Sunday, October 11, 2009
Blog 7
An eating disorder is a severe disturbance in eating habits. Fashion and the media as well as diet plans have contributed to the rise in eating disorders because they continue to show very thin women as beautiful. They make the people watching them feel like they are not good enough unless they look like they people in the adds. Then the diet industry feeds on the insecurities of people and when the diet products they advertise do not work the only thing left for some people are eating disorders. I do think that a detailed look at the clinical picture of eating disorders can be used to prevent them; but I think that we must also fix society's view of beauty. I don't think it has become society's sacred ritual. Many in the United States are still overweight and being comfortable in your own skin is slowly becoming the new theme. We are a rich nation with plenty of food and "fast fixes" for weight problems but if we take the focus off of being skinny and back on to being healthy we can fix the problems of society.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Blog 6
According to Debra Grimlin in her essay “Cosmetic Surgery: Paying for your Beauty” cosmetic surgery was initially used for men that were disfigured in war or industrial accidents. Cosmetic surgery became centered around women because of the increasing pressure to conform to society's idea of beauty. Average became the new ugly...women needed to fit the mold of beauty and the easiest, fastest way to do this is to have cosmetic surgery. I feel that cosmetic surgery is necessary. Women today need to feel that they are beautiful in order to keep healthy mentaly. If it takes going under the knife and having surgery to fit your idea of beauty then by all means do it. I do think some people do take it too lightly because they do not take the time to learn the facts about the surgery they are getting, or they do not take the time to research the doctor the are allowing to perform the surgery. I think cosmetic surgery is something positive that people can do to improve their look and self image. How bad can something be if it helps a person to feel better about themselves? By feeling better about the way they look it will open more opportunities for that person.
Paper 1...Second Prompt
Jenna Tucker
Professor Yaisa Mann
WS 3413.001
October 2, 2009
Paper #1
I interviewed six different people to get a good idea of what the different generations thought beauty was. I interviewed both males and females in their early twenties, mid forties and early sixties. The two questions I asked them were how do you define beauty, and who do you consider beautiful and why. The responses I got failed to surprise me.
The female in her early twenties defined beauty as “the outward appearance of a person as compared to the norms of society.” When asked who she thought was beautiful and why she answered very quickly “Brad Pitt is beautiful because she has an amazing body, very attractive face and every man aspires to look like him.” The male in his early twenties defined beauty as “how attractive a person is” and said that Hale Berry was beautiful because “she has everything a man dreams of…an amazing body with a gorgeous face.” The woman of mid forties defined beauty as “the outward and inward appearance of a person.” When asked who she thought was beautiful and why she responded by saying that “everyone is beautiful in their own way. We may not all be as beautiful on the outside as a supermodel, but everyone is beautiful by either the way they look or the actions they take in life.” The male in his mid forties had a very similar answer to that of the male in his early twenties. He defined beauty as “a person’s attractiveness compared to societal norms” and said that Angelina Jolie was beautiful because “she is the epitome of beauty in today society. She has a great career, her face is beautiful and an amazing body that every man dreams of.” The female in her early sixties defined beauty as “the outward appearance of a person that is shaped not only by how they look but also by what they have been through.” She told me she thought I was beautiful because “you are young and have huge dreams and aren’t afraid to accomplish them. You may not fit into society’s norm of beauty but you have seen a lot in your short life and are confident.” The man in his early sixties had a similar view of beauty.
It seems that for the majority of their lives men see beauty as how attractive a person is. Both the male in his twenties and the male in his forties based who they thought was beautiful on how the person purely looks. They love the thin, curvaceous body that goes along with a face that is almost flawless. Both of these men put so much emphasis on physical appearance and did not stop to consider beauty as being how a person acts as well as how they look. This was true of the female in her twenties as well. It is no wonder that as Gimlin points out “Cosmetic surgery is one of the fastest growing specialties in American medicine” (106). There seems to be a shared idea of beauty based on the media that young men and women strive to achieve. Vida points out when speaking of sorority rushees, she says they “are primped so that they will look like the kind of girls boys like” (8). Half of the people I interviewed emphasized only physical beauty.
The other three people I interviewed; the woman in her forties and the man and woman in their sixties seemed to incorporate not only the physical appearance of a person but also the “inner beauty” of a person. They were not as concerned with simply how a person looked, they felt beauty also came from how a person acted and the things they had been through in their lives. It seems that as we get older we begin to be less superficial. We see the true beauty in people. You can be the most attractive person alive; but if you are not a good person then your physical beauty has been negated. To me this is why many marriages end in divorce. When we are younger we see only the physical, but as we age we open our minds to the physical and the spiritual as well as the actions of the opposite gender. The quote “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” does not really seem to be the case; it seems to be that beauty is based on culture.
Professor Yaisa Mann
WS 3413.001
October 2, 2009
Paper #1
I interviewed six different people to get a good idea of what the different generations thought beauty was. I interviewed both males and females in their early twenties, mid forties and early sixties. The two questions I asked them were how do you define beauty, and who do you consider beautiful and why. The responses I got failed to surprise me.
The female in her early twenties defined beauty as “the outward appearance of a person as compared to the norms of society.” When asked who she thought was beautiful and why she answered very quickly “Brad Pitt is beautiful because she has an amazing body, very attractive face and every man aspires to look like him.” The male in his early twenties defined beauty as “how attractive a person is” and said that Hale Berry was beautiful because “she has everything a man dreams of…an amazing body with a gorgeous face.” The woman of mid forties defined beauty as “the outward and inward appearance of a person.” When asked who she thought was beautiful and why she responded by saying that “everyone is beautiful in their own way. We may not all be as beautiful on the outside as a supermodel, but everyone is beautiful by either the way they look or the actions they take in life.” The male in his mid forties had a very similar answer to that of the male in his early twenties. He defined beauty as “a person’s attractiveness compared to societal norms” and said that Angelina Jolie was beautiful because “she is the epitome of beauty in today society. She has a great career, her face is beautiful and an amazing body that every man dreams of.” The female in her early sixties defined beauty as “the outward appearance of a person that is shaped not only by how they look but also by what they have been through.” She told me she thought I was beautiful because “you are young and have huge dreams and aren’t afraid to accomplish them. You may not fit into society’s norm of beauty but you have seen a lot in your short life and are confident.” The man in his early sixties had a similar view of beauty.
It seems that for the majority of their lives men see beauty as how attractive a person is. Both the male in his twenties and the male in his forties based who they thought was beautiful on how the person purely looks. They love the thin, curvaceous body that goes along with a face that is almost flawless. Both of these men put so much emphasis on physical appearance and did not stop to consider beauty as being how a person acts as well as how they look. This was true of the female in her twenties as well. It is no wonder that as Gimlin points out “Cosmetic surgery is one of the fastest growing specialties in American medicine” (106). There seems to be a shared idea of beauty based on the media that young men and women strive to achieve. Vida points out when speaking of sorority rushees, she says they “are primped so that they will look like the kind of girls boys like” (8). Half of the people I interviewed emphasized only physical beauty.
The other three people I interviewed; the woman in her forties and the man and woman in their sixties seemed to incorporate not only the physical appearance of a person but also the “inner beauty” of a person. They were not as concerned with simply how a person looked, they felt beauty also came from how a person acted and the things they had been through in their lives. It seems that as we get older we begin to be less superficial. We see the true beauty in people. You can be the most attractive person alive; but if you are not a good person then your physical beauty has been negated. To me this is why many marriages end in divorce. When we are younger we see only the physical, but as we age we open our minds to the physical and the spiritual as well as the actions of the opposite gender. The quote “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” does not really seem to be the case; it seems to be that beauty is based on culture.
Paper 1...1st prompt
Jenna Tucker
Professor Yaisa Mann
WS 3413.001
October 2, 2009
Paper #1
The dictionary defines the word stereotype as “a simplified and standardized conception or image invested with special meaning and held in common by members of a group.” But an even better definition of the word stereotype was found in a cultural dictionary. They define stereotype as “a too simple and therefore distorted image of a group. A generalization usually exaggerated or oversimplified and often offensive, that is used to describe or distinguish a group.” The most common stereotypes seen today are based on gender. There is a certain way both a man and woman should act, dress, live and even in the goals set for their lives. Although women have made huge strides in equal rights throughout history, there is still a stereotype seen in every aspect of life. Friedan, in her book The Feminine Mystique, explains where this female stereotype has come from “in the millions of words written about women, for women, in all the columns, books and articles by experts telling women their role was to seek fulfillment as wives and mothers (Friedan).” What is this stereotype? Friedan, as well as the rest of the world would say that a woman’s job is to “devote their lives from earliest girlhood to finding a husband and bearing children.”
I have never really put much thought into the fact that I do not fit the stereotype of women until one day at work. A fellow female coworker approached me one afternoon in the break room and asked me if I was in a relationship. Naturally I said no. She then asked if I ever planned on getting married or having children (she was in the process of doing both of those things). I have never wanted to get married and the idea of children makes my stomach churn. I explained to her that I had never been the marriage type and in fact no, I never wanted children. I could tell by the look on her face that this was not an answer to the question she ever expected to hear. The last thing she said to me before walking off was “What type of real woman doesn’t want to have a family?” Until this point I never really thought about the fact that other women could not understand my stance on such ideas. I could not imagine why it was so taboo for a woman to have dreams of finishing college and having a career instead of dreaming of getting married and having children. But as Friedan explains, women used to have the same dreams as me; but the stereotype has become so prominent in our society that “Some women, in their forties and fifties, still remembered painfully giving up those dreams, but most of the younger women no longer even thought about them.”
At the time I was very annoyed and angry with the coworker. I could not believe that someone could be so naive and conforming to think that a woman’s main purpose on earth was to be a wife and bear children. I was as shocked by her ideas just as much as she was by mine; but at the time I did not know this…I was just angry that my ideas were being questioned. A few weeks after this happened I sat down to write about it and this is when the sadness began to set in. This seemingly innocent conversation that had taken place made my heart hurt. It is not a new stereotype, but I never quite understood that this sort of thing was still being taught today. I always thought that women had become smarter, had moved past the days of dreaming of being wives and mothers, I thought we had moved beyond all this. But I quickly realized that it is not the rest of society that is to blame; it is women themselves. Just like the coworker I had the conversation with, just like the woman who does not question it when her parents tell her she needs to do this or that because it will prepare her to be a good wife; it is women’s fault for believing this stereotype. To this day I still never want to get married and the simple thought of children still makes me nauseous, but I have come to learn that I can always express my thoughts on marriage and children; but that in no way means that the majority of women will ever understand.
Professor Yaisa Mann
WS 3413.001
October 2, 2009
Paper #1
The dictionary defines the word stereotype as “a simplified and standardized conception or image invested with special meaning and held in common by members of a group.” But an even better definition of the word stereotype was found in a cultural dictionary. They define stereotype as “a too simple and therefore distorted image of a group. A generalization usually exaggerated or oversimplified and often offensive, that is used to describe or distinguish a group.” The most common stereotypes seen today are based on gender. There is a certain way both a man and woman should act, dress, live and even in the goals set for their lives. Although women have made huge strides in equal rights throughout history, there is still a stereotype seen in every aspect of life. Friedan, in her book The Feminine Mystique, explains where this female stereotype has come from “in the millions of words written about women, for women, in all the columns, books and articles by experts telling women their role was to seek fulfillment as wives and mothers (Friedan).” What is this stereotype? Friedan, as well as the rest of the world would say that a woman’s job is to “devote their lives from earliest girlhood to finding a husband and bearing children.”
I have never really put much thought into the fact that I do not fit the stereotype of women until one day at work. A fellow female coworker approached me one afternoon in the break room and asked me if I was in a relationship. Naturally I said no. She then asked if I ever planned on getting married or having children (she was in the process of doing both of those things). I have never wanted to get married and the idea of children makes my stomach churn. I explained to her that I had never been the marriage type and in fact no, I never wanted children. I could tell by the look on her face that this was not an answer to the question she ever expected to hear. The last thing she said to me before walking off was “What type of real woman doesn’t want to have a family?” Until this point I never really thought about the fact that other women could not understand my stance on such ideas. I could not imagine why it was so taboo for a woman to have dreams of finishing college and having a career instead of dreaming of getting married and having children. But as Friedan explains, women used to have the same dreams as me; but the stereotype has become so prominent in our society that “Some women, in their forties and fifties, still remembered painfully giving up those dreams, but most of the younger women no longer even thought about them.”
At the time I was very annoyed and angry with the coworker. I could not believe that someone could be so naive and conforming to think that a woman’s main purpose on earth was to be a wife and bear children. I was as shocked by her ideas just as much as she was by mine; but at the time I did not know this…I was just angry that my ideas were being questioned. A few weeks after this happened I sat down to write about it and this is when the sadness began to set in. This seemingly innocent conversation that had taken place made my heart hurt. It is not a new stereotype, but I never quite understood that this sort of thing was still being taught today. I always thought that women had become smarter, had moved past the days of dreaming of being wives and mothers, I thought we had moved beyond all this. But I quickly realized that it is not the rest of society that is to blame; it is women themselves. Just like the coworker I had the conversation with, just like the woman who does not question it when her parents tell her she needs to do this or that because it will prepare her to be a good wife; it is women’s fault for believing this stereotype. To this day I still never want to get married and the simple thought of children still makes me nauseous, but I have come to learn that I can always express my thoughts on marriage and children; but that in no way means that the majority of women will ever understand.
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