The beauty myth

This video really sums up "the beauty myth" to a tee! From an advertising industry perspective it also means we women are very vulnerable. We purchase cosmetics, soaps, hair dyes, skin creams all in the effort and hope that it will somehow sustain our youthful appearance, maintain our beauty and thus grant us a longer life. It is all a placebo of course, but we try nevertheless.

We worry about our sagging breasts, our wrinkled skin, our laugh lines and every traitorous part of our body that will eventually break down and reveal our true age.

It is no surprise so many women lie about their age. We subtract years to the nearest 9 or 4 so that we can be 29, 34, 39, 44 and by the time we reach 50 we hopefully have matured enough to not care any more.

What I personally can't stand is the women out there who say "I am 40 years young." What you are really saying is that you're 40 years old, but you're so obsessed with wanting to be younger that you are changing the adjective.


Youth, Beauty & Love: Those three things go together, or so the advertising industry and Hollywood would have us believe. In the advertisements the women all look young, they're all happy, they get love notes and flowers... and they're all supermodels or celebrities and are positively dripping sex appeal. Of course most of us aren't supermodels or celebrities so its not very realistic to be comparing ourselves to such things. We see the celebrity endorsements and we're hit on multiple fronts about what it means to be young and beautiful.

Media's Influence on Women's Image

I found this youtube video which is similar to the one we were shown in class today. It explains how women are used in advertisements to be portrayed as the ideal female beauty. Which brings up the issue on the beauty myth. According to the reading, images of female beauty has become a political weapon against women's advancement. When women see these advertisements with many flawless girls, it makes them think they have to look that way to be beautiful. Well that is wrong, because most ads are false compared to actual reality. Although, women think that is beauty and will spend time, energy, and money to become the women they see in advertisements. I know I have caught myself before looking at a magazine full of these kinds of women and say to myself, damn I wish I could look like that. Then at the same time I tell myself, well those girls are airbrushed and fake, and I realize that looking like that is not real beauty. It is not fair how distributors' display women in unrealistic ways, in their ads, just to sell their products. In this video I saw ads of critical self-consciousness, dismemberment, victimization, objectification, stereotyping, and canting. Unfortunately, that is what society thinks, so women feel they should meet the requirements of advertisement's "beauty".

Reproductive rights

After watching "The Business of Being Born" I learned lot's of things which I previously had never known about women's reproductive rights. I now know that reproductive rights consist of alot more than just pro-choice or anti-abortion. I have learned that childbirth in the United States is so flawed it is difficult to even comprehend. Giving birth is not a medical emergency which requires medicine and surgeries more frequently than not. In fact what I have learned is that giving birth does not even require a hospital. Homebirths and the use of midwives are a much safer, much more natural way of giving birth. From the film I even learned that industrialized countries which use midwives more frequently have a better infant and maternal death rate than does the U.S. Women are simply not being properly informed by the doctors they trust so dearly. We are the only country in the world that treats childbirth the way we do and it is not right. It is time for women to be properly informed about the safest ways for there children to be brought into the world.

The Business of Being Born

I personally think that giving life to another human being is one of the most precious things and unique responsibilities that females have. The process of birth always seemed to me as a natural process that does not really require any special interventions and after watching the movie on Tuesday I was really disappointed to learn about all the medications and the tedious process that hospitals put the mothers through. Hospitals try to manipulate mothers into just taking the "easy" way out by giving them all these medications to "ease the pain" or quickly getting a C-section and not having to worry about anything! I think that by doing so, these hospitals lessen the value of life and the process in which a new human being is welcomed into the world. Giving birth becomes more of a costly "business" than a truly remarkable and personal experience. I was shocked when I heard that giving birth through C-sections affects the mother-baby bonding and relationship and I definitely agree with the Dr in the movie that said if we don't have love between mother-baby early on then we as a humanity may be in danger.
After watching the movie, I am really looking forward to doing my activism project with Charleston Birth Place. I think that it is important to raise awareness about this issue and to inform women of their choices when it comes to making such a life changing and personal choice. I would personally consider having a home-birth and think that its beneficial to both the mother and the baby.

Iron Jawed Angels

When I had first heard that we were going to be watching a movie in class, I had figured it would have been the typical type of movie you watch in classes, boring, have to take notes, never really get anything out of it. This movie was a big eye opener for me, I had always known that woman had had to fight for their right to vote, but I had never realized how close they had been to not recieving this right, as well as how hard woman actually had to work.

It made me think, if I had been alive in that time, what would I have done? Part of me wonders, if I had never known that woman have before had the right to vote, would I have even thought that it would be proper for women to vote? However, I feel if I had been living in this era that I would have been extremely angry with President Wilson. He was being completely misunderstanding, and basically not even paying any attention to the point that the women were trying to get across. Sure, it was during a time of war, but he was acting as if the women, who are watching the children of the men in war, as well as nursing the hurt men, feats just as important as actually fighting in the war. Women in war are essential to keep the country moving during times of despair.

I have a large amount of respect for Alice Paul. I didn't know how unfair the American government had been to the women when they had just been advocating their rights as according to the Constitution. I couldn't believe the way she, as well as the other women, especially the elderly ones had been treated in the jails. It was eye opnening because I didn't think that it was possible for the law system to actually put people into jail for no reasons.

After seeing this movie, it makes me respect the fact that I can vote so much more. I have never really been one who is into politics that much, but the fact that women had to work so hard to get to the point that we are at now makes me want to actually pay attention to what is going on in our nation, and now that I can actually vote since I have turned 18, I think I will think a lot harder about whom I vote for.

All Natural...the way to go

When Julie first told us about the movie we were going to watch about pregnancy, The Business of Being Born, and the first thing that came to my mind was a hospital. I really do not mind watching things like pregnancy which usually gross out people, so I was sort of interested. Once the movie began it was showing a woman getting all packed up with a bunch of medical supplies. I had no idea what the hell she was doing, then Julie said it was all the equipment she takes to the pregnancy. At this point I am thinking what in the world is wrong with this woman in the movie and why is she taking all these medical supplies to the hospital which already provides them. It then showed a woman being interviewed that was labeled as a mid-wife. I did not understand what was going on until I saw she was walking into a home to deliver a natural birth. Literally, in my whole life I have never heard of a mid-wife neither even thought people still did that. The first natural birth in a home it showed was amazing. It was so calm and quiet, the pregnant women's husband and child were their to help her and the mid-wife. I mean who wouldn't want a birth like that. I cant imagine the stress pregnant women have to go under in a hospital with doctors and nurses running around yelling, the uncomfortable and scary parts of a hospital, and your all your family and friends bugging you in and out of the waiting room. They made this very clear in the movie how natural birth is so much more calm and collect then an hospital birth. I honestly did not think you could even have birth outside of a hospital, because you or the baby could die. While watching the first natural birth shown on the movie, I was in pure shock. Like holy crap, that baby just popped right out of her without any typical hospital supplies. It was just so weird to me, because I had no idea that could be done still. It was fascinating how she delivered the baby in a pool full of water. The mother was able to pull the baby out with her own two hands. I just cant believe that, I mean how breath taking would that be to be able to do that with your child. I mean you will remember that the rest of your life and always have this unique bond with your child because of your natural birth experience.

There were many more natural birth scenes in the movie which got better and better. After the movie we discussed a few things that caught our attention. Julie explained the love hormone which is called the oxytocin hormone. I also did not know there was such a thing and that it induces our bond with others. Rebecca Turner, Ph.D. in psychiatry, said "her study indicates that oxytocin may be mediating emotional experiences in close relationships". This occurs during pregnancy too. During labor, the woman's oxytocin is triggered which creates a bond between the mother and child immediately and to nurture her child. Then why would someone want to go to a hospital and have oxytocin injections, when instead they can have the real natural feeling of their own with their newborn. I also thought it was interesting how their is such thing as a breast crawl where the actual baby will crawl to the breast naturally. Although, it is not done this way in hospitals. I mean thats how dogs and cats do it, so why doesn't everyone else? It just seems so unfair to the baby when in hospitals they are immediately taken away from their mother once being born. Then they have to go back to their mothers after being unnaturally taken away and bathed, and then are expected to feel comfortable and begin to breast feed. No thats not how it should work, it is sad the baby has to feel that way when born and that she or he sometimes is not able to encounter breast feeding with their mother, because someone took them away. And the baby also feels unsecured breast feeding from an unknown scent, after she or he was washed. These facts about hospital birth really caught my attention and gave me a whole different outlook on it. All natural birth seems worth-wild and a good experience for you and your child.

What are the police doing?

Every night there are people walking down the streets of Charleston, South Carolina who set out with the intent of harming an innocent person. The people most at risk of being hurt by these people are women. While cops can constantly be spotted on King Street busting into bars and arresting college students for petty drinking tickets, it is much more rare to see a cop in some of the surrounding less commercial areas. Since I arrived in Charleston last fall there have been numerous accounts of muggings, strong armed robberies, and even rapes. None of these assaults I don't believe have taken place on King Street. It is obvious how out of sorts the Charleston Police Departments priorities are. What is more important, stopping college kids from drinking alcohol or preventing young adults from getting physically assulted? The cops make it clear that making money off alcohol violations is more important than protecting the residents of Charleston. The longer things remain the way they are, the longer innocent people, especially women will be targetted for attack.