bad narrative, bad solutions

Kelley McTaggart

Bad Narrative, Bad solutions

                In class we have been discussing the issue of campus sexual assault.  I had actually been recently reading up on the policies that many universities have adopted to address the crisis.  The major responses among universities has been to expand the teaching of consent to students and to lower the burden of proof in university sexual assault hearings.  In the slate article listed below, a student faced with sexual assault charges was intimidated for requesting legal counsel in case held by university faculty with no legal qualifications, whose burden of proof was 50.01%, which by the way is the standard at Ohio university.  These policies are fueled by the risk to reputation and title 9 funding that results in such cases making the national spotlight, which creates a potential conflict of interest for the universities handling said case at all.  Besides the fact that there was a clear absence of due process in how the university responded to this case, the full extent of his penalty was expulsion.  Even in a fair judicial process where his guilt was actually ascertained, expulsion would simply allow him to attend another school.  This is concerning when leading estimates claim that 3% of men commit 90% of rape, or on average six rapes per year.  That means if he was one of these serial rapists, he would likely attend another school and do it again.  These three percent of men know what they are doing and will not alter their behavior when taught about consent.  So we have created an out of sight, out of mind solution for perpetrators, in which they can thrive.   This does not mean that teaching consent or bystander intervention programs are pointless, but it only works in the narrative were both parties are to inebriated or ignorant to know better, which is greatly overstated.  I would advocate the creation of a third party organization that administers a fair judicial process for such cases, administers lifetime bans for all those found guilty from all associated academic institutions, and provides tailored solutions when the results are to murky for inaction.  I also believe stronger prevention policies will be crucial.  As alcohol is present in so many of these cases and impossible to prohibit, there needs to be social environments that are geared around premeditated sexual assault prevention.  This would entail a lowered drinking age of 18 so that all students could attend, and a set of policies for the hosts that would mandate the provision of closed containers (cans, bottles) in parties, a certain amount of sober monitors who would observe party goers and intervene if necessary, and a subtle university presence at said party. 

Sources and Further reading:

http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2014/12/college_rape_campus_sexual_assault_is_a_serious_problem_but_the_efforts.html?wpsrc=sh_all_dt_tw_bot

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/opinion/sunday/mishandling-rape.html?_r=1&mtrref=undefined&gwh=40EFEB87C54B8D05192EB88E1D57405F&gwt=pay&assetType=opinion

https://www.thefire.org/cases/california-passes-affirmative-consent-bill/

https://www.thefire.org/fires-virginia-right-to-counsel-bill-letter/

That's gay

I was thinking back to country concert 2 years ago and remembered a story that relates to our first weeks after exam 1. This story pertains directly with gender differences when it comes to sexuality, specifically a man's comfort vs. a woman's with their sexuality. I was at country concert in Ft. Laromie, Ohio, its 500 acres of field where people camp for up to 4 days with 3 days of concerts and is pretty much a drunken fest. It is country music but I assure you these people party as hard as any other genre's crowd with a crazy hillbilly twang. You party and do wild things all day and through the concert, when you wake up feeling like crap, the atmosphere somehow snaps you back to life and you start over. During one of these afternoons before the concert some European dudes came over to say hello. Campsites seem to mix together throughout the area so this was nothing new. I see these men talking with a couple girls from the camp when I ponder upon the girls making out. I thought, "these guys are some sort of masterminds." Then the two dudes make out a also which isn't a big deal, they're gay, no wonder they are so good with the ladies. I found out a little later on these guys we're actually straight as they just casual stated they are that comfortable with their sexuality. I've never heard such a thing. This ties into gender norms and double-standards especially "becoming 100 percent straight" where being straight is almost like something you have to check and assure yourself of in our society but these European guys were so comfortable with their sexuality its never questioned to the point they kissed like nothing. If two men make out, not one person would think of them as straight but straight girls making out seems to happen way more often and can just be between friends who are usually drunk and want to express their loving friendship.

Bringing Back Gentlemen

As I was looking for an article to write about for this blog when I came across a story in the Huffington Post called 'Where Have All the Gentlemen Gone?'  In this article the writer talks about how she went to a conference in Dublin where they were debating on if porn was destructive or harmless.  The writer takes the stand that porn is causing men to be obsessed with the sexuality of women and therefore are not gaining the respect for women that they should be.  In the article the author interviews a women on who had given up on the idea of finding a good man and getting married.  She claims that the men in Dublin had been conditioned to treat women as sexual objects and that the women played along by going out in skimpy outfits on the weekends and doing whatever the men wanted them to do.  The author goes on to talk about how in the Western world we do not teach our men to grow up and respect women and this causes them to do things such as cheat on a women and blame it on the women for not satisfying them enough.  She goes on to say how even some of the most loyal wives get cheated on and the man still somehow finds a way to blame her.  She ends the article by talking about how it is society’s fault that men act like this.  We glorify sexual humor and athletes who may not be morally perfect.  We glorify the hookup culture and the guys who ‘get laid’ the most are looked up to as idols.  With ideals like this there is no way we could ever bring back the true gentlemen to society.

When I read this article it made me thing back to Blackwood’s article about women and their intimate friendships.  In a part of the article it talks about a tribe in southern Africa that used to make their young women have mentors called ‘mummies.’  The mummies were older girls who the younger girls (called babies) would go to if they had a problem with anything and needed advice.  The mummies would teach and answer all the younger girls questions about sex and ward off any boys who were to aggressive towards them.  I think that society today would benefit from a system sort of like this except for the men get mentors instead of the women.  As a boy growing up I had a great dad but I always felt to nervous or to awkward to ever talk to my dad about so the only way I could really learn about them is thru the internet which is a problem a lot of other young boys probably had too.  I feel that if we used this sort of mentor system young boys would be able to learn the right way to treat women instead of learning through social media which usually portrays the way women should not be treated.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-shmuley-boteach/where-have-all-the-gentle_b_128220.html

Blaming the Victim

Society tends to blame the victim when it comes to cases like rape because, it is thought to be a prevented act. However, the victim is never in the wrong. Recently, I just had to participate in an online rape prevention course called Not Anymore. During this course I learned that the victim is never in the wrong, and that even if the person being raped is known for having a lot of intercourse, if it is unwanted it is still rape. In "The Rape" of Mr. Smith by Unknown, it is set up as a trial or set of questions for Mr. Smith. In the questions, it is clear that the interviewer is blaming Mr. Smith by suggesting that he was wearing an expensive suit that led to believe that he had money, symbolizing a girl wearing revealing clothes to lead someone to believe she wants to have intercourse or is "easy" when really a woman should be able to wear whatever she wants no matter how revealing. Secondly, the interviewer asks if Mr. Smith has given away money before, in fact he has given away a lot of money, correlating to a girl that has a reputation for having a lot of sex, but, even if she has had a lot of sex each time is new and if it is unwanted or she did not give consent its rape no matter how many times she has had sex or how many people. Lastly, Mr. Smith is questioned about why he was out late because he should know being out late is asking for trouble, but in reality he should be able to walk around wherever, whenever without worrying about being mugged for money, just like a girl should be able to walk confidently without worry of being raped. In the gist of the article, the person asking Mr. Smith the questions is accusing him of doing all the wrong things to prevent being mugged instead of reprimanding the mugger for mugging him. Right now in society, we are experiencing girls being taught how to prevent rape instead of teaching people not to rape. We shouldn't have to teach young people not to rape but it's better that than teaching young people especially girls that they can prevent it and if they don't they are in the wrong instead of the rapist.

An Endless Cycle

An Endless Cycle

Like an abusive relationship, America’s food industry has gone from bad to worse in pursuit of creating a vortex in which dieters cannot pull themselves out from. The idea that counting calories is the most successful way in which to lose weight has been passed down from generation to generation as the golden rule of dieting. The fewer calories you can intake versus your daily expenditure of calories, the better the results one shall see. From this, a great marketing ploy has arisen over time.

Walk into any chain grocery store and you will be bombarded with labels promising little to no calories in products once flooded with them. How do they do this? Science. In a laboratory. With Chemicals. Sound natural, organic, or even healthy? It’s not.

In a recent production, Fed Up, the hidden agenda of the food industry’s use of processed sugars and syrups to make foods zero-calorie is brought to light. The movie came out May 9, 2014, and was actually shown at the Athena Cinema on Court Street. In summary, the main focus of the documentary is to show viewers the harmful and addictive effects of refined sugars, processed foods, and syrup-filled beverages.

The reason this links to discussions we have had in class is due to its aid in the vicious cycle of dieting in America. Going on diets such as Slimfast provide customers with short term results and that makes them happy and in results gives good ratings. HOWEVER, once these diets are cut off and a regular, healthy, balanced diet is back in place, weight will slowly creep back upon the dieter. Unfortunately, many of the dieters will fall under the wrong impression that the post-diet weight gain is due to their own fault and that a regular lifestyle of food is the problem. What the truth actually is, however, that these diets starve the body because they run on approximately 1,200 calories a day; this is an extremely low amount of calories that deprive the body and while definitely providing weight loss results, will not be adequate in supporting a healthy lifestyle. Once the body is in starvation mode and the dieter ceases their diet, any calorie will stick to their body due to simple biology. The body is responding to this starvation mode and will thus store all calories consumed in order to prep for another potential starvation period.

The reason companies can make money off of this is because of the comeback factor. When the dieter gains weight after the diet, typically they freak out and immediately go back on the diet because they know it will cause them to lose weight again. This produces an endless cycle of consumerism that businesses love, at the expense of customers. Studies show that diets such as these lead to the onset of serious eating disorders, body dysmorphic disorder, and so on and so forth. Bringing back up the topic spoke of in Fed Up, a majority of these diets and foods promising zero-calories are made up of chemicals that light up the brain and create addictive feelings towards these food products.

Until a truly natural and healthy line of products arise on market or consumers altogether form a ban wagon and boycott these detrimental diets, money-hungry companies with continue to feed off of the starvation of calorie-deprived dieting Americans striving to obtain unattainable socially constructed beauty norms.

Male Priviledge

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/27/us/sports-baltimore-raven-ray-rice-indicted/index.html

In today’s society, and all previous societies for that matter, the abuse of women is a major issue that gets thrown under the rug to protect the perpetrators. It is barbaric to think that this issue is still prevalent and actually a serious issue in the modern world. It seems that nearly every week a new sports star, or famous actor is committing this heinous act and it is being pushed aside and hushed up by the world. These are the cases that should be used as examples to show that this type of behavior is not tolerable. Women have really been treated poorly for as long as “man”-kind has existed, and it seems unfair that the world has all this knowledge and these standards, but beating your wife is still acceptable. Last year the famous football player Ray Rice, the running back for the Baltimore Ravens, was caught on footage beating his wife senseless and to the point of unconsciousness, and there was footage of it. The NFL then launched a huge multi-month investigation, all while they had the footage. That is easily the most messed up thing I have heard in a while. The world looked at this issue and recognized it for what it was, for a few days. Then came in the insensitivity and ridiculousness that the internet is capable of.

                The crazy part about this whole story is that the NFL didn’t even have to answer to the questions being raised about the whole situation. On top of that people started empathizing with Ray Rice and not his wife, and then to make matters even worse his wife publicly came out and defended her husband. That literally just set this whole movement to earn rights for women back years. Not only does it disrespect herself, but it disrespects all women. Ray Rice literally threw her head off of a pole in an elevator and she defended him. I do not blame her, she literally has had it drilled into her head probably from birth by society that is her job to protect him, even if that means letting him ruthlessly beat her and drag her out of an elevator. I believe that society is on the upswing though, because Ray Rice would be a solid pickup for most NFL teams and he is off of his official suspension, but no team will sign him because of this incident. Honestly, he never deserves to play football again, he does not deserve million dollar paychecks and the lifestyle that being an NFL player gives to an individual.

The Atmosphere of a Frat Party

     College is meant to be an experience where one can learn, be free, feel safe and find out who they really are. There are many different paths one can take in their freshman year that will effect their entire experience at a university. Millions of people throughout the years have chosen to take the greek path, including myself. Aside from the diminishing presence of greek life in colleges, I love every aspect about it. But I can also see how some of the aspects can get guys into trouble if they aren't careful. In the reading Fraternities and Collegiate Rape Culture, it talks about how the atmosphere and conditions of a fraternity party can lead to trouble. A fraternity party is made by the members and therefore caters to the members. The males of the party consists of members, so all of them know each other. And females are usually girls from one or more sororities. All with the end goal of getting nice and drunk. Being at a party full of guys you are friends with, and girls that are attractive, is the optimal party situation for any male in college. This makes the guys feel comfortable and like the article states, dominant. To add fuel to the mentality of dominance, any fraternity party that occurs is destined to have alcohol. The alcohol usually consists in two forms: Natural Light, and a cooler full of "jungle juice", which is a mixture of liquor and juice or soda. The jungle juice can be problematic because of the liquor to juice ratio may be off.  If the ratio is not correct, a single cup of juice can be equivalent to three drinks worth of liquor, causing someone to ingest three times alcohol than they think. On top of that, a typical female will prefer the taste of the jungle juice over the beer. And since the juice usually runs out before the beer, they will drink faster so they don't have to resort to Natty's in order to get drunk. And on top of THAT, the alcohol is provided free of charge for the females, so why not drink more now and spend less at the bars. This can lead a female guest to drink over their limit and do something they regret or don't even remember. That being said, the same thing can happen to a guy at a party, which can lead to an incident. If a guy becomes more and more drunk, it seems his superego and ego fade away and he is only left with his id. The id is ones instinctual and basic thoughts, the superego consists of ethical and moral values, and the ego is the organized, realistic part that balances desires from both the id and superego. A man that is too drunk will have similar desires to that of a neanderthal: food/water, sex, fights, or sleep. And their primitive states of mind can lead them to irrational assumptions and poor decisions. These factors combine to lead an individual to a night of fun or regret, and that is why fraternities get a negative stigma attached to them.

Undermining Rape Culture

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8b38mV6sio
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/02/lena-dunham-rape-story_n_5915328.html

     Lacy Purdum

     The man in the video talks about Huffington Post's article on Lena Dunham. The article talks about how Dunham opened up in her memoir about how she was raped when she was 19 years old. She talks about how she went back to her apartment with an "infamous on-campus Republican". She describes the boy as thuggish and a poor sport. She says that "revulsion turned to desire with the right muscle relaxers". It shows that the line of consent is extremely blurry especially when both parties are under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Dunham said she began to talk dirty to the boy to try and convince herself that she was giving consent. After the incident, Dunham recalls telling her roommate about the incident. Her roommate told her that she was raped and Dunham laughed. She says it took years for her to accept the situation for what it is. Rape.

      The video is a man talking about this article and how to relates to women crying “rape”. He talks about Dunham’s case makes it impossible for people to take real rape cases seriously. He says that Dunham talking dirty and being drunk blurred the line and gave the all good signal for the boy. He keeps reminding the viewer that in no way was she asking for it but the fact that she did not say no or didn’t try harder to stop him than it was not rape.

      I think this relates back to Fraternities and Collegiate Rape Culture by A. Ayres Boswell and Joan Z. Spade. For women, rape is when consent is not given. Whether the guy forces himself onto the girl or whether he just pressures her until she feels that she has to give in. To men, rape is jumping out of the bushes and attacking the woman. I think the man in the video fit’s this though process well. The title of his pod cast is Real Rape vs. Rape Culture. Like there is not a difference.

Women on Women Hate Needs to Stop

After reading the article, "Why Women Should Hate the Patriarchy Instead of Each Other" (http://feminspire.com/why-women-should-hate-the-patriarchy-instead-of-each-other/), I thought it brought up a very important topic that is really relevant in today's society.  The article talks about how hate between women is perpetuated by society and how it has become so easy for women to hate each other.

I don't know how many times I've heard a girl say something like "I only have friends who are boys because I just hate girls, they're so dramatic and we just don't get along".  So many girls claim to hate other girls and I just have never understood it.  Personally, I've always had a ton of girls as friends that I've been able to confide in and relate to.  In the article, it talks about how by perpetuating this society that pins women against each other, it's easier to oppress us as a whole.  Even from a very young age, we're taught to view other girls as competition instead of as friends.  The article asks this question, "Why are little girls told that if a girl is mean to them, they should avoid her, but if a boy is mean to her, it means he likes her?".  I think this is a really important question that a lot of girls have had experience with.  We're giving men so much more power by constantly being against each other instead of standing together. 

One part of the article talks about how the media plays a huge role in the hatred that women have for each other.  By photoshopping images of women to be unattainable, women begin to become more and more self conscious.  So many times, these unrealistic standards for women cause many women to hate themselves.  When we see a woman who is confident in herself, we often project our frustration onto her.  Also, we begin setting these high societal standards for all women and fall into this trap of disliking women who don't fall into these societal gender norms and expectations. 

Every time I go on Facebook, I see women posting about how they hate another woman, whether it be a celebrity or someone they know.  I've seen countless articles about how certain famous women are ruining society or corrupting people.  Instead of lifting each other up, we're constantly tearing each other down. We end up playing into this idea that women hate other women and we should only see each other as competition.  So many times, when we see a beautiful women, we immediately see her as a threat and begin tearing her down.  I saw a quote that had said "one women's beauty doesn't diminish your own".  I think that this is really powerful and it's something that a lot of women don't live by.

We give the patriarchy so much slack that we don't even realize that it's pinning us against each other.  I think it's about time that women start loving and respecting each other and standing together.  Together, we can make a big impact on the structure of society, but until we stop hating each other, we will never be able to make that change.  

We're "Just Talking"

The 'Just Talking" phase is something many college-aged men and women are familiar with. TSM (Total Sorority Move) explains it in The Talking Phase Ruined My Life as, "basically a tiny devil on your shoulder just waiting for it to hit the fan. It’s a period of overanalyzing, overthinking, and uncertainty. Two people express interest in each other, but they aren’t exclusive. Because putting yourself through the struggles of a relationship without even being in the official relationship is our idea of a good time." It takes "hooking-up" to a new level. In this type of relationship, there's no guessing how long it'll last. A person in this sort of relationship, if you can even call it that, is perpetually confused about what they should/shouldn't do. Common questions they ask themselves include: How often should we talk?, Is it okay if I go home with him?, Can I "talk" to other boys too?, Why doesn't he ever text me back?!, and so on. There are only two ways that the "talking" phase will end. Either it ends, usually horribly with everyone getting hurt, or they actually go a step further and start a committed monogamous relationship. I can probably count on my one hand how many times I've seen good things come out of the "talking" phase. Usually, when a guy and girl are in this phase, its because they aren't sure if they really want to be committed to this person. They don't know if they can see themselves dating the other person so they keep it casual but still do all of the things couples do. 

I believe that this phase has blossomed over the last decade or so due to fact that our generation hates being committed to anything. This created a space for people to constantly explore but still have that person to talk home in the end. Most college students don't see a problem with this because it is so embedded into our every day thinking. Being a girl lit is actually such a stressful time to be in this phase. There are never any answers to your questions, you have no idea where your "significant other" is most of the time, and you are constantly worrying that he is with another girl and will leave you in the dust. From what i have gathered, this phase is a loophole that someone found a few years back where you can do everything that couples do without feeling the pressures of commitment. 

The TSM article directly correlates to the Fraternities and Colligate Rape Culture article by, Boswell and Spade. Specifically, when they re discussing "hooking-up." They talk about how hooking-up is different for guys men and women. Men enjoy how casual it is and the fact that there are no strings attached. Whereas women are not as fond of the idea. The explained how they are usually left with sadness because they long for a real relationship. I think that is why the "talking" phase doesn't usually work out. Women long for something more and sometimes push for it but the man in the relationship usually doesn't intend for it to go any further. The "talking" phase has disguised the importance of commitment in modern relationships.

Here's the link to the TSM article to learn more about the "talking" phase: http://totalsororitymove.com/the-talking-phase-is-ruining-my-life/

Blog Post 2

To teach someone to be anything but the best versions of themselves is something I don’t understand. Growing up in my household my mother was always the strongest person in my life. She taught my two sisters and I the value of always sticking up for yourself no matter what the situation is. Reading from the perspective of Debra Anne Davis in her article was interesting because it allowed me to see how the influence of society has conditioned some women to think. Debra starts of her article, “Betrayed by the Angel: What Happens When Violence Knocks and Politeness Answers?” with her recalling a time in her childhood where she felt too passive to confront her bully or even ask for help was very eye opening. It showed me that while all my life I’ve been taught to confront my problems, women are conditioned to behave the opposite. She tells the story of Samantha and Endora. Samantha hide her best qualities and while Endora displayed strength along with other qualities of a strong woman was seen as an evil step-mother. In early years girls are pushed to be more like Samantha and shield themselves from society. Debra then opens up about a time in her life that was raped. Much like when she was younger she felt too passive to stop the man. At first she did not want to hurt the guy’s feelings because her passive nature made her not want to be rude. As things progressed and the man became more violent, Debra fought back for a brief moment but quickly withdrew when she saw how mad he got. Her timid nature forced her to lead the guy on so she would not be hurt more than she was already.

In comparison to the article written by Debra Anne Davis, I read another article written by Hayley Rose Horzepa titled, “Victim Blaming: An All-Too-Common Response to Sexual Assault.” In this article Hayley addresses the horrific event of an eleven year old girl being gang raped by nineteen young men. She talks about how the way society talked about the rape put blame on the victim. For example people say things like "She was dressed provocatively. She had a bad reputation. She should have known better than to put herself in that situation" to justify why a rape victim was raped. The way society feels about rape victims needs to change. Rather than being judgmental and focusing on the victim we should focus our energy on the culprits.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hayley-rose-horzepa/victim-blaming_b_847310.html

University Rape Culture

Since attending a fairly large university such as OU, the word “rape” has become a much more circulated word. Pre-college, I thought of the word rape much differently. I imagined some creepy old man popping out of an alley way attacking there victim. I never put the harsh word in the context of a rapist to be my age. Why would a college student ever risk losing what they worked for over a malicious act like rape? I thought the answer was that they wouldn’t.

I remember the summer before my freshmen year, my mom FORCED me to watch an ABC special on the Steubenville Ohio Rape Case. This was at the time the trail was taking place. Long story short, some male members of the Steubenville High School Football team were accused of sexually assaulting a female from a neighboring school in West Virginia. The disturbing part about this case is that there was documentation. There was clear indication that the female was highly intoxicated and the men were getting pure pleasure from taking advantage of her. At the time, my thoughts of this case were “Oh yeah it’s high school, there just young and immature. This won’t happen in college. Especially at OU, everyone’s so nice there”. I didn’t think it couldn’t possibly happen to me.

Two weeks into my freshmen year, OUPD sent out a report on a rape that occurred in the dorm right next to mine. This became a huge topic of discussion in my learning community class and it was there that I realized that this could happen to myself or one of my peers. It’s a topic that has continued to make a huge impact on campus dynamics. There was one act of sexual imposition in 2012 and one act of rape reported in 2013. There were two reports of sexual imposition and two acts of rape in 2014. That’s more than double the previous years. During this time the social movement 

Fuck Rpe Culture was more recognized on our campus.

As Boswell and Spades article so clearly spelled it out, Greek life plays a huge role in the rape culture in college environments. It’s not fair to say that ever fraternity participates in this behavior but I see the red flag signs all the time. A fraternities as a whole make statements such as “We respect women and would never pressure them” but individuals will go around slut shaming women all the time. The social structure of a fraternity is extremely strong. A reputation of a female can be faulty spread within minutes. These should be the red flags to look for when deciding who to become friends with. As one member of a frat can cause a terrible reputation for the chapter as a whole, I think it’s important for other to educate them on the seriousness of the manner. Rape has become too casual of a thing and if I didn’t know so myself, I would say the article Fraternities and Collegiate Rape Culture was on statistics from Ohio University.  

Ideal Body Image

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ4lhO0LBX8

Media has created an “ideal” body image for men and women that society considers beautiful. The ideal body image is constantly being shown to individuals through magazines, advertisements, television shows, etc. with celebrities being the center focus. Society creates these high standards for body image by constantly repeating images of celebrities who are either slim women or muscular men. It seems that if a person obtains the “ideal” body image created by the media, then that person is considered beautiful, and if a person doesn’t obtain the ideal image, then they aren’t considered beautiful. Starting at a young age, girls are exposed to these “ideal” body images through out their daily lives, since celebrities are shown everywhere. When girls can’t reach the body goals that are accepted by society, then they might take extreme measures in order to achieve the ideal body goals. One extreme measure used are different diets that are very unhealthy, and essentially do more harm than good.

In Amy Schumer’s skit, Nutritionist, she goes to see a nutritionist who works with all of the celebrities. When Amy tries to say an ideal body weight she wants to obtain, she’s immediately cut off by the nutritionist who then asks her what celebrity she wants to be the same as. In today’s society, people are constantly comparing their bodies to celebrities. However, when we see images of celebrities, the chances that those images have been photoshopped are high. So, it’s unfair for individuals to compare themselves to images of celebrities because celebrities often look different in reality than in their photos.  

Later in the video, the nutritionist starts naming off different diets for Amy to choose. The different diets include The Instagram Diet, The Tapeworm Diet, or a cleanse, which according to the nutritionist is “eating anything and everything as long as you don’t swallow it.” In the end, Amy picks smoking as her diet. Today, women are trying different products and diets to lose weight. Some of the diets women try are unhealthy for them, however they either convince themselves it’s healthy or they just don’t realize how harmful it really is. Other women know how harmful the product or diet can be, but they still use it because obtaining the ideal body image is very important to them.

Are women treated equal to men?

This week we were asked to read an article called "Why Aren't We Shocked" by Bob Herbert.  The article starts off by talking about two shootings that happened in an Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania and another in a large public school in Colorado.  In both circumstances, the shooters went out of their way to separate the girls from the boys and then proceeded to attack the girls only.  When the news got a hold of this story they did not make it a point to talk about how the girls were targeted over the boys.  The crime was clearly a hate crime against girls but that was never brought up in the media.  The article talks about how crimes happening to women; such as, rape, murder, and mutilation, are seen so often in the news that now sometimes they are seen as not worth mentioning.  This is because we have become accustomed to hearing about violence against women. 

            This article made me think of a discussion that I am having in another one of my classes about the same issues.  In my deviant behaviors class we talk a lot about crimes against both men and women along with crimes against different races, and religions.  This week I had to read a chapter called ‘Predatory Violence’ in the book “The Relativity of Deviance” by John Curra.  In this chapter it talks about different violent crimes.  An example given is in West Africa if an Ashanti woman calls a man a fool, it can be seen as a violent crime and the woman can then be killed for it.  If the roles are reversed though, insulting a man is a very serious matter. 

            Both of these stories made it even more obvious that once against women’s rights are still not as important as a mans.  The story in West Africa is something that is still going on today and still happens to women.  To me, that is absolutely crazy.  Even though this would not happen now a day in the United States, it shows that other countries are still treating women much lower than men.  The two stories about the school shootings really got my attention.  Clearly the shooter separated girls from boys and then targeted women and I believe that was a key part of the crime so I am surprised it was not mentioned much in the media.  I think that if the same scenario had taken place but the males had been targeted rather than females, the story would’ve talked about the separation more.  

            Overall, I believe that although the United States has come a long way from how our world used to be, there is still so much room for improvement.  Other countries still treat women with little to no respect and even America can be unfair towards women in certain circumstances. Clearly these are all extreme cases of how women are not respected but they get the point across.

Fat-Shaming in Our Society

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/11/fat-shaming-slim-sanctimonious-cause-obesity-crisis

We all want to feel good about ourselves, and it’s always easier to put down others who may not look like us instead of taking a moment to look in the mirror and ask ourselves, “Am I healthy, comfortable and confident in my body.” Why should we judge or determine what somebody should look like. Whether they should gain weight or lose weight is only that person’s decision to make.   

Body-shaming whether it is fat-shaming or skinny-shaming it is everywhere and is hateful and hurtful and almost all of us go though it at one time or another in our life. Some people think that fat shaming is a good thing to do because they think it is a motivator for that person to lose weight. People don’t understand that obesity is a food disorder that has the potential to be as complex as anorexia.  As with any unhealthy relationship with food, there are always psychological issues. People don’t want to acknowledge that people who are obese are sufferers who could be ill and feel helpless.  There isn’t just one cause that can trigger an eating disorder; parents could have had food issues, fat-teasing at home or at school, obesity in childhood, and family relationships could all be causes for eating disorder.

People that fat-shame tend to believe they are benefitting society by pointing out that all obesity is caused by over eating. I believe people who are obese from over eating have a binge eating disorder. In my opinion binge eaters have an addiction to food and they deserve to be treated with the same compassion that we offer people suffering from anorexia. In the article "Body Politic", Chernik writes about being congratulated for her only having 10% body fat compared to an average women having 25% body fat at the same age. We as a society have no right to shame anybody over his or her body. If someone is overweight or underweight and happy it’s none of our business. People with these disorders need to be educated in a healthy eating lifestyle instead of being made fun of and shaming them.

Fat shaming is just plain wrong. Research published by University College London suggested “ people who felt discriminated against because of their spare tire, which had been the butt of jokes, or given worse service in shops or restaurants were actually more likely to gain weight. “ “They ate more to comfort themselves; became too ashamed to go to the gym and risk ridicule from the toned. Those treated kindly, meanwhile, tended actually to shed pounds.”

  Standing up against fat-shaming or any shaming ensures that everyone gets to make private decisions about their body, and that everyone gets to have their decisions respected, whether they decide to lose or gain weight, dye their hair pink, or get their body covered in tattoos and piercings. Other people’s bodies are their business. Eating disorders are a lonely place to live whether it obesity or anorexia or any disorder and we should not judge or name call.

Rape Is Not Okay

Warning: Cosmopolitan issued this website to be “difficult to read” for some of its audience.

http://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/news/a47915/indian-rape-victim-bitiya/

Sadly, rape is constantly heard, read, and talked about much more than it should be. I don’t understand why people rape, and I don’t think we ever will understand. Whether rape is infused with alcohol or just simply violence, it is never alright to rape a person. In Bob Herbert’s “Why Aren’t We Shocked?” article he focuses on the violence of women and includes an example of how a killer at school shooting only attacked women. The shooter separated the school from boys and girls and deliberately only killed and molested the girls. If the killer separated the school by race or religion, the attack would’ve been a hate crime. Of course, this was not called a hate crime because they were just girls and in our society violence against females is more or less to be expected. Herbert also states that these stories about rape of women and girls are stories of the news and are just as familiar to us as weather forecasts. I hate to say this, but I have to agree with him. The rape violence of women is all you hear about on the internet and on the news – reasons why I don’t watch the news anymore. I almost hear about rape more than the weather forecasts nowadays.

To quickly summarize this story for those who didn’t want to read it, in a village in India, a twelve-year-old girl was gang-raped and was recorded on video. The men threatened the girl by killing her brother if she told anyone about the video. The girl’s father found out when he saw someone watching the video and realized the video was being sold in stores. The father tried to report the problem but the police ignored it by simply saying “Boys will be boys.” In relation to Herbert’s article about how common rape is, in India rape is so common that it is considered to show fondness rather than a violent attack. People say that if a man raped a woman, she should marry him. One teen said, “If he raped her he probably likes her.” This is just completely insane to me; it honestly blows my mind that people can actually think of these statements. Rape should never be right and enjoyable to the victim. The victims have to live with the consequences of mental issues and blaming themselves for the rest of their lives and nobody should have to live that way.