As I was growing up body and beauty image was an aspect in life that I really struggled with. This problem emerged from an incident that happened in middle school. I was in gym class when a girl classmate of mine mentioned “you are really pretty for a big girl.” In my head I thought “really pretty for a big girl” was that a compliment or an offense? Like does my body size constitute my level of prettiness? Are you saying that if I was a thinner person then I would be more beautiful? That day my level of self esteem took a plummeting downfall and it would take years for me to get it back. I would be lying if I said that those words don’t creep up in my memory sometimes. However I now know that they don’t define my worth as a person. Unfortunately I am not alone in this torment that is body image.  According to Statistic Brain 91% of women are unhappy with their bodies.

          Women have always had a sort of pressure to look a certain way in order to be thought of as pretty. My question is what makes someone pretty? The media glamorizes thin bodies and perfect skin. Pretty in the media is defined as a standard height and size but where is everyone else on the “pretty” spectrum. It isn’t until recently that the term “curvy” and “plus size” have been brought to light. Even though “curvy” is what everyone is talking about we are still hesitant in letting it in our definition of beauty.

          Their are many aspects in our lives that distort our body and beauty image. Did you know that Barbie is one of them. Yes, Barbie, a toy that every little girl has played with and looked up to. According to a story published by Refinery 29 on my Snapchat (yes I still have social media) girls who played with a traditional Barbie reported a higher dissatisfaction with their own bodies opposed to the girls who played with the new, tall, and curvy Barbies. It is very sad to read about young girls being unhappy with themselves. However girls are not the only ones who suffer from body image issues. Boys can also be sucked into this problem. The pediatrics journal published that 40% of boys exercise regularly and 90% exercise occasionally all with the propose to bulk up.

          Whether you are a boy or a girl being told that you are not pretty or handsome enough hurts the same.  Today many artist have made it their platform to try and break down these beauty and body standards. Beyonce and Colbie Caillat are among these artist that sing about the struggles with beauty and body image. Along with these artist more people are getting involved and making it their mission to help those that are battling with body image. Below are couple links and videos that will help you learn more about these issues.

http://www.medicaldaily.com/history-body-image-america-how-ideal-female-and-male-body-has-changed-over-time-360492

http://www.refinery29.com/2016/09/122795/barbie-body-image-effects

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peggy-drexler/beauty-and-the-boy-the-im_b_2462766.html

https://youtu.be/GXoZLPSw8U8

https://youtu.be/0Lz6tYh4esY

https://youtu.be/LXXQLa-5n5w

My friend had recently came out to me about feeling out of place in his male body for literally his whole life. He feels he was meant to be born a woman. He isn’t someone that one would guess feels that way. He seemed to think like a man, move like a man, and have preferences of a man in the way we’re expected to associate those traits with. This got me thinking about tradition in gender roles, qualities, societal viewpoints, and the “feelings” attributed to being a woman or a man, and how it begins from before the child is even born. Once the sex is found out, a whole life is predicted by the parents based on that babies gender.

I’m a nanny for multiple ages, and have noticed the trend of gender socialization that the families surround the children with. We notice the baby boy dressed in blue. We notice the baby girl’s pacifier having a teddy bear attachment whereas the boy has a duck. How do we consider the duck to be masculine, whereas the teddy is feminine and how do we determine each attachment per gender? The family jokes about how the children will be when they’re older and discuss the activities that they will be involved in. The male children are already supposedly interested in contact sports, whereas the female children would prefer to dance or do art. Its as if we aren’t  created with the same mentality and physical skill set. We aren’t hunting woolly-mammoths, we’re doing activities we enjoy. 

Gender identity is displayed through clothing, hairstyle, activities, and other tangible things we notice. However, as a nanny i’ve gotten a closer glimpse at the response parents give to children based on gender. I watch twins, 17 months, one boy and one girl. He bites her. “George! NO!”. She bites him. “Penny….. (gives look of disapproval) and redirects her. It seems that females have a softer expectation whereas males seem to be expected, even at the age of a toddler!!!!!! to require more firmness? Or able and expected to handle a harsher explanation? Or for the parents to just see the sex of their baby and respond differently? 

The Jezebel article says “children picked up on cues given by their parents during play time, as fathers tended to encourage assertive behavior while mothers encouraged cooperation and fairness.” In response to a study done. It led me to wonder if these traits reside in different sexes because of the way kids were raised to act? Based on this portion from this study it would lead somebody to think that men learn to be more aggressive and women more compassionate over time through gender conditioning. It’s all weird humans are weird. I’m going to notice my behavior extra and see if I can differentiate anything based off of gender.

It also makes me question if people feel they belong to another gender because of the rules we’ve created for gender, or if its more biological. My friend said he’s known from a young age that something was different and then discovered it once he started middle school and then solidified when he dated women. It makes me wonder a lot of different things that my rambling brain can’t line up step by step!

https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/gradeschool/Pages/Gender-Identity-and-Gender-Confusion-In-Children.aspx

http://www.parents.com/toddlers-preschoolers/development/behavioral/avoiding-gender-stereotypes/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/kids-gender-roles/

http://jezebel.com/5561837/girls-are-pink-boys-are-blue-on-toddlers-and-gender-roles

http://gozips.uakron.edu/~susan8/parinf.htm

http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/education/DLiT/2002/family/gender.htm

https://thinkprogress.org/forcing-kids-to-stick-to-gender-roles-can-actually-be-harmful-to-their-health-34aef42199f2#.fwlvp99q8

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/womens-blog/2015/feb/23/sexist-assumptions-young-children-gender-stereotypes

My topic is about sexualization of women in society. The problem is that the media(magazines, TV, advertisements), men, and society have ideals of what women should look like(body), act, dress in public. Women face this issue everyday. Women have faced this issue since they were 6-12 years old. When girls are growing up they play with Barbies, not realizing that these dolls hold a superficial and un-realistic image of women’s bodies. The Barbies have tiny waists and big boobs. Nowadays, girls grow up with Bratz dolls who are way sexualized for girls who are 6. These dolls have full makeup on, their lips are usually large, and have short skirts. It does not portray a positive image for young girls. Sometimes it’s not the girls’ fault when it comes to succumbing to sexualization of girl’s bodies at a young age sometimes it’s the parent’s doing. We see this in shows, such as, Toddlers and Tiaras. In the show, 2-5 year olds run in a beauty pageant. The little girls look like 12. The mom cakes on the makeup, curls and hairspray, flippers(dentures for kids), whoreish costumes you only see in halloween. You just see the moms in the stands cheering on the daughter and getting way into it. It is the parent that shoves and pushes the child to do the pageant. The moms get extremly upset when their daughters don’t get 1st and the little girls are just happy making new friends and eating candy. It is scary to see these moms and what they are doing to these girls and it develops issues in child development. These little girls don’t have a chance at being kids. At younger ages, girls are introduced to adult sexuality and objectifying. When girls reach puberty they want to explore with makeup, short skirts, shaving their legs, new hair, heels, etc.. not knowing that this is a product/result of society expectations of them(mostly men). They are a product of society. Girls get ideas of how to dress by looking at magazines and advertisements and TV shows. They compare their bodies with these models who are 5’9+ and skinny. The girls then develop self-esteem issues, eating disorders and even depression. Statistics show that Ninety-five percent of those with eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and 25.
Statistics also show that women are much more likely than men to develop an eating disorder. They yearn to change their bodies to be like these women and this behavior can lead to depression as well. TV shows such as “Keeping up with the Kardashians” do not help with girls’ self image because these girls are all plastic. The show shows the three daughters: Khloe, Kylie and Kim who have exaggerated on surgeries it seems like. Khloe has a huge butt and big lips, Kim has the big breasts and Kylie has also followed their sisters’ path and got a nose job and lip fillers(went horribly wrong). These girls prove that this is what women  should look like and what guys want. We also see Kourtney’s boyfriend (ex now), Scott over emphasize their sex life on the show. He keeps asking her to have sex and it makes viewers think that this is normal behavior and expected of men and  girls have to accept this to be in “happy and lasting relationships”. Especially when it’s a little girl’s role model and they look up to these girls then their whole up-bringing/behavior can change because they want to imitate someone of high status and trend. It’s not just in the media that we see this sexualization trends in girls. We also see more and more women on Facebook and Instagram posting their weight loss journey for everyone to see. While I think it’s great to celebrate losing 10 pounds or whatever it just makes it an uncomfortable post because these girls usually post their pictures in little booty shorts and a sports bra or worse, a  bikini. They are exposing/exploiting their bodies. This also can reflect that they have bad low self esteem and are seeking attention from others(strangers) to feel good. A study conducted in Brunel University in London stated that people who post about  accomplishments are more narcissistic. Narcissistic people broadcast the effort they put into their physical appearance for all to see and envy. With 50 likes on a picture it boosts confidence. The only problem is that men post on these kind of pictures and they are not celebrating women’s weight loss journey but rather their butt and legs. The girls who post their weight loss journey then get upset that men are leaving such crude comments. Umm.. what did you expect? You posted it to show off your new body so this is what you can expect from men. I don’t think women realize what audience they are attracting with these posts. The more that men objectify women as just sexual objects than this can effect the way men and women communicate. One study shows that when men are checking a girl out(focusing on body part), the girl picks up on that and it dehumanizes/degrades them. It creates distance between the man and woman. Men fail to interact and deal with emotions and only value their appearance and little else. It also is quite interesting that such honored professions such as nurse and teacher are being sexualized by men. As women increase power in society the possibilities of equality for women have been met with oppositional reactions intended to maintain men’s dominance. The widespread of media images of highly sexualized women is hypothesized to maintain men’s dominance by designating women’s bodies as property that can be evaluated, looked at, and touched at the impulse of men’s desire.

http://www.apa.org/pi/women/programs/girls/report-full.pdf

http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/12/opinion/henson-toddlers-tiaras/

https://storify.com/solelylo_/the-negative-side-of-bratz-dolls

http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezproxy.fau.edu/science/article/pii/S1740144516301577 (Journal article,peer reviewed)

https://www.quora.com/What-exactly-is-wrong-with-men-objectifying-women

Barbie Lead Designer Blames Moms, Not Doll’s Crazy Proportions, for Girls’ Body Issues

http://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/a55017/kim-kardashian-naked-selfie-empowerment/

http://womenandadvertising.weebly.com/women-as-sexual-objects.html

http://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/where-did-the-243308.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/darryl-roberts/sexualized-culture-is-creating-mental-health-issues-in-our-youth_b_5994148.html

Shocker: Science Says People Who Post About Their Workout on Facebook Are Narcissists

There have been only a few instances throughout my life that i have been self motivated to write because, who has time for such things? Usually motivation for writing, for me, comes from a grade. Sure there have been plenty of times that i have been interested in what it is that i was writing for an assignment and it became easy and quite honestly, a down-write pleasure. and yea, other times it’s just a big ole pain in the ass, but i gotta get through it. But aside from being assigned writing, the only other time i feel the need to pick up a pen and write is when i’ve experienced something too big for me to wrap my whole head around. there can be huge variety to this. It could be something like an actual incident that occurred in my life, one that hasn’t yet occurred and may never, questions i have about what it is that’s happening in the day to day life going on around me, or even questions i have in myself or about myself that i either have or don’t have the answers to. And do you think i stop there? Typically i try to (though i’m not always successful) because aside from my basic mantra of a mixture between everyone in the world IS equal and deserves to be treated fairly and also that life is NOT fair, I typically reject the notion that focusing outward does me as much good as focusing closer to myself and the loved ones that surround me.

Writing for me, is like a great organizer of thoughts. it makes me feel more comfortable and able to take on life when i can write out what i know, what i think i know, what i think i want to know, and what i’m ignorant of. in a way, writing forces me to reflect on myself and this helps me to become an improved version of myself. this reflection also aides me in finding possible answers to my questions in a way that i would never be able to accomplish if i just kept it all inside my head. This is why writing is good for me and i need to participate in the activity far more than i do right now. Good thing I’m in Advanced Exposition!

I feel that the questions that Reid provides are a good starting place to start thinking about writing. One can’t just begin to write without thinking something. For instance, before I began writing this post, I knew where it would go and who would read it, and that influenced how this post is written. I am writing more formally than I would if I were texting someone because this more formal form of writing is what is expected of writers writing in academia. If someone is just writing for fun and does not intend for anyone to read what they are writing, then the author is the audience and this directly effects the way the author is writing. This leads into Reid’s second question: the purpose for writing. To me, the purpose and the audience are directly related. It wouldn’t make sense for someone to write an argumentative paper that is pro choice for an audience that is pro choice. Sure, the paper may present new research or statistics or something of use to the audience, but the goal of an argumentative paper is change someone’s perspective. It is impossible to change someone’s perspective to a perspective that they already possess. So, there is a link between the audience and the purpose of one’s writing. This ties into the third question Reid gives: what is the genre and its conventions? One has to know the genre that they are writing in and how the genre is written. Returning to the example of someone who is writing for fun, their genre could be considered freestyle or informal writing or what ever they want to consider it. This reminds me of a YouTube series entitled “UNHhhh,” where RuPaul’s Drag Race stars Trixie Mattel and Katya start out every episode by saying, “… the show were we talk about whatever we want because its our show and not yours.” If you’re writing for fun, it’s your writing and you can write how ever you want and you can write about whatever you want. However, going back to the example of writing an argumentative paper that is pro choice, the author must know the conventions of the argumentative genre. If they do not, they might not be able to create as strong an argument as someone who does know the conventions of the genre.

Ballenger presents the concept of creating an “interest inventory” which I find to be an interesting concept. It seems to me that it can be very useful in drafting a paper or deciding on a topic. It seems promising but I do see flaws in using this. The main one is that it will probably generate garbage. Although there might be a hidden gem somewhere in the list, there’s more than likely not. Just spewing out random stuff may lead to an interesting and colorful train of thought, but there needs to be some bounds of thought to create a viable topic. For me, the fault is exemplified in the example given: teeth whiting. I can agree that research on teeth whiting is perfectly valid, but I don’t see it becoming a thing unless the author is taking dental courses or a course that call for such a topic. In my writing experience, I do not think this is a concept that I would have ever applied when trying to decide on a topic. Creating lists and asking questions for research is definitely something I have done, just not in the way that Ballenger is suggesting.