Healthy Limbs Amputation

In looking at the British article about the controversial decision a man made to have his healthy limbs amputated. He had a debilitation disease where he had an obsession over the inadequacy with a part of his leg. The problem was that his limb was completely healthy and it is considered unethical to amputate healthy limbs. The man never wanted the limb there and that is where the issue came from. It was difficult to find a surgeon to perform the operation because many found it contrary to thier beliefs. Also, many surgeons considered their reputation in this way because they did not want to be labeled in that way. The article also dealt with the ideas of becoming less "normal" by changing something about oneself. It resonates on the idea that outside sources will always have a say in how we live and lives and the decisions we make. It is impossible to escape the "peanut gallery". In my opinion I feel that if a person made a conscious decision to remove a part of their body then it should not be a problem. If they know the ramifications of their actions, then it is their own call.

Article Response

In looking at the article "Cancer Free at 33, but Weighing a Mastecomy" we see the overall quarrel that people have with removing a part of their body. In Cancer Free... the quarrel was with the womans family who did not want her to have her mastecomy because they felt it was dehumanizing. No one like the idea of removing breats because it is such a defining feature in the eyes of the Deborah's mom. The importance was that it was a safety precaution against the spreading of cancer. I think that the hardest part for the mom was they were healthy enough to survive but still very dangerous. It did not matter how long it took for the cancer to develop, it was inevitable. Deborah made the choice to alter herself and change a defining part of her appearence and that was hard for her mom. Deborah's mom saw it as something that was not necessary at the time and was simply dissapointed by the fact that Deborah was so willing to do the operation even though it was not necessary. The conflict took special consideration because it was difficult to part with something that had become so defining in who she was seen as.

Cosmetic Surgery vs. Body Modification

I would define cosmetic surgery as a decision someone makes to change something about themselves because they feel it must be done. Either they feel that something is inadequate in their own mind or standards or it is something that is impeding their everyday life. i would say that cosmetic surgery has different levels of intensity depending on how enthusiastic the person is on what they wish to change. Often times, it is a decision made by society and the standards that we have that make people want to change their looks. Body Modification I think is a little more intense because there is a more serious aspect in many cases. Body modification to me menas somehting more unnatural like lip rings, tattoos, or ear hoops. I feel body modification has a different meaning and purpose than cosmetic surgery because it is reconstuctive versu cosmetic changes. I think the overlying difference is the appearence of natural vs. something manmade.

Importance of Hair

After further considering the interview with Neal Lester, he raised some very good points about hair that I had never really considered. He mentioned how a hair cut or hair style could be the defining factor in a situation like a job interview or even when you already have a job. Why does someones hair have to be a certain way for them to conduct their job? It is preposterous that someone could not perform their job because their hair was a different color or braided a different way. I can understand a situation where someone may have been working with machinery and long hair could be a concerning factor but that is not what Lester was talking about. He was talking about how one's hairstyle says more about who they are then the words that they say. He also talked about the concept of beauty being racialized in specific cases with the hair. He was saying how straightened hair in particular is seen as a white woman's hair style and that in using chemicals and artificial sources to straighten hair, girls are becoming less and less who they were meant to be. Lester mentioned how there were so many stereotypes and associations made based simply on one's hair that our society has become so consumed with different hair styles. With personal examples using his own daughter, Lester illustrated how society forces people, especially the youth, to change the way their hair is simply to look like an ideal that is not real or necessary.

Role of Hair

In listening to the interview with Neal Lester and reading the passages regarding the importance of hair, I discovered a new meaning to hair. I always thought that hair was nothing important, partly because I never liked my own hair. It was certainly something that I noticed as a child but it was never anything that I thought was very important. Growing up, I was not very picky about my hair cuts and I normally got a straight up bowl but all the way through elementary school. I remember growing up and having my brother grow his hair out really long. He and my neighbor both did it together and many of them often referred to them as the Hansen brothers who, at the time, has copyrighted to long blonde hair style. So i knew growing up how quickly hair could lead people to make assumptions because everywhere I went with my brother it was the first thing that people would say to him. I never wanted to have my hair so recognizable that it was the one thing that people recognized me by. I finally moved on past the bowl cut and went to a more typical, short hair cut. It was an interesting time for me because I partly wanted to have something unique about my hair but I did not want it to be excessive like my brothers. It was at this time that i realized just how important hair is and the power it has on how we are seen.

Freaks

In response to the movie Freaks, there were a lot of things to talk about running through my head. I was at first fairly confused by the movie and all that it entailed. I thought that it took a new look at the circus and the lives of the people who worked as part of the sideshow. There was a lot of things going on in that movie that did not make sense but as a whole I feel that the movie got its point across. I think that the idea of dehumanizing someone and playing on the concept of normality was highlighted in this film. I thought it was an interesting parallel showing how the people who deemed normal and beautiful from the beginning turned out to be the worst people inside. The movie did a good job of playing on how we as an audience are so judgmental simply by what we see. Seeing the different "freaks" in the beginning of the film was all purposeful because the director was trying to create as big a serperation between them and the "normal" people like Hercules and Cleopatra. These were people who we immediately deemed as normal and misplaced in the circus environment but as the movie progresses, we see them as actually terrible people who are disgusting inside but that is not someting that we consider at the beginnning. I thought that this movie did an excellent job at switching the audiences emotions from feeling sympathetic and angry to completely opposite extremes.

Transforming

In reading "The Other Body: Reflections on Difference, Disablility and Identity Politics" by Ynestra King, we get a very intimate look at the life of a disabled person. I thought her writing was very powerful becuase it was obvious that she felt very passionately about the subject. The idea that being disabled has become an identitiy is one that we don't normally consider but I feel that she is right. We don't often take into consideration the handicapped when going about our daily lives or even in the examples she tells us, who we see socially. I thought the story she gave about the woman in the wheelcahir who wore provacative clothing was very interesting because she said how it was clothing not "suitable" for a handicapped person. Things like that we don't normally consider but she strikes it right on the mark with how people would react to a situation like that. I thought her last line was the best, saying that disability is the only one that can happen to anyone in an instant. This sentence struck me beucase it is true how fast our body and our lives can change. The transformation that King talks absolutely exists because even after all the characteristics that make us unique, we are still human and we are still identified by how we look on the outside.

Stalone

Reading the interview of Sylvester Stalone by Susan Faludi was very intersting to me. I was a huge fan of the early Rocky and Rambo movies because they were amazing, action-packed thrill rides. Stalone was the "American male" with the badass attitude and the body to back it up. I found it very interesting to read the comparison between Stalone in real life and the actualy characters that he plays. Stalone says things about how he was only seen as a body because of the movies he had done and he wanted to be taken seriouisly as an actor and as a person. My immediate reaction to that was that that was bullshit. He was the one who decided to make those movies and present himself in that way. It is unfair to assume other people would see him otherwise after such iconic movies as Rocky and Rambo. After reading on though, I discovered how torn Stalone was from these movies and how much they had taken a toll on him both physically and emotionally. It seemed that Stalone had come to the realization that if he wanted to be seen differently in the eyes of the public, he first had to see himself differently. It was at this time in the reading that my perspective changed and I realized the toroture that he must have gone through. To not only prove to the public but also himself that he was not a meat-head must have been so hard. The article talked about how his whole life was consumed by his body that there was nothing left for him to even remember. This article shows how the expectations of society have changed so much throughout one mans lifetime. Stalone went from being a brainless body to a concerned individual and I think that is because society as a whole, refused to see him as anything else. Much like how when we see pretty models in a magazine, we judge them simply based on their looks but as we can see from this article, there is a lot more to their lifestyle.

Advertising Response

In the reading the written responses from our class and listening to the discussion that we had in class, I feel that there were several intersting points brought up. The one that I found to be the most interesting was the differences between how the males and females of the class reacted to the essay. As a whole I found that males found the atricles to a be a lot less offensive than the females of the class. Being a male, I was not very offended by some of the advertisements because they i thought that they were simply trying to sell their product. Their is no denying the fact that sex sells and these advertisements utilize that to its fullest. You cannot argue that it is the faults of these advertisers who exploit sexual enuendos because they are simply trying to drag in a specific audience. It is not their fault that the human race as a a whole is drawn into sex and drugs becuase they are simply trying to reach us in a way that is unique to its own company. Now, when advertisers start exploiting ideas of rape or violence, they have crossed the line because they are sending a message that is not related to their product. But to crticize these advertisers for having ads that play on the idea of sex or alcohol is not fair because they are simply doing their job of drawing in an audience.

Self Consciousness

The first time that I became self concsious about my height was elementary school gym class when we are playing basketball. We playing for the first time all year and so no one had any idea how we were as players. Right about the time when guys starting big, i stayed very small. My friend and i were always some of the last boys to be picked for basketball because we were so small. It did not matter how good we were because we just too short. It was not about passing, shooting, or dribbling, but about how tall you were. Because of this, I never really cared for basketball. It was the only sport I did not play through elementary school. It left such a deep impression on me at that age that I completely stayed away from it up to 8th grade where i decided to give it another shot because size was not as big a factor as skill or hustle. Basketball however, left a large impression on my life because it certainly made me aware of my size compared to that of my classmates and those around me.

Language

There is no doubt that language is of the most important parts of communication. In reading "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" by Gloria Anzaldua, we learn about the conflicts of language within our society. We see the consequences of supressing and keeping down something that is natural to express when Gloria is prohibited to speak and teach in her native tongue. We see that people cannot be supressed of something that is a part of who they are. To Gloria, her voice and the words she uses are a distinct attribute of her personality. Even more than her appearence, her voice and her language defines who she is. The idea of being silenced of her native tongue is something that she is not comfortable with because it is like silencing somethign that is the bare essence of who she is. The idea that language can define someones personality is something that is a new idea and one that i never really considered but it does make sense. Is is possible to pick someones voice out of a crowd of people? Of course it is. Language is very powerful and to be unable to express it can be very trying and i can understand why Gloria felt so passionate about her own voice and her own words.

Socks

In response to the illustrated story "The Socks", i was very impressed with the combination of the use of illustrations and story to portray an idea. Marjane uses black and white illustrastions throughout this story and I am not sure if she did this on purpose or if it was just the way it was eventually published but i thought that that was one of the most powerful aspects of the story. She writes about freedom and liberation Iran, specifically for women and the youth culture. I thought that by illustrating this point in black and white, she takes a new view at her argument. In the story, there are policemen and authourity figures that supress Marjane and her friends. The policemen make arguments about how women are different than men and yet to have them illustrated in the same color and same shading, they look very similar. I though that this could have been a ploy to present a view of how everyone is eventually equal because underneath our outside layers, its just as simple as black and white.

St Stuttering

Brianne brings up a good point. What would we do if we could not speak? I think it is a very intersting question because we always take our voice for granted. I wonder just how different our society would be if we could not speak and we had to rely on a completely different means of communication. I think that even if we stuttered all the time, our lives would be completely different. I mean, we all have times when we are not sure, but what if that was all the time? Just picturing that in my mind would be like some crazy ass science ficiton movie where everything was written out in words. I can't even picture it because we rely on our voice so much. Even as babies, we use sounds and gestures to show what we need. I feel like even though stuttering is not silence in any way, it is definately a form of silence. Being articulate is something we take for granted and while you are still very capable of being articulate with a stutter, it is far more difficult. So in further reflection of what I would do if I could not speak, i would have to say that I would truly do my best to not be different person. I know that part of being silent would be motivation to make myself head in some way but that would be very difficult to find that motivation.

Breasts

In reading "A Few Words About Breasts" I found an interesting outlook on growing up and becoming an adult. The author takes us through her adolesence including her first period and her sexual experience. I thought that it was a unique and very personal essay that took a different look at growing up in the eyes of a woman. The character who I liked best was her mother who discouraged the author from buying her first bra because she took a lot of pride in her own breasts. I thought that was a unique twist to the classic story of growing up because she actually discouraged her daughter getting older. The story did not talk about other aspects of growing up, such as maturation of the mind. To read about a girl growing up just from physical, sexual standpoint was something new to me. But this story was a good example of the importance of image even as a child and someone who expects something to happen but never does. All in all, it is another example of how conscious we are as a race in what we look like and how our body is seen.

John Updike's At War With My Skin

In reading John Updike's At War with My Skin, I was very intrigued by the story all the way through. The story is a personal reflection on Updike's experiences with psoriasis, a skin condition that occurs in people when they are not exposed to enough sunlight. The structure of this story was interesting because it was a biogrophy of sorts but it felt very different because I was not certain that it was actually Unpdike who the story was about. I thought that the writing was done extremely well and he had many lines that stuck out in my mind. As Updike wrote about dealing with psoriasis and adjusting his life to conceal it, we learned a lot about the importance of image to him and others with the disease. The line about being forced to a mirror was very powerful becuase it showed how consumed by his image Updike actually was. He actually wrote this line when he mentioned that he passed the disease onto his daughter which was devastating to him. I thought that the story he told about getting discharged from the army was interesting because like he said, a skin disease would not stop him from killing someone. But I found the reaction by his mother to be more surprising because she was actually upset that he could not be in the army because she felt at fault.
If anything, this story is a great example of the stress that diseases put on the family life. The pressure that Updike talked about with getting married and having kids early becuase he did not want to miss his chance. It was very powerful to read about how consumed one could be by a disease that is not even fatal, just one that simply effects ones complexion.

Alice Walker as a Victim?

In reading othe people's blog form our writing class, I noticed how a number of people referred to Alice Walker as a victim. I believe I first read it in Daniell's blog where she said that Alice Walker went through a complete transformation from a cute, likeable girl to "the girl with the scarred eye." This is interesting because it does change Alice complexion and personal appearence but I do not feel that she saw herself as a victim. She writes her piece to make it appear to us the reader that she is the victim but in her eyes, it is just a phase in her life. This concept is very interesting because it makes us all think what we would have done and how we would have felt had we ever been in a similar situation. How often do we actually think of ourselves as victims versus how many times we want ourselves to made out as victims to other people. It is an interesting question that I did not happen open immediately in my reading but looking back at other peoples responses and seeing it worded that way is interesting. The reader can see that Alice wanted to make herself seen not as a victim but as a normal person but it was inevitable that the people around her saw her as someone different and someone who should be pities. Alice never wanted pity from anyone and yet she recieved it from her peers. Again, the idea of sympathy that I talked about in my first blog is brought up again because the people around Alice had sympathy for her which she never wanted. I guess you can say that people, like eyes, "are sympathetic," too.

Eyes are Sympathetic

In Alice Walker's When The Other Dancer is the Self, we take an extreme look at the theme of beauty. Alice Walker presents us with a series of vignettes from points in her life that had a significant impact on her current way of living and the idea of beauty is always an underlying theme. The story takes a drastic turn when she tells about her experience of getting shot in the eye at age 8 with a BB gun pellet which leaves her blind in one eye. The line that the doctor says, "Eyes are sympathetic," I found to be a very strange one at first because he is talking about how when one eye goes blind, the other one tends to follow, but this line seemed to have another meaning too. The whole concept of beauty is seen as one that Alice always struggled with because she was always so conscious of her eye and hideous scar that was in the middle of it. She never thought about the uniqueness or beauty of her eye until her daughter told her that she could see another world in her eye. The line, "Eyes are sympathetic" struck me at this time in the story because it is Alice's daughter's eyes which are sympathetic because they see something completely different in her mothers eyes. She sees a new world, a thing of beauty in her mother's eyes and it completely changes Alice's self consciousness about her eye. Alice, from that point, does not feel self conscious about her eye because of the compassion and sympathy that her daughter showed when looking into her mother's eyes. The idea that a child can look into a scar that is considered hideous and see something beautiful shows how that eyes really do have sympathy but in a different way. The parallelism here is what struck me the most in this story.