I know, I know, Lifetime movies are a little cheesy and extra chick-flicky but ya gotta love them! :) I was watching the latest "Lifetimer" as we call them at my house called The Pregnancy Pact. It is based on a true story about a bunch of 15 and 16 year old girls at a small conservative high school getting pregnant on purpose. a group of 5 or 6 girls all get together and think it would be a lot of "fun" to all have babies. At first no one caught on but by the time the small high school had 18 pregnant teens, people begin to think something is not right. It ended up being a huge news story and everyone found out that the girls did this on purpose.
The reason I wanted to write about this for our class is because the main reason these girls did it is because society was telling them that the best they could hope for is a husband and a child. The one girl was asked why she did it and why she didn't plan to go to college and she said that all she needed to be happy was her boyfriend and children. She acted as though to say "college? me? a girl? whats that?" These girls really thought that having babies was what they were supposed to do. This makes me sick. Instead of giving seminars on safe sex or options after high school, their school opened an in-school daycare center. Why is society and media sending these wrong messages? 18 girls in one school...that's sick.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Thursday, January 14, 2010
http://www.ltcconline.net/lukas/gender/normal/pics/normal144.jpg
This week I wanted to talk about plastic surgery. The link above is an advertisement that I found on genderads.com I'm not sure what this ad is selling and I can't really read the words in the top left corner but it really sparked my eye. This woman is clearly getting a boob job but what stands out is that she is wearing an evening gown, heels, and is texting on her phone which shows the image of a popular socialite a woman should strive to be. What really gets me is that her face is covered up. No one cares who she really is as a person, just that she is keeping up with what society tells her to be.
Going along with the idea of plastic surgery in today's society, I would also like to talk about an episode of Real Housewives of Orange County. In this episode, one of the housewives was taking her 16 year old daughter to have mother daughter plastic surgery. The mother was getting a facelift and the 16 year old girl was getting a nose job. As if their fake tans and died hair along with designer bags and clothes weren't already enough, they still wanted more. What was interesting to me was the father/husband said something to the extent of "I don't put a price limit on my girls' happiness". He was acting as if he was doing something so great for his girls and so self-less. I was disturbed by the mother-daughter duo's pathetic obsession to keep up with the almost perfect women of California but even more disturbed by the husband/father's comment.
This past winter break, I myself had an experience with a plastic surgeon. I had a cancerous tumor in my cheek and had to get it removed. It's funny how I never cared what people thought of me until then. I became more obsessed with my scar than the fact that I actually had cancer. It was a horrible experience in many ways but I too, was sucked into the shallow need to have a perfect face. My boyfriend would have to tell me every single day that it was okay and I was still beautiful to him even with my scar. I became obsessed. I had to hear it all the time. We ended up really fighting about it because I had become this shallow person that I never was before. It took me a while, but I am now okay with the fact that I have a scar and even think that it adds some extra character and badass-ness to myself. :) I do however, think it is crazy that people go through that type of surgery and recovery just to make themselves look better. It's not fun. I feel really bad for the people who feel that they have to get plastic surgery to feel better about themselves. I can only hope that our society will turn itself around...but that hope is diminishing quickly every day as I see more and more things that only add to people's needs to meet the "norm".
This week I wanted to talk about plastic surgery. The link above is an advertisement that I found on genderads.com I'm not sure what this ad is selling and I can't really read the words in the top left corner but it really sparked my eye. This woman is clearly getting a boob job but what stands out is that she is wearing an evening gown, heels, and is texting on her phone which shows the image of a popular socialite a woman should strive to be. What really gets me is that her face is covered up. No one cares who she really is as a person, just that she is keeping up with what society tells her to be.
Going along with the idea of plastic surgery in today's society, I would also like to talk about an episode of Real Housewives of Orange County. In this episode, one of the housewives was taking her 16 year old daughter to have mother daughter plastic surgery. The mother was getting a facelift and the 16 year old girl was getting a nose job. As if their fake tans and died hair along with designer bags and clothes weren't already enough, they still wanted more. What was interesting to me was the father/husband said something to the extent of "I don't put a price limit on my girls' happiness". He was acting as if he was doing something so great for his girls and so self-less. I was disturbed by the mother-daughter duo's pathetic obsession to keep up with the almost perfect women of California but even more disturbed by the husband/father's comment.
This past winter break, I myself had an experience with a plastic surgeon. I had a cancerous tumor in my cheek and had to get it removed. It's funny how I never cared what people thought of me until then. I became more obsessed with my scar than the fact that I actually had cancer. It was a horrible experience in many ways but I too, was sucked into the shallow need to have a perfect face. My boyfriend would have to tell me every single day that it was okay and I was still beautiful to him even with my scar. I became obsessed. I had to hear it all the time. We ended up really fighting about it because I had become this shallow person that I never was before. It took me a while, but I am now okay with the fact that I have a scar and even think that it adds some extra character and badass-ness to myself. :) I do however, think it is crazy that people go through that type of surgery and recovery just to make themselves look better. It's not fun. I feel really bad for the people who feel that they have to get plastic surgery to feel better about themselves. I can only hope that our society will turn itself around...but that hope is diminishing quickly every day as I see more and more things that only add to people's needs to meet the "norm".
Thursday, January 7, 2010
About Me
Hello, my name is Lauren. I am a senior here at
When I am here I work at Outer Glow tanning salon and when I am home on breaks I teach at The Children's House which is a Montessori based pre-school and daycare.
My major is Early Childhood Education. I chose this major because I absolutely love children and can't see myself doing a job that doesn't involve them! I will graduate this June. I am still trying to decide whether I really want to teach in a classroom setting or do something else with children. In order to obtain my teaching license, I would have to get my masters within the first five years of graduating so I will of course go to grad school but for what and where is still to be decided. I would really love to be a Child Life Specialist at a children's hospital because I would get to be more personal with the children as well as their families and it would be more of a social and emotional job than teaching would be. I also have thought about working with teen moms or parents who may need a little extra help and advice. Who knows where the future will bring me but I know I want to help children and their families.
I think Emily and I are the only seniors in this class but with all of our crazy schedules with teaching and being in the public schools it has been hard for us to fit in our non-major classes. I took this class because we have to take a junior English but, specifically because the topic really interests me. I have already enjoyed our class discussions. I am not very confident in my writing and admittedly had a hard time reading that Yep article but I think I will really enjoy this class.
Also, I bought the MLA updated book "A Pocket Style Manual" if anyone would like to reference it let me know and I can bring it to class. :)
Something that has really jumped out to me in our class discussions and through the first few readings of Yep is the fact that heteronomativity can be violent towards both genders. It creates a mold that each gender is supposed to fit into and alienates those who do not. I hadn't had very much experience with homosexual people until last year. One of my close childhood friends came out to me that she is a lesbian. I have been spending time with her and trying to understand her better. One of the things that really upsets her is the fact that even being a lesbian or a homosexual woman means that you have to fit in a certain mold. She says that people expect lesbians to be butch and act manly and dress a certain way and that is not her at all. She loves fashion and loves to wear make-up and be girly and it really bothers her that people sometimes don't believe her when she tells them that she is gay. This was very interesting to me because although Yep talks about the violence in heteronormativity, I think there is a such thing as homonormatinity and there is violence in that as well.
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