image and beauty culture because our history as women and the different waves of feminism seem to be what has caused the beauty myth and the beauty culture, and from this comes our body image. Naomi Wolf writes "as women released themselves from the feminine mystique of domesticity, the beauty myth took over its lost ground, expanding and waned to carry on its work of social control." (p 10)
I think the top three body image issues are 1) eating disorders like anorexia, bulimia, and overeating; 2) promiscuity; and lastly 3) abuse. The reason I chose eating disorders for number one is because they are so prevalent. I have read about eating disorders in each text that we read, and heard about it in just about every film that we watched. There was even a whole film about eating disorders that we watched in class. Amelia Richards says that she used to suffer from bulimia in the Body outlaws text (p 200). There was even a guest speaker who talked about eating disorders. Another reason I chose this topic is the severity of the problem. Eating disorders can severely damage your body or even result in death. Promiscuity was second on my list. Some might not think that this is a body image issue but it makes sense to me. When a woman or girl feels like she is not good enough whether it is physically or mentally sometimes she will make up for it by being promiscuous because sometimes sex is mistaken for love or approval. Lastly, I chose abuse. I think this is a problem when it comes to body image because women who have a more negative body image are more likely to let men abuse them because sometimes they have a distorted reality and they think they deserve it. Also, men who have a distorted view of body image might think it is okay to abuse women because they see their selves as being better than the women, or maybe they believe that the women deserve it. I think this is one of the biggest problems because of the consequences. Abuse can leave permanent mental scars on women and often times their children. Abuse can also lead to death.
Film Review: Dreamworlds 3
Dreamworlds 3 is a documentary about music videos, specifically about the way music videos portray men and women. It calls music videos out on the way that they perpetuate the beauty myth, normalize abuse of women, degrade women, depict men as having more power than women, and make porn-like depictions of women mainstream. Music videos are directed mostly toward adolescents, but a lot of music videos out there today look like they should be rated R. There was a quote in the film that said "MTV teaches us how to be men and women." Teenagers watch this everyday. They watch girls doing nothing but shaking their butts, and being involved in sexual activity. The narrator said they are shown to be "sex crazed nymphomaniacs" and "ravenous creatures that only desire sex." What is this telling young people in our society, that this behavior is all we expect out of them? Music videos never show teenagers volunteering at shelters, or being responsible, turning down drugs and alcohol, or obeying their parents. If the media normalizes this unacceptable behavior then teens will think nothing of it, they will think this is the way they are supposed to act. The narrator mentioned that women are portrayed as having no deeper meaning than a sex object. So we have established that Young women are sent the message that it is okay to be promiscuous, uneducated, taken advantage of, and used as a sex object. Now, what messages are they sending to young men? They are telling men that it is okay to look at girls whenever they want to, even if the girl doesn't like it. One example of this is the Justin Timberlake video where he breaks into the girl's house and is stalking her. Another way this is conveyed is when the camera lingers on a woman's body as if there is someone watching her. Music videos also could give the impression that it is okay for men to abuse women. One example is in the video where Fred Durst kidnapped a woman and is holding her against her will in the woods. It is not okay to kidnap someone so why would you show yourself doing that. The narrator also talked about women being aroused when they were held against their will, I do not think any woman in her right mind would want that. That is why it is called "against her will" she did not want that to happen. I think this documentary should be shown to every teenager so they will understand why all these images are being forced on them, that it is just so these singers and industries can make a profit. I think that it was a great analysis of music videos and someone needed to say it.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Movie Review: Lovely and Amazing
Lovely and Amazing is a film about a woman and her three daughters, and all the insecurities and problems they are dealing with on a daily basis. The mother has a problem with her weight, she thinks she is fat and ends up getting liposuction, which puts her in a coma. She also thinks her doctor is hitting on her when he is just being friendly. The oldest one of her daughters is unhappily married and has two daughters, she is depressed and cynical and she suspects her husband is cheating on her. She gets a job at at one hour photo shop where she enjoys getting attention that her teenage co-worker gives her. She ends up in a relationship with him and enjoys herself until the boy's mother turns her in for statutory rape.
Her middle daughter is a model/actress and she has a boyfriend and lots of problems accepting her body the way it is. She is also constantly rescuing stray dogs, and the irony is that one dog that she tries to rescue actually attacks her and leaves her with scars and more "imperfections" to obsess over. Her boyfriend breaks up with her and she starts to date another actor who also has body image issues.
The woman's youngest daughter is adopted and is African American and she feels like she does not belong in the family. She wants to look like her family and even gets her hair straitened against her mother's wishes. The girl also has issues with her weight. She even plays dead in the pool like she drowned to get attention and calls another little girl fat.
This film has a lot of the themes that we have discussed in class. Body image is the most apparent though. They all have body image problems of some sort. The youngest has issues accepting her skin tone, weight, and hair. The middle daughter has issues with not feeling sexy after she goes for an audition and the people decline her for not being sexy enough. She also has numerous other problems with her looks. The oldest daughter is worried about her age and not being pretty when she accuses her husband of having an affair. Lastly, the mother has problems accepting her weight and age. This shows with the liposuction and face lift.
I think this film shows that everyone is Lovely and Amazing in their own way and they should not obsess on looking like someone else. When the mother tries to look thinner and younger, she goes into a coma. Then she is not there to take care of her youngest child. When the oldest tries to feel young and sleeps with the teenager, she goes to jail. She also does not pay much attention to what she has in front of her like her daughters and is so neurotic about the husband cheating that she pushes him away. When the middle daughter obsesses on the little imperfections of her body, she pushes away her boyfriend and cannot be comfortable in the audition with the cute actor. And the youngest daughter even runs away just to go eat McDonald's so that other people do not see her doing this because she is ashamed, so she is risking her life to hide her desire for food. It almost seems like the more they try to improve their looks, the more they do damage to their overall well being and happiness.
I really liked this movie and I am glad that we watched it. I think it does a great job of showing these aspects of the beauty myth in a negative light so that it does not seem so glamorous to go through all this trouble to change yourself. It also does a great job of showing that if you perpetuate the beauty myth and emphasize it, then the others around you will too. This shows in the way that the mother has so many problems accepting herself, and it rubs off on the daughters. So these and other women might want to take Naomi Wolf's advise and just be happy with what they have. Wolf says that women need to stop doing things they are forced to by society and just do what makes them happy and empowered.
Her middle daughter is a model/actress and she has a boyfriend and lots of problems accepting her body the way it is. She is also constantly rescuing stray dogs, and the irony is that one dog that she tries to rescue actually attacks her and leaves her with scars and more "imperfections" to obsess over. Her boyfriend breaks up with her and she starts to date another actor who also has body image issues.
The woman's youngest daughter is adopted and is African American and she feels like she does not belong in the family. She wants to look like her family and even gets her hair straitened against her mother's wishes. The girl also has issues with her weight. She even plays dead in the pool like she drowned to get attention and calls another little girl fat.
This film has a lot of the themes that we have discussed in class. Body image is the most apparent though. They all have body image problems of some sort. The youngest has issues accepting her skin tone, weight, and hair. The middle daughter has issues with not feeling sexy after she goes for an audition and the people decline her for not being sexy enough. She also has numerous other problems with her looks. The oldest daughter is worried about her age and not being pretty when she accuses her husband of having an affair. Lastly, the mother has problems accepting her weight and age. This shows with the liposuction and face lift.
I think this film shows that everyone is Lovely and Amazing in their own way and they should not obsess on looking like someone else. When the mother tries to look thinner and younger, she goes into a coma. Then she is not there to take care of her youngest child. When the oldest tries to feel young and sleeps with the teenager, she goes to jail. She also does not pay much attention to what she has in front of her like her daughters and is so neurotic about the husband cheating that she pushes him away. When the middle daughter obsesses on the little imperfections of her body, she pushes away her boyfriend and cannot be comfortable in the audition with the cute actor. And the youngest daughter even runs away just to go eat McDonald's so that other people do not see her doing this because she is ashamed, so she is risking her life to hide her desire for food. It almost seems like the more they try to improve their looks, the more they do damage to their overall well being and happiness.
I really liked this movie and I am glad that we watched it. I think it does a great job of showing these aspects of the beauty myth in a negative light so that it does not seem so glamorous to go through all this trouble to change yourself. It also does a great job of showing that if you perpetuate the beauty myth and emphasize it, then the others around you will too. This shows in the way that the mother has so many problems accepting herself, and it rubs off on the daughters. So these and other women might want to take Naomi Wolf's advise and just be happy with what they have. Wolf says that women need to stop doing things they are forced to by society and just do what makes them happy and empowered.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Movie Review: Mona Lisa Smile
The movie Mona Lisa Smile is about a liberal art professor, Katherine Ann Watson who is played by Julia Roberts, who comes to an all girls university (Welsly), and challenges the conservitive ideals of the faculty and students. This movie is set in the 1950's when there was so much oppression towards women. Women were only expected to go to a University and get an education in order to find a husband. An example of this from the film was when Betty (Kirsten Dunst) got married she went from the top of the class and one of the most challenging students, to missing classes so that she could have dinner on the table. When miss. Watson asked where she had been, Betty said that most of the faculty turn their heads when a married girl misses a few classes. This just goes to show what people thought was most important to women in the 50's, being domestic and submissive rather than being stong and educated.
When Miss. Watson did try to challenge these stereotypes and help the students become strong and independent on their own, at first they ritaculed her for it and did not accept her ideals. One example is when Joan (Julia Stiles) has the oppertunity to go to Harvard then she turns it down because her husband and family did not want her to go.
In the end, most of the characters when through a transformation and were more excepting of something other than the stereotypes they have been held to all their lives. Katherine Watson also went through a transformation and learned not to be so critical of the conservitive views of the students.
This film's main themes are shared in The Feminie Mystique reading. In the reading BettyFriedan writes about how many housewives in the 50's felt empty and unfullfilled and could not figure out why, and it was totally unexeptable to reject the role of housewife and mother only. Their lack of autonomy and independence and strength was the reason but no one would except that, not men or women. This stigma is reinforced throughout the entire film.
I really enjoyed this film. I feel that the direction, production, and artistic sense where all right on point and it really convayed the Feminine Mystique in an interesting way.
When Miss. Watson did try to challenge these stereotypes and help the students become strong and independent on their own, at first they ritaculed her for it and did not accept her ideals. One example is when Joan (Julia Stiles) has the oppertunity to go to Harvard then she turns it down because her husband and family did not want her to go.
In the end, most of the characters when through a transformation and were more excepting of something other than the stereotypes they have been held to all their lives. Katherine Watson also went through a transformation and learned not to be so critical of the conservitive views of the students.
This film's main themes are shared in The Feminie Mystique reading. In the reading BettyFriedan writes about how many housewives in the 50's felt empty and unfullfilled and could not figure out why, and it was totally unexeptable to reject the role of housewife and mother only. Their lack of autonomy and independence and strength was the reason but no one would except that, not men or women. This stigma is reinforced throughout the entire film.
I really enjoyed this film. I feel that the direction, production, and artistic sense where all right on point and it really convayed the Feminine Mystique in an interesting way.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Blog # 9
I guess in a way pop culture has had an influence on the way that I view the differences between men and women. I do not think there is any way pop culture could not influence the way we see others or see the differences between genders just for the simple fact that it is all around us all the time. There are advertisements everywhere that force the "ideal" image of both women and men on every American. Also, there are so many TV shows and music videos that try to sell these images. It almost makes me feel that women have to be pretty to get any where in life, and also makes me feel that if you are a man you must make a ton of money to be worth any thing in our country. These are not my beliefs but I can see how this is what pop culture is forcing on us and trying to make us feel sometimes. Pop culture has probably influenced the way I understand race and class. I have not necessarily changed the way I feel about race or class but it has helped understand the way that others think of race and class. By watching movies that show various stories about race or stories about class it can help people understand what others have to endure and what others are faced with in our culture. I see things on TV all the time that are sexist but it is so much a part of our culture that I do not really think anything of it. There are always men putting down women or saying sexist things to them but it is excepted in our culture. If something is just outrageously sexist I will point it out to people and want to discuss it though. The first connotations that come to mind when I hear the word "feminist" are hairy arm pits, no make-up, tough, rough looking, strong, cammo pants, army boots, and activist. This is mainly what I thought before I took this class and it has changed since. I do not have such negative connotations so much any more. I think these associations came from the media and just hearing other people talk about feminists. Even when other people talk about it, they probably get their ideas from the media too.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Media Analysis
The media plays a very influential role in the lives of Americans. The average American views 3,000 ads (including television, newspaper, magazine, and internet ads) every single day (Body Outlaws, p325). Most of these ads are trying to market a product to viewers with only one goal in mind, to make money. There are many ways that industries try to market their products so they can stand out against the competition, and it seems as though they are getting bolder every day. There are a handful of ads that send positive messages, but the majority of them send negative or hurtful messages which are usually directed towards women. These negative messages can be anything from promoting eating disorders, drinking, promiscuity, smoking, or feelings of powerlessness and inequality. Now the question is, why are we sending these messages to young people in our society that it is acceptable to drink, smoke, be promiscuous, deprive their bodies of nutrition, and let people tell them they are not good enough? The answer, because it makes them go out and buy their products which claim to help them achieve “perfection”.
There are many offensive ads in the media, but one that really stands out to me is an ad for Belvedere Vodka. It shows what looks like a snapshot of a man’s, for lack of a better term, crotch and he appears to be standing up. There is also a woman’s face right next to him so she must be down on her knees. It only shows her head and she is applying red lipstick while her mouth is open. She also has a “deer caught in the headlights” look on her face like she is shocked that someone caught her with this man. Then there is a bottle of Belvedere Vodka to the other side of the man’s crotch. When I first saw this ad I thought “what is this advertising, lipstick or condoms?” Then I saw the vodka bottle. I thought to myself “why are they showing this scene to promote vodka, oh yeah, because that is what is supposed to happen when girls get drunk.” I could not believe the lack of taste and creativity.
The first thing that is offensive about this ad is that it is implying that she just performed oral sex for this man after she had been drinking their vodka. This is giving off the message that if you are a young woman and you drink alcohol, then you are expected to get sexually involved with men. It also implies to men that they will have better luck getting a woman to have sex with them after they have been drinking this vodka. Secondly, it seems as though the woman is frightened that she was caught with him and she is rushing to reapply her lipstick to cover it up. This is saying that she is trying to hide what she just did, or she is ashamed about it. This is probably because she will be thought of as a “slut”. So, first the ad promotes promiscuity, and then it implies that she should be ashamed of what she just did sense it is not lady-like. Another problem I have with this ad is that it is the man who is standing tall and strong, and the woman is down on her knees pleasuring the man. Why is it not the other way around? They are depicting the woman catering to the man’s needs and being submissive to him, and he is depicted as dominant over her. Lastly, the bottle is right at the level of the man’s crotch and the woman’s mouth, so right where you see the implied action, you see the vodka. The lipstick tube is also being pointed at her mouth while her lips are slightly open as to imply this sexual favor.
This ad is targeting young men and women. This is apparent because the people in the ad are young and fashionably dressed. It is perpetuating the stereotype that you have to be young to be attractive and get the attention of the opposite sex. It also perpetuates the stereotype that women must be thin and wear a lot of cosmetics to be attractive. The woman in the ad is extremely thin. Her collar bone is sticking out and she is wearing heavy, dark eye make-up which resembles dark circles around her eyes and this is a sign of an eating disorder. Also, she goes right back to putting on her lipstick. This is sending the message that she has to put her make-up back on before anyone sees her because that is the only way she is acceptable.
I think this ad is sending the message that it is okay for men to expect women to have sex with them just because they are drunk. This could make men rationalize raping or assaulting women if they are intoxicated. This could also put pressure on women. The ad might make women feel they have to have sex with men if they are drunk. Perhaps it gives them a rationale for being promiscuous, and young women have enough of those these days.
As I discussed earlier, there are certain ads that send positive messages to viewers. One ad in particular is for Element which is a skateboard and clothing company. In the ad there is a woman (Amy Purdy) who is standing with her legs crossed and one hand holding up her snowboard. It is all black and white. She is wearing a t-shirt that reads “power to the planet.” There is text at the top of the page that states “You can do what you want to with your life. You’re not limited.” Then you notice that she has two prosthetic legs. At the bottom of the page it says “Amy Purdy, snowboarder, skateboarder, make-up artist, humanitarian.” She is not wearing provocative clothing or depicted in a compromising position. This ad depicts her as strong, determined, athletic, and powerful. Even though she is a woman and she has prosthetic legs it does not portray her as weak or limited in any way.
I do not think this ad perpetuates any stereotypes, it really goes against them. It goes against the stereotype that women are weak and powerless because it depicts Amy Purdy as strong and powerful. The ad does not show her in soft colors or soft lighting or in a position of submission. It does however show her in a bold manner with black and white and hard lighting. She is wearing comfortable clothes and shoes; she’s not wearing high heels or a tight skirt. The ad does not show her with a man, just independent on her own. Something else I noticed was that she is posed with her legs crossed, and this is a change from the way women are usually shot with their legs open. Just for the simple fact that she is successful in two men dominated sports shows that she has a certain amount of power, and it can empower young girls who see this.
It also goes against the stereotype that people with handicaps cannot function as well as people without handicaps. In fact, she seems to be more active and capable than most Americans. Marisa Keller says on the About-face website, the ad does not focus on her disability, but it does focus on her outstanding qualities like being such a great athlete and a humanitarian. Most other ads are trying to sell their products by making women feel worse about their selves so that women feel that they need the products to be more perfect. Sure this ad is trying to get girls to buy their clothing or skateboards like all the other companies, but they are doing it by telling these girls they can be powerful and strong women. They are not tearing down these young women, but building them up. Young women these days need all they can get.
Another reason I like this ad is just because she is not stick thin. She is healthy and athletic looking. She also does not seem like the type of girl who has to wear make-up every time she goes out. Sure she is a make-up artist, but that is probably more of a creative outlet for her. I am almost positive that she is not wearing it just to conform to society’s ideal of beauty, but rather to express herself in an alternative artistic form. “We use our appearance-bodies, clothing, style-to express our inner convictions, our pride, our affiliations, our identities, our insecurities and our weaknesses. In a generation focused on identity issues-and unafraid to show them to the public-our bodies, and how we adorn them, can express who we are.” (Body Outlaws p. 198-199). It is okay to buy and wear make-up and popular clothes, but do it because it represents you, not because it is what everyone else is doing. Amy Purdy is a great example of an alternative form of femininity. I think this ad would have a positive impact on young women.
In conclusion I would just like to point out that 3,000 times a day is a huge number of times to be telling our society, especially women, that they are not good enough and need to change. More people need to stand up for what is right and not what the media tells us is “acceptable” and we need to give the media less attention. We rely on all forms of the media too heavily to guide us in how to spend money, dress, eat, present ourselves, and treat other people. Most people say they would like to have world peace and I think it can start by portraying ourselves as better people with more substance, individualism, and strength. We need to stop conveying that it is okay to be promiscuous, abusive, and self-hating. If there were less advertisements like the Belvedere Vodka ad, and more like the Element ad I think it would be a lot easier and healthier for young women to grow up in this society.
Works cited
Edut, Ophira, ed. Body Outlaws Rewriting the Rules of Beauty and Body Image (Live Girls). New York: Seal, 2003. Print.
There are many offensive ads in the media, but one that really stands out to me is an ad for Belvedere Vodka. It shows what looks like a snapshot of a man’s, for lack of a better term, crotch and he appears to be standing up. There is also a woman’s face right next to him so she must be down on her knees. It only shows her head and she is applying red lipstick while her mouth is open. She also has a “deer caught in the headlights” look on her face like she is shocked that someone caught her with this man. Then there is a bottle of Belvedere Vodka to the other side of the man’s crotch. When I first saw this ad I thought “what is this advertising, lipstick or condoms?” Then I saw the vodka bottle. I thought to myself “why are they showing this scene to promote vodka, oh yeah, because that is what is supposed to happen when girls get drunk.” I could not believe the lack of taste and creativity.
The first thing that is offensive about this ad is that it is implying that she just performed oral sex for this man after she had been drinking their vodka. This is giving off the message that if you are a young woman and you drink alcohol, then you are expected to get sexually involved with men. It also implies to men that they will have better luck getting a woman to have sex with them after they have been drinking this vodka. Secondly, it seems as though the woman is frightened that she was caught with him and she is rushing to reapply her lipstick to cover it up. This is saying that she is trying to hide what she just did, or she is ashamed about it. This is probably because she will be thought of as a “slut”. So, first the ad promotes promiscuity, and then it implies that she should be ashamed of what she just did sense it is not lady-like. Another problem I have with this ad is that it is the man who is standing tall and strong, and the woman is down on her knees pleasuring the man. Why is it not the other way around? They are depicting the woman catering to the man’s needs and being submissive to him, and he is depicted as dominant over her. Lastly, the bottle is right at the level of the man’s crotch and the woman’s mouth, so right where you see the implied action, you see the vodka. The lipstick tube is also being pointed at her mouth while her lips are slightly open as to imply this sexual favor.
This ad is targeting young men and women. This is apparent because the people in the ad are young and fashionably dressed. It is perpetuating the stereotype that you have to be young to be attractive and get the attention of the opposite sex. It also perpetuates the stereotype that women must be thin and wear a lot of cosmetics to be attractive. The woman in the ad is extremely thin. Her collar bone is sticking out and she is wearing heavy, dark eye make-up which resembles dark circles around her eyes and this is a sign of an eating disorder. Also, she goes right back to putting on her lipstick. This is sending the message that she has to put her make-up back on before anyone sees her because that is the only way she is acceptable.
I think this ad is sending the message that it is okay for men to expect women to have sex with them just because they are drunk. This could make men rationalize raping or assaulting women if they are intoxicated. This could also put pressure on women. The ad might make women feel they have to have sex with men if they are drunk. Perhaps it gives them a rationale for being promiscuous, and young women have enough of those these days.
As I discussed earlier, there are certain ads that send positive messages to viewers. One ad in particular is for Element which is a skateboard and clothing company. In the ad there is a woman (Amy Purdy) who is standing with her legs crossed and one hand holding up her snowboard. It is all black and white. She is wearing a t-shirt that reads “power to the planet.” There is text at the top of the page that states “You can do what you want to with your life. You’re not limited.” Then you notice that she has two prosthetic legs. At the bottom of the page it says “Amy Purdy, snowboarder, skateboarder, make-up artist, humanitarian.” She is not wearing provocative clothing or depicted in a compromising position. This ad depicts her as strong, determined, athletic, and powerful. Even though she is a woman and she has prosthetic legs it does not portray her as weak or limited in any way.
I do not think this ad perpetuates any stereotypes, it really goes against them. It goes against the stereotype that women are weak and powerless because it depicts Amy Purdy as strong and powerful. The ad does not show her in soft colors or soft lighting or in a position of submission. It does however show her in a bold manner with black and white and hard lighting. She is wearing comfortable clothes and shoes; she’s not wearing high heels or a tight skirt. The ad does not show her with a man, just independent on her own. Something else I noticed was that she is posed with her legs crossed, and this is a change from the way women are usually shot with their legs open. Just for the simple fact that she is successful in two men dominated sports shows that she has a certain amount of power, and it can empower young girls who see this.
It also goes against the stereotype that people with handicaps cannot function as well as people without handicaps. In fact, she seems to be more active and capable than most Americans. Marisa Keller says on the About-face website, the ad does not focus on her disability, but it does focus on her outstanding qualities like being such a great athlete and a humanitarian. Most other ads are trying to sell their products by making women feel worse about their selves so that women feel that they need the products to be more perfect. Sure this ad is trying to get girls to buy their clothing or skateboards like all the other companies, but they are doing it by telling these girls they can be powerful and strong women. They are not tearing down these young women, but building them up. Young women these days need all they can get.
Another reason I like this ad is just because she is not stick thin. She is healthy and athletic looking. She also does not seem like the type of girl who has to wear make-up every time she goes out. Sure she is a make-up artist, but that is probably more of a creative outlet for her. I am almost positive that she is not wearing it just to conform to society’s ideal of beauty, but rather to express herself in an alternative artistic form. “We use our appearance-bodies, clothing, style-to express our inner convictions, our pride, our affiliations, our identities, our insecurities and our weaknesses. In a generation focused on identity issues-and unafraid to show them to the public-our bodies, and how we adorn them, can express who we are.” (Body Outlaws p. 198-199). It is okay to buy and wear make-up and popular clothes, but do it because it represents you, not because it is what everyone else is doing. Amy Purdy is a great example of an alternative form of femininity. I think this ad would have a positive impact on young women.
In conclusion I would just like to point out that 3,000 times a day is a huge number of times to be telling our society, especially women, that they are not good enough and need to change. More people need to stand up for what is right and not what the media tells us is “acceptable” and we need to give the media less attention. We rely on all forms of the media too heavily to guide us in how to spend money, dress, eat, present ourselves, and treat other people. Most people say they would like to have world peace and I think it can start by portraying ourselves as better people with more substance, individualism, and strength. We need to stop conveying that it is okay to be promiscuous, abusive, and self-hating. If there were less advertisements like the Belvedere Vodka ad, and more like the Element ad I think it would be a lot easier and healthier for young women to grow up in this society.
Works cited
Edut, Ophira, ed. Body Outlaws Rewriting the Rules of Beauty and Body Image (Live Girls). New York: Seal, 2003. Print.
Monday, October 19, 2009
blog #8
The end of The Beauty Myth did not really give me any closure. The book seemed to just call my attention to a problem, make me frustrated that we (as women) are targeted, and then leave me hanging. I think it is wonderful that Wolf wrote the book and brought this subject some much needed attention so that people will be more aware of the sexism that goes on in our society. However, there was no feasible solution suggested in the reading, and this felt like no closure was given. I do think this book opened my eyes and benefited me in some ways, but I also found the book to be very dry and a long read. People might be more likely to read it or take it seriously if it was more interesting. I was very entertained while reading Valenti's writing though. It is probably because her writing style is more modern and energetic. I did not mind the cussing, I thought it was pretty funny and appropriate. She is trying to relate to a young audience and she is letting us know just how frustrated she was with the subject matter. Maybe it is just because of the fact that I tend to cuss like a sailor so it doesn't bother me. Some common themes I noticed while reading Wolf and Valenti's works were that of eating disorders, clothing in the work place (or in a professional setting in general), and criticizing the fashion and beauty industries. Even though Valenti doesn't really have a sure solution to stopping the "Beauty Myth", she does seam to give better advise on dealing with it. The most interesting reading from Body Outlaws, to me, was "Marked for life." I thought it was interesting because I have always thought about getting a tattoo, but I could never bring myself to do it. First of all, there is nothing I can think of that I want painted on my body forever because I might hate it later. Second, it would hurt like a mother to get poked by a needle that many times and I am a wimp when it comes to needles. I will cry to this day if I have to get a shot, and I can't even think about giving blood. So I guess it makes me feel better about the decision not to get a tattoo.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
blog #7
There are a few different kinds of eating disorders such as bulimia, anorexia, and binge eating. These are all classified as eating disorders but their real problem is a mental illness in which someone has a problem with something else and uses food to feel in control of another aspect of their life. Anorexia is an illness were the person has a horrible fear of gaining weight and restricts food intake or purges almost all food intake so that they do not gain weight. An anorexic person also has a distorted body image or fixates on their appearance excessively (body dysmorphic disorder) and this can cause horrible anxiety. Bulimia is an illness were a person will binge eat and then purge using one or several means, such as vomiting, using diuretics, or using laxatives. A bulimic person usually classifies foods as bad or good food. People with bulimia usually have a healthier body weight than that of anorexic people, but people with bulimia have consequences such as erosion of the esophagus and tooth enamel. Binge eating is a disorder in which a person will eat unusually large amounts of food at an unusually fast pace and will not follow the binge with any kind of purge. A binge eater can gain a large amount of weight in a short period of time.
I think that the fashion, film, media, and diet industry have contributed to our notions of beauty and to the rise in eating disorders by making young people (especially girls) feel inadequate by showing images of the "perfect body" (which has been altered to be this way on a computer) and telling them they should like this, and if not then they can't get any were in life. This would make any one feel like they are not good enough and if they would just change their looks then everything would be just fine. I think for some people a look at the clinical aspect of what eating disorders are could help aid in the prevention and treatment of an eating disorder. I do not think it would work for every person though. I have never thought about the fact that food, appearance preoccupation, and dieting could now be our society's new sacred rituals, but i guess it could be for some people. Everybody has their own little sacred ritual whether it is healthy or not and I do not think we could really rule these out since they have become a huge part of Americans' lives. The capitalist and abundant economic climate has contributed to eating disorders by promoting an unrealistic body image that we all feel we have to live up to just so they can profit on the sale of diet pills and cosmetics. It has also contributed to obesity by putting food advertisements every where and selling highly processed food that is loaded with calories but so convenient for us to get our hands on. Our society has become so centered on appearance that I do not think it could change. First of all the media would have to change completely and stop showing these unrealistic body types (which would mean less profit because sex sells), we would have to stop advertising food (food industries would suffer and we are capitalists so that would not go over well for them), and food industries would need to make healthier food (which would be substantially more expensive). There is a possibility that our society could become reintegrated but I do not see it happening.
I think that the fashion, film, media, and diet industry have contributed to our notions of beauty and to the rise in eating disorders by making young people (especially girls) feel inadequate by showing images of the "perfect body" (which has been altered to be this way on a computer) and telling them they should like this, and if not then they can't get any were in life. This would make any one feel like they are not good enough and if they would just change their looks then everything would be just fine. I think for some people a look at the clinical aspect of what eating disorders are could help aid in the prevention and treatment of an eating disorder. I do not think it would work for every person though. I have never thought about the fact that food, appearance preoccupation, and dieting could now be our society's new sacred rituals, but i guess it could be for some people. Everybody has their own little sacred ritual whether it is healthy or not and I do not think we could really rule these out since they have become a huge part of Americans' lives. The capitalist and abundant economic climate has contributed to eating disorders by promoting an unrealistic body image that we all feel we have to live up to just so they can profit on the sale of diet pills and cosmetics. It has also contributed to obesity by putting food advertisements every where and selling highly processed food that is loaded with calories but so convenient for us to get our hands on. Our society has become so centered on appearance that I do not think it could change. First of all the media would have to change completely and stop showing these unrealistic body types (which would mean less profit because sex sells), we would have to stop advertising food (food industries would suffer and we are capitalists so that would not go over well for them), and food industries would need to make healthier food (which would be substantially more expensive). There is a possibility that our society could become reintegrated but I do not see it happening.
Monday, October 5, 2009
blog #6 (cosmetic surgery)
Cosmetic surgery and plastic surgery is a huge industry in our society today. According to Gimlin in her essay, cosmetic surgery was originally used for disabled war veterans and industrial workers, usually men. She also mentions the fact that cosmetic surgery is now centered around women because they are unhappy with certain aspects of their body. It is interesting how the industry keeps growing and growing, and the patients are mostly women. This means that more and more women have to be unhappy with their bodies. Is it because women gain more economic power as time goes on and this makes men in the positions of power feel more threatened? And if so, have men been trying to oppress and control women even more throughout the years with the "beauty myth" because we are gaining more power? I really do not have strong feelings about cosmetic surgery either way. I think cosmetic or plastic surgery is like aspirin. It is just fine in moderation and sometimes it can really help people if they have something that is causing them pain, but if you take the whole bottle it can kill you. Just like going too far with the surgeries can have devastating effects. I do think that some people in our society take plastic surgery too lightly just because it has become so mainstream. Most people do not think about the fact that it is like any other surgery and you could lose your life in the process. I think that it started off as a great thing that would help people and i think that plastic surgery is still a positive thing that can help improve peoples' self-esteem. I also think that a lot of people take it to far, and too lightly, and this makes us look like a vain and shallow culture since we have let it go to such extremes. So I do believe that it depends on the context of the situation.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Amanda Walker
Paper One
I interviewed five people representing different ages and genders in order to determine their idea of beauty. One interviewee was a man in his fifties, another was a woman in her forties, I also interviewed a man and a woman both in their twenties, and lastly a man who was eighteen years old. To try and determine their idea of beauty I asked them questions about what they thought beauty was, who they considered beautiful and why, and what specific characteristics are beautiful. The only thing I specified was that I was implying beauty as it pertained to people. I did not specify what gender I wanted them to focus on, or if I wanted them to focus on inner or external beauty. The responses where very different in each case, yet they were all insightful and interesting.
The first interviewee, the eighteen year old man, had a hard time distinguishing beauty from lust. First he said that “average girls, like gap commercial girls” are beautiful. He said that beauty is not just looks but also the way a woman carries herself and communicates with people, and her attitude plays a key role in her beauty. I was pretty impressed by this answer coming from an eighteen year old guy. Then when I asked who he thought was beautiful he struggled. He thought for a minute or two then retorted “Megan Fox, but I do not know if she is beautiful or just sexually attractive, that is just the only woman I can really think about.” He said that he thought she was beautiful because she is short, has dark hair, and is in transformers. I asked who else resembled his idea of beauty and he said “Angelina Jolie, because she is tall and has pretty features like big lips.” He also said he liked shiny, dark hair, and dark skin. These examples seemed to contradict his first statement of what he regarded as beautiful. The only way I can analyze this is that when I asked him what is beautiful he told me qualities in a person along with looks, but when I asked him to give me a name he told me names of sexually attractive, “lusty” women. I think this is because when he tried to put a face and name with his example of beauty, the only thing he could picture was the media’s idea of beauty. Pictures of these women are all over TV and magazines and they talk about how beautiful they are, and this is just based on looks. Even though his definition of beauty included more than looks, he still said a name associated with only physical attraction, most likely because that is just who he has been told to associate with beauty.
Next was a man in his mid twenties. He described beauty as a woman who is tall, brunette, intelligent, funny, determined, and aware of what she wants out of life. He was not as detailed as the younger man but he was more consistent with his description and who he chose. He said that his girlfriend was the only person he saw as beautiful, this is probably not the only person, but it is sweet. He said that his girlfriend embodied all or most of the characteristics he finds beautiful. He actually stayed consistent and also did not mention a famous person as beautiful; he did not just mention a name of someone the media labeled as beautiful. I think the most interesting thing he said was that “beauty is more like a moment in time or an experience. It has to do with what you see as well as what you hear, feel, and think about. Beauty is so complex that it is hard to say what exactly is beautiful because someone can be beautiful one minute, then not so beautiful the next.” I had never thought about beauty this way but it seemed to really make since when he said this.
The third interviewee was a man in his fifties. He said that his daughter and wife are the people he sees as beautiful. He focused mostly on the wife, saying that the reason he thinks she is beautiful is that she is a good person. He also said it is because she is caring, pretty, has skills like being a great cook, and that she is a little “ornery.” He would not give me another name, this is sweet once again, but I have to question whether or not that is the only woman he finds beautiful. Maybe the reason the two last men only mentioned their significant other is because they are older and more mature so they realize what beauty really is, maybe it is because the youngest man was not in a relationship, maybe it is that the first man is younger so he is more influenced by the media. Possibly it is because they do not want to sound bad, or hurt their significant others’ feelings.
Then I interviewed a woman in her forties, she gave me some very interesting answers. She said that the human spirit is her idea of beauty. That it is not at all what is on the outside, but what your spirit is like. She said that some people can go through such horrible things and still be a good person, and not let the things they have endured affect them in a negative way. Their spirit can overcome some amazing obstacles and not be broken. She gave an example of a girl who lived in Africa and wanted to go to school but was not allowed to go so she would do her brother’s homework. She was finally allowed to go and attended school for two years, and then she was married off at the age of eleven to a man that beat her for wanting to go to school. Her dream was always to come to America and get a P.H.D. and she finally accomplished both goals even after all of that, and having two children by the time she was eighteen. The interviewee said this illustrates what she views as beautiful.
The other woman I interviewed was in her twenties. She said that her idea of beauty is being healthy, it does not matter what your body type is as long as you are healthy looking for your body type. She also stated that part of being beautiful is what you pride yourself in, and also has to do with your actions. She considers her husband, friends, her mother, her sister, Kelly Rippa, and Kate Winslet to be beautiful people. Also, that people who do charity work, conservation work, who are good parents, and who are just good people, are truly beautiful. She also said that someone can be pretty on the outside but if they have a bad personality it shows through in their expressions and actions and this keeps them from being beautiful. Her example of this was Audrina from the Hills, a TV show on MTV, because she is very pretty but is not a nice person so it takes away from her looks.
Overall I can tell that the women in general think about personality more than looks when it comes to beauty. Also, women described both men and women when asked for a specific person. Men, on the other hand, only described women and not any men. I think this is because women are portrayed as the sex symbols, and women are the ones who are constantly judged on their looks so women and men alike are used to critiquing the beauty of women. Also, women are usually attracted to men since they are the opposite sex so that is probably why they described some men, but they still described more women as beautiful than they did men. One the other hand, men only described women as beautiful when I interviewed them. This could be because they are usually, and naturally attracted to women, or because women are the ones portrayed in the media everyday as sex symbols and portraits of perfection. This might actually have something to do with the “tough guise.” Men have to put up this “front” so that they look more macho or masculine, and if a man describes another man as attractive, let alone beautiful, he will be scrutinized, beat up, or maybe called a homosexual.
Now I will try to define beauty according to what we have read and experienced so far in this course. According to Naomi Wolf in The Beauty Myth, “beauty is a currency system like the gold standard. Like any economy, it is determined by politics, and in the modern age in the West it is the last, best belief system that keeps male dominance intact.”(p.12) I completely agree with this statement. It does seem to be the last belief system that keeps male dominance intact because every day women spend countless hours trying to make themselves “beautiful” instead of using this time to gain economic power. On top of that, the only reason we strive to be beautiful is to please men and make their lives more fulfilled. We spend so much time on catering to men, because they have the majority of the resources. If women would have started off in this society with all the economic power, then men would be the ones trying to please us and spending countless hours catering to us in order to receive the resources they needed. The idea of human beauty is definitely a product of the culture and who holds the economic power in a society. Naomi Wolf also states “in assigning value to women in a vertical hierarchy according to a culturally imposed physical standard, it is an expression of power relations in which women must unnaturally compete for resources that men have appropriated for themselves.”(p.12)
In our society women fixate on trying to be beautiful and reverse aging. We know this is not just some inherent quality in the DNA of women, or a factor of evolution that affects women worldwide. When you look at the way other cultures view “beauty” and who inside of that culture is spending time on embodying that ideal beauty, you will see that it is not the same for all cultures or societies. This proves that it is not some evolutionary quality that every woman develops.
Every culture’s ideal of beauty is different. Wolf says “beauty is not universal or changeless, though the West pretends that all ideals of female beauty stem from one Platonic Ideal Woman.”(p.12) She talks about how the “Maori admire a fat vulva, and the Padung, droopy breasts.”(p.12) In America droopy breasts are the last thing a woman would want. These are just a few examples of how beauty is not universal, and not everyone in the world thinks beauty means blonde hair, blue eyes, no body fat, or perky breasts. I think that men just thought up this image of a woman that has such perfect features that it is virtually unattainable to look like her, and then called it the ideal of beauty that we all have to live up to.
Another example of how ideals of beauty vary among different cultures is how the Nigerian Wodaabes obsess over male beauty. In the Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf discusses how in their culture the women hold the economic power, and men are the ones that spend hours painting themselves and they compete in contests that the women judge.(p.13) This just goes to show that beauty has everything to do with trying to obtain economic power and resources. In their culture the women hold all the economic power so the men have to impress them and please them in order to gain some of those resources. On the other hand, here in America the men hold most of the economic power and women are the ones competing with each other over beauty, in hopes of attaining resources and power. The media makes the women of our culture think that the only way they will be able to achieve greatness is by improving the way they look, but when that is finally achieved some women are scrutinized for being too high maintenance or too superficial, it is like women can never win.
Wolf states that “the beauty myth is always prescribing behavior and not appearance.”(p.14) If you think about this it makes sense, every culture has a different ideal of beauty so this shows that the main goal of the beauty myth is not to make every woman look alike, this would not benefit men. The main goal is to manipulate women into doing certain things. Men want women to spend their time and money on gaining beauty so they are not spending their time getting an education or a good career. This is so women will remain less powerful that men. Wolfe makes a good point when she talks about how we think our identity has to correlate with our looks so we are always seeking outside approval and this makes us vulnerable. I think that women need to stop trying so hard to gain this sometimes unattainable beauty and just strive for power. This would really empower women and shift the reins in our society.
Works Cited
Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth: How images of beauty are used against women. 1991. New York city, NY: HarperCollins, 2002. 12-14. Print.
Paper One
I interviewed five people representing different ages and genders in order to determine their idea of beauty. One interviewee was a man in his fifties, another was a woman in her forties, I also interviewed a man and a woman both in their twenties, and lastly a man who was eighteen years old. To try and determine their idea of beauty I asked them questions about what they thought beauty was, who they considered beautiful and why, and what specific characteristics are beautiful. The only thing I specified was that I was implying beauty as it pertained to people. I did not specify what gender I wanted them to focus on, or if I wanted them to focus on inner or external beauty. The responses where very different in each case, yet they were all insightful and interesting.
The first interviewee, the eighteen year old man, had a hard time distinguishing beauty from lust. First he said that “average girls, like gap commercial girls” are beautiful. He said that beauty is not just looks but also the way a woman carries herself and communicates with people, and her attitude plays a key role in her beauty. I was pretty impressed by this answer coming from an eighteen year old guy. Then when I asked who he thought was beautiful he struggled. He thought for a minute or two then retorted “Megan Fox, but I do not know if she is beautiful or just sexually attractive, that is just the only woman I can really think about.” He said that he thought she was beautiful because she is short, has dark hair, and is in transformers. I asked who else resembled his idea of beauty and he said “Angelina Jolie, because she is tall and has pretty features like big lips.” He also said he liked shiny, dark hair, and dark skin. These examples seemed to contradict his first statement of what he regarded as beautiful. The only way I can analyze this is that when I asked him what is beautiful he told me qualities in a person along with looks, but when I asked him to give me a name he told me names of sexually attractive, “lusty” women. I think this is because when he tried to put a face and name with his example of beauty, the only thing he could picture was the media’s idea of beauty. Pictures of these women are all over TV and magazines and they talk about how beautiful they are, and this is just based on looks. Even though his definition of beauty included more than looks, he still said a name associated with only physical attraction, most likely because that is just who he has been told to associate with beauty.
Next was a man in his mid twenties. He described beauty as a woman who is tall, brunette, intelligent, funny, determined, and aware of what she wants out of life. He was not as detailed as the younger man but he was more consistent with his description and who he chose. He said that his girlfriend was the only person he saw as beautiful, this is probably not the only person, but it is sweet. He said that his girlfriend embodied all or most of the characteristics he finds beautiful. He actually stayed consistent and also did not mention a famous person as beautiful; he did not just mention a name of someone the media labeled as beautiful. I think the most interesting thing he said was that “beauty is more like a moment in time or an experience. It has to do with what you see as well as what you hear, feel, and think about. Beauty is so complex that it is hard to say what exactly is beautiful because someone can be beautiful one minute, then not so beautiful the next.” I had never thought about beauty this way but it seemed to really make since when he said this.
The third interviewee was a man in his fifties. He said that his daughter and wife are the people he sees as beautiful. He focused mostly on the wife, saying that the reason he thinks she is beautiful is that she is a good person. He also said it is because she is caring, pretty, has skills like being a great cook, and that she is a little “ornery.” He would not give me another name, this is sweet once again, but I have to question whether or not that is the only woman he finds beautiful. Maybe the reason the two last men only mentioned their significant other is because they are older and more mature so they realize what beauty really is, maybe it is because the youngest man was not in a relationship, maybe it is that the first man is younger so he is more influenced by the media. Possibly it is because they do not want to sound bad, or hurt their significant others’ feelings.
Then I interviewed a woman in her forties, she gave me some very interesting answers. She said that the human spirit is her idea of beauty. That it is not at all what is on the outside, but what your spirit is like. She said that some people can go through such horrible things and still be a good person, and not let the things they have endured affect them in a negative way. Their spirit can overcome some amazing obstacles and not be broken. She gave an example of a girl who lived in Africa and wanted to go to school but was not allowed to go so she would do her brother’s homework. She was finally allowed to go and attended school for two years, and then she was married off at the age of eleven to a man that beat her for wanting to go to school. Her dream was always to come to America and get a P.H.D. and she finally accomplished both goals even after all of that, and having two children by the time she was eighteen. The interviewee said this illustrates what she views as beautiful.
The other woman I interviewed was in her twenties. She said that her idea of beauty is being healthy, it does not matter what your body type is as long as you are healthy looking for your body type. She also stated that part of being beautiful is what you pride yourself in, and also has to do with your actions. She considers her husband, friends, her mother, her sister, Kelly Rippa, and Kate Winslet to be beautiful people. Also, that people who do charity work, conservation work, who are good parents, and who are just good people, are truly beautiful. She also said that someone can be pretty on the outside but if they have a bad personality it shows through in their expressions and actions and this keeps them from being beautiful. Her example of this was Audrina from the Hills, a TV show on MTV, because she is very pretty but is not a nice person so it takes away from her looks.
Overall I can tell that the women in general think about personality more than looks when it comes to beauty. Also, women described both men and women when asked for a specific person. Men, on the other hand, only described women and not any men. I think this is because women are portrayed as the sex symbols, and women are the ones who are constantly judged on their looks so women and men alike are used to critiquing the beauty of women. Also, women are usually attracted to men since they are the opposite sex so that is probably why they described some men, but they still described more women as beautiful than they did men. One the other hand, men only described women as beautiful when I interviewed them. This could be because they are usually, and naturally attracted to women, or because women are the ones portrayed in the media everyday as sex symbols and portraits of perfection. This might actually have something to do with the “tough guise.” Men have to put up this “front” so that they look more macho or masculine, and if a man describes another man as attractive, let alone beautiful, he will be scrutinized, beat up, or maybe called a homosexual.
Now I will try to define beauty according to what we have read and experienced so far in this course. According to Naomi Wolf in The Beauty Myth, “beauty is a currency system like the gold standard. Like any economy, it is determined by politics, and in the modern age in the West it is the last, best belief system that keeps male dominance intact.”(p.12) I completely agree with this statement. It does seem to be the last belief system that keeps male dominance intact because every day women spend countless hours trying to make themselves “beautiful” instead of using this time to gain economic power. On top of that, the only reason we strive to be beautiful is to please men and make their lives more fulfilled. We spend so much time on catering to men, because they have the majority of the resources. If women would have started off in this society with all the economic power, then men would be the ones trying to please us and spending countless hours catering to us in order to receive the resources they needed. The idea of human beauty is definitely a product of the culture and who holds the economic power in a society. Naomi Wolf also states “in assigning value to women in a vertical hierarchy according to a culturally imposed physical standard, it is an expression of power relations in which women must unnaturally compete for resources that men have appropriated for themselves.”(p.12)
In our society women fixate on trying to be beautiful and reverse aging. We know this is not just some inherent quality in the DNA of women, or a factor of evolution that affects women worldwide. When you look at the way other cultures view “beauty” and who inside of that culture is spending time on embodying that ideal beauty, you will see that it is not the same for all cultures or societies. This proves that it is not some evolutionary quality that every woman develops.
Every culture’s ideal of beauty is different. Wolf says “beauty is not universal or changeless, though the West pretends that all ideals of female beauty stem from one Platonic Ideal Woman.”(p.12) She talks about how the “Maori admire a fat vulva, and the Padung, droopy breasts.”(p.12) In America droopy breasts are the last thing a woman would want. These are just a few examples of how beauty is not universal, and not everyone in the world thinks beauty means blonde hair, blue eyes, no body fat, or perky breasts. I think that men just thought up this image of a woman that has such perfect features that it is virtually unattainable to look like her, and then called it the ideal of beauty that we all have to live up to.
Another example of how ideals of beauty vary among different cultures is how the Nigerian Wodaabes obsess over male beauty. In the Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf discusses how in their culture the women hold the economic power, and men are the ones that spend hours painting themselves and they compete in contests that the women judge.(p.13) This just goes to show that beauty has everything to do with trying to obtain economic power and resources. In their culture the women hold all the economic power so the men have to impress them and please them in order to gain some of those resources. On the other hand, here in America the men hold most of the economic power and women are the ones competing with each other over beauty, in hopes of attaining resources and power. The media makes the women of our culture think that the only way they will be able to achieve greatness is by improving the way they look, but when that is finally achieved some women are scrutinized for being too high maintenance or too superficial, it is like women can never win.
Wolf states that “the beauty myth is always prescribing behavior and not appearance.”(p.14) If you think about this it makes sense, every culture has a different ideal of beauty so this shows that the main goal of the beauty myth is not to make every woman look alike, this would not benefit men. The main goal is to manipulate women into doing certain things. Men want women to spend their time and money on gaining beauty so they are not spending their time getting an education or a good career. This is so women will remain less powerful that men. Wolfe makes a good point when she talks about how we think our identity has to correlate with our looks so we are always seeking outside approval and this makes us vulnerable. I think that women need to stop trying so hard to gain this sometimes unattainable beauty and just strive for power. This would really empower women and shift the reins in our society.
Works Cited
Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth: How images of beauty are used against women. 1991. New York city, NY: HarperCollins, 2002. 12-14. Print.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Barbies or GI Joe, does it matter?
It is very interesting to really think about the toys that children play with in our society and how gender specific they are. Most toys are very gender specific, girls usually play with barbies and dolls, and boys play with toy guns and cars. Girls toys are marketed using lots of compassion and affection, like showing other girls taking care of a baby doll. Animals are also used a lot, like in My Little Pony commercials, or stuffed animals are also used. Little girls are also shown doing lots of house work, for example, little girls are the ones targeted in commercials for play kitchens. On the other hand, little boys commercials use more action, getting dirty, playing outside, and they are louder. Little boys are targeted in commercials for toys like water guns, cars, swords, and action figures. I do think that toys influence the way that children play to an extent. Children learn how to play from their parents and friends and from what they see on tv, and they use the toys that they are given. If we give a girl a barbie she can't realy pretend it is a gun or a car if she wants to, or if we give a boy a toy gun it would be hard to pretend it was a baby doll. On the other hand, when I was a child I loved barbies and dolls so those are the toys I had, but I would also play with my brother's cap guns, GI Joe, and the violent video games he had. I think that shows that kids really know how to find the toys they want to play with and will use their imaginations to play the way they want to. I was sitting here trying to make sense of why our society likes to force girls to play with "girly toys" and boys to play with "boy's toys". I feel like it started along time ago when our society wasn't as advanced and men were the physiologically stronger ones so they went out to do the manual labor, and women stayed at the home because someone had to do house work. Also, women had to be the pregnant ones and breast feed, and there were no daycares to watch children and someone needed to do it. So back then it was almost imperative to the running of a house hold for men and women to have these seperated roles. I think this is where gendered toys came from, because they almost had to take on those roles and the toys would prepare them for those roles. Today we are more advanced and all of work is not just manual work, and women can get out and earn a living because there is daycare so they can get away from their children. I don't think we need to force gendered toys on children anymore, but I do think it is just what we are ussed to now
Monday, September 21, 2009
Blog#4
The "Tough Guise" is a sort of front that men and boys put up so they look more masculine or tough. The tough guise can be beneficial to men and boys because it can be used as a defense mechanism. They might also use it to attract women, since we usually like to feel secure and protected, strength is a quality women sometimes look for in men. The tough guise can be an effective and adaptive response when it is used to scare off bullies in school or in sports to intimidate opponents, or even when it is used to act tough to get a girl interested in them.
It can also be self-destructive and dangerous when the it is taken too far and it is accomplished by hurting other people. This might happen when a boy putts on a tough guise by being the bully to other kids, or when a man instigates a fight in which someone could really get hurt. This could also be dangerous when a tough guise is accomplished by beating up women. People might think gender issues are synonymous with feminine issues because women are the ones who are on the losing side when it comes to gender, so they are the ones who would have problems with gender roles. Men do not usually have a problem with gender seeing how they get the upper hand for the most part. This can make it difficult for men and women to understand the gendered nature of men's lives because men are not supposed to talk about it. Men are supposed to handle their problems alone and not talk about them, and if they talk about them they are too sensitive or feminine. This pressure on men and boys to live up to the ideal of physical size and strength can have a huge toll on their lives. It can make them feel like they are not enough of a man if they are not strong. They might not get on the football team if they are not stalky enough, or might not get on the basketball team if they are not tall enough. This can also drive men and boys to use steroids to try and accomplish the size they desire. I think that media can inspire change because boys wouldn't know that they are not strong enough or big enough if they were not told this on a daily basis. The media feeds us these images of perfection thousands of times a day and we have to constantly compare ourselves to these images. We are susceptible to the media influence because it is everywhere, in every form, and they make it appealing to every single person. We are exposed to it at such an early age, and it teaches us how to think.
It can also be self-destructive and dangerous when the it is taken too far and it is accomplished by hurting other people. This might happen when a boy putts on a tough guise by being the bully to other kids, or when a man instigates a fight in which someone could really get hurt. This could also be dangerous when a tough guise is accomplished by beating up women. People might think gender issues are synonymous with feminine issues because women are the ones who are on the losing side when it comes to gender, so they are the ones who would have problems with gender roles. Men do not usually have a problem with gender seeing how they get the upper hand for the most part. This can make it difficult for men and women to understand the gendered nature of men's lives because men are not supposed to talk about it. Men are supposed to handle their problems alone and not talk about them, and if they talk about them they are too sensitive or feminine. This pressure on men and boys to live up to the ideal of physical size and strength can have a huge toll on their lives. It can make them feel like they are not enough of a man if they are not strong. They might not get on the football team if they are not stalky enough, or might not get on the basketball team if they are not tall enough. This can also drive men and boys to use steroids to try and accomplish the size they desire. I think that media can inspire change because boys wouldn't know that they are not strong enough or big enough if they were not told this on a daily basis. The media feeds us these images of perfection thousands of times a day and we have to constantly compare ourselves to these images. We are susceptible to the media influence because it is everywhere, in every form, and they make it appealing to every single person. We are exposed to it at such an early age, and it teaches us how to think.
Blog#3
There are many repeated themes in the book. One of these is the struggle that women have fitting in when in the workplace. First of all women do not get compensated the same even if they are performing the same tasks in the workplace. Second, women get constantly ridiculed for what they wear to work, and people do not care at all what men wear. If a woman wears something serious or professional, she gets pegged as to masculine or not woman enough. If a woman wears something feminine of soft, then she gets pegged as slutty or too feminine, and men even blame sexual harassment on the fact that women dress feminine. Another theme is just the general oppression of women because of their looks. Women are thought to have less value in our society if they gain weight, get old, or do not dress well enough. Since when did our looks constitute the what we can contribute to society? If a woman doesn't fix her self up then she is thought of as not competent enough, but a man can roll out of bed in his clothes from the day before and nobody thinks twice about it. And why are there pants with writing on the backside for women and not for men? Why are there low-cut shirts for women available in just about every store, but I have never seen a pair of low-cut pants for men that give a little peek of their junk? Why do women think they have to show some skin to get recognized by men?
Beauty, body image, and sexual attraction is in fact a function of social construction. Everywhere you look you are influenced by advertisements that tell you what to think about yourself, other people, what is sexy, what is acceptable, and what is not acceptable. Beauty is social constructed because adds tell us that if we have wrinkles we need to get rid of them, or if we are fat we need to take diet pills. It is not just media, it is other people who look down on over weight, old, or unmanicurred people. School plays a huge role early on in a person's life. If a child wears clothes from a thrift store or wal-mart then they are not good enough. So people learn to change their weight, clothes, wrinkles, glasses, shoes, and teeth to fit in and not be an outsider (because no one wants to feel like they do not fit in.)Sexual attraction is socially constructed because we only see "good-looking" people getting action in the media, we do not usually see "ugly" people getting action, so we learn that if we want someone to be attracted to us we need to be skinny, muscular, have big breasts (or other big parts), white teeth, no wrinkles, and just be perfect.
Ideals of female beauty function as a form of social control because every thing that a woman is involved in depends on the way she looks. If a woman looks old she might get discriminated against for a job. These ideals can hinder women because they will be thinking about what to wear to school so they fit in, instead of thinking about their homework assignments. Women do not get seen as human beings sometimes, they are only seen as objects, so they are not taken seriously. These ideals can control women by making them spend so much time and money on looking pretty and less time on gaining power and authority so that men are the ones still in those spots of power and authority.
Beauty, body image, and sexual attraction is in fact a function of social construction. Everywhere you look you are influenced by advertisements that tell you what to think about yourself, other people, what is sexy, what is acceptable, and what is not acceptable. Beauty is social constructed because adds tell us that if we have wrinkles we need to get rid of them, or if we are fat we need to take diet pills. It is not just media, it is other people who look down on over weight, old, or unmanicurred people. School plays a huge role early on in a person's life. If a child wears clothes from a thrift store or wal-mart then they are not good enough. So people learn to change their weight, clothes, wrinkles, glasses, shoes, and teeth to fit in and not be an outsider (because no one wants to feel like they do not fit in.)Sexual attraction is socially constructed because we only see "good-looking" people getting action in the media, we do not usually see "ugly" people getting action, so we learn that if we want someone to be attracted to us we need to be skinny, muscular, have big breasts (or other big parts), white teeth, no wrinkles, and just be perfect.
Ideals of female beauty function as a form of social control because every thing that a woman is involved in depends on the way she looks. If a woman looks old she might get discriminated against for a job. These ideals can hinder women because they will be thinking about what to wear to school so they fit in, instead of thinking about their homework assignments. Women do not get seen as human beings sometimes, they are only seen as objects, so they are not taken seriously. These ideals can control women by making them spend so much time and money on looking pretty and less time on gaining power and authority so that men are the ones still in those spots of power and authority.
Friday, September 11, 2009
what is body image
Body image is what a person pictures in their head when they think about their self. It is not just a snapshot of their body or face, it is all the ideas and connotations that go along with that picture they see. A person could be a perfectly healthy weight but if anyone has called them overweight(or even hinted at it) in their life, that person might picture their self as an overweight person. They do not only picture what they think about their own body, they picture what other people have told them about their body. I think that is how some people construct their body image, by putting together what other people and the media have told them about their body ( even if what they are told is not true). It is not only what they are told, but also how they are looked at and how other people are looked at. We talked about the male gaze in class and it really fits in here. If a woman notices a man drooling over another woman, then the man pays no attention to her, this woman might think she needs to look like the other woman to gain a man's attention. Body image should be studied because it is a very important part of life. whether or not a person has a positive body image can determine so many aspects of their life. If someone has a poor body image they might be introverted and not associate with other people, they might be depressed which causes other problems, and they could have eating disorders. If this is studied and we know how to boost a person's body image, then they might have a more fulfilling life. The first wave of feminism was basically about suffrage, and women getting the same rights that men have like voting.The second wave was about equal wages for women and men, and about being seen as more than just a pretty face. It fought against domestic violence and abuse also. The third wave is about the individual and expanding the fight for equality. Women don't want to be compared to one generic standard of beauty, we want to be seen as beautiful for who we are, instead compared to who we are not. The first two waves were very organized and there were riots and things like that, but the second wave is all about individuals standing up for themselves. This has somewhat been accomplished because women are more widely accepted for who they are, this is how standards have changed. We are not only seen for how clean the house is or if we are wearing the right dress, or if we are married or not. We can now be seen for our thoughts, ideas, our brains, as a Strong woman. We do not have to be defined by a man anymore. Ophira Edut says a body outlaw is "a rebel with a cause, willing to step outside my comfort zone to expose people to a body type that had practically disappeared from the cultural imagination." In pop culture I think a body outlaw would missy elliot( because she doesn't think she has to be stick thin) and anne hathoway(because of her fair skin).
Monday, August 31, 2009
intro to body image
My name is amanda walker and i chose to take body image vs.reality because i think it will be very interesting. I think that every one struggles with at least one issue about thier body, and i hope this class might help me let go of some of the issues that i have. It will be very interesting to anylize these issues and see why we have such a hard time excepting ourselves. some issues are more pressing than others, like the issue of wieght. I think being over wieght is the biggest issue people have with thier bodies, even when they are a healthy wieght. Also, looking older is a big issue these days. People (usually women) will freak out over the slightest wrinkle or gray hair when getting older is inevitable. My expectations for this course are that i will have a great experience learning about these issues, and i will learn to except my body instead of rejecting it all the time. Five questions that i would like to answer for myself are:
1.) why is body image such a huge role in how we feel and think, why do people get depressed if they gain a couple pounds or get a few wrinkles?
2.) why do we judge people so much on the way they look? People do not choose to have a certain color hair, or be tall or short, or to be handicapped, or have freckles or moles, or have small breasts, or have bad teeth; this is just the way they are born and we make fun of them or think less of them.
3.) How can I learn to be comfortable with myself and just be happy?
4.) How can I help others to be happy with thierselves?
5.) why do certain people have issues that other people do not have?
1.) why is body image such a huge role in how we feel and think, why do people get depressed if they gain a couple pounds or get a few wrinkles?
2.) why do we judge people so much on the way they look? People do not choose to have a certain color hair, or be tall or short, or to be handicapped, or have freckles or moles, or have small breasts, or have bad teeth; this is just the way they are born and we make fun of them or think less of them.
3.) How can I learn to be comfortable with myself and just be happy?
4.) How can I help others to be happy with thierselves?
5.) why do certain people have issues that other people do not have?
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