Sunday, October 30, 2011

Cosmetic Surgery Makes Everything "Better."

The study that I found is called "Perfectionism and Undergoing Cosmetic Surgery." In this experiment they put together a group of  16 women who had undergone cosmetic surgery and 16 women who had not ( all of these women were the same age). The experiment was based on this hypothesis: "perfectionism is elevated in cosmetic surgery patients compared to control participants with similar demographics" and also that " perfectionism increases individuals probability of undergoing cosmetic surgery." (Perfectionism).

The results were exactly what I thought they would be! "Socially prescribed perfectionism" along with "perfectionistic  self-promotion" were high in the participants compared to the controls. Also, one thing that increased the chances of someone undergoing cosmetic surgery was someone who was an extreme perfectionist; trying to make every part of their body perfect- at least to what they think perfect should be or look like. After reading the experiment, is it a good consideration that people who are striving for perfectionism has a good chance of undergoing cosmetic surgery.

I don't want anyone to think that I am against cosmetic surgery; my own mother runs a plastic surgery firm in Houston! There is nothing wrong with having cosmetic surgery because not matter what, there is always going to be something that we want to fix. What I don't agree with is changing yourself for other people. If you want to make a change because YOU want to that's okay, but if someone tells you that you need this and this and this done to be "perfect"don't listen to them because that is other being extremely insecure about themselves. So to make them feel better about themselves, they will put you down.

Katie.


"Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight." -1 Peter 3:4

Sherry, S. B., et al. "Perfectionism and Undergoing Cosmetic Surgery." European Journal of Plastic Surgery 29.8 (2007): 349-54. Web. 

Sunday, October 23, 2011

"Would you like a perfect or skinny, ma'am?"

When I drive to Houston on the weekends to visit my family there is a billboard that I always pass that is promoting margaritas at a Mexican restaurant that can't recall at the moment! One margarita is their original which is labeled "perfect" and the other margarita is labeled as "skinny". To me, this resembles my blog is some sort of way.

Before I started blogging about my topic, when I saw the billboard, I never thought twice about it. I always thought, "Oh cool, more diet options" but now there is a deeper meaning in that billboard that most people don't even see. Now, when I drive down highway six and see the billboard I think, "You are perfect the way you are. You are perfect with the original you." In other words, just being you is perfect; the original recipe that made you is perfect. Going to the gym, trying new diets, and eating healthier may make you healthier in a sense, but it won't make you more or less perfect.

Most people will drive by the billboard and just get a new diet margarita drink out of it (which is probably what the billboard is really made for), but I just wanted to share the deeper meaning I got out if it will y'all! I also wanted to give an opposing view point. In my past blogs I have stated that most people think that being perfect is being "skinny", this billboard gives out a different message. The message that the billboard gives out, whether it meant to or not, is that sometimes just being you and being original is the best. Not trying to be skinnier, or prettier, or just trying to be something you’re not. The original margarita is labeled perfect for a reason; you are the way you are for a reason. 

Katie.


"Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight." -1 Peter 3:4

Sunday, October 16, 2011

The Strive to be Perfect

The first blog that I found made me so sad. It is about a fifteen year old girl who is taking drastic measures to be skinny and that she will not stop until she is there. May I emphasize that she is only fifteen?! She is most likely appealing to people in the same position as she is because most people are not going to help her in the way that she wants help. She is appealing to people that have already gone through the same thing as she is going through now, hoping to get their advice on how they reached their weight-loss goal- pretty much trying to find different ways of starving yourself and depriving the body of proper nutrition. The group of people that she is not appealing to are parents, mentors, and anyone in the health field because they all know that this is extremely unacceptable, dangerous, and very harmful to the mind and body. On one of her posts she is talking about how many calories she had eaten that day: "Today I had about 656 calories. Disgusting." and also tells us how many calories she burned in which she says wasn't enough:  "I burned around 350 calories on exercise ( not enough)." She is definitely using a very emotional appeal to get peoples attention and hoping by taking such drastic measures someone will notice and try to help her right away.

The second blog that I found, I really enjoyed reading and I encourage everyone to take the time to read it because it applies to everyone. The way he presents the article is fantastic and his writing style makes you want to read more, it's very addictive. Instead of talking about himself, what he thinks, and the struggles that he faces, he gives examples that everyone can relate to; men and women: "Everyone has that special dream to be perfect. Scrawny men wish to have more muscle, while conscientious women hope to slim down. The strive for perfection has crossed all of our minds at some point in time." He is literally appealing to the entire world because through out his whole post he uses the word "we" meaning we all feel this way and we all struggle with this. I completely agree with him; no matter how perfect you may think you are and no matter how you come off to others that you are the most confident person in the world, there is, without a doubt, something that you would change or improve about yourself. The only person that he is not appealing to is God, because he has no imperfections. He never created imperfections, he created different kinds of beauty to make everyone unique and just like the blog presents, "Perfection is just one of the billions of man-made assumptions we create for ourselves, like being tall, short, slender, or over-sized.", perfection or imperfection does not exist on Earth.

The two blogs that found both tell us that everyone has their own perceptions of beauty. In the first blog she thinks being thin is beauty and the second blog talks about how women hope to slim down and men hope to gain more muscle.These two blogs I found can relate to the book, An Interdisciplinary Reader. Violence and its Alternatives. In chapter three, "The Idea of Violence", by C. A. J. Coady, talks about how many people have different views on what violence is and over time there have been so many different definitions and thoughts of what "violence" really is. This is the same for my blogs overall question: "What is beauty?" Over time and through media, peoples perception of what beauty is and what you have to do and look like to be considered "beautiful and perfect" has evolved enormously and will most likely still keep changing, unfortunately. (We need to believe that we are perfect just the way we are!) The audience of this book, just like the second blog I talked about, appeals to everyone because no matter what we do, everyone is going to have their own view on what something is and are going to have their own thoughts and definitions on a particular matter.


Katie.


"Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight." -1 Peter 3:4


Coady, C. A. J. "The Idea of Violence." An Interdisciplinary Reader. Violence and its Alternatives. Ed. Manfred B. Steger, Nancy S. Lind. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999. 23-38. Print

Sunday, October 9, 2011

A Diamond in The Rough

The whole theme of my blog is how people see other people, whether they are "beautiful" or not so this assignment for this week was perfect. The picture I found was a girl standing, holding a sign that says "You look at the scratch and fail to see the diamond." This is beyond perfect for my blog and it explains everything in just eleven words what I want y'all to see in this blog. When we meet people, we always point out everything wrong before we point out all of the good. We see all of their imperfections before their perfections and and once we see something that we don't like, it's over; we usually don't give them a chance.

This photo is screaming at us stop judging people because you are FAR from perfect yourself. It makes me think what right do you have to judge people? What makes you so more perfect and better than me? No one is better than any one else. I don't believe that we will ever be able to completely stop judging people because we do it without even realizing it but we can definitely make ourselves stop looking at others as a lower being than we are and start to see others as our equal, to stop only looking at the scratches and start looking for the diamond in everyone.


I found a quote that I want to leave y'all with. I know most of y'all have already heard this quote many times, but it is still one of my favorites:

“Who are you to judge the life I live? I know I'm not perfect -and I don't live to be- but before you start pointing fingers... make sure you hands are clean!”- Bob Marley.

Katie.

"Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight." -1 Peter 3:4