Beauty Cult

        In "Beauty Cult" by Jessica Valenti, she talks about how women redo themselves to look better for men.  According to Valenti, women are doing everything from wearing makeup and heels to tanning or even plastic surgery.  Most people do not understand why someone would put himself or herself through the pain of surgery in order to look better.  However, everyone wants to look good or else we would probably just wear t-shirts and jeans and pull our wind-blown hair into a bun every day no matter where we were going.  Unfortunately, it would be very difficult to get a good paying job dressed like that.  Valenti tells of a bad experience where she was accused of showing off for President Clinton because of how she dressed.  I think no matter whom or where you are there is always going to be someone there to call you a slut or a whore.  Dressing up and looking nice is not going to change that one way or the other.  I understand what Valenti is saying about people trying to look better for men.  That is not to say women do not do that every day; however, I know from personal experience that this is not always true.  I myself have had plastic surgery and it was so that I could feel better about myself; not to look better for any man.  We all know that beauty comes from within but when you look in the mirror and you are not comfortable looking at yourself it makes you understand why some women and men have plastic surgery.  Unless you are happy with yourself, you cannot be happy with your life.

"The Sex" and birth control

While reading this chapter, "If these Uterine Walls Could Talk" I became very upset at the fact that so many people are against the use of contraception.  To be honest, I had no clue that it was even an issue until we talked about it in class.  You would think that contraception would be a great thing considering it protects teens from things like pregnancy and STD's.  As a mother, I have always told my daughters that if they felt it were time for them to be on some kind of birth control to let me know and I will gladly take them to get it.  I guess now this makes me some horrible mother because I do not want my kids to end up pregnant at an early age as I did.  Wow, to think so many people are afraid of "The Sex" as Jessica Valenti says, just makes me laugh at them.  Those people have no idea what they are missing in their life.  Sex is not a bad thing, nor is it only to have children.  People in the early 1900's may have thought that but times have changed and apparently, some people need to catch up.  The fact that having premarital sex is against their religion is enough to piss me off!  I guess you must stay a virgin until you die if you never find the right person that you want to settle down and spend the rest of your life with.  It should not be up to someone else whether you can be on the pill or use any other form of birth control.  This should be your decision all by yourself and should not involve anyone else's feelings or religious beliefs.  While I personally could never have an abortion, I think that is something individual people should choose themselves.  If I were not able to care for the child myself, I would check into adoption since there are so many loving families that are not capable of having a child of their own.  Basically, it comes down to you are the one to take care of your body, so you should be the one to choose birth control, whatever your choice may be.

bell hooks and African Americans

It is a scary thing when you are afraid to let a child go outside and play, because you fear that someone is going to drive by and start to shoot at someone else and hit your child on accident.  Unfortunately, things like this happen every day of someone's life.  bell hooks talks about how African American men would rather deal drugs and steal than work a 40 hour a week job.  These same boys are dropping out of school just so they can make more money faster and at a younger age.  This seems to be the normal day-to-day life of many people.  According to hooks, African Americans do not want to work a job, they want to party and fight instead.  They are disrespectful to everyone including their friends and do not care if they are hurting anyone.  Most think it is sexy or cool to be bad and mean.  They think there are more ways to make a living and that they can make more money faster than anyone working a job can.  Thankfully, not all African Americans have that mentality.  Most are great people that work jobs and raise kids just like anyone else.  There are some people black and white alike that need to stop thinking poor me and just live their lives.  They need to stop the drugs and violence and make this world a little safer for the children out there. 

Why is it so hard to be happy anymore?

Being a mother of two teenage daughters and a nine year old son, I have seen my children's difficulties on a daily basis.  It seems no matter how well they seem to be doing one minute, the next minute could completely spin in the other direction.  I have decided to do my paper on depression since it seems more and more teenagers are on medications for this every day.  When I was growing up, things were so much easier, or so it seemed.  These days' children are bullied on a daily basis and it is harder from them to get away from it due to cell phones and social networking sites like Facebook, bebo, my yearbook or MySpace.  I used to be able to go home and get away from it since I was one of the children that got bullied in school, however it is not so easy anymore.  When children get depressed and they are taken to the doctor, they are usually put on a medication, which then gives the bully even more to tease the teen about.  Unfortunately, they are teased for anything from what they wear to who they hang out with.  Teens should instead have someone to stand up for them at the school, but teachers are afraid to do anything in fear of losing their jobs for saying the wrong thing.  Life is stressful enough when you add in jobs, bills, relationships, peer pressure, and the list just goes on; it is no wonder teens are beginning to become depressed at an earlier age.   

Fuckin' Perfect by Pink

          "Fuckin' Perfect", by Pink is probably one of my favorite songs right now.  In the song, Pink employs Pathos by making you feel good about whom you are.  People kill themselves everyday because they make bad choices in life and end up somewhere they never thought they would be.  However, they never stop to think they can change their life to make if better.  This song makes you feel sad at the beginning when it talks about wrong choices, bad decisions, and being underestimated which everyone can relate to; however by the end of the song you are happy to just be exactly who you are.  In the song Pink states, "Change the voices in your head / Make them like you instead."  Too many people are trying to be like someone else instead of just being who they really are, in the process they are usually very unhappy with how they turn out.  Everyone has been disappointed with some aspect of their life and only they can change that.  Pink talks about how people do not like the way she looks.  This is a feeling most people feel about themselves, when we should just be happy with whom we are.  We are perfect just the way we are and it should not matter what others have to say.  As everyone knows Pink is not afraid to be herself and she could not care less what people think about her.  Everyone should take a lesson from her and we should never feel like less than we are, because we are all perfect just the way we are.