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.

Freaks!

I found this movie entertaining, but at the same time I could not believe that these people really had the different deformities that they had in the movie. It made me wonder what it would be like to live the life they lead. I think it would be extremely hard and no one would treat me like a human being. I went on to the web site that we were asked to look at last class and couldnt believe my eyes. These people had real lives and were real people but never got treated as so. There were some insane deformities that I never even knew existed on there and I couldnt quite comprehend that these were true stories about people's lives and how strong each individual was dealing with their specific case. I agree with Ellen, when she talks about how the mother of the children with microcephaly and how although she takes care of them she knows that they are being paraded around as a specticle and doesnt try to change that. http://ellenawb.blogspot.com/

Class Progression

I think that this part of the course is so much deeper than the last one. The body collage and the readings for the unit although they were deep, I feel like these issues are harder to take in and go deeper into understanding people and other circumstances. The different things that these readings have touched upon I feel have true passion and are serious subjects that exist but are never really read about because they could possibly be uncomfortable or it is taboo to do so. The advertising article was a wake up call for me. It was always infront of me but I never really knew that it was always surrounding the public and that scares me. I also saw the truth put infront of my eyes with Cancerland as well. I just feel like I have learned about about things that have always been there infront of me but I never really paid attention to the specifics and details there were to go along with all of the different subjects. I enjoy reading the articles for this class because I know they will always be useful to me aswell as interesting.

Stallone--truely a hero

This piece was to me extremely powerful. This shows how much someone would give up for something they love. He simply wanted to better himself by widening his range of characters he could play. This was a challenge for him but he was proud of himself for going through it. He is knows for his rock hard body and muscles. To give all that you represent up for a movie it extremely hard to grasp. He gained alot of respect from me after reading this piece because I couldnt believe the struggle with himself that he had to go through in order to make this movie the best it could be. This reminds me of Renee Zelweger when she took the part of Bridget in Bridget Jones Diary. She gained alot of weight for the roll as well and that takes so much heart and dedication. A beautiful body is hard to obtain and keep, and once you have it and simply throw it away over a roll, that means that you have invested more into the movie than most actors or actresses. The part that stood out to me was when he listed the rediculous amount of food that he ate for breakfast. I couldnt believe that a human being could eat that much in one sitting. I liked this piece alot because it gave you a look into a man you think you know, but it taught me that actors are people too and there is more to them than just simply the roles they choose and the characters they play.

Mens Underwear

I absolutely agree with Liz 100% when she said that mens underwear was bound to become a sexually spread atricle of clothing. Our society is obsessed with sex. We hear more and more things that seem to be innapropriate for young kids that have now become the norm. I believe that things like the different types of mens underwear show that direction that our society is going. Even men, the strong, hard working, and tough figure we think of when we think of men are starting to really care about thier appearance and these companies are playing on that to make more money which is spreading these ideas faster and faster. These things that we read about in the article about Skivvies were extremely shocking even though they shouldnt have been. This article opened my eyes wider to what is really out there and the extremes not only women but men go through to be accepted and look the best they can. Sometimes it goes to far like the "package" enhancing underwear for men. Express what you have because its yours and accept it!

Advertising...

After reading "two ways a woman can get hurt I realized that the ads which I see every day have hidden meaning that I never really thought of before now. I am extremely happy with the fact that I read this article because although I didnt agree with all of her arguements, for the most part they all seemed to make sense. The class discussion also opened up my eyes to different things because it seemed to be that males and females for the most part had different ways of interpreting things because most of her focus was on perversion, harm, and sexuality towards woman which could potentially make women unhappy. I agree with danielle when she says that different sexes in our class percieved these advertisments differently. I felt that we had alot of good ideas in class and I liked how people werent afraid to say what they thought even if it was disagreeing with someone else. http://danielleaw1.blogspot.com/

"How to Tame a Wild Toungue"

For how much I wanted to like this piece I couldnt make myself do it. I hated the fact that there was a major disconnect and that I myself couldnt relate to her because of her writing style. The way she wrote this piece was very un organized and sloppy. I know it isnt right to tell someone to stop using thier language or keep it out of thier writing, but there was just something about it that I cannot bring myself to like. I feel like I am making the same judgements that she talks about in the piece and I dont exactly like reasons I give for not likeing her piece or her writing style but I cant seem to look past it. It was definately my least favorite piece we read all semester.

Workshop Groups

To me my writing is extremely personal. Even when my writing isnt about my personal life I am not always ok with other reading it. I thought that this experience with the workshop groups was going to be terrible. I didnt want anything to do with it. On the other hand I knew it was going to help my writing in the long run. After reading the essays that I had to read for my group I realized that everyones writing was personal and I was no different. I truely enjoyed the essays that I read. I was interested in what my classemates had to say and the different creative wyas that they got thier points across in thier writing. When I came into class I was ready for the worst, I know writing it not my strength and I know that all of my writing needs alot of work. I felt like our group did an extremely good job making sure to point out the positives in everyones work, so when they told me the things that I should change to make my essay stronger I knew that they were truly just trying to help me become a better writer. I felt like this was a good experience for me because it helped me notice the good things about the my writing as opposed to the usual bad news that you hear from teachers when they grade essays. I now look forward to more workshops like this and know that it is all for my benefit.

Responce to "A Few Words About Breasts"

This story made me feel as though I was not alone in feelings of insecurities. This story seemed to me to be almost every girl's feelings about some body part of another. Each experience she talked about I could relate to. Im sure for the boys in the class it was more of an uncomfortable and less realtable story, but I know for myself and probably most girls in the class it was a necessary read. It makes you realize that you are never alone in the feelings that you get and it is always comforting to make that message reasured. I felt pure enjoyment reading this because although it is a scaring experience it is a relief to read that your not the only one with the issues she adresses. My favorite part in the story was when she was talking about how her friends were complaining about how thier boobs were to big and they were telling Nora all the ways that having small boobs makes her lucky. I think this was a part in the story where she described the situation and captured the essance of teenage girls to the tee. There is always something better than what they have in thier own eyes and I enjoyed seeing how perfectly she protrayed that attitude.

A reflection of my writing

I just feel like this unit is an extremely rewarding one. After starting to write my paper I felt over joyed because I love retelling the past and some of the stories and time I thought of were so much fun to relive in my mind. I thought at first this paper was going to be hard to write, but after picking my own brain it is hard to pick which stories that go along with my body part to encorporate into my story. I feel like I would be able to write a ten page paper with this project. I also think that this is something that all people should go through because it is a healthy way to assess and think about your body in ways you never would have if you werent put in the situation you put all of us in. I also just want to reflect on the overall theme of this course because some of my other friends are taking writing classes with different teachers and thier main ideas dont seem as controvercial or interesting to me. I am so glad that I took this class because everyone our age can relate to this and it is something that even if you dont want to admit it, you have some interest in it. I dont know why I just really enjoy the overall idea of the class. Writing by far is not my favorite thing to do english isnt my thing, but I feel like I will actually enjoy this course and if I have to take a writing class I would rather write about something that interests me.

Free Union

http://jilliansaw1.blogspot.com/2008/02/free-union-by-andre-breton.html I agree with jillian, I too thought that it was a bit to unromantic and almost creepy. I for started am not a fan of poems in general I never understand the underlieing purpose or message, but I just thought that the different things he was talking about seemed to over the top. There were some beautiful lines which I liked dont get me wrong, but overall this piece was not my favorite because I felt that his ideas were not organized as well as they could have been and I felt that he was writing about things that most people couldnt relate to especially with the word beauty or love. The most vivid part where I felt that he took it past the idea of loving everything about her was when he was talking about her armpits I particularly didnt like that because armpits are not a flattering part on a woman's body and he could have found more flattering and gentle or lovely things to talk about that would create and related to a more romantic and lady like image in the readers mind.

A Reflection of "On Stuttering" by Edward Hoagland

I really liked the last piece we read, On Stuttering by Edward Hoagland. I felt that not only did he personify his voice extremely well, but he added his own personality and charm into the piece I felt that it was much more enjoyable than the piece about psoriasis. My favorite part in this piece was when he talked about the three different times in his life when it was scary to use or not be able to use his voice. One of them was that he didnt want his daughter to talk like him because he stutered. This was strictly good parenting because any parent is feerful for their kids, it is just first nature. The next one was when he was in the woods and a shooter was going to shoot him because the gunsman thought that he was a deer. At this moment he had to speak up or he was gonig to die, this painted a particularly scary picture in my mind as to how handicaps which you think arent as extreme as many others, but in certain intances they can be. And the third was speaking in public at weddings weather it be his own or someone else's and he had to say a speech. This one showes what a good friend and family man he is because he doesnt want his speech to ruin anything special that is going on. After reading this piece i feel as though I have learned not to take things for granted, little things that you may not think of are special and could handicap you in ways that you may never think of because you are not put in that particular situation. I enjoyed reading this piece very much!

Is the media poisoning our minds?

Over the weekend I watched quite a bit of TV, and one thing I noticed was the amount of modeling shows that were on. America's next top model and Janice Dickenson's Modeling Agency were the ones that I actually watched. One of the things that caught my attention the most was how freely Janice Dickenson (being part of both shows) talked about how many different body types or problems with someones appearance could prohibit them from getting involved in the fasion industy. On one of the episodes of Janice Dickenson's Modeling Agency, they had a man looking for models with bad skin and out of all of the models in her agency they could only find one that had reasonably bad skin to be a consideration for the shoot. Instead she had to go out on the street and find aspiring models with bad skin and that is the sole reason why they got chosen. I understand why the fashion industy has this outlook, but instead of adressing the problem and helping a potentially great model clear up something as small as acne, they just simply say they arent good enough. This bothered me that this is what is being broadcasted and brain washed into our society, imperfections are being looked at like diseased. No one is perfect and I feel like people who have such strong feelings about how a person should look even though there is no right or wrong on someones appearance is miseducating and poisoning our society, especially our societies youth. This whole idea of body image in the media has been around for a while now, but they always seem to be the same problems and the general public looks away and this adds to the problem. I just thought that this tied into the class topic very well and also I thought that is was something to think about as we move forward in this self discovery part of the class.

Alice Walker Reflection

As I read "Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self" I became more sympathetic for the character because I never thought about how hard it could be to think you were beautiful with an abnormality which came from such a tramatic accident like the one she shared. You could feel the difference in the tone from when she was an excited little girl who her father picked to go to the fair, to how scared she was when she got hit in the eye by her brothers, and then the shame and resentment she felt going through each new experience with her new damaged eye, and then finally to where she became accepting and even proud of her unique part of her body that she was ashamed of throughout the whole story. I could feel the story progressing and the pain that she felt. It made me wonder what I would do if I lost something as important as sight and how I would react to it. I liked this story because everyone can realte to it. Your body no matter who you are is important to you, if you were to have a negative change in your body it would affect you inside and out. She made me as a reader realize the things that I do have and how hard it is to stand out. This story was interesting because even though I as a reader got a good feel for times in her life, it was more written from memeory, in fragments or unfinnished ideas. Each story was not necessarily finnished or resolved, but you understood writer was portraying.