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.

Response to Kit: "The Masculine Mystique"

I wish I had read this before I had made my previous post, however this will complete my requirements for the week, so what the hay. I was glad to read the thoughts of someone who felt the same as I did. I liked how she talked about her journalism days and how her teacher told her “interviews weren’t real writing” and she can now see why. I hadn’t even thought that perhaps some of my confusion did arise from how the writer would mention Stallone’s actions and such, but it did make for a very mottled composition. I also really agreed with her last few statements. “Overall, I liked the idea of this piece. It was thinking outside the box. It had an interesting message in relation to stereotypes, gender roles, and the male identity.” This is some of what I had wanted to speak to in my earlier post but I can never seem to get my ideas out in just the way I want. So I was glad to read that other people felt as I did after reading the piece.

Sylvester Stallone

This piece about Stallone was interesting. I was very surprised how smart he sounds. I mean his vocabulary is rather extensive, I didn’t know a bunch of the words he said. I thought that was cool just because people in his realm (macho-wacho men) are stereotypically “stupid”, but Stallone wasn’t like that at all. He had real determination in his responses to Susan Faludi. Some of the things he said were kind of what I would expect. Just the stuff about he is a stereotype and people only see him one way and see men certain ways and bla bla bla. Anyways, I would have liked to hear him talk about how he is different or maybe talk about his life as an action hero. He made it seem like being who he has been for the past 30-40 years has been bad and a bad influence. However I believe that a person of his celeb magnitude holds a lot of power to shape young minds. I mean yes, his movies all pretty much involve the decapitation of people and shooting up stuff and whatever but he could still try to show young men and boys what it takes to truly be a hero. I don’t know. I didn’t always understand what he was talking about in is responses. It did seem a little scrambled and random, but overall it was interesting but kind of boring. I just feel like his responses weren’t the most clear compared to other interviews I have read. I’m not trying to take away from his intelligence, but I just didn’t necessarily understand what was going on at all times. I don’t know…