Body Image

Well the topic for this week is body image. This semester I’m taking an intro to Women’s Studies class and it is very interesting. Although the reading takes forever, I do find some of the readings very interesting! Some of these things I had never, ever thought about.
So let’s face it, everybody has some issue with their body, girl or boy. Some boys may want to be bigger while girls probably aim to be smaller. Anybody who says that they don’t have any issue with their body is lying (in my opinion). Don’t get me wrong, there are some very, very arrogant people out there. But even the most arrogant have some issues with themselves. I blame this obsession with looks on a culture that is almost completely dominated by white males. These few men are indirectly making decisions about our bodies. They decide who is “pretty” and “acceptable” by deciding who they’re going to put in magazines, commercials, movies, & television ads. And since there is a lack of people of color in mainstream society’s media, people of color are forced to subscribe to the same stereotypes. I know this for a fact because when I was a kid I used to want to be white. That was all I had seen on television and that’s what I thought was right. It goes back to the old phrase “white is right.” I didn’t appreciate my own culture because I had never seen it outside of my family & friends. I thought that since my life didn’t mirror what I saw on television, that it was somehow wrong. But as I grew older, I found out that wasn’t true. I LOVE BEING BLACK. I love my culture, I love the language, I love the pride, I love the people, I love the food, I love the body shapes, and I love everything in the world about being African American. But I’m sure many other people out there spend a lot of time wanting to be like the women they see in magazines.
I’m not going to lie; there are things about my body that I wish I could change. But it’s comforting to know that not everybody is perfect. Even Beyonce (who looks SO good!) is probably insecure about one thing (I have no idea why though). Some women go to the extreme to look like models, even though “only about 5% of the female population in our society weighs the average fashion model’s weight given her height.” These women turn to eating disorders or plastic surgery. One big example of plastic surgery that’s all over the tabloids now is Heidi Montag. She went through all of this plastic surgery to change her face & her cup size. In my opinion, she looks way worse than she did before. I just do not support these extreme measures to fix something like looks. I think these things do more harm to your body then they do good. They carry major risks. Eating disorders along with plastic surgery can kill you!
So what can we do to fix it? We as a society need to stop judging people by the way they look, but I know that’s not going to happen. What we can do is demand that the media relay images of what real women look like, not just 5% of the population. This lets people know that the way they look is fine. It will teach them to love themselves! That’s the saddest part that some people don’t love who they are. “There's more to life than being really, really, really good looking”
Good night!

Stuff Black People Don't Like

So I feel really out of the loop with everything that’s going on in my classes. I have been feeling really bad lately. I think I have tonsillitis (according to a friend who shone a flashlight in my throat & inspected my tonsils). Luckily, I have an appointment at Schiffert for tomorrow morning so they can diagnose what’s really wrong with me. But I’m worried about the medicine that they give me because it’s really hard for me to swallow pills. I sike myself out so much that I just won’t do it. So I’m sorry my blogs really, really off topic this week. It’s about stuff black people don’t like (http://stuffblackpeopledontlike.blogspot.com/).
This site is hilarious! And so true! I can tell you that this site is not lying because I have been black for almost 19 years so take my word for it. There really is a lot of stuff out there that most black people just don’t like. This blog is kind of a play on Stuff White People like, & just like that one, it’s hilarious. Except this blog has a lot more thought put into it. Okay so here are some of my favorites:
• “Tiger Woods fall from grace”-This was a real shame for us black folks. Tiger had transcended into a world that was typically only for white people. You don’t see many black people playing golf in the hood. He was even beating white people at their own game! And it’s true, most of the positive images that other cultures have of black people do come from the world of sports. He was like the door that was inviting black people in to play golf. That door has just been slammed in our faces. Now his image is smeared by this scandal and he has become just another black, professional athlete.
• “Waiting nearly 100 years for a black Disney princess”- SO TRUE! Almost every Disney princess has been white, with the exception of Jasmine & Pocahontas. It was almost like saying that this level of wealth & beauty was not available to black people. Like the only thing that we could look up to was becoming white. This movie was seriously lacking though. The biggest mistake was that they spent over half the movie as frogs so you couldn’t really see their African loveliness. But other than that the movie was great & I was so excited about having a black Disney princess! It was a long time coming. I wish they would’ve had her when I was a kid so I could’ve dressed up as her for Halloween instead of someone that I could never be.
• “Small butts”-It’s a wonder with the types of food that black people eat (fried chicken, collard greens, cornbread, beans) that any of us have small butts. While white people value women with a small figure, most people value a woman with some meat on her bones. This article says that it goes back to slave days because slave owners wanted “a big black man with a big black woman to have a big black kid with.” Well no matter the reason for it, it’s true. Being too skinny is not a good thing in the black community. Every time I went to my grandma’s house she would try to feed me so much food because she thought no good black man wants to be with some skinny girl. It makes him think she wants to be white.
So these were just 3 of my favorites. You should definitely check out the blog & read more! Night!

Bottled Water

Okay so along with being a crazy liberal democrat, I am also a crazy liberal democrat environmentalist. And this semester I’m taking a class on water issues called Urban Public Issues. So this week my blog is about bottled water – the biggest scam in the history of the United States & the world.
Bottled water has become a trend in the United States & around the world today. People buy more bottled water then they buy beer or milk, which is absolutely stunning. Why are people paying so much money for something that they can get out of the tap water for free? The bottled water industry is 60 BILLION dollar industry globally each year. Instead of spending the money that they spend on bottled water, they can save that & buy a $10 Nalgene & refill anywhere that they want. Even in the midst of an economic crisis, people still seem to think that bottled water is a necessity, when it is actually something that you don’t need.
Last semester (& this semester too), I was part of a campaign called “Think Outside the Bottle.” Our mission was for people to understand the global water crisis & the ill effects that bottled water has on our society & humanity. Our big project for the challenge was a taste test. We set up tables outside of D2 & Owens & had little Dixie cups filled with tap water from Pritchard, Dasani, & Hokie Water. We asked people who walked by if they could tell the difference between the three. Surprisingly, most people though Dasani tasted the worst & could not tell the difference between the local tap & Hokie water. And every time I see someone wasting their money buying Hokie water, I get frustrated because they do not know the consequences of what they’re buying.
I think the reason that people have this obsession with bottled water is because it shows status. In today’s world, bottled water has become a luxury & less of a necessity. Yes, I know that we all need water to survive, but the water coming from your tap will satisfy this need. In fact, your tap water is something that is highly regulated. Bottled water on the other hand, is not. It’s regulated by the FDA so it is only monitored if it crosses state lines. People also are more on the run then they have been in the past. They eat a lot of meals in the car & bottled water is easy to grab. But your Nalgene is just as easy to grab. People try to nullify the fact that bottled water is bad for the environment by saying that they recycle the bottles. And that’s great because only 10% of bottled water is actually recycled. But they need to cut off the problem at its source and just stop buying water.
A lot of people think that caring for the environment doesn’t involved them or it doesn’t matter. But it does; earth is the only planet that we have to live on so we need to take care of it. The mistakes that we are taking today will affect humanity for years to come.

Interracial Couples

Well, Valentine’s day is officially a week away & normally I’m all about holidays (I can’t wait to be old so I can wear Christmas sweaters without looking like an idiot, I don’t think they’re tacky at all), but this time I am not so excited. This is the 1st Valentine’s Day where I am not with my significant other, Dylan. My boyfriend is 5 hours away from me! This upcoming weekend is going to be absolutely horrible. Everybody is going to be out with their boyfriend/girlfriend to be sitting alone in my dorm. Blaaaaaaah! I plan on sitting alone, eating a lot, & watching romantic comedies online all weekend. On a higher note, Dylan & I are going to celebrate Valentine’s Day when I go home for spring break. We’re going to get a hotel room in a fancy hotel & have a romantic night together. I ordered a shirt online that says I <3 Dylan & he’s going to send me a card that he made himself so at least I can open up something on Valentine’s day. He knows how important holidays are to me & it’s really cool that he would spend time making me a card.
Anyways, this blog is about interracial relationships. As I’m guessing you guys have noticed, I am black. Dylan, on the other hand, is white. And he’s very white. He has blonde hair, green eyes, & thin lips. In other words, he would’ve passed Hitler’s standards. This has never really created a problem between the two of us but it has created a problem between other people. I remember this one time where we went through the drive-thru at Arby’s & the guy had given us the food. And he said “is that your girl?” as he handed us the food. Then he called his friend over & said that is his girl. Dylan & I were both like WTF was that all about? We’ve come to the conclusion that the guy had never seen a black girl & a white guy together before. And I know it’s fairly uncommon. I looked it up online & found out that there are only 117,000 married couples with a white husband & a black wife! As opposed to 50 million married white couples & 4 million married black couples. I wonder why this is. I think it’s because lighter skin has always been a symbol of beauty. Even in the black community, lighter skinned people are often considered prettier then darker skinned people. Of course I don’t think this because I am darker skinned. Another issue that has come up between us is his family. Most of his families think that white people should only be with white people. They would be shocked if they knew that Dylan was dating a black girl. And even in his immediate family, I think his mom has an issue with me being black as well. She has never said it but I think that’s one of the main reasons she doesn’t like me (she actually hates me more so then not liking me). But & it’s just hard for me to imagine that in this day & age somebody would say they don’t like me without even seeing me. But it is what it is and hope that one day it’ll change for the better. It just baffles be that even with a black president & a black Miss America. I think we’re changing for the better though.