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.