Thought of the Night

Emerson Quote

Literature Analysis: Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Collaboration with Lindsey Wong!  Check her blog out for the other questions!

Quote of the Day

“Your body is the house you grew up in. How dare you try and burn it to the ground.”

—	Sierra Demulder

Interview Questions

Getting ready for your prep day tomorrow, I searched for a bunch of questions to ask people.  Here is what I came up with or found...

MacBeth Resources

For the entire play online, here.
For online play and discussions, here.
For No Fear Shakespeare, here.
For a theatre's POV on MacBeth and history, here.
For quotes from MacBeth, here.

All Shapes and Sizes

'Wow, I don't like my height or my weight or the thickness of my body or this or that'...

Look at the variety in these people...  And realize, they are all olympic athletes... experts in their own sport... It is incredible.

Thank You Target!

Ladies and Gentlemen... I give you, Target... And the reason why this topic is oh so relevant.

PHOTOSHOPPING A THIGH GAP INTO A MODEL DOESN'T HELP YOUR SALES, NOR DOES IT HELP THE SELF ESTEEM OF MILLIONS OF GIRLS AROUND THE WORLD.

And we seem to wonder why we have a distorted view of realistic body image?

Body Image

I am not my body. I am not a blood sugar reading. I am not a weight. I am not the number of carbs/fat/calories I eat in a day.

I am my mind and soul, and there is too much possibility there to be sacrificed over anything else, whether that be diabetes, the eating disorder, depression. Anything.

I am a smile. I am the number of laughs I receive from life - the happiness I can try to bring to the lives of others.

What makes all of those things possible? Nourishment. Plain and simple - nourishment. 

“Nobody wants to see a real person on the cover.”

Vogue UK editor admits covers with non-traditional models don’t sell as well

A Masterpiece

“She sits in front 
of a distorted mirror
convinced its her body
that’s the problem.

Low self esteem is
a bent mirror
that will cloud
everything you do
with a looming
cloud of self doubt.”

—	5:17 p.m. (Your mind is playing tricks on you)

Kids and Body Image

Your body image plays a role in theirs

"On a diet, you can't eat." That is what one 5- year-old girl had to say in a study on girls' ideas about dieting. This and other research has shown that daughters are more likely to have ideas about dieting when their mothers diet. Children pick up on comments about dieting concepts that may seem harmless, such as limiting high-fat foods or eating less. Yet, as girls enter their teen years, having ideas about dieting can lead to problems. Many things can spark weight concerns for girls and impact their eating habits in potentially unhealthy ways:

• Having mothers concerned about their own weight
• Having mothers who are overly concerned about their daughters' weight and looks
• Natural weight gain and other body changes during puberty
• Peer pressure to look a certain way
• Struggles with self-esteem
• Media images showing the ideal female body as thin

Although not as common, boys are also at risk of developing unhealthy eating habits and eating disorders. Body image becomes an important issue for teenage boys as they struggle with body changes and pay more attention to media images of the "ideal" muscular male.Many teenage girls of average weight think they are overweight and are not satisfied with their bodies. Having extreme weight concerns — and acting on those concerns — can harm girls' social, physical, and emotional growth. Actions such as skipping meals or taking diet pills can lead to poor nutrition and difficulty learning. For some, extreme efforts to lose weight can lead toeating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia. For others, the pressure to be thin can actually lead to binge eating disorder: overeating that is followed by extreme guilt. What's more, girls are more likely to further risk their health by trying to lose weight in unhealthy ways, such as smoking.

Help your child have a healthy body image

Your children pay attention to what you say and do — even if it doesn't seem like it sometimes. If you are always complaining about your weight or feel pressure to change your body shape, your children may learn that these are important concerns. If you are attracted to new "miracle" diets, they may learn that restrictive dieting is better than making healthy lifestyle choices. If you tell your daughter that she would be prettier if she lost weight, she will learn that the goals of weight loss are to be attractive and accepted by others.

Parents are role models and should try to follow the healthy eating and physical activity patterns that you would like your children to follow — for your health and theirs. Extreme weight concerns and eating disorders, as well as obesity, are hard to treat. Yet, you can play an important role in preventing these problems for your children.

Follow these steps to help your child develop a positive body image and relate to food in a healthy way:

• Make sure your child understands that weight gain is a normal part of development, especially during puberty.
• Avoid negative statements about food, weight, and body size and shape.
• Allow your child to make decisions about food, while making sure that plenty of healthy and nutritious meals and snacks are available.
• Compliment your child on her or his efforts, talents, accomplishments, and personal values.
• Restrict television viewing, and watch television with your child and discuss the media images you see.
• Encourage your school to enact policies against size and sexual discrimination, harassment, teasing, and name-calling; support the elimination of public weigh-ins and fat measurements.
• Keep the communication lines with your child open.

A General Run-Down

Body Image and Women's Health

When you look in the mirror, do you like what you see?

Is your body image positive or negative? If your answer is negative, you are not alone. Many women in the United States feel pressured to measure up to a certain social and cultural ideal of beauty, which can lead to poor body image. Women are constantly bombarded with "Barbie Doll-like" images. By presenting an ideal that is so difficult to achieve and maintain, the cosmetic and diet product industries are assured of growth and profits. It's no accident that youth is increasingly promoted, along with thinness, as an essential criterion of beauty. The message we're hearing is either "all women need to lose weight" or that the natural aging process is a "disastrous" fate.

Family and friends can influence your body image with positive and negative comments.Other pressures can come from the people in our lives.

• A doctor's health advice can be misinterpreted and affect how a woman sees herself and feels about her body.

Learning to love what you see in the mirror

Healthy eating can promote healthy skin and hair, along with strong bones.We all want to look our best, but a healthy body is not always linked to appearance. In fact, healthy bodies come in all shapes and sizes! Changing your body image means changing the way you think about your body. At the same time, healthy lifestyle choices are also key to improving body image.

• Regular exercise has been shown to boost self-esteem, self-image, and energy levels.
• Plenty of rest is key to stress management.

A Test for My Masterpiece

Well I thought it over for quite some time and I finally came to a possible test.......

Feeling more confident about your body than when first walked into the class

Obviously, body image is a hard topic to cover and it is more personal than most subjects being covered.  Nobody wants to talk about having low self-esteem but I mean everyone has something they dislike about their body...  With the exercises we plan, we can do this.  We can make everyone see something special in themselves for at least just a moment, that will be the most rewarding.

HUXLEY'S BRAVE NEW WORLD

Well my comment on the blog basically sums up this post... but I'll add to it I guess...

Without any background knowledge about Huxley, I thought his book was good but I didn't really think much into it.  I thought that it was one of those novels where the book says "the sky is blue."  and your teacher says that 'it symbolizes the character's deep inner emotions towards his mother'... Like we all have had those experiences in English where we think... maybe that was read into a little too much... But after watching the interview, I actually understand that Huxley meant for us to read into his work.  Everything has so much symbolism to today's world and warns us against the path we are on.  The thing that puzzles me most is, why we haven't taken his warning to heart? 

Before I watched this interview, I will admit that I was not a giant fan of Brave New World. I thought that it was a stretch to say that we would ever such a lifeless society the world state holds but after watching this interview... I think Huxley is a genius and I totally value this book much more now...
We live comfortably in the US. Even if we hit hard times, we live so much better than anyone off the reservation or country for this matter. Huxley points out that the 3rd world countries live with dramatically less resources and comfort than we do and with world population increasing, we will run out of resources and comfort sooner than later. This lack of distribution of wealth is a major issue which the government looks to take on. But Huxley argues that more government will lead us to a Brave New World. This isn't so far fetched. If we take a look at our own government right now, we are running into problems because we have so many regulations and laws that rule our country. We work in protocol, we don't work use our common sense or compassion anymore. Look at the education system, we are set to pass standardized tests rather than actually learn something. Even now there are harsher punishments for teens making mistakes. If someone were to get pulled over after a night of partying, their life would be ruined with a DUI and a record, possible time and parol but a generation before, police had a sense of compassion. Rules are getting stricter, punishments are getting harsher, and people are losing their sense of compassion. We aren't as bad as Brave New World obviously but I can see the similarities starting to unfold as Huxley predicted.

10 Questions

If I could ask my expert....

Benchmark Project

My project is coming along very well.  Body Image is a very complex subject, so I have done a wide variety of research.  I have definitions of words important to my topic which could give deeper meaning and understanding to my project.  We feel like beauty is decided based upon a number, weight or waist size.  Yet the definition of beauty is completely opposite to that.  Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder yet, we tend to look at a certain kind of people as beautiful.  Why?
I have learned that we need to become media literate.  We need to see that the media portrays a certain kind of people as beautiful which only a small percentage of the world actually attains.  We don't see anything based upon the diversity of our nation, and even then it never is what it seems with photoshop.  These 'beautiful' people have great looks to start but then they are enhanced.  It makes us want to achieve this type of beauty but it doesn't exist!
This causes us to see ourselves as less or to feel self conscious of how we look because we aren't as  'perfect' as the media portrays.  Everyone feels it in one way or another and that is what I am exploring. Along with that, I will be giving exercises to add to our self-esteem to show people that they are worth something and are beautiful.  I want to take pictures of people and show what they are most self-conscious about no matter how small.  Sometimes we are self-conscious about the weirdest things that everybody else thinks nothing of or actually finds beautiful.  Then I want to take pictures of what we find beautiful about ourselves and put it into a video.
I have dealt with these problems all throughout my life.  I will share my own experiences to show why I am so passionate about this subject.  I will let people share there own experiences if they want to but it isn't required.
The hardest part of my project is making it the cliched "Everyone is beautiful."  I don't want people to be bored by my project or think it is an easy subject because it has so much more behind it...

Resource of the Day: Quotes

“It has been said that a pretty face is a passport. But it’s not, it’s a visa, and it runs out fast.”

—	Julie Burchill, writer and journalist (b. 1959)

“Women who love themselves are threatening; but men who love real women, more so.” 
― Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women

“Sometimes people are beautiful.
Not in looks.
Not in what they say.
Just in what they are.” 
― Markus Zusak, I Am the Messenger

“Beauty can come from the strangest of places, even the most disgusting of places.”

—	Alexander McQueen

“A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous.” 

― Coco Chanel

“That's always seemed so ridiculous to me, that people want to be around someone because they're pretty. It's like picking your breakfeast cereals based on color instead of taste.” 
― John Green, Paper Towns

“I’m done finding my self-worth in how flat my stomach is.”

—	Jamie Perry, Dear VS Swimsuit Catalogue: Eff You

Another Resource

Resource of the Day: Definitions

Starting out my research process with definitions hoping to find something to go off...

Let's be Media Literate

SUPER 5

People that could help me with this project are...
Ellen Degeneres: comedian, day time TV host, and overall wonderful person...she spreads so much positivity and is an role model to me
Liria Mersini: "The Curvy Counselor", a body image expert, she speaks out for a wide range of problems women face
Cameron Russell: a model who speaks the truth about the industry and body image, TED Talk
Dr. Macy Gurvy: an expert on eating disorders/nutrition and how the media causes our desire to be thin
Jean Kilbourne: a popular college speaker, author of Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel and co-author of So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids.