Somewhere Over the Palm Trees

Men To Uphold Beauty Standards too…

Somewhere Over the Palm Trees — Tue, 04 May 2010 18:04:54 +0000

In light of the subject that I presented in class yesterday, I found another article relating to men’s body image issues on Feministe.com who got it from New York Magazine. The article talks about a new mannequin from the U.K. that has been produced to display the new trend in skinny jeans for men. The article notes that the new mannequins have a 27 inch waist!!! I have a bigger waist than that! This particular brand of mannequins has a history of slimming down their mannequins and has different names for each one too. I really suggest you take a look at the article and keep in mind that the average male has a waist size of 39.7 inches.

Men are also pressured to uphold this dangerous standard of beauty, what do you all think?

Senioritis Galore

Somewhere Over the Palm Trees — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 03:10:44 +0000

Seniors, there is hope! Senioritis is actually a recognized disease! We’re not just making this up, even Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary recognizes that there is such a thing. They define it as “an ebbing of motivation and effort by school seniors as evidenced by tardiness, absences, and lower grades.” Even Time Magazine has dedicated an article on this disease. Even though the article is specifically about high school senioritis, it is still very relatable to feelings felt by college seniors. I am personally at a point where caring is at an all-time low. If you google the word “senioritis” you will find over 187,000 links. As well as a link to Yahoo Answers. There is hope for all those suffering from lethargy, take a look.

Totally Frivolous

Somewhere Over the Palm Trees — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 20:52:26 +0000

The Accidentals or some other A Capella group needs to do this: a medley of Lady Gaga songs…in an A Capella performance!!!

The Infamous “Pill”

Somewhere Over the Palm Trees — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 14:26:55 +0000

It’s been almost 50 years since the FDA approved birth control, otherwise known as “the pill.” This New York Times article tells of some of the thoughts people had when it was first approved. A professor and doctor at Harvard thought that giving women a chance to be the dominant sexual figure in a relationship would increase a man’s chance of becoming impotent.

Thoughts?

Barbie World

Somewhere Over the Palm Trees — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 02:30:21 +0000

So, we’ve all heard the argument made against Barbie dolls: they are a bad influence for little girls because their bodies are disproportionate, if Barbie where a human being she’d be walking on all fours, Barbie is not an adequate role model, blah, blah, blah. Recently, Mattel conducted a survey for little girls to choose Barbie’s next career. Surprisingly, little girls chose “computer engineer.” Awesome, right? But, the Huffington Post decided to do a slide show of Barbie’s “Least inspiring careers.” These included: McDonald’s cashier, baby-sitter, and aerobics instructor among others. Okay, I agree those are not great careers to aspire to, but who says little girls look up to their dolls for career inspiration? I’m always the one speaking out against this whole campaign against Barbie. I looooved Barbie growing up! I was lucky when I got one for a birthday or christmas and I cherish each one (I still have all of them, and I’m totally proud of that fact). I never thought of my Barbie dolls as role models; to me, they were just dolls I played with. I got dress them up, they all had names and careers and were stylish. When I was young, I used my Barbies to play fashion designer; I would make them clothes myself and design clothing for them. But I never thought to myself, “hey, I want to look like Barbie when I grow up.” But maybe that was just me. Any thoughts on what Barbie might mean for little girls today?

(p.s. my younger cousin used to cut their hair, rip off their heads, and leave them naked all over the place…she didn’t turn out that great, but I’m pretty sure she never aspired to be like Barbie).

Finding Satisfaction in my Thesis

Somewhere Over the Palm Trees — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:02:15 +0000

I am very close to getting satisfaction with this whole process concerning my thesis. I had the chance to meet with someone on campus who is well-versed in the literature and supplied me with some really great information. I also met with another professor in the philosophy department who suggested that I add an epilogue to my thesis – he mentioned other forms, but the one that stood out was “a letter to Che.” So, I took advantage of my creative non-fiction class to start working on this project. The person I met who supplied me with other information I had not considered thought that this epilogue in the form of a letter was very interesting considering that when Che left Cuba, his farewell was in the form of a letter to Fidel. Well, it is interesting, but it wasn’t my idea…it’ll definitely go into the acknowledgements though. I’m not sure if this epilogue will mean more than just an epilogue, especially given that I still have to clear my idea with my advisors. I’m meeting with them tomorrow, wish me luck!

Talkin’ ’bout my Generation

Somewhere Over the Palm Trees — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 21:47:24 +0000

A recent subject brought up in class was about the lack of political action/activism in the generation currently in college. I would like to say that the main reason why college students don’t participate in activism is because there are too many distractions, mainly in the form of technology. In the 60′s and 70′s college students didn’t all have televisions and certainly did not have cell phones and iPods. Many of the technological apparatuses that exist today, although they may make our lives easier, diminish human contact. Even as I sit here typing this blog, I am blocking out the outside world by not coming in direct contact with it. Ipods, and if even before then portable radios took away from human interaction. Today, we see kids plugged into their earphones and there is no connection to their surroundings. However, I believe there is something else that prevents my generation from taking part in critical action: fear. With the newly constructed Patriot Act and other legislations that hack away at first amendment rights (as they were intentioned), there is a fear instilled in people. As mentioned in class, the lack of a draft is also an issue. Because no one is actually being forced to do something against their will, no one is protesting these wars…at least not young people.

Heidi Montag & Plastic Surgery

Somewhere Over the Palm Trees — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:20:08 +0000

I have always been morally opposed to watching “The Hills” and most “reality” shows for that matter. I find “The Hills” especially annoying considering it documents the lives of ridiculously privileged people in Los Angeles. I have probably watched all of two minutes of that show before changing the channel, fearing for the life of my brain cells. I had seen the stories about Heidi Montag’s surgeries and have seen the pictures of her, however, I never really thought of what she looked like before. So, I did a google search today on images of Heidi Montag before and after surgery. Wholly shit is she an entirely different person or what?! I knew that cosmetic/plastic surgery could do a lot to change the way a person looked like, but I never imagined that these procedures could actually create a different person. I find it extremely say that Heidi feels the need to be “perfect” when she was already such a beautiful young woman. Looking at the before pictures, I though, “wow, she’s really pretty.” Now, I look at her and think “eww, she looks so plastic, almost non-human.” Is her definition of perfection to look like figure from the wax museum? If so, she’s really damn close. I realize that cosmetic surgery can be of help to some people with certain real medical conditions, but I think Heidi has gone way too far. She’s was a beautiful person on the outside before her ten surgeries, now, I don’t really know what to think of her. It seems to me that these procedures are something more subconscious; maybe she wanted to completely remake her life by becoming an entirely new person.

What does everyone else think of these kinds of procedures?

47 Days Away

Somewhere Over the Palm Trees — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 01:42:47 +0000

Starting at midnight, there will only be 47 days left until graduation. This makes me wonder: how many college seniors actually have plans post-May 23rd? I know I don’t. I’m waiting to hear back from one job (a teaching fellowship) that I would love to have. I’m still applying for three other jobs, and I’m still freaking out. When I graduated high school, I had a clear plan of what my life would be like, but somewhere in between June 2006 and April 2010, that plan got lost. I remember being passionate about wanting to be an invetigative political journalist who told the truth about politics, but now, I have no desire to want to do this. My interests have shifted a lot. I don’t know what I want to do anymore (and that confuses the crap out of my parents). I know I’m passionate about education reform, but I don’t know enough about the policies to plunge into a job concerning the issue. I want to be able to give students in low-income communities the same opportunities I have had, but the journey to do that is cloudy.

Another thought: in elementary school, we are told to draw pictures of “what we want to do when we grow up.” Everyone gets excited and talks about being a fireman, or policeman. In second grade, I had no idea what I wanted to do, so my teacher told me, “I think you would make a great TV reporter.” So I started to look up to the TV journalists and thought “yeah, I could do that.” But what is more pertinent is that we are all told at a young age we could be anything we want, and that’s true, but no one ever warns kids about the process of getting there. It’s a difficult transition to go through, “entering the real world.” So, I pose two questions: (1) Should we tell children, at all about the process of getting a job and how difficult that can be? and (2) Unrelatedly, how many seniors have plans?

Chapter 4 – McKee

Somewhere Over the Palm Trees — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 01:30:08 +0000

McKee has yet to excite me. His arguments are repetitive. His binaries are boring. He lacks creativity in his work. Most of the information he presents are arguments made by other people. This book should be called: The Public Sphere: a collection of quotations. Looking over my marginal notes, the common expression in my notes is “duh!”

And once more in chapter 4: Fragmentation, McKee seems to make what he believes to be original revelations. McKee says: “to use pervasive strategies other than logical rationality is undesirable ” (157). Well, duh! Anyone can make that assertion. He also states that fragmentation “may” be caused because of “a technological element to…increased visibility of multiple public spheres” (143). Not to sound too infantile but, no shit Sherlock! It doesn’t take theoretician to figure this out, McKee. Of course fragmentation of the media is occurring at a more rapid speed because of technology. It’s an issue about accessibility, not necessarily fragmentation. Fragmentation is media outlets that have different audiences. In my opinion, fragmentation should be defined as the different outlets. But he focuses this chapter on Queer issues as example of too many issues in the public sphere. Although his point may be to juxtapose the modern and post-modern perspectives, his approach and writing style is just not conducive. I know this book is supposed to be “an introduction” to the public sphere, but I still find McKee to be completely pompous. His words come across as if he is making some incredibly new assertion about the world. Perhaps if I hadn’t read the introduction to this book I would’ve agreed with McKee, but his delivering of the product just hasn’t moved me.