SAT 6 - Vocabulary Quiz

The following is a summary/response to an article from the NY Times:

"Hold the Chemicals, Bring on the Needles"

It seems that a new way of getting rid of those nasty old wrinkles is taking America by storm. Move out of the way botox and make room for the new method of rejuvenating your skin; acupuncture. According to customers mentioned in the article Hold the Chemicals, Bring on the Needles, the so-called acupuncture-face lift has made their skin gain back that "youthful glow" they had earlier in their life. When performing these acupuncture sessions, the acupuncturist must be very scrupulous and take caution while putting needles into the faces of their customers. Those who use the acupuncture-face lift, could very possibly be at the pinnacles of their career because they would need to have an ample amount of money in order to afford this. However if the acupuncture method did not work, it would as if the clinics usurped the money out of their customer's pocket. It is possible that the clinics who promote the use of this method are conniving together to create different market schemes to in order to convince more of the public that acupuncture could get of wrinkles. Dr. Peter G. Hanson, an acupuncturist claims that cosmetic acupuncture incorporates "microcurrents" that tone and increase the volume of underlying muscles, which could make the skin tight and youthful again. Dr. Hanson states that it also causes a stimulation in the nerves. However, Dr. Richard D'Amico, the president of the American Society for Plastic Surgeon believes that Dr. Hanson fabricated this information because he claims that by doing this, it could result in causing wrinkles to get worse. If Dr. Hanson's claim is true, then acupuncture would not cause atrophy in one's face since it he claims that it stimulates the nerves and won't cause the muscles in the face to waste away.

"Inside the Waiting Room"- A Reflective Essay

The Waiting Room, written by the sensational Lisa Loomer, is a satirical yet emotionally moving play that tells the tale of three women from varying time periods who come together while still in their search for beauty. The Waiting Room provides many laughs and jaw-dropping moments throughout the play while still being able to convey key messages to the audience. Throughout this play we realize that our “quest for beauty” has surpassed the ages, as displayed by the three key characters, and that beauty is constantly changing as we continue to seek for it. One of the significant messages that I believe I got out of this play, was that true beauty resides within one’s self and the respect they have for themselves. During the play we learn of how much these three different women have degraded themselves body and mind in order to become socially acceptable in their society. An important thing that a person should know throughout their lives is that in this “search for beauty”, the main priority is to beautify the soul before working on anything else. A person must believe first they are beautiful without anyone having to interfere. It is the way in which a person carries themselves and how they act that reflects their real beauty, not just the aesthetics.

All of the three characters are a representation of their society’s perception of beauty. Although each of the women come from three very different time periods, it seems that our views about beauty, gender roles, as well as health have changed but have never really progressed. Wanda, who is a modern gal from Jersey strives to become beautiful by going on crash diets, getting breast implants, liposuction, and even taking drugs in order to become thin. She even tries to be a “ditz” so that she may appear to be less intelligent that she really is. However she experiences the repercussions of her actions when she finds herself having breast cancer. Forgiveness who is from 18^th century China, has bound feet which has led her to sacrifice toes and almost even amputate her foot, all just to please her husband. She’s very cheerful and naïve, and it appears that she is almost child-like in personality. While Victoria, a proper and self-controlled woman from 19^th century England, wears a corset with nearly 20 lbs of clothing and tries to hide the fact that she’s reading books from her husband. Each sacrifices their state of mind and health enduring pain all so that they may be able to please society and the opposite sex. With Victoria and Forgiveness, they’re often controlled by their husband, obliging by their demands and their needs. The same can almost said about Wanda and today’s society, however Wanda seems to let herself be controlled by society’s wants and needs.

Although each woman is plagued by their society’s standard of beauty throughout the play, as they play progresses they each one of them changes and goes through a sort of evolution with the help of the other characters. The three women develop an odd but affectionate friendship with one another, and in a way they open each other’s eyes and help each other realize different things. Victoria’s relationship with Wanda helped her become empowered and come out of shell. Although she obliges to her husband’s request of getting a hysterectomy to “cure” her hysteria, in the end she was still able to stand up to her husband and shed some of the control he had over her. Victoria has also aided Wanda in her evolution, telling her that “My dear you have the vote, you can learn Greek you have no obligations, you can read any book in the world…” (pg. 69) having Wanda admit a very personal detail and helped her realize how much time she’s wasted throughout her life. “Ive spent 6,750 hours of my life…on my hair”, Wanda states, “And yeah dying would be a bitch. But isn’t it worse- not living when you’re alive?” (pg.71). One of the most pivotal moments in the play was during Wanda’s monologue, while she was telling a “fairy tale story” to forgiveness. In this fairy tale, Wanda tells the story of how three stupid sisters came to a magician to make them become perfect. But the magic “started to go back”, and when the three stupid sisters came back to the magician, the magician replied, “I didn’t say you’d be perfect forever…Check out the shingles. It says ‘Magician’, not ‘God’” (pg.75). Wanda then talks about how the three sisters broke all of the mirrors in the kingdom and reassured all the women that they looked “beautiful”. While telling this story, Wanda realizes what she knew all along. That one doesn’t have to be this many pounds, and have enhanced features to be beautiful. If you know and believe that you are beautiful, then you truly are. This story is also crucial to Forgiveness’s change. Through this story, Forgiveness was able to “unwrap the bound years” and the chains of society from her feet to become free.

During the play, Lisa Loomer includes insight into the health and drug industry with the characters of Ken and Larry. Ken is an FDA official and Larry is the Vice President of a major pharmaceutical company and on the board of cancer center. The characters are essential to the plot of the play, because they are the ones who decide whether a certain treatment that might help cure cancer could be used. However money, greed, and “business” come into play with this decision reflecting the real-life dilemmas of the health industry and pharmaceutical companies. In the play, there is a treatment that has had some good results with curing cancer which was created in Jamaica. However Larry strongly opposes bringing this treatment into the United States, because it could cause him and others to lose profit in their investment with another treatment. Many businessmen in the health industry do not entirely care for the welfare of the American public, but rather the profit that they gain from us. In a way, the pharmaceutical industry and the beauty industry are very much alike. Each of them do not care about how their decisions or influence effect the health of Americans, because they are solely concerned with financial gain.

The play ended with the final image of Forgiveness finally being able to use her feet as dances and dances; twirling and spinning off the bondage throughout the ages. Whether this resembled Forgiveness’s death or just a dream can be left to interpretation. I personally believe that Forgiveness “moved on”, her soul leaving her mangled physical body and rejoicing in the body of her spirit. In the end, Victoria returned home to 19^th century England with her corset but was wearing a new sense of empowerment. I believe that Lisa Loomer chose this ending for Victoria to signify that things cannot change over night, and many people must still lead the lives that society intended them to. Wanda’s fate is left unknown as she continues her life in the world that we live in now. All three of these characters did not receive a “happy ending”, however I thought that this was a wonderful way to end a wonderful play. We will never know what will happen to Victoria, Wanda, and Forgiveness, because life takes a lot of unexpected twists and turns. It would be quite interesting to create an Act Three of the play, in which Wanda continues to deal with her cancer and with the temptations of going back to her old ways. However, I wouldn’t have had the play end any other way. I think that it is best to leave this play open-ended because it allows the audience to create their own interpretation of what happens to these characters. After all, isn’t everything “in the eye of the beholder”?

Fairy Tales... Males and Females

"...Fairy Tales not so happy ever after"

As I kid and like many other children my age, I loved fairy tales. I loved the princesses that were in it, the handsome prince charming, and I felt satisfied in the end when the ugly old witch would be punished in the end. What I loved most about them, was how each tale always had a "happily ever after". However, after reading an article from Purdue University, I realized the significance of these "fairy tales" in our daily lives. Initially, stories from Grimm’s Fairy Tales were written to educate young boys and girls the roles that they should play and how they should act in society in the 1800's. These stories often depicted women to be the beautiful damsel in distress waiting to be "rescued" by a brave charming prince, and then live happily ever after. These stories are projecting messages that lead little girls to believe that one must be beautiful and fair in order to live a "happy life". In turn young boys often believe that it is their duty to be strong and courageous. These stories are still very alive and with us today, as 43% of the tales have been “reproduced in children’s books or movies”. However, I find that any type of fictional story provides the audience with the very same principles and underlying messages from these fairy tales. In Filipino mythology, it is told that two beings were came out of a bamboo tree after a bird had landed on it. These two people were Malakas (the strong one) and Maganda (the beautiful one) and thus the very Filipinos came to be. In this story alone, it seems that any people have always referred to each sex as either strong or beautiful. Even today, the men and women aspire to be Malakas or Maganda.

All of what is displayed in these magical fairy tales effect and support the gender roles that we play in society. It seems that throughout all of history the woman has always been seen as the weaker, more delicate being, and the man was supposed to be the brave provider. These gender roles were glorified especially during the 1950’s as women were seen as “cheery” perfect housewives and were always prepared for their husbands to come home and enjoy the meal that they cooked. Although during the same time, our perception of beauty reflected the roles that women played in society. This made me realize that, the roles that we play in society affect the way wee see and believe beauty to be. Although I don’t believe a beautiful woman to be a “perfect” housewife who is the caregiver of the family, it seems to me that some of the same beliefs and values that were upheld during the 50s and in Ancient Greek for that matter, can still be seen today. Even though we have such wonderful nick-nacks and sophisticated technology, I still wonder if we really advanced. Throughout our thousands of years of existence, has man-kind truly progressed?

Morality of Fat....In the eye of the beholder

1. Respond to both articles discussing your thoughts. Be detailed and use at least 1 direct quote from the article in your response.

“In the eye of the beholder”
As the perceptions of beauty in the western world continue to be corrupting the minds of many Americans, it is apparent that this is also becoming engraved into other cultures around the globe. One of the main points that this article high lights is how the western world and western media is colliding with other cultures having negative side effects. I personally believe that western media and the beauty industry can’t be held entirely culpable for these negative effects, however I do believe that the media has a significant impact and influence on the public. As the article says it seems that “…women around the world are being presented with a homogenized standard of female loveliness - based primarily on Western attributes”. From what I’m seeing in today’s world, it seems that western media is projecting a “sole” image of female beauty. This image is largely based upon someone who is thin, and I find it distressing that there is a misconception that beauty=thinness. Throughout centuries it appears that beauty is often a reflection of one’s social status. During the Renaissance, a beautiful woman was typically plump and pale which was a result of their wealth. In modern society, a woman who is thin is looked upon as someone who can afford a healthy and luxurious lifestyle. What I find even more interesting, is how perceptions of beauty change as society and women’s roles changed and evolved. Referring to a comment given by someone else who read this article, the promotion of thinness mainly occurred during WWII as a ploy to promote rationing. This idea of thinness stayed with us after world WWII and has ever since been implanted into American society, and thus the global world.

“The Morality of Fat”
I believe that this article and the previous one go well and connect with one another. However, in The Morality of Fat, the article mainly high lighted America’s need to be healthy, and how we strive to do that. It wasn’t until the late 80s that this “New Age of Dietary Enlightenment” started to emerge and people began to become concerned about the food they ate. What I believe to be disturbing is how during this time period there was an increase in obesity and 1/3 of the population were overweight. I find it incredibly daunting that we now have the knowledge of what is healthy and not healthy for your body, yet we abuse or don’t know how to comprehend this knowledge in order to become “healthy”. One reason to why I believe this to happen is that “This country supplies enough food for people to consume 3,700 calories a day…” which is nearly double the amount of calories one should eat in a day. I believe it to be our human instinct to want to constantly feed ourselves and that would eventually make us “weak” and indulge in foods that are unhealthy. People in America have already obtained and been exposed to the taste of fat, and along with that we usually continue to want more of it. I believe that this taste for fat could be traced back to the fast food industry and how that industry has created their food in order to make them taste “good”. I agree with the author of the article when they say that, “The desire for indulgence duels constantly with the desire for a single, clear plan for healthful eating.” As a society we aspire to be healthy and to find ways in order to be this, but we often contradict our wants with our actions. However, even though we do this, many people often believe that by going on this diet or that diet, and slipping every once in a while is okay, because overall they believe that by doing this they are “bettering themselves and bettering society bite by bite”.

2. Evaluate your class' seminar discussions. Be specific in discussing what you learned, what interesting points were made, what you think about those ideas proposed during seminar.

Although I’ve experienced many seminars in the past, I believe that the seminars that we as a class have had for the past two days have been one of the most enlightening and interesting conversations I’ve had with my classmates. During the seminar that discussed the article “In the eye of the beholder”, there were many different points and ideas that were brought up that I found to be fascinating. A classmate of mine further explored how as women’s roles in society started to change in the 1940s, families values start dwindling, divorce rates go higher, and as technology and the economy progressed the need for convenience became prevalent. In this way, our views and the values we hold as people changed because of this convenience and this has effected our perception of beauty. Our advancements in technology and the economy then also pave the way for globalization, and through this globalization the western world/western media were able to project our “beliefs” onto other cultures. During one point in our conversation, we discussed how beauty is projected in our specific cultures, and through this I realized that a lot of what my culture finds to be “beautiful” could and seem to be a result of western influence. This seems to be the case for other cultures. But then we wondered, who is to blame for this, or if there really is anyone to blame? With this question we all agreed that cosmetic companies and the beauty industry could not be held responsible for this. A classmate of mine even said, “Blaming cosmetic companies for this, is like blaming McDonalds for America’s obesity problem…it’s ridiculous.” I definitely agree with this statement and hearing this lead me to wonder if society, if we, are just bringing this “problem” upon ourselves…

Our second seminar discussion was even more riveting than the first. Our conversation started off based around the article “The Mortality of Fat”, but as the discussion went on the “bigger picture” of what both of these articles represented was brought up. One of the more bigger ideals that were discussed was the connection between health and beauty. To me there is an undeniable connection between our perceptions of what health and beauty are, and our “quest” for those things. When we discussed of what “healthy” is we found that it meant taking care of your body through activity and the food you eat. In turn being “healthy” could lead one to their natural body type which could be considered to be “beautiful”. The process to gain the balance between aesthetics and healthiness is what leads someone to attain that beauty. However the way in which many of us approach this is what has then led to the problems we face today. As a class, we agreed that in order, our priorities are: health, then inner beauty, and lastly outer beauty. But people tend to mix up these priorities and would eventually become stuck, because before you strive for aesthetics, one must strive to be healthy. Our conversation was then swayed towards wondering, WHO would be responsible for teaching our children which priorities come where. There were many thoughts as to WHO, from parents → media → your own, to even no one. However I personally believe that the responsibility lies in everyone and no one, people should just set examples that could show an eight year old girl the difference between being “beautiful” through means that are unhealthy and unethical, as opposed to being beautiful by prioritizing ones health and state of mind.

The article "In the eye of the beholder" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/3291271.stm) sparked many ideas and thoughts in our class today, as we had a seminar conversation discussing the different points of the article.

The following is a comment response to the above article:
I truly believe in the saying that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". However, one's perception of beauty can definitely be influenced by another's. This is the reason as to why we see western media's projection of beauty having a significant impact on other cultures, leaving them to believe what the media feeds them. That's why I believe globalization to be a double-edged sword, because although it allows the world to be connected and share ideals which could advance cultures, there is a point to where the sharing of these ideals (like beauty) could have serious repercussions.

Is Lighter Really Better?

There are numerous countries where women have been using products and creams to make their complexion pallid. One of these nations is Mali, where more than half of women use bleaching products to lighten their skin. These women are so eager and ebullient to use these products because they believe that having a lighter complexion is a part of true beauty. They also believe that lighter skin would embellish their overall appearance, making them seem more salacious and lustful therefore attracting men. Mali women are led to believe all of these things because their society is promoting it. The "elite" and educated people in the country use these harmful skin products, setting an example for lower classes that a part of what makes them of a higher class is that they can afford to look beautiful by using those beauty products. However dermatologists agree that using these products is incredibly harmful for the skin. The bleaching creams are anything but salubrious, because they're unhealthy and promote women to actually burn themselves in order to achieve a lighter complexion. Despite this, a male Malian musician says that Malian men don't exactly find "bleached women" mesmeric and beautiful. He says that "it's better for Malian women to change their minds". I only wish that women in Mali as well as the rest of the world would be able to realize this.
With Christmas time coming around, one of the most jovial times of the year, I hope that women wouldn't hope to receive beauty products as Christmas gifts. During the holiday season, I only wish that women will receive the gift of knowledge, to understand that beauty is not only skin deep.

To learn more about women in Mali bleaching themselves, read this article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/718359.stm

A Campaign for Beauty

The following video was created for the "Dove Campaign for Real Beauty"





The first image that was shown in the commercial was of a little girl, who almost mesmerizes you and pulls you into the commercial. Then suddenly, I was taken aback as the video sucked me in even more as a plethora of images appeared on the screen. The images included billboards displaying half naked women, panties, then a video of two women who were almost baring it all were lustfully dancing and shaking their hips. The most disturbing portion of the commercial for me was the clips of women getting “under the knife”. Watching this part of the commercial was almost like watching a car crash, because no matter how horrific it was I couldn’t seem to take my eyes off of the screen. I felt as if the commercial itself was encompassing me, sucking me into it, just like how the beauty industry is almost suffocating and grabbing us into their world. Actually seeing all of these images put together almost sickened me to see women doing those horrendous to their body to look “beautiful”. However what is even more disturbing is the harsh reality that so many women today do all of those things.
I believe that the central message behind this commercial was for people to recognize the effects that the media and beauty industry have on society, specifically the youth. Because the media imposes images of beauty to be skinny, sensual, perfect complexion and skin, society, especially young women do drastic things in order to attain these things. As shown in the commercial, people would resort to using weight loss pills, plastic surgery, not eating, and forcing themselves to regurgitate. All of these things just show the overwhelming influence and power that the beauty industry has. It is becoming more common for younger girls to be sucked into this world and for them to be doing all of those horrible things. Young girls are the most vulnerable, therefore the most likely to believe what the media is projecting, and to believe that “beautiful” means having a slim figure with enhanced body parts. The video is literally making a plea to the audience. A plea to stop the “onslaught” or attack of the beauty industry on the youth and on society. To be able to help fight for this, we as a society must take it upon ourselves to be aware of our surroundings and to change our perspective of what beauty is and hopefully reestablish its true meaning.

Its a Symposium! - with tea!

A symposium during the times of Socrates and Plato was a place to discuss and philosophize different matters. Today, I experienced one of these symposiums and discussions myself in my humanities class. The main discussion revolved around the "Four Cardinal Virtues" which are:
- Prudence (knowledge)
- Fortitude (bravery/courage)
- Temperance (moderation)
- Justice (fairness)
Throughout our conversation we discussed of these subjects and what they meant to us, and just gave example of what we thought which actions exemplified these virtues. There were numerous points that were brought out during our long conversation, but these was a point that stuck to me. Near the end of our conversation everyone said a virtue that they would like to add as the fifth cardinal virtue. A virtue that one of my classmates pointed out was "commitment". Although I personally believe that these four cardinal virtues pretty much already embody almost every virtue that could be added, "commitment" or being committed to do something is an incredibly important virtue. Commitment is seen throughout ones daily life and through being committed you could somehow attain some of these virtues. One must be committed to their education to gain knowledge, one must be committed to be brave and stick for what they believe in, to have temperance you must be devoted to take have things in moderation, and the list could go on and on. I believe that it's vital to be devoted person, whatever that devotion is to.
This Symposium experience helped many people in our class bring out the true philosopher in them. As a class we were having deep discussions about subjects that famous philosophers have pondered upon themselves. This experience helped widened my perspective, not just about these virtues, but LIFE in general. Which then makes me wonder... What is life?

I am a W-O-M-A-N! (In Ancient Greece)

1. How did women's roles in society differ from Athens and Sparta?

In either of these societies women were considered to be more inferior compared to men. However, in Athens this inferiority was more apparent in their culture. By the 400 BC, it seemed that the role women played were only nearly as good as the role slaves had. I believe that the position that Athenian women would have was somewhat planned out for them since birth. From the very early years, Athenian girls were raised to be “protected” and fulfill domestic needs. They weren’t allowed to own property because they themselves were often treated more as objects and as something that could be “owned” or be passed down. Their main purpose in life was to procreate and produce babies. The women of Sparta were very liberated and dominant in their society in comparison to their sisters in Athens. They had a much more stronger presence in the happenings of their city. Spartan women owned over one third of all the land and had an influence on the politics. The role of women in Sparta, were mainly based on their society’s need to combat their enemies such as the Helots, and to breed young men that would potentially be soldiers.

Although there are many differences between Spartan and Athenian women, I believe that neither type of women had it “better off”. Although in my personal opinion I would rather be a woman living in Sparta, rather than a woman in Athens. However, each group of women had their own pros and cons. Even though the Spartan women were more “free” and were treated more equally to men, Athenian women attained more of their emotional or more “womanly” needs.

2. If the Greeks are considered so advanced, so culturally elite, why do you believe gender equality (equality between men and women) was not established?

I believe that aren’t any true reason or reasons as to why equality amongst men and women wasn’t recognized by the Greeks, because there are so many different factors that could come into play. One of the main factors that comes to my mind is human nature. From the early on men have almost always played the role as the fierce hunter and sole provider, and I believe that this characteristic is what made men become hungry for power and be the one in control. Although the Ancient Greeks were incredibly advanced for their time, in that era men still looked at women as the lower species. Reasons as to why this is so are unknown to me. Maybe it’s because women were thought to be as more delicate and should be preserved, therefore they’re more weak. Then because of this, a stereotype was created about women and they weren’t given the right chance to prove their strength and worth. I believe that it is this process that contributed to why gender equality didn’t quite exist in Ancient Greece, and is still an issue that we face today.

3. Based on your understanding of women in Ancient Greek society, how do you think women were depicted by artists at this time?

Despite the Ancient Greek’s beliefs of women to be the “weaker gender”, I think that in art they displayed their women as beautiful goddesses to be admired. I think that the Ancient Greeks realized that women could capture the very essence of beauty, because they are capable of giving birth to new life. Women could recreate beauty; the beauty of birth. By understanding this, I believe that artists would often sculpt women who are at the peak of their child-bearing years. Generally, when women are ready to give birth, they possess an hour-glass figure because by human instinct men are more attracted to this body shape because this type of body is believed to be the most fertile. For the faces of these sculptures, I’d think that the face would possess both strong and delicate features. Their nose, lips, and cheeks would be delicately depicted, while their eyes would be striking and exemplify strength to show the true courage and endurance of a Greek woman. I also believe that the actual art or sculpture would be smooth, free of any bumps, and all the body parts, especially the face would be symmetrical, so as to be a display of “perfection”.

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.- Francis Bacon

To discover and express my thoughts more on "beauty", I answered the following questions:

1. What is so beautiful about youth?

It seems to me that a wide majority of people have always been chasing youth. Not only in today’s world, where aging creams and surgeries are a must, but youth has always been desired. There are numerous reasons to why different people around the globe find youth so beautiful. I personally believe that youth can be beautiful because youth represents innocence and purity. During one’s youthful years, they have not yet been tainted by the superficial ideas of the world. When you’re young, your own ideas and thoughts stay fresh in your mind. Those ideas stay firm and unmarked as the skin on your face. However, as you get older your thoughts and ideas seem to be dismissed by the rest of the world, leaving those thoughts as wrinkled and freckled as your skin. When you age, the effects of the world on you become more apparent. What I personally find the most beautiful thing about youth is not how firm and unblemished your skin is, or how grey-hair free your head is. The most attractive aspect of youth is that extra twinkle in the eyes of someone young. That twinkle represents a sign of wonderment and fascination that only someone in their youth, especially children, can have.

2. We know what "perfect" most likely means to Socrates by looking at ancient Greek sculpture and art and drawing inferences, but he doesn't describe this "perfect" human form. What are your thoughts on the idea of a "perfect" human form today? What is it in your culture for men? women? What are your thoughts surrounding those ideals?

From the words of the great Greek philosopher Plato, “We think we understand the real world, but because we are trapped in our bodies we can see only the shadows on the wall.” Our own visions of what the perfect human form is skewed based on the ideas and thoughts of others. Personally, I believe that a “perfect human form” does not exist at all, because nothing is or can ever be perfect. Many believe that beauty deals with how symmetrical ones face is, or how large/small certain body parts are. However, I think that these certain factors have nothing to do with beauty at all. In fact, I’m frustrated at how today’s society constantly projects the image of what a perfect man or woman looks like. In the United States, our overall idea of what the perfect woman has is the body of a stick with enhanced body parts. Men who are typically considered beautiful have a toned body with bulging muscles. I however, don’t find any of these images “perfect” in the sense that I find them beautiful or pleasing to the eye. It is becoming more apparent that the western world’s thoughts of what beauty is have had a significant impact and influence on other cultures. Even in countries in Africa, more and more girls are becoming concerned of whether they are thin enough, which has resulted in an increase of the disease bulimia in those nations. As a Filipino, I almost find it insulting the perception of beauty that people in the Philippines have. A “beautiful” Filipino woman should be fair-skinned with straight black hair. To encourage this even more on the Filipino culture, there are clinics in which you can be injected with a substance that take the pigment out of your skin. This is just an example of some of the extreme measures some people take in order to achieve this “perfect beauty”.

To me one's true beauty can only be attained once they've looked on the inside.

Beauty?

The concept of beauty can be perceived as many things. The famous Greek philosopher Socrates was the very first person recorded to write about this concept. Some people could even spend their entire life studying the concept of beauty. So with this in mind, I wonder- what are my thoughts about beauty?

"The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart" - Helen Keller
To me, there is nothing more beautiful or unique as the relationship of a mother and a child. The process of a mother giving birth to a child is incredibly fascinating and is one of nature’s amazing wonders. I believe that it is true that the unconditional love a mother has for their children, is one of the strongest emotions one can ever have in their life. This photograph is a great example of the true beauty behind a mother to child relationship. The child in the photo rests their head on their mother’s shoulder, while the mother rests her cheek on her baby. This picture provides the audience with the overall feeling of gentleness, and security.

"Love of beauty is Taste. The creation of Beauty is art."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Throughout thousands of years, one of the main goals of painters and sculptors was to capture the very essence of beauty through their art. Although the pieces of art from these artists are quite different from one another, they do share the common purpose of being viewed by others and to evoke certain emotions. The sculpture, “The Thinker” by Auguste Rodin, is one of my favorite pieces. It in itself doesn’t typically exemplify beauty when you look at it, but the thought behind the art is what makes it beautiful. In the sculpture, it seems that the man is in deep thought; contemplating something. Who knows what he is thinking, but it is what becomes of these thoughts that make them so remarkable; so beautiful.

These two photographs are just a glimpse of what I believe beauty to be. In truth, beauty is within everything.

My Very First Post Ever!

My first post! Woohoo! This is pretty neat.