Response to Katie: "Mark and Shawn"

I agree to disagree with Katie. Though she didn’t exactly give a great deal of opinion but from what she did say I agree that the experience for these two men was substantial and they are not necessarily wrong to be upset with fraternities. Anyways. I think that people can do whatever they please to their own bodies. If you want to cut into your flesh with a scalpel to feel erotic and emotional then that is your business. However, even though I think people should do as they please, I think this whole body modification is ridiculous. Your body does not want you to do these types of things. It is just too extreme for my taste. Now I am a little hypocritical because I am not opposed to tattoos or piercings. Though I think tattoos that have no meaning and peircings that are in other places besides your ears are a little crazy too. Ok, to some the shock of being branded feels good, well personally I think these people need to see a shrink. I’m sorry if this sounds distasteful and judgmental, well that would be because it is. Putting stars in your forehead because you liked Star Trek as a kid, or cutting yourself to feel pleasure is disgusting. Get a hobby and draw a picture to express yourself. Wear a shirt saying, “Hey I’m GAY” if you want people to know it and not get you confused with some Fraternity idiot. This whole thing I find very upsetting because I find the body to be a beautiful thing unto itself, not embellished with unnatural scars or stretched earlobes. Just be who you are because that is who you are. You shouldn’t need to destroy your body from it’s natural state to accomplish self expression. Get a life people.

Fattness in the media....

I think our in class discussion on Wednesday was really interesting about issues with weight and what messages the media and such are sending to kids as influences. I think that it would not be such a bad things to stop glorifying women who are deemed overweight in the media as “just being themselves.” Because I do think that it sends a negative image to kids saying that it is ok if you are overweight and it doesn’t matter. However on the flip side I do also think that there are people who cannot physically help that they may be overweight. Some people are built in larger proportions and some people have slower metabolisms and other such conditions that make it nearly impossible to be thin. I really can’t make up my mind about the situation but it seems that instead of telling kids, yes, be fat, it’s ok, we should be telling them to get exercise, stop sitting in front of the tv and such. Kids should be able to be themselves and they should be happy, along with teens, and adults, but I have not met anyone who is overweight that is happy about being big. Some people accept it, but that doesn’t mean they like it. So I just think that this Meme Roth character may have some rightness to her cause. Criticize me if you must, but consider do you want your children to be unhealthy and overweight? I certainly don’t. Roth takes some extremes but her overall cause is not totally crazy.

Response to Cameron: Light vs. Dark

After reading what Cameron thought about this I also took some time to reflect on the issue of light and dark in terms of skin color. I am not one for tanning, or using darkening lotions to make it appear that I am tan or whatever. It isn’t natural. I am a firm believer in that natural is better. I think for special occasion and such, dressing up, wearing makeup, or thing like that are ok. But to sit in artificial light to make your skin darker does not seem right. Cameron talked about how being tan may look more attractive in our culture and how she used to use creams to make her appear darker but for what point. Do you really want to people to like you for your unnatural self. I personally would rather someone accept me for me and not a cream. I also look at tanning in tanning salons as very dangerous. Your skin does not want you to do it and it looks disgusting to me. A girl on my floor has been doing a lot of tanning recently and she is beginning to look orange and fake. I don’t know, people can do what they chose, as is the glory of America, but consider getting what you could have done instead when you are lying in a hospital bed with cancer because you wanted to be tan instead of natural.

So I just read the two articles for tomorrows class and I found them interesting yet quite boring. I do not consider myself a racist person in the slightest. I think people to think that other races are inferior or “bad” in some way are disgusting and should live in their own colony on a deserted island because to be honest with everyone, we were all muts at one point or another along the genealogy. Anyways…again, I’m not saying this trying to be mean or racist of whatever, and I don’t know what it is like to be black, obviously but it seems like all we’ve read in this class about black people is them complaining about themselves or white people. From what we’ve read it just seems like the authors think that all white people want black people to write about their hair. I could care less! I have a black friend who changes her hair a lot and it was interesting and she would talk about it some and I’d compliment her on it. Nobody that I know of asked her to talk about her hair in detail and all that crap that Pearl Cleage was talking about. I have nothing against black people and their hair and if they complain, however it does get annoying as a white person when I’m accused for everything wrong in black people’s lives. I didn’t think that I did anything and I apologize if I did.

Essay #2

I'm feeling a tad uneasy about this essay. I have brainstormed and thought a great deal about it and yet I still cannot come up with a starting point or anything really to talk about for that matter. I chose to do the third topic because it seemed to spark the most interest for me but it is still a challenge. I also decided to focus in on body image, and even more specifically, body image in women. However even though i have some ideas and thoughts about what to write about I am just feeling as if anything I write will have already been written. To me it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to write about stuff that has already been way over done. Everybody already knows that we live in a superficial world where women in general are not secure about their physical self and wish to be different. Everyone knows that women think a lot about their body image and have a lot of pressure to be beautiful and what not. Even now when I'm writing this it just seems like bla bla bla. I just don't know where to start or how to make what I write sound better and more interesting. I just feel like it has all been done and I don't want to add to the rubbish of worthless writing about topics that have already been tirelessly written about. Bla...bla...bla...

Response to Dan: Transforming

In reading "The Other Body: Reflections on Difference, Disablility and Identity Politics" by Ynestra King, we get a very intimate look at the life of a disabled person. I thought her writing was very powerful becuase it was obvious that she felt very passionately about the subject. The idea that being disabled has become an identitiy is one that we don't normally consider but I feel that she is right. We don't often take into consideration the handicapped when going about our daily lives or even in the examples she tells us, who we see socially. I thought the story she gave about the woman in the wheelcahir who wore provacative clothing was very interesting because she said how it was clothing not "suitable" for a handicapped person. Things like that we don't normally consider but she strikes it right on the mark with how people would react to a situation like that. I thought her last line was the best, saying that disability is the only one that can happen to anyone in an instant. This sentence struck me beucase it is true how fast our body and our lives can change. The transformation that King talks absolutely exists because even after all the characteristics that make us unique, we are still human and we are still identified by how we look on the outside.

Response to Brianne: March 17th

I agree a lot with what Brianne talked about in this post. There are people out there who will do just about anything no matter how it will hurt others. After finishing Freaks I liked how the film did turn the term of “Freak” and made the normal looking people the “freaks” because of their attitude and actions towards the other performers in the Sideshow. I also liked how Brianne made a connection with teenagers and how they act. However, I would disagree and say that the actions she talked about like being “vicious for no reason to someone who is different either to hide the fact that they insecure, or to get a laugh” are not solely denoted to teenagers, but to all ages. I haven’t come across an age group who has not fallen victim to the torment of treating people who are different with less respect than they deserve. It doesn’t really make sense why someone would treat someone cruelly just because they are anatomically different, because technically we are all anatomically different from one another. In that respect we are all the same because of our differences. Oh how I love to be all philosophical. Yes.