skivvies and stuff

i thought the pieces we read for class today, "when did skivvies get rated nc-17?" and "those unnerving ads using 'real' women", were extremely true.  i never noticed the points that these two authors made. its true, everywhere you turn your head there are sexual ads and people on display.  the company 2xist, a line of underwear, does a very good job at showing male models on their wrappings and enhancing their features, as well as muscles.  i never noticed how much underwear modeling has changed since when i was little; it is much more sexual and revealing, making you feel like if you buy this product you will look like the people on the packaging.

segregation

the two stories we read before class today were very different but very powerful.  i love the way that zora neale hurston writes, and this piece proved her talent.  she is careless and free, but in a good way, not caring that she is a color in a massive group of white.  this relates to my favorite musical "hairspray", where the main character, pleasantly plump teenager Tracy Turnblad, doesn't care that she is the only white girl supporting a group of african american teens, trying to get the tv station that she dances on a tv show for to segregate their show, allowing the african american teens to dance with her.  these two stories show a struggle between right and reality, as Kit said today in class; should you do what you know is right, or what you know you will need to do in reality to help yourself in the long run?  

rushing through life

In response to Danielle's latest blog post, I would like to point out that i too have been noticing how quickly my life has been flying by.  its amazing to me that we are in our 2nd semester of freshmen year, pretty much at the point of spring break. it feels like yesterday that i began my freshmen year of high school. though i'm enjoying every moment of college and loving it to the fullest, i wish time would slow down sometimes! i dont want to miss out on anything, but time is flying faster than i can think.

Adolescence.

Awkward: the perfect word to describe myself during my adolescence.  everyone is said to go through an "awkward stage", and mine was definitely from the ages 11 to 14, the prime-time of my adolescent years.  i had braces, which i hated, and i gained weight, which was upsetting to me because i had gone through the first 10 years of my life being referred to as a "skinny minnie", being mainly skin and bones, able to eat whatever and whenever i wanted.  i still had a sufficiently slim face, but there was one thing that stuck out horribly: my nose.  i never noticed how terrible i thought my nose was until once i hit adolescence, mainly because until then, i didn't really care about what i looked like; i was, of course, only a little kid.  but one day i looked in the mirror and there it was, a mountain sticking out of my otherwise flat and small-featured face.  immediately i became insecure, hating when people looked at me from the side.  my nose even started affecting my breathing, causing me to have to use a paper bag to breathe in and out of constantly because it was hard for me to take deep breaths, let alone breathe through my nose.  once i hit the 6th grade, i was 12 years old and got the lead in my school musical, "the music man".  i was thrilled, but then again the insecurities starting pouring out: will my singing be right since it was difficult to breathe through my nose?  would i sound so nasally and cause people to laugh at me?  these were some of the many thoughts running through my mind.  nine times out of ten i'd be worried about what i looked and sounded like, and soon enough my parents started to notice.  however, they figured it was just a phase that i was going through, and i'd get over it eventually.  they were wrong.  as the years went on, my self-consciousness only became worse. i was even more worried about how i looked, considering i'd be going to high school soon, and i was extremely worried about my singing and breathing; singing was my favorite thing to do, and if i had to stop doing it because of my lousy nose, i'd be more than heartbroken.

On Stuttering

i cant even imagine what it would be like to have a stutter.  i know what it feels like to have "a frog in my throat"; i used to get extremely nervous before performing on stage.  i felt this piece by edward hoagland was really effective and his memories were so vivid i feel like i know him personally.  one of the most fascinating things to me was that he would be able to speak without a stutter when he was angry.  "that is, if somebody made fun of me or treated me cavalierly and a certain threshold was crossed, a spurt of chemistry would suddenly free my mouth and--like popeye grabbing a can of spinach--i could answer him."  i would think that when angry, stuttering is more prevalent, so i this statement caught my attention very quickly.  overall, the way that hoagland wrote was extremely effective to me, and he held my attention through the very few pages of his writing and actually left me wanting to know more about his life.

random.

When told we were going to have to pick a part of the body to write about, i knew exactly what i wanted to do.  i had a few choices going through my head: my hands, legs, and nose.  my hands specifically because i have tendonitis from my elbows to my fingertips in both arms, but am most effected in my hands (especially my fingers). this would be a good topic to write about because i have struggled so much since 7th grade when i fell in dance class, catching myself with my hands and injuring myself pretty much indefinitely.  it is really hard for me to hold a pencil for longer than a sentence, for example, or for me to do my hair in the morning; gripping things is extremely painful.  i decided against this topic because to me it is very negative and i wanted to write about something that i was able to overcome.  i also thought about my legs, because i use them every day as well.  i have danced since i was 4 years old, specifically tap dancing and musical-theater style, so i knew this topic would work.  but then i realized that i wanted to write about my nose.  i'm not going into detail about it now, because i want to save that for my paper, but i know that i am making the right choice.

Alice Walker

I felt that the piece by Alice Walker was very true to life. The style in which it is written is one that I have never seen before, but it actually made the reading more interesting. Breaking pieces down by age or a certain experience makes it easier to analyze and feel the actual emotions that someone of a specific age or situation would be feeling. In terms of the actual content, it is true that "all children are cruel about physical differences....and that they don't always mean to be is another matter" (Walker 309). As a child, as shown through this piece of writing, it was always important for Walker to look similar to the other children, as well as very cute. The accident that she goes through (since it destroys the way that she previously looked) was extremely traumatic to her, but I feel that worse things could have happened and she was very lucky that her other eye still functioned properly. This story was extremely effective for me personally because I know many people who have suffered through self-image issues and difficulties as I have grown up, whether it is one aspect of how they look or many things all at once. It really is upsetting how much pressure our culture places on outer beauty, and unfortunate for those people who may not be so pretty to some, but are gorgeous to those who get the chance to know them andtheir personalities. It is obvious that Walker cleary cared more about her beauty than actually being able to see, which is very vain of her. However, the best part of the story in my opinion was the ending, when Walker realized that her eye was not ugly and horrible, but fascinating. Because her daughter pointed this out and said that she had "a world in her eye", her life and the way she looked at herself in the mirror completely changed. This made me realize that if just one person believes in you in a positive and deep way and significantly helps to relieve your pain, that is truly all that matters.