Note: Here is the
link to the version with more pictures, because Blogger wasn't being nice to my layout. When Paul and Greg were
explaining our new project, Revolutions, for the first time in Cultures
and walking us through the Green Sheet, I have to be honest- I
definitely was not listening… and instead telling myself that I would
figure it out later. So, after a month or so, I read the directions,
which were not the most straight forward. Apparently, I have to write
this blog post, but for once I might be able to “spice it up,” as much
as I can in this setting.
So, when I figured out I could pretty much write about anything, I did not
have one of those
Grease like
moments where an angel comes out of nowhere to not only give me a cool
idea, but sings it to me. You know what I’m talking about, right? No?
Really? Look at the nearest picture, and if you’re still clueless: take a
night off and do your research. Watch the movie. Please. Anyway, I had no
idea what to start with. Why I don’t always love science class? Um, I can’t
write about that… I mean, I’m pretty sure most people already know. All
about the life of suffering and pain in theater? Nothing sounded right. So
I thought for a while, and I decided, why not go for it and talk about some
of my own, personal “stuff?” Then, I remembered that my class would also
being seeing this, and how uncomfortably awkward that could end up. So I’m
gonna try to keep this whole thing pretty general, and hopefully I won’t go
off in a long, horrifyingly dull rant. Wait- not to worry, I’m also gonna
try not to give you another lecture, as I honestly find it important that
this is addressed from someone else’s point of view. Ok. Enough. Even I’m
getting bored with this intro. I’m not about to make this into a formal
thing or whatever, but let’s get started.
Something I’ve noticed a bit just since the beginning of this year is
mental health and body image in our generation. As I started
researching (stalking people’s Instagram’s, which you’ll see later in
my photo source list) for this, I realized I have a lot of different
things I want to mention, so I wrote about ten pages, which, mind you,
is quite a bit for this assignment. So by now you just scrolled down
then back up and are asking yourself why this is only eight… the next
day, after I wrote my draft, I went to edit, and turns out it was all
pretty cruddy, and I only had one page of “quality,” so I rewrote seven
pages. So, yeah, that’s why it’s not very good. Anyways. When I say
“eating disorder” what comes to mind? (I realize this might be a touchy
subject, so apologies if this is upsetting.) For me, I saw this photo
once, and it always re-enters my brain. This woman is standing in front
of a mirror, continuing to see herself differently than what she is in
reality. You, dear reader, are probably thinking something along the
lines of yeah, got that, you really didn’t need to explain. But while
you may think woah, have you ever gone farther into that? While this is
obviously a very extreme case, (of
anorexia
) this sort of thing is everywhere.
(We will go into this more later.) Anorexia is when people either restrict
the amount of calories they eat, exercise compulsively, or force themselves
to vomit, sometimes after binge eating. On top of that, anorexia can come
with depression, anxiety, and other serious mental disorders. Three
quarters of the people with anorexia are female, and at any given point in
time, between 0.3-0.4% of young women and 0.1% of young men will suffer
from it. It’s the third most common chronic disease among young people,
after asthma and type 1 diabetes, and those between the ages of 15 and 24
with anorexia have ten times the risk of dying compared to their same-aged
peers. Eating disorders also occur in things like ballet and wrestling. To
make their weight class, some wrestlers use saunas and trash bags in order
to lose water weight, or they may not eat for several days, which can lead
to death. I said we would come back to body image being everywhere, and now
we are.
Take the
Kardashians.
We’ve all heard of them. I don’t wanna go into a whole thing of accusing
them of making the world a worse place, but… That girl to your right? She’s
famous for being, well, to oversimplify a little, pretty and dramatic. In
part, I do blame her (and equally her family) for filling the internet up
with ideas about all of the eccentric ways you can “improve” your face.
Now, I’m not saying changing yourself is a terrible thing. What I mean is
that people are starting to take risks they don’t even know exist just to
look like that, because apparently there’s a standard for everything. For
example, some common side effects of plastic surgery are nerve damage,
infection, blood clots, blood loss, and scarring. If you didn’t know that,
pay closer attention to the little print at the bottom of commercials ;).
Did you know that you can die from the anesthesia they use? And the
infections that plastic surgery cause can lead to organ failure, and even
death??
Models are similar, but whether it’s an ad popping up in your feed, a
billboard you pass on the way to school, or posters outside a store,
they’re stored in your brain, setting unreal expectations. What do I mean?
I mean advertising is fine, (in most cases,) but most companies only use
one type of person, a supposed “normal” body type. Speaking of “normal”
body types… (see what I did there?) From head to toe, lots of us could
easily point out thirteen (yes that is a random number) things that are
supposedly “wrong” with our bodies, big or small, and that’s because of our
old friend, standard. But wait… there are way more people who weren’t born
with high cheekbones and slim waists, so how did those thin people rise to
the “top?” Why did someone decide they were “better?”
Why is skinny considered beautiful? It’s possible that this has come from
evolution, because men associated skinny with youth, fertility, fitness,
and lower risk of disease. But as humans have grown, why haven’t their
general tastes grown too? Models risk infertility, osteoporosis, and kidney
damage as results of their unhealthy diets. Some have even admitted that
every time a star loses weight, they try to catch up by losing more,
creating an unhealthy “game.” And then there’s the special effects. There
are close to no modeling pictures whatsoever on the internet that haven’t
been touched up. When you see a picture, you think, I could never look like
that, and the truth is that no one can.
Have you ever seen a selfie with millions of likes picturing someone curled
up on their couch, wrapped in a blanket, watching Netflix, eating chips,
and the caption about how boring they are? Instagram… Oh yes, we’re going
there, because modeling is more than a business. At first Instagram was
just grandmas showing off their little ones, (see above,) but now it’s very
different. I read an
article by Sophie Kirby, who asked if social media is feeding eating disorders, and
followed it with a story, which I’ll share a bit of with you. Instead of
summarizing it all, I’m mostly going to quote him with a little background
information, and see how that works.
After being diagnosed with anorexia six years before, and continuingly
starving himself, Thomas said, "I believed that I needed to look a certain
way to have other people like me and to make friends. I was constantly
being bombarded with images of people with the 'ideal body,' photos of
people's food and posts about dieting and exercise. I would constantly
compare myself to other people online and in Instagram photos, and thought
that if I could only be more like them, I would be happier. Looking at
their pictures made me feel less about myself.” The narrative also included
information about “Thinspiration,” posts by the “Pro-Ana” (Pro-Anorexia)
community. Hold on. What does that all mean? It means that people who
promote anorexia as a lifestyle choice have come together and made posts
about encouraging people to continue to process.
On the other hand, while we typically mindlessly scroll through feeds, what
we’re not thinking about is everything our parents tell us, the “boring”
stuff. And while I don’t agree at all with a lot of the stuff my family
says, they can be right about some of it. Just a little. A lot of people
use the app to show off themselves, in a way that isn’t real. Posting
pictures of yourself is fine, but it’s the “best” ones that we don’t think
about. A lot of the time posts with more likes are taken in special places,
showing off just the best parts of their life, and themselves. Whether it’s
the right angle or sucking in your stomach, let’s be honest, it’s to make
people jealous, or so they say say how great you are, and how boring their
life is. But it’s the things behind the scenes we all forget about… just
like dress codes. You may not think much of them, but maybe you’ll start
now. I recently attended a twenty four hour diversity conference, where I
spent some time in a female affinity group.
One of the many things we discussed was the truth about dress codes. First
of all, women’s bodies are just generally more sexualized than men’s. Girls
are told not to show their shoulders, bra straps, waist, legs, and too make
sure their shirt isn’t too low, or revealing. I mean, God forbid we expose
the skin we all have. Lots of dress codes are in place because women’s
bodies might “distract” others, but it’s not their fault if someone can’t
pay attention in class. There was once a
rule in West Virginia where all holes in jeans had to be covered in duct tape,
and that girls couldn’t wear black with red because a school counselor
thought it was too “sexy.” The Washington Post posted an article entitled,
“
Why Dress Codes Can’t Stop Sexual Assault.
” Let’s take a look, shall we? Would you look at that! First sentence: “The
idea that clothing contributes to rape is false- and incredibly common.”
Hmmm… Next? “Deputy principal Cherith Telford at Henderson High School in
New Zealand told female students that their uniform skirts must be
knee-length in order to, ‘keep our girls safe, stop boys from getting
ideas, and create a good work environment for male staff.’” Later… “Reagan
Gomez argued that i
t wasn’t the responsibility of the girls to avoid being a temptation to grown men.” On the other hand… “In 1999, the Supreme Court of Appeals in
Rome ruled that a
woman wearing jeans couldn’t be raped, reasoning that a rapist couldn’t forcibly remove a pair of pants. Police
question victims of sexual assault about
what they were wearing, as though
the length of their skirt is an indication of consent.” Some stats… “Violence study found that just
4.4% of all reported rapes involved “provocative behavior” on the part of
the victim. (In murder cases, it’s 22 percent.) It also found that most
convicted rapists could not remember what their victims were wearing.
Studies
show that women with passive personalities, who tend to dress in layers, long
pants and sleeves and high necklines, are actually more likely to be raped.
In one study, one in three college men
said that they would force someone to have sex with them if they could get away
with it, and that has nothing to do with clothing.” I’ll leave you with
that, and after that, a very cheesy picture of someone who looks like
they’re trying to pursue a more healthy choice then all the stuff we just
covered.
