Plastic Surgery vs. Self Confidence March 26, 2007

Well over the past two years I’ve had an extended family member and a best friend go under the knife, but these were two instances where they were trying to take the emphasis off of their breasts. Both individuals had been living with chronic back, shoulder, and neck pain, so after years of discomfort and pain they took the plunge and underwent reduction surgeries. To this day neither one of them regrets their decision, but they both admit that the pain they went through during the healing/recovery process was at times unbearable. Seeing them during the days following their surgeries forced me to question why anyone would want to go through that pain to have larger breasts, it just doesn’t make sense to me.

I believe in many cases plastic surgery comes down to a lack of self confidence and I do not believe going under the knife is a logical way of improving this lack of confidence. Maybe this is a harsh assumption, but it’s the only logical justification that I can think of.  Plastic surgery is not a quick and simple procedure there are major complications documented each year and people’s lives are ruined due to these complications.

It seems as though we need to stop promoting plastic surgery and we need to being promoting healthy lifestyle choices, positive body images, and increased self confidence. It’s proven that if you appear confident and happy with who you are, you tend to attract more people whether it be male or female.

Split what?? March 26, 2007

Well first I want to dable into the world of a split infinitive because like many of you bloggers out there I do not know what a split infinitive is, so here goes nothing.

A split infinitive can best be defined as, an infinitive verb form with an element, usually an adverb, interposed between to and the verb form, as in to boldly go. It’s the “rule” against placing a word, especially an adverb, between to and the verb in an English infinitive.

Wow! Now if that doesn’t enlighten you all I don’t know what will!!

Stereotyping Gender March 21, 2007

Gender is something that is clearly defined and represented through the media. We’re given a great deal of guidance as to how women and men should behave and appear. Stereotypes have developed over the years and when someone falls outside of those stereotypes they are criticized for being unique or different.  It seems as though this fear of being criticized for uniqueness has resulted in a loss of identity and individuality among both men and women.

Sure there are the extreme cases where individuals choose to stand out as individuals, but we can all admit that we look twice and may even make smug comments about the appearance or behavior of the individual. So my question is, why have we allowed the media to create a society where uniqueness is not applauded?

We have allowed the media to control in a manner that influence us not only on the outside, but also on the inside. We laugh, talk and act like the actors on the TV, in the radio, and in our magazines. We’ve become mere clones of the mainstream actors we see everyday in the media and in most cases these aren’t real individuals they’re simply actors, acting out life. 

There is a biological line distinguishing males from females but other than the biological factors there shouldn’t be any rules regarding how to be a male or female. The media shouldn’t be trying to mold us into what they believe defines men and women. We should be left to create our own personalities, appearances, and behaviors based on our own assumptions about being male and female, if this were possible everything would be honky dorey!!

The Portrayal of Women March 13, 2007

Have you ever noticed how the majority of sex symbols within advertisements are women. Quite frankly that pisses me off, why are we (women) the one’s continuously being used to sell product after product. Sure there’s also the odd male displayed in  deoderant or clothing adds but they tend to be displayed in a much more taste full manner.

After reading Abby Friedrich’s Essay regarding the portrayal of women through advertisements it was brought to my attention that this degrating portrayal of women isn’t new to the ad industry. Women have been portrayed this way since the 1940′s and seems as though over the years things have only gotten worse because women are truly buying into the images that are being displayed.

Within the essay Abby Friedrich also brought up a few points from the book ‘Reviving Ophelia’. I attempted to read this book a few years ago, but the way the author talked about young women seemed a little to harsh for my liking. The author (Pipher) seemed to think that “all” young women are incredibly naive and they allow just about anyone to tell them how to think and behave. I have to disagree with this assumption because I have three teenage sisters and I think they’re very independent and intelligent young women. Sure they’ve made some stupid choices in their lives, but don’t we all. I think Pipher takes her assumptions of young females to far and perhaps she needs to reconsider the behavior of today’s teens. It seems as though more and more teens are standing up for what they believe, teens are trying to be unique in their clothing and music choices, which disproves Pipher’s assumptions of today’s teens.

I did think it was realistic and interesting how throughout the essay Abby discussed the fact that advertising knows how to target all of our female insecurities. Why have we allowed these ads to get into our heads? I think our tolerance for the manipulation we receive through ads has made women seem stupid and naive, women are allowing advertisement’s to persuade them into looking younger, skinnier, healthier, and happier. Sure these all sound like great goals to strive towards, but women seem to be getting more depressed as they realize that some of these goals cannot be achieved because it isn’t physically possible to be the perfect woman.

Sure I’ve voiced my opinion to all of you, but it probably won’t make a difference in how women are portrayed by the advertisement industry. The portrayal of women won’t improve until all women stand up for themselves and their own personal uniqueness. Women must also realize that they should be happy with the brains and bodies they were given and they need to stop trying to become the perfect woman.

Let me know what you think

Ever Evolving Music March 5, 2007

Well I must admit that I’ve been a little stuck on what to blog about this week. I had a very busy, gong show of a weekend and I don’t think I’ve relaxed or breathed for nearly two weeks, so here goes nothing.

When the topic of music comes up I don’t really know where to start because it seems as though over the years music has evolved in so many ways. From the technologically advanced methods of listening to listen to music, to the many unique genres of music it seems as though this is an industry that’s booming in so many ways.

There are billions of dollars circulated through the music industry each year which allows it to expand and change in so many ways. Who ever would have thought we’d be listening to genres such as techno, emo, and rap. I can just see Mozart and Beethoven rolling over in their graves, because as my Grandmother says the music we listen to nowadays isn’t music, it’s just loud noise. Well if what we now consider to be new music is also considered by many to be loud noise, then why are these new artists making millions off of their music?

It seems as though the music industry has an incredible power over so many individuals, whether it be through the sale of CD’s and DVD’s, or the industries ability to sell the image of certain musicians. The music industry is everywhere, I don’t think anyone can make it through a day without hearing some form of music or music publicity. So, I think it’s safe to say that music is everywhere, and it’s influence is profound.

Movie and Quote Activity March 1, 2007

Well I’ll admit that I was really looking forward to watching a movie in class on Wednesday night, I’ve had a very long week and I feel as though my brain and body are in overdrive. Reading week didn’t prove to be a week off, it was a very busy week as it seems to be year after year. I think I can even go as far as to say that I hate reading week because of the busy weeks that tend to follow it.

So, even though I was looking forward to doing a very minimal amount of thinking during class on Wednesday night, the movie and quote game was a really cool idea. I’ve never done  an activity like that in any of my classes, and wish more profs would try new things similar to this.  I like the fact that Paul takes the time to plan lectures that allow us to be involved and interested, while at the same time forcing us to think sociologically.

I also wanted to point out the amazing fact that Paul is one of the only profs that has the guts or sense to admit and most importantly appologize because of just how bad a class textbook SUCKS. I would have thought that a textbook relating to Mass Communication could be really interesting, but this text proved this theory to be very wrong on so many levels. This textbook makes the topic of mass communication seem worse than death its self.