Week 7: Politics

           Normally, I’m the first person to say that I really dislike politics.  Coming from parents in opposite political parties, it has always been one of those topics that my family is not allowed to discuss unless someone wants a large argument to occur.  However, I found myself smiling in lecture this week talking about politics, rather than sitting at the dinner table, cringing, wondering if someone will start a fight by bringing politics up.  To be perfectly honest though, the pizza might have contributed to my happiness a little bit.  But apart from my love for pizza showing through my large grin, I was really interested in our discussions that we were having in class.

            I think the most intriguing part about our conversation was when we were talking about one-night stands, and whether guys respect girls who participate in them.  The boys in our class made it clear that respect is lost as soon as a girl decides to have sex on the first date, which brought up an eye-opening discussion.  I get really confused about this topic, because how are girls not supposed to get mixed signals?  Boys want you to have sex on the first date and will give you shit if you don’t, but they won’t respect you if you do.  It is almost like you can’t win.  I suppose I would rather take the heat of not hooking up with someone on the first date than not be respected, though.  In my opinion, you can usually prove the boy who said bad things about you wrong, but once respect is lost it is really hard to get it back.  But when it comes down to it, I really think that it is important to make decisions for yourself, and not for other people.  If you want to go around having one night stands and it makes you happy, that is your prerogative, and if waiting to become sexually intimate with a person is more your cup of tea, then good for you.

Week 6: Media

           I really enjoyed listening to everything everyone had to say in class this week about media and gender.  I think this is a huge on-going problem that we have in this world, and it won’t get any better if we don’t do anything to change it.  Everyday I see advertisements in magazines and on the television of rail-thin models who are considered the epitome of beautiful.  I, myself, am aware that that is not the case, and how men biologically are attracted to a women with curves because it shows they are able to bare a child, but young girls might not understand these things.  Yes, there are times where I see an advertisement and think, “Wow she looked really good I wish my legs were that skinny,” but in the end, I am comfortable in my body and, unfortunately, that is not something that all women can say.  They see these models in the media and try to strive to be exactly like them, they aren’t comfortable in their body and that is a very sad thing.  It is the reason why so many girls today have terrible and detrimental eating disorders, and it is an epidemic that needs to be stopped.

            The problem of eating disorders hits very close to home because my best friend struggled with this issue in middle school and high school.  She was unfortunate enough to fall under the myth that you had to be skinny to be beautiful, like what was shown in the media, and it was painful to see her go through this and not be able to help her.  For years, our close friends and her parents tried to get her to see how beautiful she was in her natural body, and that she didn’t need to lose any weight.  That did not stop her though, because what she saw in the mirror was completely different than what we saw when we looked at her.  As humans in this big world, we need to realize that the media isn’t everything.  Just because the media says “skinny is beautiful” doesn’t mean that is how everyone feels.