Slavery

Despite the efforts of several people, slavery still exists in the world today. Slavery is a huge problem more so in the developing and under-developed countries. Such discrimination is made on the basis of sex, gender, caste, creed, religion, race, ethnicity, color. Countries like India several countries within Africa are the main countries in which slavery is practiced and spread on a large scale. Although it has been reduced tremendously, slavery still exists and is growing continuously once again.
In India, in several backward regions, the people of a higher caste often discriminate against those of a lower caste or a backward caste like that of a scheduled caste or scheduled tribe and this is one of the main reasons slavery exists. The workers are beaten for not completing their work, their children are also made to work and if they do not do they work, the parents as well as the child are beaten. The children are not able to achieve an education and are put under slavery and made to suffer their entire life.

question about double eye lid surgery

After reading the articles and listen to the professor about plastic surgery, I start to follow professor to think deep inside that why people especially women want to take plastic surgery which is women want to have the "perfect body" that does not exist at all.
However, I have difficulty understanding why people are so against people having plastic surgery? I am from a Asian cultural. I know many people including many of my friends did double eye lid surgery. It is a surgery with no difficulty; and the person only need to  10 minutes to get it done. All my friend are happy with it. I don't not understand why professor bring it to the next level and criticize it. Besides people who have to take double eye lid surgery since the issue with their eyelashes, many people who have small eyes also like to take double eye lid surgery. They did double eye lid surgery because small eyes make them look sleepy, and they don't want to that. It has no difference with people who were born with heart disease would like to take surgery to fix it. If people against double eye lid surgery, shouldn't they also criticize people take heart surgery since they also were born with that heart?
This is just some of my thought. I am sorry if makes you uncomfortable.

Universal Beauty

        After reading one of the articles assigned last class, I realized that in some sense, there was a certain hegemonic idea of the ideal beauty.  This was white beauty, fair skin and certain features, that if researched can be dated back to Darwin’s time in which the categorization of people led to a hierarchy. Social Darwinism, as it is referred to, was a theory made to set white Europeans above the rest. This construction of beauty led to the one we hold today. I must question, however if indeed this notion is universal or just pertaining to the United States. Many cultures are identified by different features that make them beautiful in their own countries. African American women, for example, are known to have wider hips, whereas, Asians are thought to age slower. Due to these differences in cultural beauty, we should think that the hegemonic ideal of beauty has not affected them. 

         This can be argued to be false, however. There have been many celebrities that come from minority groups that decide to change their physical appearance. Coincidentally this change is never from a Caucasian one to a Hispanic, African American or Asian one. People are often stunned to realize that Shakira’s golden hair is not natural but rather dyed. Likewise, many artists decide to change their appearances through plastic surgery to obtain a narrower nose, or skinny body. At the same time, those stars who are often mixed are classified in their respective race dependent on the beauty they portray at the time. Christina Aguilera, for example, is actually partially Hispanic but it was never fully acknowledged by the media when describing her thinness and beauty in the past. After gaining a few pounds, the media portrays artists, as Christina as “embracing their Latina features” as if it is suppose to be a shame. From then on, Christina has become more Hispanic than white, simply through the acquisition of a few pounds that question her beauty. It is this that makes me question how one physical trait, that used to be beautiful to a culture, changes because of the media. According to my mother, a beautiful Mexican woman was not skinny. Girls would often feel ashamed of their thin legs and would often wear leggings under their pants. Now hover, after visiting, I realized how much the United States influenced outer countries to adopt a different perception of beauty. One so influential that it obscures the image of beauty they once had.

Why Men Hate Women/The Male Brain

This past week, Cracked.com came out with an article titled "5 Ways Modern Men are Trained to Hate Women." It prefaced by referring to the Sandra Fluke story, and talks about all the nasty comments people left about Fluke, and women in general, under the news article. It says society has trained men to believe that they are "owed" a beautiful woman by life, and those who do not have the ability to see past societal brainwashing end up resentful of the women for not acting like the "rewards" they are meant to be. In addition, women are first and foremost judged by their appearance regardless of all their other accomplishments. Society's designation of men as the "watchers" and women as the "watched" has made beauty a mandatory trait in all women, or they would get made fun of no matter what they have managed to do. In the article, Wong cites the news article covering the controversy over Elena Kagan, in which comments at the bottom of the page are overwhelmingly focused on how unattractive she looks, as opposed to the points the article itself actually makes.

The rest of the article talks about the oft-cited male obsession with sex. One of the entries says that men have this belief that attractive women and their own penises are conspiring against him to make his life miserable, because his sex drive acts on a totally different system from the rest of him. When I shared the article on Facebook, one of my female friends actually became surprisingly incensed at how often she is subject to the "I'm a man I can't help it" excuse, and blatantly does not believe the sex drive to have so much power over the male brain. However, that part of the article is consistent with everything I have heard up until this point, so I went to a male friend of mine and asked for his opinion. He said that while it is true sex is always right beneath the surface on the male mind, saying all men are obsessed with sex is like saying all hungry people are obsessed with cheeseburgers, and that some people are better than others at suppressing that urge. However, it was interesting that he compared the sex drive to hunger. Is it really so pervasive? In our first world country, it is not difficult to find something to eat when hungry, but sex works much differently. Most people eat at least once a day, but people don't normally get the opportunity to satisfy their sexual urges whenever they want to. Besides, I've personally always imagined sex is a pleasurable luxury, but if it's more "need" than "want," then it seems the male and female brains are actually fundamentally wired differently.

Fall of a super star--the ninth aniversary of Leslie Cheung's death

Today, April 1st, is the ninth anniversary of Leslie Chueng's death. Leslie was a famous Hong Kong singer and actor, who committed suicide at the age of 46. As a most renowned Chinese star, Leslie shocked all his fans and Chinese community worldwide. His death note implied that he was in depression, which people largely related to his sexual orientation.

Leslie was also known for his bisexual orientation. He was one of the few Hong Kong actors who dare to come out and play gay characters. His first gay character was Cheng Dieyi, a Beijing opera artist in Farewell My Concubine, by far the only Chinese-language film that ever won the Cannes Palme d'Or. Besides his on-screen contribution, his relationship with his life partner Daffy Tong was under heated discussion as well. In a society that "gay" was still a forbidden word, and homosexual people were unequally treated, Leslie's outstanding achievements and respectful characteristics reverse stereotypes on gay people to some extent. And also, his loyal and sincere relationship with Tong has been a positive pulse on the attitude towards LGBT people in HK as well as in Chinese community. However, his sexual orientation inevitably became a target for homophobic people and media to hurt and damage him.

Now I am listening to his music and writing this post. His fall from the 24th floor of the Madarin Oriental Hotel was a fall of a super star, a role model of LGBT community. We now commemorate him every year for his distinguished performance in both film and music, and also his love and life. Someday, hopefully, every LGBT individual can live a life with equal rights and be free from suffering of depression and discrimination.

Pro-choice Mild Revenge on Anti-choice Protestors

I believe I read the same article that Brigitte wrote on (link: http://jezebel.com/5897699/brilliant-abortion-clinic-landlord-teaches-protesters-that-payback-is-a-bitch). As she stated this article detailed how anti-choice protestors targeted a pro-choice landlord, Todd Stave, who leases properties to doctors who perform abortions. Apparently the harassment crossed a line when protestors showed up to his daughter’s school and began to call him at his home incessantly. I found it surprising that Stave was described as being relatively calm and taking the ridiculous harassment in strides. In an interview he was quoted saying the following about the protestors, “It’s their right. They are protected by the First Amendment. And outside the clinic is probably the most appropriate place for them to express their views.” What I can’t wrap my head around is the amount of understanding that this man has for people who obviously don’t have any regard for him or for the right to choose. In a clever twist of events, Stave has been able to retaliate against pesky protestors by taking their numbers down and returning the call. He established a team of pro-choice friends and volunteers called Voice of Choice. And unlike the rude and often threatening nature of the calls from protestors, Stave and his team always make sure to be courteous and take the high road when calling back. His approach has been so appealing that many people have joined his cause and Voice of Choice. Upon being asked if his method of “payback” was harsh, he replied that he did not think so and was simply giving the protestors what they gave him. And I would argue that his approach is about a hundred times milder than what the anti-choice protestors do. Despite the fact that protestors engage in really shady and awful tactics (making threats, showing up to doctors/pro-choice proponents’ homes, and disseminating personal information), Stave is determined to play fair and not involve himself or Voice for Choice in similar tactics that can potentially harm people. 

The Influence of Men on Women

     Women constantly feel the need to impress men by the way that they look and dress on a day to day basis. In this way women feel that they have to perfect their bodies and wear the correct clothing to make them feel that they can be good enough for a man's attention. This is where such things like anorexia come into a woman's life because she constantly wants to make her body perfect, which creates a negative perception of the woman's body. Many women also take hours a day to prepare themselves physically, or else they will feel that they are not adequate enough do complete their day to day tasks.
     Women want men to view them as both beautiful on the outside, as well as intellectual on the inside. In this way they will try their hardest to put effort in both appearance and mental capabilities. If a woman does this, she will have a greater self satisfaction knowing that men view her in those ways. If women stopped spending their time wondering what men think about them, they will spend more time self improving and making themselves feel more adequate which will lead to more women accomplishing more things because they are not doing it for the pleasure of a man.