Let talk about sex baby…..

The blog interviewed a doctoral student in child development and talked about her work in teaching sex education to children and how it is beneficial.

“These experiences shaped my current work, which is about promoting positive possibilities for adolescent sexuality development. I’m thinking about what positive sexuality development in adolescence could look like—what are the key elements? What people, institutions, and experiences could or should be involved? How can we, as a society, prioritize healthy sexuality, and what steps can we take to make positive change?”

“I think that sexuality education and youth development can do a lot for each other. Youth development is about nourishing the strengths of diverse youth, connecting youth and adults, building life skills, and providing opportunities for leadership and civic engagement.”

I agree with this because children aren’t getting the proper education about hormones body parts, sex, birth control, condoms and other types of protection. Parents may not talk to their children because they feel uncomfortable and schools think that teaching their students about sex with make them want to have sex.  Sex education should teach about the options of whether to stay abstinent or not depending on their upbringing or the readiness level. There should also be different levels of sex ed depending on the age group. Information should slowly transform into the topics of safe sex, STD, STI, and pregnancy prevention. Although accidents happen, like condom breaking, etc, I think the STD and teen pregnancy rates would be lower if people had the correct education.

The interviewee also touched on the idea that learning about other sexualities can contribute to sex education and impact how they feel about sex. They will learn about the world around them and that sexuality comes in all shapes and sizes. It’s also hard to be open-minded about human sexuality because it’s controlled by society and politics. They tell us who to be attracted to, how certain fetishes are “weird” and what’s okay and not okay to participate in. This creates stereotypes for those who don’t fit the norm, so it’s beneficial to talk about stereotypes, homophobia, sexism, and other things controlled by the institutions.

My rant for the week

So I’m getting frustrated with wordpress deleting my shit. I’m gonna try this one more time….fingers crossed. The last few post didn’t work out so maybe it’s a sign I should talk about something else. I had a really hard time writing this, so my transition paragraphs may be off.

So this photo has been going around facebook and the blog that I’m following so I felt it was discussion worthy.

I get the point the creator is trying to make: Women pay too much attention to body image and love your body regardless of how you look and how you want to look. But I have a problem with this. There is a hidden message behind this photo: regardless of how you look, you will never be good enough in the eyes of men. Either you’re too small or you’re too big. Basically, your worthiness as a woman and appeal is based on your size.

Speaking of size

The word plus size is used too liberally in the fashion industry. We’ve gotten too comfortable with the word and I am guilty of saying it myself. What is plus size? Not normal? Average? Plus size is used for women sizes 10 and up, but according to the photo that’s the national average. Why not just use the term average? Why put women in a category based on how they look and why separate clothing in the store by weight? Is this the same as having a section for petite? In my opinion it’s not. You can still be “plus size” and petite. Some stores don’t carry their larger sizes in the store and require online shopping to get larger sizes. What about those that need to try on clothes before they buy them?  Before my weight loss, I got this question all the time: Well what about shopping at the same store or shopping at Lane Bryant? First of all Lane Bryant is too damn expensive and Forever 21 is my life. Who wants to shop at the same store all the time? That’s the point of shopping: go to different stores, try on a bunch of stuff, and spend your paycheck on crap you didn’t need in the first place.

Not only is not having bigger sizes a problem, but smaller sizes as well. My best friend who is naturally slim(xs) can’t find clothes that fit her in stores either. What about the other side of the continuum: Those that are smaller than a size small. I wonder if stores will ever make a section for them.

Getting off the subject of size, these women look perfect. They’re tall, tan, have long hair blowing in the fake wind, they’re proportional, scar-less, hair-less, white, and have large breast. They all fit the American standard of beauty. If one wants to spread the message of loving your body, why not use women of different heights, with leg hair, with scars, different races, with different hair colors, and lengths?

Video

I somewhat understand why the guy dressed up in blackface (not a very good one): to get feedback from other students and to spread awareness, but he could have gone about the interviews in a different way. I’m sure he would have gotten the same answers if he were in his usual attire. Although the film could have been edited, it was really upsetting that majority of the interviewed students didn’t know when black history month was and more upsetting when students named Will Smith and 50cent as historical figures.  Is it bad that I yelled at the black guy on the screen for not knowing when black history month was?

He set these people up for failure and made these people look like complete idiots. How are you helping the cause and spreading awareness with questions like “would you prefer a white guy acting black or a black guy acting white?”, “who has better game?”, and do an impersonation of a black person. First of all what does it mean to “act white” or “act black”?  The impersonations were terrible and I don’t know where people get these stereotypes from but EVERYONE (mostly everyone) loves fried chicken and grape soda. Don’t you wanna fanta? Anyways, a more productive way to go about this interview would have been him correcting the behavior and educating the students by listing some historical figures, things they’ve done, and telling them that these stereotypes were completely inaccurate.  Education about all cultures helps suppress bias and keep stereotypes from forming.

If you give a girl flowers she will have sex with you………=O

http://virtualgirlsucf.blogspot.com/2012/02/i-probably-shouldnt-be-surprised.html

http://jezebel.com/5881895/watch-telafloras-super-sexist-super-bowl-ad

So I was glancing at the online blog that I’m following and this particular Superbowl commercial caught my eye. Now I don’t have cable and I didn’t watch the Superbowl (I wouldn’t have, even if I had cable), but anyways although both men and women watch the Superbowl, men are the majority. This commercial was obviously geared toward men and they definitely picked a good time to air it.

Adriana Lima Super Bowl Ad – Teleflora 2012
Instead of going into details about the video, I’m just going to say how I feel about it. I dont dislike the commercial, but I do dislike the message. I was reading the comments and viewers were saying F the feminist bullshit, these women are jealous of her, yada, yada. I thought the woman was very beautiful and he accent WAS awesome, but the message Telaflora is trying to convey “grinds my gears”

To be honest If my boyfriend gave me flowers, chocolate, took me out to dinner, all that good stuff, I would probably have sex with him at the end of the night. That said, hes my boyfriend and it was gonna happen anyway, not because he gave me some dinky flowers, its Valentines Day, its romantic, its routine lol. If it was EXPECTED because I was given gifts, think again Mr. (I hope that makes sense)

The ending statement was “give and you shall receive.” This is basically telling guys “hey if you want to screw that girl you’ve been trying to get with, buy her some flowers.” This is putting pressure on women to give it up when they don’t want to so they can feel like they’re loved. The message is putting this idea in mens heads that women are objects and to get them to do what you want, buy them shit. Welp, there you go America.

 

Girls growing up too fast

http://www.andersoncooper.com/episodes/are-little-girls-growing-up-too-fast/

http://virtualgirlsucf.blogspot.com

I recently discovered a new blog that’s similar to the others I chose and I think I may like this one better. I came across this blog titled “Are girls growing up too fast?” and this was an interview done by Anderson Cooper on his show. He basically had the moms from Toddlers and Tiaras on his show and getting to the bottom of why they’re dressing their 3 yr olds in 30 yr old woman’s clothing. The little girls are dressed like biker girls, oversexualized, and exploited in these pageants. The show also talked about thong underwear in a children’s store and 11 yr olds getting bikini waxes.

This reminds me somewhat of what we discussed in class about when, where and how young women create this image of themselves and what they identify themselves as. We see girls as young as 3 dressing like strippers and then wonder why young women dress provocative to get attention. If this is practiced at a young age and parents are enforcing the behavior, this will continue on because they will think it is okay. Our society is so fucked up that these moms think that its okay for they TODDLERS to look like a grown ass woman. Sex sells and the focus group is getting younger and younger. How is it that the people who put thongs and push-up bra bikinis in children’s stores think this is okay and what crazy people are out here buying this merchandise to keep this shit on the shelves?

I also have a problem with the show Dance Moms. First its make me cringe when I glance at an episode and the little black girl is the only one wearing bright colors or animal print. Anyways, from my experience as a dancer, tighter clothes were used for better body movement but they covered the body (abdomen, butt, thighs). Why are these little girls half naked??!!! Why are they wearing sports bras to practice, they’re 7. This makes me so mad. My boyfriend felt so uncomfortable, that he got up and went into the other room until I changed the channel. Why would you want your daughter on stage dancing in hot pants, booty short, and bra? I hate to blunt, but its giving these pedo’s easy access. Nice parenting.

Online Identity Construction

Back in grade school/early high school years I was more reserved, but I was well liked in my group of friends.  For me my myspace (when it was popular) was basically me presenting myself in a way that I couldn’t do in person. Not a lot of people knew who I was and would judge based on appearance, but they would find out by my page. I had a lot of my likes/dislikes, artist, music, movies, friends, fashion, and other things about my personality and what made me ME. I guess I still do this in college with fb, but I’m more open and able to present who I am.  My thoughts, opinions, and actions reflect my beliefs, values, and  my personality. I no longer have to hide behind a page.