Monday, January 25, 2010
Wow. Just, wow.
I am a regular reader of feministing.com, an extremely liberal/pro-choice web page. Though I do not agree with their ideas on abortion and a person's right to live, reading about the other issues from a feminist perspective is a convenient springboard for thought.
However, today's reading experience was quite different. Disagreeing with ideas and being disturbed by them are two very different things; and today I was most definitely disturbed.
This video is all over the internet. Things like this are what make young women believe they are invincible and that promiscuity has no consequences. Morals aside, being a stank ho is dangerous!
I don't need to say anything else. The video speaks for itself.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Just Be
"Be who you are."
What does that even mean?
Everyone, myself included, wants to be smarter, have more money, be better looking, be more athletic, or possess exceptional talents in the arts. I find myself going about my day doing everything within my power to achieve these ideals and realize, only when I am spent, that I have left myself behind. What about just being as I am? Striving for excellence is great, but being a different person is not an achievement; it’s artificial. The hardest thing to do is to look inside and pull out the best bits of yourself.
Being exactly who you are is a beautiful challenge. You cannot model yourself off another person or copy their tendencies. You are the only you; which is the beautiful part. You cannot be replicated, cloned and improved upon, or erased. You just are. We all just are.
Does being who you are condone becoming complacent? No, it means quite the opposite, really. Accepting the good, and bad, parts of your person allows you to be realistic in the areas in which you improve upon yourself and those you leave alone. Maybe I am a few pounds overweight. Maybe I suck at math and my work ethic leaves something to be desired. Maybe my writing only scratches the surface of an idea. These things are perfect opportunities for growth. Opportunities to grow into the people we should be are not to be ignored.
The plan is. Grow. Focus. Learn; but most of all, just be.
What does that even mean?
Everyone, myself included, wants to be smarter, have more money, be better looking, be more athletic, or possess exceptional talents in the arts. I find myself going about my day doing everything within my power to achieve these ideals and realize, only when I am spent, that I have left myself behind. What about just being as I am? Striving for excellence is great, but being a different person is not an achievement; it’s artificial. The hardest thing to do is to look inside and pull out the best bits of yourself.
Being exactly who you are is a beautiful challenge. You cannot model yourself off another person or copy their tendencies. You are the only you; which is the beautiful part. You cannot be replicated, cloned and improved upon, or erased. You just are. We all just are.
Does being who you are condone becoming complacent? No, it means quite the opposite, really. Accepting the good, and bad, parts of your person allows you to be realistic in the areas in which you improve upon yourself and those you leave alone. Maybe I am a few pounds overweight. Maybe I suck at math and my work ethic leaves something to be desired. Maybe my writing only scratches the surface of an idea. These things are perfect opportunities for growth. Opportunities to grow into the people we should be are not to be ignored.
The plan is. Grow. Focus. Learn; but most of all, just be.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
The Versatility of Woman
As i sat people watching rather than studying today, I had an epiphany.
We women have such a versatility in appearance. To be viewed as attractive, a woman may be short, tall, skinny, curvy, muscular, etc. However, attractive men are expected to be tall, muscular, and broad shouldered for centuries. Within the 20th century alone, the en vogue body type for women has changed over and over again-flat chested in the 20’s, more buxom in the 30’s, super skinny in the 90’s, athletic in the 80’s, and currently, either very curvy or super skinny. The idea of a woman’s body has changed with the fashions but male body expectations have and will remain consistent must be very stressful.
For a woman, there is hope that in the next decade or so, her body type will be the “it” look and that her day will come. However, for a short, shrimpy guy that same glimmer of hope does not exist. Not only that, but Spanx, Victoria’s Secret bras, and the myriad of inventions I have failed to mention enhance a woman’s body shape. Where is a man’s Wonderbra? There are no artificial biceps and pecs for them. Women do not just hide and enhance their body shape, but their face, hair, feet, hands, legs, eyebrows, eyelashes, skin-clearly the list could go on for days. We women can, to a degree, appear as we wish to be seen. However, men have to proclaim themselves just as they are. If a guy has a pimple, concealer is not an option. The pimple is there clear as day. High heels are not an option for a man or short stature unless he wants to face serious ridicule.
For men, being ridiculed for small things like high heels is almost too easy. If a man knows everything about the Versace spring collection rather than the score of the Super Bowl his masculinity is questioned, but a woman with knowledge in both of these areas is perfectly acceptable. The narrow spectrum of knowledge that is deemed masculine is quite constraining for all men. Besides the knowledge expected of men, personality traits follow the same pattern. The expectation to be strong, rational leaders makes a man's function much less versatile than that of a woman. While it is common for women to be viewed as submissive, the recent trend has been for women to emerge as leaders and rely less on their feelings.
There has been an enormous amount of focus on body and beauty issues within the female population; and while this movement has been very successful in raising awareness for women-what about men? Just as women want to be accepted as they are, men too need a little wiggle room. Let’s be a little more forgiving if a man doesn’t look like Hercules and can tell you when your jacket is out of season. He’s still a man, no?
We women have such a versatility in appearance. To be viewed as attractive, a woman may be short, tall, skinny, curvy, muscular, etc. However, attractive men are expected to be tall, muscular, and broad shouldered for centuries. Within the 20th century alone, the en vogue body type for women has changed over and over again-flat chested in the 20’s, more buxom in the 30’s, super skinny in the 90’s, athletic in the 80’s, and currently, either very curvy or super skinny. The idea of a woman’s body has changed with the fashions but male body expectations have and will remain consistent must be very stressful.
For a woman, there is hope that in the next decade or so, her body type will be the “it” look and that her day will come. However, for a short, shrimpy guy that same glimmer of hope does not exist. Not only that, but Spanx, Victoria’s Secret bras, and the myriad of inventions I have failed to mention enhance a woman’s body shape. Where is a man’s Wonderbra? There are no artificial biceps and pecs for them. Women do not just hide and enhance their body shape, but their face, hair, feet, hands, legs, eyebrows, eyelashes, skin-clearly the list could go on for days. We women can, to a degree, appear as we wish to be seen. However, men have to proclaim themselves just as they are. If a guy has a pimple, concealer is not an option. The pimple is there clear as day. High heels are not an option for a man or short stature unless he wants to face serious ridicule.
For men, being ridiculed for small things like high heels is almost too easy. If a man knows everything about the Versace spring collection rather than the score of the Super Bowl his masculinity is questioned, but a woman with knowledge in both of these areas is perfectly acceptable. The narrow spectrum of knowledge that is deemed masculine is quite constraining for all men. Besides the knowledge expected of men, personality traits follow the same pattern. The expectation to be strong, rational leaders makes a man's function much less versatile than that of a woman. While it is common for women to be viewed as submissive, the recent trend has been for women to emerge as leaders and rely less on their feelings.
There has been an enormous amount of focus on body and beauty issues within the female population; and while this movement has been very successful in raising awareness for women-what about men? Just as women want to be accepted as they are, men too need a little wiggle room. Let’s be a little more forgiving if a man doesn’t look like Hercules and can tell you when your jacket is out of season. He’s still a man, no?
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