Real Women Have Curves

This past week we watched the movie “Real Women Have Curves.”  First I was confused as to why we were watching it in the body image class.  I felt as the focus of the movie was more on Latino Americans and their struggles with the economy.  It was not until the movie was well into the plot that I saw why this is so important for our class to watch.  In the movie the Ana, who is played by the wonderful actress America Ferrera, is a little chubbier than the average girl.  She is by no means obese, but she does have some real curves.  Her mother is constantly bugging her about her weight and telling her that she needs to loose weight to find a real man. 

            I found this extremely sad.  So, basically her mother is saying that men don’t want curvy women.  This is an entirely untrue statement.  My cousin, who has been extremely overweight her entire life is absolutely beautiful.  She has finally accepted her body for the way it is, after failing at multiple diets.  She is now married and has a baby on the way.  She has accepted herself for the way God made her.  I feel like every girl should look at themselves this way.

            Back to the movie…I really loved the scene where Ana takes her shirt off and her mom basically has a hissy fit.  She then encourages all of the women who work in the factory to take their shirts off, too.  Eventually there are 4 overweight women in their panties and bras.  This is an extremely powerful scene.  These women are proud of their bodies no matter what they look like.

Michael Messner "Its All for the Kids: Gender, Families, and Youth Sports"

            I went to Michael Messner's presentation, "It's All for the Kids: Gender, Families, and Youth Sports."  Messner was an extremely wonderful speaker, and he kept my attention the entire time.  He first began his presentation by touching on how sports have evolved through the past decades.  He made a point about how women used to involved in sports.  Women were only seen as "cheerleaders" and the men were always the "jocks."  Since Title 9 was past in the 70s women's sports have been more widely accepted.

            Messner also touched on the idea of women being the main caretakers of the children in the home.  He described one survey that he took and said that the men told him that they did not have the "time."  So, basically these men said they were the "breadwinners" for their families.  Women also told Messner that they felt as they had to quit their jobs after they began having children because they needed to stay in the home with the children.

            I found this lecture extremely interesting because I thought things had changed since the 50s when the women were homemakers and the men were break winners.  According to Messner this is not the case.  I think that men should step it up and take care of the children just as much as women.  

Midterm!

 

Sorority "rush"

I am currently in a sorority.  The class discussion and the reading today really made me think about rush and everything that is included with it in a totally different way.  To be perfectly honest, I am a little offended that this girl did this “investigative” piece on sororities.  I should understand, because I am a journalist myself; but I just can’t bring myself to justify what she did.  This girl went undercover at recruitment and wrote a story about it.  I feel as this one story can’t speak for every “rush” that is out there.  Every house has a different style of rush, and every campus has a different style of rush.  I feel like some people might read this and think that every “rush” in the country is like this, when in fact, it is not.

Today’s class also brought up a good subject about “beauty” in sororities.  The girl in the youtube video was asked, “How do you get rid of ugly girls?”  She responded with, “Well, it really isn’t even brought up.  Girls just vote against them, and they are gone.”  With my experience in rush, I do not believe this to be the case.  But in other cases, like these girls, I guess they really do judge the girls on how they look, not by their personality.  Getting to know girls in about a 20-minute period is really hard.  So, that is why a lot of houses base the girl on their ‘reputation.’  One person in our class today didn’t think that it was okay to do this.  I would really like him to put himself in our shoes and go through the agony that we have to endure.

Rape of Women in the Congo

This Tuesday I went to the “A Night for the Women of the Congo” in Meachum Auditorium.  There was a speaker and a power point presentation at the beginning of it.  After the speaker enlightened the audience with the basics of the problem in the Congo, they played a documentary about the rape of women in the Congo.  They said that the Congo is one of the most dangerous places for women and girls on the planet.  Soldiers of the army take these women and rape them, in some cases gang rape them.  After they rape them they stick foreign objects into their private parts and tear their uterus and bladders.  Most women cannot even control their urine.

I think this is absolutely terrible.  I can’t believe that I am sitting here on my bed, in my warm house, and on my computer while across the world there are women who are scared to go to sleep at night in fear that they are going to be raped.  In some cases, raped to death.  The worst part about the rape is that the men who are doing this are not even getting in trouble for it.  There is no Special Victims Unit in the Congo.  So, these men are getting away with what they are doing.  There are even corrupt police officers, which is also extremely terrible. 

I can’t believe that this is going on and really no one even knows about, or even cares to know about it.  I am going to do all that I can to let this be know, and to try and get it stopped.

Hair...hair...hair!

I think I have failed to mention my love for all of these guest speakers!  Not that I don’t love your lectures, but getting all of these different perspectives from outside sources really makes me feel like I am broadening my horizons.

I really found the speaker on Wednesday interesting.  I really feel like I learned something from her.  Who knew that a hair stylist could teach me so much in so little time?  She brought up a good point that I had never thought about before.  I am from Norman.  I was born and raised in this beautiful town.  From my experience and getting my hair done has always been quite pleasant.  But your hair stylist brought up a good point about “black” hair stylists.  She says that she is the only one in Norman.  I know this isn’t a race class, but just thinking about this made me think about race and how it is portrayed in Norman.  I couldn’t believe that there was not a black hair stylist in Norman before her.  I mean what did people do before she came here?  Just did it themselves?  I like to think that Norman is a very diverse community, but hearing that it really made me re consider my view on our town. 

Also, with thinking about hair really made me think of women and why they are so concerned with always looking good.  Hair is just a dead thing that lies on your head.  And most people will pay well over $100 to get that dead thing looking good.  I feel as America is way too concerned with what they look like.

Eating Disorders

This past week was eating disorder awareness week.  I believe this is extremely important to have on college campuses.  Some people don’t believe that an eating disorder is a disease, but in fact, it is an extremely serious one.  I have done numerous papers and countless hours of research on eating disorders.  For many papers in high school and my freshman year at OU I researched the media and the impact it has on girls and the way they view themselves.  Not only girls, but women also are starving themselves because they think they are fat.  But in reality they are not fat.

This week we had guest speakers talk about the 2 different types of eating disorders.  They are bulimia and anorexia.  Thousands of girls in the United States today suffer from one of these deadly diseases.  In my opinion girls suffer from these diseases because of how the media portrays “normal” girls.  Today models are size zero or two.  Models back in the day were size six to eight.  One of the most beautiful ladies in the entire world, Marilyn Monroe, was a size ten or larger.  I think it is absolutely ridiculous that the media is portraying women to be so skinny.  The media is killing our youth.  One of the guest speakers said that girls as young as 9 are suffering from one of these diseases because they want to look like Mary-Kate or Lindsey.

Eating disorders are extremely dangerous.  I have vowed to myself that no matter how “fat”  I think I look that I will never ever fall into the trap of one of these deadly diseases!

Blog #5

This week we had a guest speaker talk to us about media and the influences the media has on body image.  I really enjoyed the assignment that we had this week.  Looking at certain advertisements with a critical eye really made me reconsider what I am buying.  I believe that women are totally and completely subjugated in a lot of advertisements.  Women are totally demeaned and basically shown like a piece of meat.  Not only are women portrayed like this, but also men in certain advertisements.  I noticed that in many products that men usually buy women were portrayed very badly.  This was mostly in cigarette and alcohol advertisements.

These women also are extremely skinny and look very unhealthy.  This is also one of the main reasons why little girls that are in middle school have eating disorders.  They are looking at these “glamorous” models and they think they should look like them.  Celebrities are also giving little girls a false reality.  Little girls want to look like Lindsay Lohan and Mary-Kate Olsen, and these celebrities are not healthy. 

We also watched “The Merchants of Cool” and it showed us something that I had never heard of before, but I have noticed.  It was called the “mid grif.”  This is when a girl is a pre mature adult and she cares a lot about what she looks like.  She thinks that she has to be sexy in order for boys to like her, and that is not true.  This is also making little girls want to be sexy when they are barely in their teens.

I made this video for my Race, Gender, and the Media class!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AKyKd0CupU

Male Body Image

On Monday February 9^th we had a guest speaker come talk to us about male body image.  The speaker described body image as how we perceive our exterior to look.  He said in many cases this can be dramatically different from how they actually appear to others.  He says this can happen with both women and with men.  Many people automatically put body image with women, but it also goes with men.  Just as women are concerned with their bodies and how others look at them, men do care about their exterior, as well. 

Unlike women, men do not have to worry about being super skinny, but men have to worry about being muscular and fit.  But like women men have to worry about being obese, for as obese people are not as desirable as fit people, or so they think.  I do think that men like Brad Pitt and David Beckham give men a false reality as to what the ideal man should look like.  The speaker also talked about certain body types associated with different sports.  He put huskier boys with sports like football and rugby, and skinner boys with sports like soccer and baseball.  He says that if boys are in certain sports that their body types are more widely accepted.

In my opinion I do not think that muscular is necessarily desirable.  I always judge a man on what is in the inside, not about what he looks like.  I really hope that is how men view us women, even though unfortunately I know that is not the case.

Media Analysis

Blog #3--Mona Lisa Smile

This past week in class we watched “Mona Lisa Smile.”  This movie is based on 5 women and their struggles they face in the 1950s at an all girls university, Wellesley University.  In the movie these women struggle with the challenges that they are brought upon.  In the 1950s it was quite unheard of if a woman went to college.  In the 50s women’s sole role was to be a good housewife, not a college graduate.  These women’s worlds are turned upside-down when a new art history professor comes to Wellesley and tries to change how these women view their own lives.  Katherine Watson is a thirty something professor from California that does not believe every woman has to be married.  Professor Watson tires to get these girls to think differently and help them believe that they can be something bigger and better than just an average housewife. 

I have seen this movie before, but watching it with a critical eye this time really made me think about it differently.  I could never imagine getting out of college and immediately marrying a man, much less marry in college, like the main character Betty does.  I think it is really silly that women once thought they couldn’t go on to college and be as successful in life as their husbands.  Personally, I would absolutely go crazy if I had to stay home all day and cook, clean, and do the laundry.  Women have a much greater purpose in life than just raising the kids and taking care of the house.  Don’t get me wrong, I do believe that we should do all of those things, as women, but we also deserve to have a job and contribute just as much as the man of the house does.

Week #2 Blog

            When I signed up to take this class I thought it was just going to be about body image and we were just going to read book after book.  I really like how we have guest speakers and they do have a lot to teach us.  The belly dancer really taught me a lot about how to be comfortable with my body.  She also showed me that belly dancing should not necessarily be thought of as “sexy” but as an art form. 

            The guest speaker that we had on Friday was also very informative.  Nicole spoke about stress and how it affects our mind and our bodies.  She said, “stress is a state of mental or emotional strain or tension that can lead to illness or disease.”  I think this is very relevant to our class because in order to keep our bodies healthy we should not stress too much.  She gave us many good tips on how to handle and also how to prevent stress. 

            This weeks reading was over Naomi Wolf’s book The Beauty Myth.  She describes the beauty myth as, “a violent backlash against feminism that uses images of female beauty as a political weapon against women’s advancement.”  The chapter over work is very interesting.  She says that women work a lot harder than men and do not get adequate recognition for it.  I completely agree with this.  She also mentions sex discrimination in the work force and how it is still prevalent today.

Blog #1

I have always been interested in body image.  My freshman year I wrote an 8-page paper in my English class about the media and how they portray body image.  Reading the history on how body image has evolved over the past decades is very interesting to me.  I still think it is insane that Marilyn Monroe was around a size 8 and was considered the most beautiful woman in the world.  Today, a size 8 would probably be on the hit TV show “The Biggest Loser.”  I really want to expand my knowledge on body image versus reality. 

After reading about all of the horrible diseases that have to do with body image I still struggle with the concept myself.  I do not consider my body as an ideal body and I really hope that this class can help me with my problem.

 

Five Questions:

1.     Why do women and girls care so much about what other people thing about them?

2.     Do you think boys and men care what other people think about them as much as women and girls do?

3.     Why has the ideal body image changed from curvy to rail thin?

4.     Why is a curvy body in some cultures considered beautiful, and in our culture considered ugly and fat?

5.     Why are women so obsessed with beauty, celebrities and things they do not have?