In response to: http://christineelysewb.blogspot.com/2008/04/i-cant-believe-how-people-who-use-body.html

I agree with what Christine has to say about the pain people go through with body modifications: scarification, body-implants, and branding. Our society uses novicane at the dentist, and anestetics during surgical procedures. It confuses me as to why someone would willingly have their skin opened up and implants put into them without any pain medication. I think it is outragious that someone would feel they had to partake in something like this in order to stand out or "fit in". They are not only inflicting pain upon themselves, but they are putting their body at risk for infection and possibly death because the majoritiy of people who perform these tasks do not have any medical background and barely any knowledge of the human anatomy. After reading the article about body-implants I felt the same way as Christine. I was happy to know that I had some place where I felt I could be myself and not be judged.

Hidden vs. On the Outside

In response to: http://danielleaw1.blogspot.com/2008/04/hidden-vs-on-outside.html
I agree with Danielle in that there are some people who want to stand out with peircings and cosmetic surgeries and there are others who do it so you can barely notice a change on their body. But for those who do it to be noticed... what is their reason and why do they want to be noticed? They are trying to make some sort of a statement to the people around them... and that is clear. So is altering your body a form of rebellion when you want to be noticed by society and make a statement? There are many different reasons for body alterations and some are unknown. As with Danielle I just want to know what drives people to take such extreme actions on their bodies such as body implants and large haning piercings. Body alteration is an extremly intresting topic espically because the media has driven many people to engage in cosmetic surgery to look "better". I look foward to reading/hearing more about what other people in the class feel about this topic.

No regrets for a healthy limb amputee...

In reponse to: http://alibuchanan.blogspot.com/2008/04/no-regrets-for-healthy-limb-amputee.html

In response to Ali and what she felt about the article on the doctor performing a leg amputee on a healthy male, I strongly agree with what she felt. Originally, after reading the article I thought that the doctor was insane to be removing a limb from a healthy male. Until, I realized that if this doctor did not procede with this surgery that this man because of his physiological problem(body dismorphia) would have attempted to remove his leg himself. He talked about suiced and remeoving his leg with a gun or by getting run over by a train before the doctor agreeded with the procedure. This doctor not only prevented this man from serious infection and possibly death but he also allowed him to live a happier life. The male who asked for a limb removal is now happier than ever and he has his doctor to thank for tha becuase not many doctors would agree to such a procedure because it is not accepted in society. (because he was healthly)

What is normal?

In response to: http://jodibrooke.blogspot.com/2008/03/what-is-normal.html
I agree with Jodi, in the sense that the media has too much of an impact on the way women; espically with clothing, cosmetic surgery, and weight. The majortiy of actors and actresses on television shows are extremly small, in the sense that their weight and waiste size are much smaller than that of the average person. This puts more pressure on those watching the shows to want to look more like their "idols". So once again in response to Jodi's question... what exactly is normal? Well, the media has their own view on normal, but different groups and different religions and so on all have different outlooks on what exactly normal is. Normal will be chaning with society, the media changes what normal is every year: with fashion, hair, skin color, etc. I just hope more people can learn to accept who they are and not what the media wants them to buy into and become.

In response...

In response to: http://brilista4.blogspot.com/
I Strongly agree with what Brianne wrote about having difficulty picking a side to essay number 3. I didnt know if I should agree with the rules Doctors must follow about only performing surgies that fit into what is acceptable to society. Although I then considered the fact that the people getting these surgeries done had thought strongly about them and had extremly detalied reasons on why the surgery should be perfomed. Along with Brianne, I felt that the essay would be much easier to write because cosmetic surgery is such a big thing in todays society. However, It was just the opposite. I took me a long amount of time until I decided that the Doctor should have say in whether or not the paitent receives his/her cosmetic operation.

Body image paper:

After reading over my body image paper as well as one of my group members final copies I felt I had learned more about how people view what normal is and where there idea of normal came from. My partner talked about athletes and the use of steroids and how they make the athletes looks so mucular that little kids who look up to them want to be like them, but with out the use of steroids there is no way they could. They media shows these muscular men at these unattinable body sizes, so in a sense they are encouraging the use of steroids. My partners paper was similar to mine in the way i talked about celeberties being so thin from "eating disorders" that they are almost accepted in todays media becausae girls want to look like their idols and will practically die to. They take extremes by not eating, over exercising, and comparing themselves to every other girl. Whats normal to one person may not be to another by the media has surly deicded that its better to be extremly muscular for men and extremly thin for women. They dont care about the health issues that go along with it they only care about people buying into their ideas!

Cancer free at 33...

After reading through the article about having a mastecomy I had differnt views on breat removal. Although breat removal is a very personal and seriousl surgery I fully understood the measures that were being taken. For somone who knows that they run an exremely high risk of recieving breast cancer and are basically waiting for they day they find out getting a mstecomy before you know you have breast cancer is a smart prevention. It prevents you from going through all the painful steps before your last option is the removal of your breasts. Although breasts stand for feminity, you can still be a woman and live a wonderful life of motherhood with out your real breasts you were born with! If I knew breast cancer ran through my family and that I ran an extremly high risk of having it one day, I would seriously contemplate getting a mastecomy before it was noted necessary to save my life at that moment.! I wouldnt think once about people thinking I was not a real woman because your health comes before everything!

Body Artists

I could not believe the things that were being talked about it the Body Artists article! For someone to allow an unprofessional(no medical background) to install implants into their body without any type of anesthetics is outrageous! The main controversy begins because clients are putting their lives at risk. Working with body artists who have no history of anatomy can put them at risk for an infection at the site, and the tissue over the implant can die. If the area is not sterile enough the infection can become an "disaster". I feel people should not be allowed to perform body art on people until its legal and safe by Doctors. Electronic body art may be the future for body artists, but I would not  allow myself to go under the work of someone who has no medical background especially when your health is a leading risk factor. For now I would advise anyone who is thinking about body art to wait until Doctors are allowed to perform such procedures! 

Jordan Sparks

After watching today's youtube clip about Jordan Sparks "weight problem" I didnt know how to react. As a beautiful and talented 17 year old girl I could not understand how someone could call her obese and claim that she shouldnt win the American Idol title because she was setting the idea that being "obese" was acceptable in society. Jordan Sparks was referred to as "normal", but in the sense that "normal" now is overweight in our past standards society because such a high percentage of Americans are overweight now. I personally feel that if someone is competing in a competition and is noticablly better than they should clearly win the competition. In the case with Jordan Sparks weight should not have a been a factor in her voting or publicity. The one thing that stuck out in my head was the fact that noone took measures this far with Rubin Studder who was much more over-weight than Jordan Sparks. The only thing I can understand is the fact that people are worried for Jordan in regards to future health problems, but at the same time she is a 6 foot girl who is never going to weigh 100 LBS. That would just be unrealistic.

Cosmetic Surgery

After reading the article that talked about cosmetic surgery I didn't know how to react. I knew that more women than men opted for cosmetic surgery, but I didnt know how much larger of a percentage it was for women. The article talks about how Doctors decided if the person is getting thes surgery for the proper reasons. To me plastic surgery is pointless. I feel that you are made the way you are for a reason, and unless you have health problems that relate to a specific body part nothing should be changed. However, the doctors say that people who feel their jobs, and self-esteem can be boosted with a new nose, boobs, tummy tuck, ect. are "good candidates" for the surgery. On the other hand, Men and women who opt for cosmetic surgery because of a recent divorce, prevention of divorce, or to make the other spouce happier are not "good candidates". To me in a way I believe the first group has better reasons for their cosmetic surgery, but I still strongly believe that unless a preson has medical reasons for plastic surgery the procedure should not be done.

Hair

After reading the past two articles about African Americans in reguards to their hair I no longer feel its the same for a white woman when she gets a perm or stragatins her hair. My reasons for this are because this is a personal choice, and when African American girls grow their forced by their mothers to go to the hair salon to get their hair chemically strgatined in order to look more "acceptable" to society. Society has built this standard that long silky hair is attractive and that nappy, dreaded, braded hair is just the opposite. As both atricles, and video in class talked about African Americans are looked at differntly and taken less seriously when they keep their natural hair, and dont add any chemicals to change it. I myself have never been fully happy with my hair and have contemplated chemical hair straightining several times, but I never felt I had to get my hair straightened to feel normal, and to be taken seriously. I was just a personal preference that I thought I would look better with straight hair. I dont understand who created these judgements of what is acceptable and what is unacceptable in todays society, but I think it is unfair that African Americans cant feel comfortable in their own skin becuase of these stereotyes and judgements made towards them.