MY FIRST ARTICLE!

As the title suggests, my first article is up on the College Green Magazine website!! It's an Ohio University online publication focusing on environmental issues in Athens, Ohio. Check it out here!

I'm so excited!!

of Body Images that Aren't Our Own

Right so I'm horrible at updating blogs. Technically, this doesn't really count as an update cause it's a paper I wrote for class. But it is something that I'd like others to read so here it is. I've edited it slightly but here's the gist of it.

Fat is Descriptive Not Degrading

Prior to watching Miss Representation, I have always seen myself as a person who views the media in an objective sort of manner. I thought I was one of the few who managed to escape the clutches of media manipulation. After watching this film however, I have come to the realization that that is not true. This film has made me realize that despite the selective objectiveness I have towards the media, I was not sparred from the ‘thin is beautiful’ dialogue, among other things.

Having struggled with body image and self-esteem issues, this movie made me realize the objectification women undergo due to the portrayal of the female persona in the media. The media feeds us images of the supposed norm thus conditioning us to think that that is what women are meant to look like. They put in place unattainable standards yet expect women to do so through beauty products, extreme diets and expensive clothes. All this while I had always thought that the ideal image of beauty was defined by statuesque height, a size zero body, long flowing locks, blemish-free skin, perfect posture, doe eyes, a sharp nose, plump lips and an infinite number of characteristics. On top of that, I had always thought that said ideals were purely my own and were not socially constructed. After watching this film, I find that to be completely untrue. My idea of beauty was in fact constructed by the media! I found this revelation to be a breath of fresh air.

            The media is the strongest influential force of humanity and I have always known this.  But I have never known that I was a victim of it too and this film opened my eyes to that. I now can see how destructive these depictions in the media can be to consumers and it has motivated me to view the media even more critically. The biggest lesson I take away from this film is the notion that beauty is not something that people in advertising firms get to decide. Like the title of my paper ‘Fat is Descriptive not Degrading’, I will not let the media decide how I choose to see the world be it through words or images. 

For information on the inspirational Miss Representation movement, check out their website here. Also, I highly recommend watching this video. 

of Sex and Education

Funny thing I noticed when I went grocery shopping yesterday. After having skillfully balanced a box of a feminine hygiene product, a bottle of detergent, a pack of scrub sponges, my beanie, gloves and scarf, I ended up at the stationary section looking for writing paper. You really didn't need to know my shopping list for the day but whatever. Anyways, having picked out the kind of writing paper I wanted out of the huge selection available I turn around only to be faced with... a shelf full of condoms lubricants and various sexually enticing products that I really don't want to mention here. Mind you, this right next to the innocently colourful notebooks, post-it notes and highlights.

Here's my question; WHY ARE THE CONDOMS RIGHT BY THE STATIONARY?

I came to 3 possibilities;

1. The managers are tapping into the market of horny college boys in the business of buying notebooks and pens. I mean, every college kid needs stationary and by default of course every college kids needs a condom too right?

2. They're trying to advocate safe sex. So while you're in for just an innocent little box of bright yellow pencils, don't forget to grab yourself some condoms for the road!  

3. The people who planned the layout of the place was a 5-year-old boy with a crayon and mahjong paper. 

Whatever the reason, of course it falls back to the cultural aspect of it. Why I find it peculiar is because no way were you be able to find an entire shelf of kinky bedroom helpers in Malaysia. If I were in a tiny little grocery store/pharmacy like this back home, you'd have to HUNT for a condom. And if you found it in less than 3 minutes, chances are you picked up a packet of gum that looks like a box of condoms.

Sex is taken so lightly here. Whatever happened to the days when it was a big deal?

of Privacy and the Lack Thereof

I've been in the US two weeks now and I've noticed something that's strange to me; toilet privacy.

A very important aspect of our lives, regardless of where you're living, and a place I consider to be the sanctum of solitude; the toilet. Personally, I grew up in a place where toilets are the one place that when you're in it, should be yours and yours alone. Go to any toilet in a shopping mall and chances are, you won't be able to see the feet of the person in the next stall. Heck, go into any toilet in a Malaysian home and you won't have frosted glass on the door that's semi-visible. When I go into a toilet; it is mine for the duration I'm in it. I don't care if the shower is an isolated compartment with a shower curtain, the entire toilet is mine. No you can't come in and wash your hands. No you can't come in and take your brush. No. Mine.

The first thing I realized when I come here is that I'd have to toss that notion of privacy out the window if I wanted to live to see Spring. Holding such strong ideals for toilet privacy just won't fly here. Toilet privacy isn't what it's like back home. Here, I can see the feet of the person in the stall next to me and if I tiptoe, I can also see the person in the stall next to me. You hear everything. Back home, you entered a toilet and you entered your personal Narnia. Not here, nope. Communal showers are separated by a mere shower curtain that isn't wide enough to completely cover the entrance thus allowing for an inch of exposure. God forbid your feet look ugly cause they're exposed too.

I'm not saying that one is better than the other (though I'd much rather keep my feet to myself, thanks), it just this sparked curiosity in me. When I come up with something intelligent to say about the matter, I'll write it here. Until then, I'll just leave it as something strange I've noticed.

of False Maturity and Insight

I don't really quite know how to introduce my blog, really. Had my hands hover over my keyboard for a solid one minute and nothing came to mind. Well my knack, perhaps even passion, for writing has left me. That I do not deny. However, seeing how I am a journalism major, it would only be right that I try to get it back. Hence; the blog.

Don't let me lead you on; there quite possibly will not be anything interesting here for you to read. Sure, I can try to think of intellectually challenging and critical things to say about the presidential debate in the US, the economic status of France or the social condition of Haiti post-quake. But let me be frank with you; chances are, that's not going to happen. Being a slave to my emotions and uterus, there's going to be plenty of hormonally-fueled rants here to say the least. On top of that, my writings will be rife with typos and spelling errors. My fingers and brain work at different speed. And I'm bad at spelling. Having said that, welcome to the inner workings of my mind that is full of false maturity and insight.