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.