Innate Sense of Beauty: Are beauty standards universal?

Heyes explained how cosmetic surgeries are ethnic and argued that Kaw’s model perpetuates the dynamic that Davis initially identified: it makes already ethnically marked people peculiarly guilty for their complicity in racist norms, and enables critics to project moral culpability for cosmetic surgery unequally onto people of color. Hence, i did some research in attempt to answer the question: are beauty standards universal?

It appears that people from different cultures share the same standards of beauty because they are innate; we are born with the knowledge of who’s beautiful and who’s not. Two studies conducted in the mid-1980s independently demonstrate that infants as young as two and three months old gaze longer at a face that adults judge to be more attractive than at a face that adults judge to be less attractive. Babies are wonderfully hedonistic and have no manners, so they stare at objects that they consider to be pleasing. When babies stare at some faces longer than others, it indicates that they prefer to look at them and find them attractive.

In the most recent version of this experiment, newborn babies less than one week old show significantly greater preference for faces that adults judge to be attractive. Another study shows that 12-month-old infants exhibit more observable pleasure, more play involvement, less distress, and less withdrawal when interacting with strangers wearing attractive masks than when interacting with strangers wearing unattractive masks. They also play significantly longer with facially attractive dolls than with facially unattractive dolls. The findings of these studies are consistent with the personal experiences and observations of many parents of small children, who find that their children are much better behaved when their babysitters are physically attractive than when they are not.

Even the most ardent proponents of the traditional view that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” must admit that one week (or even a few months) is not nearly enough time for infants to have learned and internalized the (supposedly arbitrary) cultural standards of beauty through socialization and media exposure. These studies instead strongly suggest that the broad standards of beauty might be innate, not learned or acquired through socialization. The balance of evidence indicates that beauty is decidedly not in the eye of the beholder, but might instead be part of universal human nature.

Perhaps, beauty is not in the eye of the beholder, but skin deep!

Turning the Tables

   In Germantown Maryland an abortion clinic landlord is fight back. Many Abortion clinics are picketed on a day to day basis. Many who provide abortions have their lives threatened and have their personal information out for everyone to see. Many just deal with the pressure but for one landlord enough was enough when protesters targeted his home and his daughter’s middle school. He started a 3000 person network to counter them. The group is called The Voice Of Choice and they use similar methods as the protesters, like picketing and calls. The big difference is that “The Voice Of Choice” chooses not to involve the family members of anyone.

I think this is a good thing. After all of the hardships that so many doctors had to endure, finally someone is saying enough and is fighting back. I am really happy that The voice of Choice group is not going to the extreme like those who were protesting them. I don’t think it is ever right to involve family members, just another step in turning the tables.

“A woman who lost her life to have a slightly firmer behind.”

"Former Miss Argentina Solange Magnano died Sunday from complications arising during a gluteoplasty—or bum lift. A friend of the former beauty queen told the Associated Press that liquid injected during the procedure had somehow traveled to her lungs and brain. After three days in critical care in a Buenos Aires hospital, Magnano ultimately died of a pulmonary embolism, or blocked artery in the lung." 
Cosmetic Surgery is prevalent in this society, if you are fat, all you need to have is a free day and you can get a marvelous figure in the matter of a liposuction surgery. The perfect looks supersedes the health and existence of live in today's society. A beauty queen who all considered to have the ideal face and body, succumbed to a cosmetic disaster. She is not the only one, many actors, models and even common people want to just get rid of their natural look and get the new look, be it a slender nose or plumper lips, just to look perfect. 


Source:http://healthland.time.com/2009/12/01/beauty-queen-dies-after-plastic-surgery/ (2010)

Away from All Those Stuff

Heyes’s underlying point in the article on ethnic cosmetic surgery is that “feminist analysis of cosmetic surgery badly needs to learn the lessons of critical whiteness studies that are already widely integrated into feminist work on other topics.” She continues, “these lessons might direct us to investigate how cosmetic surgery enables white women to appropriate pieces of “ethnic” physicality for their exoticism and eroticism, without risking the oppression that more bodies are marked vulnerable to.”

I guess it is fair to say, according to the quotes, that Heyes sees ethnic cosmetic surgery negatively unless she was being sarcastic to the scholars, mentioned in the article. If we assumed that she was not being sarcastic, I’d say, however, that we can be positive about, put it in their words, white women appropriating “pieces of ‘ethnic’ physicality” of ethnic people and ethnic women “whitenizing” themselves. Let’s say more and more individuals were pursuing this unnatural transformation of appearance through cosmetic surgery. Then, they would be categorized out of categorically exclusive ethnic cultures because they would not be ethnically natural in appearance. This could undermine rigid institutions of traditionalism and ethnic fundamentalism. It seems as if, to some extent, the newly transformed could break away and free themselves from social, cultural, and ethnic features, which are often used to discriminate against in reality. Therefore, it may be a transformation of collectively identified individuals into non-traditional, non-cultural, and non-ethnic individual beings; that is, in my opinion, positive.

Is Sunset Beautiful or Not?

It is hard to describe the feeling that I get when I sit on the sand of Santa Monica beach, with bear foot in the sand, and slightly feeling the fading warmth it saved up for a whole day, and look at the sun slowly dissolving into the sea. I could say that the sunset on such an occasion is beautiful. Perhaps, not many people disagree with me that it is in fact beautiful, yet beauty is subjective, as I understand. And what is ugly about beauty is that it might enforce a certain, notion of beauty upon ourselves through various institutions. Such institutions can be government, religion, culture, arts, education, and etcetera . This gets me thinking about our lectures past few weeks: eating disorder, femininity, and media portrayal of such.

Criticizing on the media for actively and harmfully portraying the expected, desirable appearance of women as skinny does not seem to be the right course to get to the bottom of the problem as to how American women are dissatisfied with their own bodies and that such self-contempt causes eating disorder. As the same logic, talking about how voluptuous women are healthier and more attractive than those skinny does not seem to solve anything as well. So I wonder: why aren’t we talking about such a concept as beauty as our enemy?

Beauty ultimately creates ugliness or vice versa. I am not aware of all the talks on beauty, done by the philosophers ever existed, so I cannot firmly say, but isn’t beauty only existent if compared with ugliness because we wouldn’t be able to figure out whether or not something is beautiful if not compared? Say there is an emerald green colored ocean in front of you. If there were no such thing as beauty, then there would be no ugliness about it. If there were neither beauty nor ugliness, then there would just be this ocean as it is with no subjective judgment on its quality. Similarly, being thinner or thicker, if there were no concept as beauty, wouldn’t that person be just thinner or thicker; and there is nothing negative or positive about it?

Hollywood for the Male Consumer

It has been discussed in discussion that movies tend to be geared towards men. It is actually shockingly true how many movies have surprisingly little female interaction that is not about men. Here's an excellent litmus test to see whether a movie is male biased, which proves the point that many of the movies that even I like seem to be biased towards a man's perspective.

http://www.genderacrossborders.com/2010/03/17/the-bechdel-test-for-women-in-movies/

Yet why is there no uproar from the women? Better yet, why has the female cinema viewer market not been tapped? Many would say that so-called 'chick flicks' that guys roll their eyes over are geared towards women. Indeed, females seem to be the majority of the audience through those features. Yet they don't depict much more than the same story of hopelessly falling in love.

On the other hand, many family-oriented movies don't purposely degrade women. However, by having male characters be consistently in lead roles, society is getting accustomed to this and would find it odd if such genders were reversed.

Such teaching of gender roles through movies starts incredibly early, it seems, with 'harmless' Disney movies. And this teaching is continued throughout adulthood. One fascinating website that shows this continuous brainwashing of every girl desiring a fairytale wedding with Prince Charming coming along is http://www.disneybridal.com/ where customers can choose which Disney princess they desire to imitate. It is a very frightening thought that such obvious training is going on within culture, and it seems as if there is no end to it in the near future. The question to ask, though, is whether such gender training from early on is actually such a terrible thing if it does not interfere with one's health. More to come on this next week!

Advocating for Fat Acceptance

While I appreciated Susan Bordo’s take on eating disorders, the media, body image and its effects on women, I believe she did not address a large majority of women, fat women. They too are affected by society’s demands of the “perfect” body. However, fat women are quite frequently left out of the conversation. It is unfortunate that fat women are not seen as worthy of any positive attention and as fat people are often portrayed as the very thing that all people should strive to avoid. I’d like to bring attention to this topic because as a fat woman I am both highly visible and invisible at the same time. I am large and I take up more space than a non-fat person and as such I am aware that my fatness makes others uncomfortable. I embody that which America and much of the world has been told to hate. To many I am disgusting, ugly, and unhealthy, among other things. Society has such narrow and impossible standards of beauty that most average women can’t physically attain. As a member of the fat community, I am further away from attaining any of those standards and instead am encouraged to cover up, to hide my body under layers of unflattering clothing, and to become invisible, so as to not make any normal sized people uneasy.

It is unfortunate that in our society people are taught that to be fat is the worst thing you can possibly be. This kind of belief is what generates a lot of the stigma, discrimination and hate towards fat people, especially women. What is even more alarming is that people who discriminate against fat people have found a way to justify their hate, through the battle against obesity. People like me are part of the obesity epidemic and must be cured for the good of the human race. But the reality is that a majority of women in the US are not thin at all, I’ve read in several articles that the average American woman is a size 14. Yet we can’t walk into department stores without feeling shame or guilt at not finding clothes in our size, because most department stores do not carry sizes larger than a 12. This means a large percentage of women are technically “obese”. However it seems ridiculous that society does not cater to or support fat women when there is a large population of these women. Instead it vilifies them and treats them as sub-human, unworthy of any dignity.

We see it in the news almost everyday, obese women, portrayed as headless fatties. Rarely are we portrayed as a full person, with our heads fully visible, and any other information about us other than our fatness. Fat women are not seen in the context of their careers, their contributions to society, or hardworking. Despite the many qualities that a fat woman may have society refuses to acknowledge her. The only way society will become invested in a fat woman is if she decides to lose weight. Only then can she be attributed some worth.

It has taken me a very long time to accept myself as a fat woman. But I refuse to base my self-esteem on whether or not I meet a cultural stereotype of beauty. As a fat woman, I too am deserving of the space my body takes up and of respect from others. I do not believe that shaming fat women will make them go away or “help” them. There needs to be greater movement for acceptance of people of all sizes and greater respect for the different ways that people live their lives. As a society we need to stop correlating people’s worth to their body size.

Israel advocates for Healthy Models

      During discussion this week, we conversed about the way that women are portrayed in media and how the media feeds us an image that is never attainable. Unlike the mail body, the female body was never seen as being perfect. No matter how hard a woman would try, her body would always be criticized for either too skinny or too fat. Men, on the other hand, were able to sculpt their bodies to reach perfection. Today, women are still being fed this image of the unattainable beauty. The media, however, knows that the perfect woman does not exist. Many disputes concerning Photoshopped pictures have made it to the news. The question then, would be, if the media knows that there is no perfection, why feed us this harmful image? The answer being that because this is what society wants to see. The media is not the sole to blame but it simply reflects what society thinks.

       Through much criticism, the modeling sphere has not taken action in many parts of the world. In Israel, for example, has banned the use of underweight models. Models are required to prove that they are not underweight by providing proof from the doctor. In addition, model agencies must admit to their use of Photoshop in their pictures. Although Israel only has a few models and that this new law applies to Israel publications, it can serve as an example for others to save many lives of teenagers.

         This law makes us realize that America is not the only country suffering with these issues. This image of how a woman should be is something held world-wide. Perhaps one day, we can live in an era where beauty is natural and not created.

hey you are still eating?

I just read a post by one of my friends, a very fit girl--at least in my eyes. I have heard from more than one person saying that you Chinese girls are obsessed with losing weight and being unhealthily thin. What can I say? It is sadly the truth. As a temporary worldwide phenomenon, extreme infatuation for perfect body(let alone the monotonous definition of this term) has already led to some tragedies, and the rate of anorexia is inevitably going up. Now I am doing the translation work again, just to let you guys know what is happening on the other side of the world, including the similarities and differences.
So here is some quotes from her post, which is funny, but somewhat, I'd say, pathetic.

1. Hey you are still eating? Even your mom is thinner than you! Just think about how you feel when you can't squeeze yourself into clothes you love...and now you are still eating?
2. You must be crazy. Don't you remember how people laugh at you, and make fun of you? You've already been eating for all these years...are you going to die without this bite?
3.Look at how slim other girls are. Are you an idiot? Or you are born to be such a pig? Are you happy when your crush is taken away by some hot bitch, leaving you alone in your fat pants?
4. Where did you get the courage to wear dresses with your giant elephant legs?
5. Pigs are fat for money; what are you stocking your fat for?
6. Fat girls have no future! However good you are, you are just an overweight good person.
7. When you are hungry, go to the mirror, you fat bitch!
8. To slim, or to die!

The Unfairness of Contraception

         On Monday's lecture, Professor Halberstam mentioned in class how the prices of condoms and female birth control differ in drastic ways. This is interesting because it is amusing how men are given the opportunity to prevent themselves from having children by using condoms, yet if a woman wants to buy birth control, it is not only looked down upon by society, but it is also very expensive. Many people think that it is not fair to men how in some cases, birth control can be paid for by insurance, but in many cases this is not true.
         It is also a very big problem that men are given the opportunity to purchase condoms for a few dollars at almost any convince store but in order for a woman to purchase birth control they have to make an appointment to meet with their doctor and pay much more than a few dollars in order to prevent having children. Women also have the burden of paying $50 for emergency contraceptive if for some case they think they may be in danger of being pregnant. This price for the pill should be much lower because women should have an equal opportunity to prevent pregnancy the same way that the men do. The men should not be the only sex that is able to prevent pregnancy with only sparing a few dollars.

Fat is the New Ugly

There is an article on CNN discussing how on playgrounds the new "put-down" word is calling someone fat. Children as young as 3 are coming home and telling their parents that someone called them fat to hurt their feelings. Even if a child is not watching TV, they pick up cues from an early age about what is "good" (skinny) and what is "bad" (fat). Although many young kids do not even know what "fat" means, the word has been associated with with being blameworthy, ugly, lazy, unpopular and all the polar opposites of being happy, well liked, popular and good. So often times the word is being thrown out because of what it implies, not because the victim is actually overweight. Because children at such a young are now consumed with fat culture, parents are having to address eating disorders at younger ages. Yet how can parents address such an important topic to children who have yet to develop this problem in terms that they would understand? Is there a safe way to prevent eating disorders and obesity at the same time without all the influences?


There was recently an article in Vogue about a mother who put her 7 year old daughter on a drastic diet because her daughter's BMI labeled her as obese. Extreme restriction on impressionable kids' minds is harmful and the consequences are what set up eating disorders later on. Although this woman said that she put her daughter on a diet for health reasons, limiting everything a child eats ruins the fun of being a kid. Instead of teaching moderation and healthy habits by example, she would embarrass her daughter by taking away birthday cake at parties or limit portion sizes at dinner. The CNN article said that children learn more from what their parents do then by what they tell them. So if a child is watching his or her mother limiting her food intake or listening to mom saying "she's been bad because she had a bowl of ice cream", they'll mimic the behavior. This is also considered a gateway to eating disorders, so a well-informed parents should recognize this and watch how their children pick-up on eating cues. Raising a healthy, normal weight, and self confident child is becoming more and more difficult in a society that relates so much to the good and evils of being skinny and fat.

Anorexia: it's all in the brain

Anorexia nervosa is a very serious illness that has a wide range of effects on the body and mind. It is also associated with other problems, ranging from frequent infections and general poor health to life-threatening conditions. Some researchers believe that it should not be approached as a simple eating disorder but as a serious condition requiring staging according to severity.

At this time, no treatment program for anorexia nervosa is completely effective. Recovery rates vary between 23 - 50%, and relapses range from 4 - 27%. Recovery takes an average of 5 - 6 years from the time of diagnosis. Up to 30% of patients do not recover.

Even after treatment and weight gain, many patients continue to display characteristics of the disorder, including perfectionism and a drive for thinness, which could keep them at risk for recurrence.

Some research suggests that anorexia nervosa has the highest death rate of any psychiatric disorder.

This problem is severe, yet many people choose to be effected by it, to look perfect or in general for their profession. The main reason being to fit the image of a perfect woman.

Anorexia is not an eating disorder, but more of a severe psychiatric disorder, treatment lies in getting into the head of a brainwashed female and getting her back to her healthy lifestyle. If that fails then a life full of sufferings awaits her: heart problems, reproductive problems and the list continues.

Still Victims to the Whims of Men

Suzanne Collins’ popular Hunger Games series tells the tale of a future dystopian country in which a tyrannical government annually forces a boy and girl from each of its districts to fight to the death in a televised reality competition. The first and eponymous novel of the series follows protagonist Katniss Everdeen as she volunteers for the games in place of her younger sister. Katniss is a brave and intelligent teenager who is able to hold her own, demonstrated by this self-sacrifice as well as her ability to hunt for herself in order to support her family. Unfortunately, despite her independence and courageousness, Katniss is at the whim of her mentor, a male winner of a previous game. She depends upon him for advice and supplies while in the arena. So, even though Katniss is an independent girl who is able to survive on her own, she is still at the mercy of a man. Also in the novel, Katniss ends up in a love triangle, succumbing to her hormones. While the games are a focus of the novel, this love triangle does play a role as well. The fact that the author felt the need to include it demonstrates that either women cannot be perceived except in relation to a man, or that the people who read this book have come to expect such a scenario in relation to a female surrounded by male counterparts. Either way, this does not reflect well upon modern society since women still seem to be irreversibly tied to men.

Magazine articles

 I was recently on a News website and I saw this tap that said women. I clicked on it, the page opened up and surprisingly the first images that I saw were of men. And the titles of those articles were about what type of women those men liked or desired. What their favorite part of a women was, What they find sexiest about a women, And what men really want from sex. I just find it odd that when clicking on a tap that says women I get no information on women but a ton of information about men and their wants needs and desires.  Nothing about women’s wants, needs or issues  (which there are a ton of). It gave me the message that women are meant to make men happy, we should find out what men want and push ourselves into that mold. What is really annoying  is that most of the articles are written by women. I think most women don’t even take the time to analyze the titles of these articles and the message they are giving.

Reasons behind a man's/woman's decision to have cosmetic surgery

Research shows that, like women, men are affected by the media’s idealized version of beauty just as women are. The reasons behind a man's decision to have cosmetic surgery run the gamut from the desire for career advancement to simply wanting to feel better about himself. As a man ages, he may feel the pressure of not looking as young as he used to look. This is especially true if the individual is in a position where he meets a lot of people and must look his best. Men identify very heavily with their profession, and the fear of being replaced by a younger version of yourself is very real. While men get plastic surgery for themselves and “for other men”, many women get plastic surgery to make themselves more appealing to their male partners and to cement their relationships. This is because masculinity is self-fulfilling. Moreover, men's masculinity is defined by the consent of other men, a process that does not take into account opinions of women, which explains the notion that masculinity occurs in a space marked by the absence of women genuinely because masculinity is everything opposed to femininity.

Women are not only pressured to compete with other women but also experience a stronger urge to satisfy men's expectations of their bodies. Perhaps the reason why women experience more anxieties than men is the overwhelming social expectations and judgments around gender that restrict women's freedom with the "should’s" and "don'ts" - a woman should stay in the domestic field, don't be too promiscuous - that have trained her to instinctively confirm to what the society thinks is "pure physical beauty" and given her the mentality that she has no freedom to choose how she wants her body to be. And this mentality is deeply enforced by men who buy beauty marketing campaigns then turn to impose the same expectations on women. The clearest evidence of this is the famous viral scandal from USC kappa sigma frat, in which the boys impose a scale on the female body: 10 is equivalent to "the likes of Marissa Miller and Megan Fox. No one will ever get this" while "3-The filth cut-off. These are not attractive women, but sadly many of you have fucked these.
2-Still filth. Still Pathetic" and "1-Anything this close to 0 is bad. You better be 3 four lokos deep to justify this abomination". Our generation has not only been seriously saturated with superficial unrealistic expectation, but has also becoming more criticizing of the female body.

Think Like A Man

This section on masculinity has really been interesting. I have always learned about feminism and it’s cool to see the other side of the spectrum. While watching TV, I stumbled upon a trailer for a movie. The movie is called, “Think Like A Man”. The movie portrays the stereotyped masculinity that many believe in. It shows how men try to keep their masculinity through their toughness and the subordination of women. It was always men who got what they wanted from a relationship. Now however, the women will play the men’s game against them. A book is published that helps women understand the male brain. From the trailer we can see the masculinities of the men develop as they attempt to pursue their love interest.

                I found it interesting how the women say that we must act like ladies yet think like a man, while the men in this story also face a change. They act tough with each other in order to show their masculinity yet in a different situation, with a woman, for example, they may demonstrate their true feelings. As it seems, this film can probably portray the masculinity in women and the femininity on men rather than showing that men ought to be what they were “predetermined” to be. It just reminded me of Connell's book on the various types of masculinity and how they are perceived once they cross the line between what's considered masculine and what's considered feminine. Now I wait to wonder what unexpected turn this film will take and what statement about this line crossing among norms it will create. 

17 Again

Recently, I re-watched the comedy 17 Again and just realized how men have to endure the overwhelming social pressure to display masculinity. For those that haven’t seen the movie, it is about man who gets a second shot in life by returning to the glorious high school days. Through the lives of Mike in his 30s and 17s, I saw how hegemonic masculinity is defined by being at the top of the game. In high school, being at the top means being in a sport team and dating cheerleaders. Stan, the high school bully, never appears without his basketball for it is a clear indication of strength and status. While he is comfortable asserting violence on the weak, he is intimidated and timid when the ball is taken away by Mark (Mike’s 17 year old version). In the adult world men’s power is measured on the scale of social and economic power. No one at his workplace cares how Mike was a star of the basketball team in high school or how good he was with girls. Power is legitimized by workplace position, which makes Mike as a loser in the adult world when he loses his promotion to a woman.

But the movie raises an interesting approach to male’s presentation of masculinity. Stan, in order to project his masculinity, constantly shows homophobic attitudes and violence; his masculinity is defined by the subordination of socially less-valued types of masculinities. Nonetheless, all of his victims are on the weak side. If he were a true man he would have picked on someone of his own size. As Mark pointed out later that “underneath all those male brovado, there’s an insecure little girl just banging on the closet door trying to get out”. Hence, masculinity is just a product of insecurity, of fear of being recognized as the weak, feminine one in the world of men.

The movie also depicts how women are often seen as burdens to men’s success. For all his failures in life, Mike blame his wife for his lost opportunities, all things that he could have done without her. When his wife told him that he didn’t have to marry her in the first place, Mike answered “Yeah, but I did”, as if marrying her was an act of justice, a favor he did for her. Moreover, it portrays how society limits the rights of women and its skeptical, harsh judgment on them. When Mike’s wife was finally starting out fresh by looking for new man, Mike commented that: “if this was Afghanistan she’d be dragged to the street by goats with her hands cut off for planning on running around with every guy she can get her hands on”. Thus, even though we lived in a developed, civilized society, many of us are still narrow-minded on the subject of gender and equality, and allowing old-fashioned stereotypes and generalizations to be the foundations of our perceptions.

Gender Dysphoria

A biologically female friend of mine has always had trouble identifying as a woman, but she did not identify entirely as a man, either. She has always been feeling something in between, too masculine to be a woman yet too feminine to become a man entirely, and it was not until recently that she looked on the internet and found the gender identification of "androgyne" before she realized that she was not alone in her gender non-normativeness. She now identifies as female-to-androgyne transgendered, though has no plans to take hormones to change her physical sex or appearance. I've also met some others who experience gender dysphoria, including MtF and FtM transgender individuals.

There was also a case decades ago in which a boy's penis was destroyed during a circumcision procedure, and the doctors made the decision to perform sex reassignment surgery on him, forcing him to take female hormones for the rest of his life and instructing his parents to raise him as a girl. This became a great source of trauma for him, and after finding out the truth about himself, he went back to living his life as a man before eventually committing suicide in his 40s.

What is gender, and by extension, gender dysphoria, beyond their dictionary and medical definitions? What does it feel like to be one sex yet desire to be another? I wish I had answers to these questions, because they would help me a lot in understanding what my friend has been going through. It seems easier to recognize oneself as identifying as the opposite gender, because society has clearly defined definition for what each gender is, and it seems identification has to do with mentally fitting these definitions. But what is it that creates gender identity? It seems socialization and biology are not quite enough to determine some people's identifications. My friend mentioned in the first paragraph has higher than average levels of testosterone compared to most other women, but she was still raised as a woman. Is there, then, some other intangible measure of identity that somehow separates humanity down a line? According to most discussions we have had in our classes, this dichotomy does not exist naturally, but why is it that some people can identify as "the opposite," then?

The Peculiarities of Having Feminist Friends

As of late, I have considered myself a feminist - someone who supports and believes in the full equality in society for women as well as men. Some of my closer friends have discovered SWMS classes in their freshman year, and have changed majors from pre-med to gender studies as a cause of this discovery. Even though I've touched on feminism in previous classes (Classes entitled "Gender, Sexuality, and the Media" and projects in Institute of Multimedia Literacy (see the video project I helped make with a partner: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOuu9WQk7cM )), I have never had the opportunity to explore it as much as in this class so far.

Now, finally, references they make ("Did you know that Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi" is about her having daddy issues?") and events they invite me to (which you should also go to this Thursday:

http://www.facebook.com/events/386973374649171/) make more sense and are so much more interesting.

If I wouldn't be in my third year into Mechanical Engineering, I would also consider maybe switching to a major in SWMS, or at least add a minor in it. It's a fascinating issue that concerns us even today in the modern world.

Rap Music

                  Rap music has a reputation for being misogynistic, but surprisingly little research has systematically investigated this dimension of the music. A recent study by Ronald Weitzer and Charis E. Kubrin of the George Washington University assesses the portrayal of women in a representative sample of 403 rap songs. Content analysis identified five gender-related themes in this body of music—themes that contain messages regarding ‘‘essential’’ male and female characteristics and that espouse a set of conduct norms for men and women. Their analysis situates rap music within the context of larger cultural and music industry norms and the local, neighborhood conditions that inspired this music in the first place.
                   Several rappers refer to women as "bitches" and "hoes" in their songs as a way to show hegemonic masculinity. Drake's song "The Motto" is a perfect illustration of this. Even though the songs start off with a message from Drake's mother, all the rappers in the song all speak about the money they have and their lyrics show how masculine they are. The portrayal of women is the same by all the rappers and by calling them "bitches" and "hoes" and speaking about their money, cars and "bling" they show signs of hegemonic masculinity. 

"Players" vs. "Hoes" ...

         Many people have wondered why society has a view that it is ok if males have had many sexual partners they are considered "players" and if a girl has had many, then they are automatically considered a "ho" or a "slut"? This is a very interesting question because it is exactly the same situation in both genders, but it all depends on society's view of the number of sexual partners. Many men strive to have as many sexual partners as they can during their lifetime because it is praised by other men because they are seen to be "players" and getting all the girls. Females are looked down upon by society and other girls when they reveal how many sexual partners they have been with because it makes them seem "easy" and that they are sleeping with a lot of people.
        It all depends on what society has a view for because it could easily be the opposite sex's way of looking at it. But because of the patriarchal society, it is seen as a good thing by society when a man has experienced more than one sexual partner throughout their life. This is the reason why when a girl believes that in society's eyes that she has had too many sexual partners, many will try to settle down to find a relationship or even marriage. Men usually do not do this because it is not looked down upon by mostly the male society. Some women would not feel good if they found out that the man they were dating had more than six partners because they may feel that he has been with too many women for her. This is a problem in society because it may look down upon either women who have had "too many" partners, or a man who has had "too little" partners.

How come she can marry the Mr. Right?

Recently I just came across a journal everywhere in my Chinese networks. The title, if I translate it, would be "How come she can marry the Mr. Right ?" The basic idea of this journal is that a girl looking for a good husband should fulfill herself with knowledge and capability, which will finally turn out to be more valuable quality than her appearance when she is in the marriage market. In this journal, the narrator exposes her jealousy and attitude completely, and successfully raises empathy widely among young girls.(See how many people share the link!) Actually this kind of journal or blog is pretty popular in China's society; They teach young women how to behave in order to find a rich and young boyfriend.

I do appreciate their good intention that calls for young women to understand the value of studying and hard working, and I agree that beauty will fade, and what lasts forever is brain and disposition. However, they seem to set their argument on a wrong basis. Women try to make better self out of the process of learning, not because study will become the stepping stone on the road of marrige, but because it is the wealth of the whole life time. People who wrote these stuff planted gender inequality in their head at the very beginning. They don't believe marriage is a reciprocal choice; they take for granted that women aim for the better just to be advantaged when they wait in line for some successful guy to throw marriage upon them. I am not sure if this inherent stereotype exists exclusively in China and Asia, or it still dominates the gender structure around the world. Anyways, I respect those women who regard marriage and family life as the ultimate goal in their life; it is a personal choice that makes a lot of sense. However, I hope they don't degrade and objectify themselves. They too, as any man does, have the equal rights in marriage, instead of doing everything possible to please their potential partners as if they are some fancy commodities waiting for the mercy of some random guys.

Obama's birth control mandate

Obama administration recently ruled that religious institutions had to follow the same rules as other employers and offer free contraception as part of health insurance coverage. The idea that the government would force Catholic hospitals to subsidize birth control - or, to avoid the mandate, drop health insurance for their employees appalled many.

However, this change can be beneficial for many. Women face this problem more than men and this outrage against Obama’s mandate is unnecessary Many men would want to have sex without having babies, then why should the women who do not have the access to birth control pills or abortion pills suffer alone?

This kind of conservatism was faced back in the day. It is time that the society became more open to this problem and accepts this change.

Whistle-blowing and Masculinity

In Masculinities, R.W. Connell asserts that a change in the meaning of masculinity occurs when society is in crisis. Whatever results are made out of the situation, I wonder if there is on-going shift in the meaning of masculinities, or at least of a masculinity. As Connell points out, masculinities are actually intertwined with the other frameworks of social structure. How about morality? Morality, it seems, is closely related to the meaning of at least a couple of masculinities, especially those that deal with what men ought to do, for example. What I have in mind are whistle-blowing and ratting; however, the latter seems to have more a negative connotation.

On the one hand, a lot of people historically seem to have believed that they should not "rat" on someone of their association, for it was seen betraying, cowardly, and humiliating. On the other hand, as we find movies such as the Informant and the Whistleblower, such an act seems nowadays to be considered just, brave, and admirable. Whether or not which view is just is left for an individual choice, the question here is: what is a crisis that caused all this? Obviously, I will not investigate this further now, but thought it was interesting.

The overlooked history of the black trans community

I came across an article from Ebony.com that detailed a short history of black trans people (link: http://www.ebony.com/news-views/trans-trailblazers). This article mentioned that, “Transgender African Americans have been active contributors to history, even though they have often been overlooked.” I think that this is amazing, prior to reading this article I had no idea that black trans folk had a significant history. I think this is evidence of just how much education has been kept from people. I think it is already incredibly difficult to even come by information of major LGBT icons in history such as Harvey Milk, I certainly didn’t learn of him and his importance until I arrived in college. It is such a sad thing to realize that entire histories of people have been hidden (perhaps in an attempt to erase them) from their own communities and especially from the general public (which in my opinion, SHOULD know about ALL of these people).  The article also mentions that the black trans community also was actively involved in the civil rights movement, orchestrating the first protest organized around trans issues, the 1966 Compton’s Cafeteria Riots which preceded the more famous 1969 Stonewall Riots. In addition to that, trans advocates also, “…stood up against discrimination and struck blows that eventually brought down the odious codes used by the LAPD to harass other LGBT people in Los Angeles,” all of this involvement is testament to power of trans communities and their struggle for equality.