I cant believe how people who use body modification can take th pain they inflict on themselves. In the article about the implants in that man's head. They talk about how usually they dont use any numbing products. When I red that I cringed because we as a community can barely go without getting a cavity filled without it being numb. They are getting cuts into thier head nd inplants put in which stretches their skin and they are doing it fully conscious and can feel everything. This doesnt seem to make sense to me. The same thing goes for the different kinds of body modification we have studied. For example Weird peircings, branding, scarification, and more. These seem to be eally painful and extreme forms of changing yor body to stand out or fit in. It grosses me out to think that our society has done this to people, made them believe that they need to do these horrific things to make themselves part of something or to get away from the norm. I am just happy that I have a place where I can be myself and not have to worry about being judged, and that is in my home with my family.

Body Modification

I felt that this case study was hard to relate to beause me being a heterosexual femle and feel that I do fit into certain groups. I felt like not only was this to in depth but it was hardto grasp why anyone would do it. I read about dave and truely I felt for him in the way that he felt like he couldnt fully relate to a sex. He said that he was neither a male or female and im sure that must be hard. There arent many people out there who feel the same way and im sure he hasnt had many people to confide in. Even me trying very hard to understand why he does the things he does, I dont see how someone could do that to themselves. I could only imagine what those who dont show any interest to understand what they are going through. Comming to this school I have seen many different people. I have become alot more open to the idea that it truely is hard for these people to fit in and they do exist we need to as a community help them assimilate. I wish I could understand, but it is hard to truely understand someone and thier actions unless you are put in that same situation, and this is one situation someone cant just put themselves in that situation.

MeMe Roth

I believe that it is because of people like MeMe Roth that self esteem issues have reached a high in our society and keep growing. She has some nerve judging others knowing nothing about them. People are overweight for many different reasons and she takes purly fact heard from others and doesnt consider the people behind the issue. I couldnt believe the things that she was saying about Jordan Sparks. I believe that she looks healthy and she is a young girl who will definately hear those words she was saying and feel uncomfortable in her own skin. American Idol is supposed to be a singing show and athough physical appearances does matter in this society no one should take away what another person deserves based on a trait that has nothing to do with the main point of the show. Me being bigger girl was extremely disturbed by the things she was saying and I couldnt believe someone could think such cruel thoughts like when she was saying "when i look at her what I see is heart disease..." That is just cruel for someone to say that about a girl because of her size when its not even overwhelmingly a huge problem.

Hair

I have always been told that I have beautiful hair and it makes me wonder, what makes hair beautiful. When watching the clip in class where the professor was talking about how white characteristics of hair are desired i agreed, but it made me think about how he was passing judgement as well on what is considered "white hair." Within the category of white people's hair there is curly wavy thick thin straight and other different types of textures. I am fortunate to have nice thick hair that as he says people can "run fingers through"but my cousin on the other hand is too is white has trouble with that, he hair is looked at as frizzy or very tightly curled thick hair. She used to get brushes stuck in it, but he still talks about "white hair" as a whole which seems to deminish his point a little. I just thought that for such an intellegent man who looks at race very seriously and deeply he should have clued in or made some points about how this was a steriotype and not all white people have the same or favorable hair. I just thought it was interesting because he seemed to talk about his points in ways where if the situation was flipped he would have seen it differently and thought about it as a steriotype or categorizing of a group.

Peer Editing

I believe that this time around the peer editing process was alot more helpful because the topics were easier to give criticism on because it was relateable and not someones personal life or story. I was alot more comfortable giving my essay to my group because the last exprience was a positive one and i knew it would only help me in the long run. I trust my group in the fact that they are only saying things to better my writing, my paper, and my grade so i was happy to hand it over to them. This class has helped me feel more comfortable with my writing and i am thankful for that. And i can honestly say i look forward to the workshop so i can hear how i can make my paper the best it can be.

Normality

I decided to write about normaliy. I dont quite understand why these ideas were ever invented. Norms run our lives and societies. We need to make changes ourselves in order for the norms to change. It has to be a dealt with on a large scale. I am writing about body image. This has a major affect on everyone but especially the youth. This causes many insecurities and shows children that it is acceptable to feel inferior because everyone does it. It is almost like a steriotype that women are always worried about thier appearance stems from this idea of norms in the media and it is brain washing the youth to think that there are always things they need to do to mak themselves better. Or atleast feel better about themselves.

PHREEQUE.COM

I could not believe my eyes when I looked at the extra parts section of this website. It was unthinkable to see people with extra body parts stick out from places where they dont normally exist. The stories about the twins which grew from out of their torsos except a head. Even seeing the pictures I couldnt keep the thought in my head that these were actual people and that they lived this way thier whole lives. It is unthinkable to walk around with the remnance of another human being attached to you knowing that they were supposed to be living breathing beings, but instead they are simply hanging there. It seems to be to be seirously depressing to have body parts of a living being hanging off of you every day to remind you the death of someone in the family. This site in general was so informing and I loved reading the biographies of the people in the movie freaks, I enjoyed reading the siamese twins biography I couldnt believe that they couldnt find a place that would marry them to thier loved ones. That would call for a serious law suit now a days.