Thinspiration or Anorexia ?

When watching Laci Green's two videos Thinspiration and Fat Shame, my first reaction was “you go girl” The way she approached these videos I really enjoyed because she was very informational but at the same time you knew that she disagreed with these trends. These YouTube videos are so important especially today because of the impact of social media on body image. In our society, we are seeing an increase in anorexia because of the need to look like supermodels, actresses, or athletes.

I liked how she talked about what most concerned her was how there were blogs that informed people on how to hide starving themselves. It really shocked me to hear that there was bogs like this. In class when we first started talking about Thinspiration on Tumblr, I did not know what it was about, but after seeing it for the first time I understand why Tumblr would have a pop up that said “Everything okay? If you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder, NEDA is here to help: call 1-800-931-2237 or chat with them online.” Hiding the problem of an eating disorder such as anorexia is a reason why it has the most deaths compared to any other mental disorder! The fact that people would want to basically teach others how to kill themselves is something I don’t think I will ever understand. Although I have had insecurities or concerns about the way I looked and felt, I personally could never stop eating to accomplish looking better.

Another point I liked that Green mentioned was the causes of anorexia. One theory is that women are not valued by what we do but more on how we look. I personally think this theory is true and it frustrates me. Why is it that just because I am a female that I have to look good 24/7 or look a certain way? Why does my body have to be perfect with a flat stomach, a firm butt, and perky breasts? The answer is it doesn’t, but men see it as a threat if we look more like them. We could be equally as qualified, smart, and have a good personality like them but if we look like a pretty bimbo, we are automatically labeled as stupid.

Being content with yourself is a constant battle, especially if you are a woman! I don’t think it is a problem of changing the way you look to make your feel better. Personally I did. I was always athletic since I was a young girl. I wanted to look as good as I felt so, I worked out when I wasn’t playing a sport. I also took care of my body by not eating junk food all the time and getting enough rest! As long as you are not hurting yourself or making a change for someone else, I believe you can modify or not modify your body if it brings you happiness and you are content with yourself!

Relationships and the Effect of Social Media

I can personally relate to Noah’s interactions. Facebook is a dangerous place for relationships. In my freshman year in high school, I started to date a boy that was two years older than me. I can personally admit to being jealous from girls commenting or liking my ex-boyfriends pictures and statuses. Everyone girl and guy has felt this way and it would be a lie if someone said they have never had that feeling. Like Noah, some of the girls that would “like” his posts I did not really know. This meant I would either Facebook stalk her, ask my friends about her. I never wanted to ask my boyfriend at the time because there was a notion that boys did not like girls that were jealous and it made me afraid to ask.  It wasn’t that I didn’t trust him, it was that I really liked him and was afraid of getting hurt. It wasn’t until he was going off to college where I actually starting getting sketched out about the girls on his Facebook page. One week he was being very sketchy and I was afraid he was cheating on me so I almost logged into his account. It wasn’t until after a long conversation with my friends to convince me that doing that would cause more harm than good.  I realized if I didn’t trust him that much why would I do something just as sketchy?

From the video and my personal experience social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, twitter, etc. has harmed relationships with people off line. Why do I think this? Well it is because of the green eyed monster or jealously. Jealously makes people do crazy things such as hacking onto people’s accounts, hiring a private investigator, or even murder. From my personal experience I learned that if you are that insecure with your relationship where you take drastic measures like hacking onto someone’s account you obviously will not ever trust them. I also think it is so sad how we cannot or are afraid to communicate with our partners today because of the stigmas or misinterpretations social media has created. Today we text, FaceTime, skype, Facebook message, tweet, and so much more to communicate but we rarely actually call someone. When someone just writes a message it could be read in 1000 different ways depending on what you are feeling or what the situation is. If we were to call someone, it would be much easier to figure out their mood or feelings by the tone in their voice. As much as I enjoy social media, I think it complicates things such as relationships.

Biohacking- the Good or the Bad?

A world that has normalized biohacking, I believe does not look like how you would normally see in movies. There wouldn’t be flying cars, it wouldn’t be all metal buildings, or chaos. With technology advancing more and more each day, I see the normalized biohacking world to look similar to the present time.

Biohacking would be used for numerous things. One of important things biohacking could be used for is in the medical field. When people who get amputations, usually they are given a prosthetic leg or arm. With biohacking, amputees are now able to have a robotic leg that moves and functions like a normal person. This would decrease the rehabilitation time in recovery compared to when learning how to walk on a prosthetic. Another beneficial biohacking would be a DNA synthesis. This could help repair parts of the DNA that have manipulations such as when there is a cancer genome or they are missing chromosomes. The fact that this could be done and help correct defects that limit success is extraordinary! Lastly there could be biohacking that helps the blind see. This could be revolutionary. People who have never seen anything in their life could be opened up to a brand new world.

Our world society would be different but I think it would change in a good ways and bad.  There could be more and more opportunities for students and teachers in the teaching environment. Computers will be more technology advanced, so students will mostly learn on computers but I believe it would be interactive. For example, when the teacher writes on her computer it appears on everyone’s in the class and each student could participate. I think that would be very interesting and make the classroom more interactive!

The government would also become strict because of the advances in this technology. There would have to be laws concerning hacking for the internet. With the strict national securities that we have with already, I could not imagine how it would be in the biohacking world. Also there would be laws concerning how you can pay or be covered for doing biohacking procedures. Insurance is already again a complicated thing in our world today, with complicated procedures, I contemplate how “co-pays” would work.

I am excited to see how the world would be once biohacking is a normal thing. To see how medical and technological advance for good things such as DNA modification or robotic legs/arms would be awesome. I would like to imagine that the society would improve but at the same time I am afraid biohacking could be used for the worst.  We will never know until the time comes..

Roxanne Edwards: A Real Woman

The first thing I looked at before listening to the video were the pictures of Roxanne. My first reaction was that I was shocked. I have seen woman body builders before but none like her. Her muscles were comparable to a male body builder it was truly extraordinary. My view of her and her photos certainly changed though while listening to the interview and I truly began to admire her.

 Roxanne, I felt was very educated about being fit and healthy. In the interview she stated that “she had less than 4% body fat” which shocked/impressed me because that is usually unheard of for a woman! When she talked about the vitamins and supplements she took, she seemed very educated because she knew what types worked for her and which ones didn't. If I had to say one criticism about her it would be when she was talking about the steroids. She discussed how they weren't a bad thing unless you look them a lot. But in reality they are harmful no matter what. I believe you shouldn't use them just to gain muscle. Overall though, I believe she had a healthy body image.

When I turned on the interview the first thing I heard was Just Fine by Mary J. Blige. Not only do I love this song but I thought that it had a special connection to her and her interview. In the song Just Fine the lyrics say, “Cause I won’t change my mind cause I’m just fine” which is a theme to Roxanne’s attitude.  In the interview, I was surprised to hear that she began body building at the age of thirty. Roxanne says, “What made me start working out is I wanted to look good naked”. That is relatable for any woman. You want to look great not only for yourself but for others and there is nothing wrong with that. When looking again at her photos, you began to disregard how big her muscles were, but how much she loved her body. She was not going to change the way she looked because society thought she didn't look good or when she could have gotten breast implants to look better in the body building world but she chose not to.

I loved how she talked about her idea of femininity. One quote she said was, “I know some very unique looking women, all across the spectrum, and when I say unique looking women I mean unique women period. Drag queens, transvestites, body builders, you name it, the whole gamut and they are quite elegant and just amazingly feminine without having to have not one breast amongst them.” This quote shows that society’s standards of femininity are wrong and that they should be based on the person. One of the other main ideas of her point is to be fearless and be who you want to be. I think this is such a strong message especially to girls and woman.

 Although some woman may not want to be like Roxanne, she is truly what every woman wants to be, which is happy and herself. She doesn't care what anyone thinks of her and I honestly love that! I think if more girls had a mindset like hers, a lot of woman wouldn't have the insecurities that most have.