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.