Girl Power: a sad but true story

Having forgotten my reading materials, waiting at the doctor's office this past week, I decided to pick up a copy of the Summit County Women's Journal. The thin magazine dedicated to women's issues in my area seemed, at least, moderately interesting. February is Heart Awareness month, and Heard Disease is still the number one killer of women in this country. I was expecting at least a few pages dedicated to adjusting my eating and exercise habits, and maybe some yoga promos, since that's all the rage now.

I was disgusted, however, when I began leafing through the pages and found that the first 3/4 of the publication (this is not an exaggeration) was dedicated to cosmetic surgery, a few pages about hair replacement and thickening followed, and the magazine ended with articles about teeth whitening. I put the magazine down and picked up the larger volume next to it called the Women's Health Journal, a nationally circulated magazine. This publication, or at least the first 1/4 of it (I couldn't bear any more) dealt primarily with natural weight loss (for aesthetics only, no health reasons were given), and the toning of the thighs and buttocks. Spring is on it's way, you know.

"Thank goodness" I thought to myself, "that women in this area don't have to deal with issues like violent crime, the glass ceiling, rape, eating disorders, child rearing, or anything in the political arena, we can all rest easy and focus completely on our warped body images, primarily induced by media bombardment". If you don't understand sarcasm, you shouldn't be reading this.

Aside from the variety of proposed legislation that clearly limits women's rights on state, local, and federal levels popping up in the media over the past several months, I think that these publications are a somewhat reliable indicator of what concerns women according to the media. I hope that these issues are not women's number one concerns. I, personally feel that there are at least a few things that I find more pressing than the shape of my buns or how full my head of hair is. Reading materials like these make me fear for the well being of my entire sex.

beauty

Western European Society got its idea about thin, pale, blonde girls being the epitome of beauty and fashion from Sir Thomas Kyd, if I'm remebering my Shakespeare class correctly. Shakespeare countered this notion with his Dark Lady poems, but Kyd's work about a fair haired maiden that he fell in love with at church were already sweeping Europe. And we haven't changed our perceptions since then.
I'm sure that everyone has heard at some point that in midieval times, heavier set women were the height of attractiveness. This Kyd poetry series from the 1500's was a real turning point for us.
I'm sure, also, that people know that super models are atypically structured. They have musculo-skeletal frames that are very diminuative, and different from the majority of the population. That's what made them famous. Although, most of them still abuse drugs and alcohol to have the figure that they do, and most of them have eating disorders. That is why the international modeling rules changed last year, because too many 14 year old and younger girls were literally starving to death to stay on the runway. Now girls of that age are banned from modeling.
This all translates into college aged girls, high school girls, and now introducing middle school aged girls with eating disorders. Preposterous as it may sound, people are so dissatisfied with their appearance, and in fact value their appearance so much that they are willing to starve themselves for the sake of "looking good".
Of course, being of the college age, I see it all the time. I worry because I am aware of the physical problems that this behavior causes in people, which is more and more severe each year closer to thirty. Spanning from heart conditions to esophogeal damage...and the fact that people my age should be more than aware of the threats connected to eating disorders, but that they starve themselves anyway is a disappointing, and somewhat frightening fact about maybe only the people I know. I have a feeling it's a little more widespread in our country than that.
One of my best friends was a vietnam veteran. He really respected the way that I eat. He actully complimented me in that: he said that I eat like a European. Though fast food is on the rise in Europe, people in Europe have a relationship with their food, that I think Americans need to learn from.
There aren't waif thin people in Western Europe, but they certainly don't have the trouble with obesity that we do. They also don't seem to have the kinds of stigma attached to body shape that America does. They eat when they're hungry, but they appreciate the food, and nine times out of ten it's raw, fresh, healthy, blah blah blah. Food has a cultural value, and people place personal value on their relationship to foods there. Not like here, whatever is fast, cheap, and fills the stomach. Oh, yes, and it has to taste good, and by good, I mean super greasy and covered in salt in a way that will give me a heart attack before I finish the meal.
In summation, the American relationship to food needs some serious modification. The American ideal body type, could also stand to be reevaluated. Or at least, maybe we could try not to put so much emphasis on it. In 20 years, who's going to care what size jeans you can squeeze your ass into?

sound off like you got a pair.

I'm not sure if it's the number of people that I know that were raised catholic, or if it's just that my generation seems to be apologetic for no real reason...but in an increasing number of individuals I have found that during conversation, the words "I'm sorry" are spouted off compulsively.
This makes me wonder if the over all self worth of these people is lacking. Do they really think that EVERYTHING is their fault, or are they simply trying to passively manipulate the conversation? Even with a severe sense of self loathing combined with narcissism, a person couldn't possibly take credit for every little thing that rubs me the wrong way.
Basically, what they are saying is insincere. I've actually had more instances than I can count in which I pointed out to an individual that they apologized a few times an hour during conversation. These people cannot have a realistic opinion of themselves, and they certainly can't mean it when they apologize, or even really know what they are apologizing for. I find this unsettling.
Personally, I deliberately will not apologize without feeling that something was actually my fault, though like so much of the country I work in a customer service industry. I value myself too much for that. I also don't say please and thank you unless someone is actually helping me out or at least seems to remotely give a shit.
People need to value themselves a bit more, I think. On the other side of the coin, people need to value other people more, too.

Look Up, Ohio!

Mayhaps this is an insignificant issue, and perhaps i am making too much out of it: but I live in a sleepy college town in northeastern ohio, known as Kent. In Kent, on the corner of main street and franklin avenue, there is a bar, upon which is perched a grotesque, which is a statue usually incorrectly called a gargoyle. Grotesques and gargoyles serve the same basic function of frightening away evil spirits, etc. Gargoyles are attached to water, though. Like, the typical gargoyle is a downspout. People don't really ever seem to use the proper terminology for them, though.
So on top of this building, plain as the nose on my face is a large grotesque, light gray against the dark brick background of the next building over...which also has a storm trooper painted on the dark bricks that no one seems to have noticed, either. These things have been there forever...
The point is this: I am in contact with a lot of people on the average day, and I have been for years. No one in this town seems to have noticed either of these massive pieces of art. What this says to me is that people are so wrapped up in what's going on right in front of them that they can't take a minute to look around.
There are tons of pedestrians in this town. These things are on the main drag. If you go through Kent you drive past them. There are a lot of bars, so there is a lot of foot traffic, and yet people don't see this. It concerns me a great deal that: people don't look at the sky any more.

personal "Freedom"

The crowning jewel of the false sense of personal freedom in this country, may well be the idea of "home ownership" and "private property". In northeastern Ohio, should the state, city, or county deem that your property would generate more revenue as a business than would be contributed by your tax dollars, then the government can claim "eminent domain" and take your property, simple as that.
It does not matter if your mortgage is paid off, it does not matter how long you have owned the home, or how long the property has been in your family's possession. If a business considers your home to be in an attractive location, you will be ousted and offered a pittance for your land and house.
An example of eminent domain in recent history was the removal of an elderly woman from her home in Canton, a home, by the way that had been in her family for almost 200 years, and frankly should have been declared a historic land mark. At one point the house had been a store front, and had housed a family jeweler.
The city annexed the home using eminent domain, offering her less than a third of what market value was at the time on her house (in 2003), and following the court hearings that she lost while attempting to remain in her home, the city demolished the house to build a bridge to Belden Village Mall. I believe it's now called Westfield Shopping Center. The press following the trial, particularly the print media crucified the elderly woman, and made her out to be senile and somewhat insane (the Canton Repository) for defending her home, which they implied was impeding progress. Because, everyone knows that the city of Canton/North Canton simply does not have enough roads that lead to the mall.
Currently, the city of Kent is in the process of claiming eminent domain, and absconding with the property at the corner of Mantua and Fairchild roads. The properties that they will be stealing from the owners includes a local business, Crock's Car Care, which has been operating for decades, and the homes behind it. The city is displacing these residents and the business to make way for a Sheetz gas station, which will clearly bring in more tax dollars than the business and residents that are there now. Because the traffic congestion in that area could somehow be increased and if that's possible-the city wants to find a way. Oh, yes, and the one Sheetz that is on the other end of town simply isn't enough, plus I'm sure that the small gas station a block and half up from the new station will savor the competition.
If you own a home, you can be ticketed for things like your grass being too long, and unsightly automobiles being on the premises. If you are a home owner: in order to add on to a structure you must obtain permission from the city in which you live in the form of a building permit, and licensed contracting. You are not truly free to have your home or property in precisely the state you want it, regardless of how long you have been there. In the city of Akron, residents can be ticketed if their paint is unsightly. What is interesting is: if the residents are low income, for example, not only do they have to pay the fine, but then the city expects them to go out and pay for new paint, or they can be ticketed again.
The message here is: "We, the government don't care about you on an individual level, because you don't give us as much money as some huge company will. Sure, they're going to demolish the environment, but they'll give us taxes. Well, okay, we care about you if your house is ugly, or you built your own porch, but that's only because we can get money from the citation we give you for those things. Outside of all of the laws and restrictions we place on you (and heaven help you if you don't pay your taxes) you are the king of the castle. "

rEVOLUTION

I think it's fantastic that: whenever I tell someone that I do not support the current theory of evolution, it is assumed that this is because I am a christian, or uneducated. I'd like to believe that I'm educated and I'm certainly not a christian. So what is it that stops me from believing in the theory of evolution that is touted by Kent State University (there are over a dozen "accepted" theories of biological evolution as far as the field of anthropology is concerned).
I'm not assuming that other universities do it better, I'm just not as familiar with their theories. Kent State's theory is generally accepted because of the contribution made by faculty member, Dr. Lovejoy, the finder of "Lucy".
I want to make it clear that I believe in the possibility of micro evolution, but that I feel that there are too many holes in the macro evolution theory to make it believable.
Rather than pick apart the whole theory, an example of one problem with the theory is the number of gaps in it. The gaps have been allegedly "filled" with "fossil evidence". The evidence includes things like the bone shard discovered by Mary Leakey that is only about 3/4" in length. An artists recreation of an entire species was created by using this shard as part of a brain casing, and this species "filled" a large gap in the theory. Science was able to "discover a missing link" using a tiny shard, one, that could be an anomaly for all we know! It is preposterous that this would be accepted as hard evidence.
As with any history, not just biological, or anthropological, all history is written by the winners. People need to bear this in mind when reviewing history of any kind. Or science, or religious materials. Language falls flat, anyway. Whatever you read is someone's interpretation of what happened, and what they saw, and the only way that it's going to be published and distributed to public is if the ruling class gives it a seal of approval. If the material is in any way controversial, or derogatory toward the ruling class, it will not be published and may well be destroyed.
These are the sorts of things that people should keep in mind when reading anything. History is not unbiased. It is extraordinarily subjective, as are a number of scientific "findings". It can be seen time and again throughout the history of scientific research: if an individual wants to find something badly enough, or believes strongly enough in the expected result of an experiment that is exactly what he or she will find. Then, decades later someone comes along and discovers a "fact" different from the original finding.
We've come a long way, baby. I acknowledge that. There have been a number of advances in science and medicine. Let's face it, though. We don't have a clue what the hell is going on. How did we get here? The big bang works, except for that first percentage of a second of existence that we can't account for. We just like to believe that we know what's going on.
It somehow makes us feel better to be able to stick a label on things that surround us, that have always been there, and say that we've "discovered" it. It makes us feel powerful. Makes us less afraid when we realize that we are smaller and less significant than a virus in the grand scheme of the universe. I find that fact comforting, but I believe it is the motivating force behind mankind's "need to know".

Buy America

Lindsey Lohan was photographed carrying an $8K purse. I wondered how many times she would use a purse that cost that much and if she had ever considered any of the better uses that $8K could be spent on in a country where the economy is going directly to hell.
Ninety percent of individuals in this county applying for foodstamps have cable television. I know welfare mothers that get their hair and nails done every week. Maybe I'm missing something here, but if you can't afford to feed your family, do you really need to see season 5 of House or Survivor Man?
This sort of misguided spending is the norm. I'm not a minimalist, but American priorities boggle my mind-because what truly indicates a person's priorities is how they spend their money.
White, suburban, middle class parents would rather have both mom and dad working and the kids in daycare so that they can afford the $300K house and the gas guzzling SUV to get the kids to soccer practice. Sociological research in this country indicates that: in middle class families, both parents don't have to work outside of the home- they choose to so that they can keep up with the Joneses.
So suburbia Junior grows up and holds down a job while in college, but spends his money on designer jeans rather than food or rent. I've seen this happen first hand more times than I'd care to think about.
It bothers me that I live in a society that pays pro atheletes more money every year than one person could spend in a lifetime, but a number of teachers in my school district hold down a second job to make ends meet.
What we own and what we wear take priority over what I think should be more valuable to us than anything: our time. Time with our families, friends, and by ourselves are limited-so that we can work, no so that we can live, eat, and house ourselves, but so that we can carry a Coach bag and drive a new hybrid.
The media tells us that we have to look a certain way or buy certain clothing to be attractive. We idolize impossibly thin supermodels, and well sculpted actors. So, not taking into account our lack of personal trainers, and the absurd amount of time and energy it takes to mold yourself a "perfect" body, not to mention the self-deprivation and the fact that you don't have a hair stylist, makeup artist, and wardrobe consultant on staff--you do the next best thing, you buy what they're selling you because it will get you that one step closer to looking like your favorite celeb.
Time is the only real asset that we have, and I hate to think about how and why we spend it the way that we do.