I will have to agree that we, women, are more than just a face and a body. We have more attributes than our physical appearance. Sadly, it is one of the first things someone, male or female, notices about a woman. Our society, especially the media, creates this unrealistic image of what women should look like. The media draws the ideal woman as almost 6 feet tall with long legs, long flowing hair, a size 2 body, clear and flawless skin, and a B or C cup size. Realistically, a woman cannot have all of those attributes. Beauty is not defined in one way and especially not by the media. The media also obsesses over trends and what celebrities are wearing. Consequently, our society has grown to be superficial.
I am 5 feet and 5 inches tall with a chest of a 12 year old boy. I am a size two, but I have more of an athletic build than that slender model-look. Throughout middle school, high school, and my freshman year in college, I struggled with my appearance. I felt like I did not look good enough. My best friend is one of those girls who fits image media makes about beauty. I always compared myself to the looks of other girls, my best friend, and celebrities. It really brought down my self-esteem and put a damper on my teenage years. During my senior year of high school, I had a rhinoplasty surgery. I had broken my nose quite a few times and I had developed a significant dorsal hump. I could not even fit my goggles over my nose. It was a reconstructive and cosmetic procedure. I thought my life would be so much better now that my nose did not have Mount Everest projecting from it. I had a false hope that I would start to get noticed more by guys and that the guy who broke my heart sophomore year would be on his knees begging me to go to prom with him. I was completely delusional. I had unrealistic and great expectations. After I fully recovered from my surgery, my best friend asked me about how I liked my new appearance. I was honest and told her I still felt unpretty. As a good best friend, she was honest with me. She told me that I always had the looks, but I never had the confidence to go with it. She told me thought that I was lucky because people noticed me for my personality and not my looks. She was tired of people knowing her as the tall blonde girl. She wanted people to know her for who she really was.
Finally, the first time in my life, I am proud of what I look like. I don’t need to compare myself to celebrities or my peers to feel pretty. I just had to realize that I had an inner beauty and just let it shine through. No one else can define beauty for you. Only you can.

That is an interesting question. There is definitely a fine line between what is and is not racist and ethnocentric. I can understand why the commentator can see a gray area. In third world and developing countries, many individuals from developed countries come to these locations to offer there aid. But does it mean that people say from the United States are better than individuals in third world countries? No. Just because somebody needs your help does not mean that they are better than you. It means that they are better off than you in that particular situation, not better than you. This is why some people become resentful of help. But just because someone is white, black, Asian, Indian or from the United States or a third world country mean that they are better than someone of another race or country.

I also always wondered why we never stopped everything we were doing when such tragedies hit us. On the days following September 11th, the parts of the United States that were not attacked continued on with their regular lives (despite the extra security and talk about the event). There were some people who went to the sites to help those in need, but majority of us continued on with our lives. I still went to school and my after school activities. My life did not change even though terrorists attacked the country I lived in. I feel some sort of guilt that I was not helping out. Same goes for the earthquake in Haiti. 300,000 people died and 2.5 million were left homeless. I was starting up my spring semester at Penn State while people in Haiti were trying to find hope through the destruction. I wonder why we do not stop what we are doing to help victims of major tragedies even when they do not directly affect us.

The Race Relations Project and Soc 119 in my opinion is to expand our horizons and start a conversation on topics were avoid talking about due to political correctness. Sam’s goal is for us to continue the conversation outside of the classroom. Throughout the course, Sam has talked about issues I was never aware of. I felt so naïve and ignorant because I had no idea about these things were going on in the world until he brought them up in class. Maybe all of these emotions of guilt and hypocrisy that stirs up in some of us in class is to motivate us to change the state of the world, start a conversation, and bring attention to these issues in order to fix them or improve the situation.

I am not a guy. I do not have any brothers. I do have guy friends. I swam in a swim lane with all guys my senior year in high school. I have taken classes throughout my high school where males were a dominant gender. I am definitely not an expert on men. However, I am a people watcher (thanks to my lifeguarding job). To answer this question if men conform to society, I will share a story about one of my high school classmates. I always heard about this guy in seventh grade since he was popular kids (yes, popularity was a big deal in seventh grade). As the new girl to the public school system, I barely knew anyone or him in that matter. One day, one of my friends pointed him out to me. He had a bleach blonde faux-hawk, a probably one of those West Coast Choppers t-shirts, and those black pants with all those pockets and chains. I guess he would have been classified back then as a “punk.” Then when we got to high school, I had a class with him. I could barely recognize him. He had the regular short hair guy haircut that was his natural color. He was not wearing anything drastically different from the other guys in my class…jeans and a t-shirt. But when he liked a particular girl, he would dress to impress her. Unfortunately, I was a victim of this. He thought I would like him more if he wore a nice Ralph Lauren polo. He also thought my friend would like him if he wore an international soccer team jersey since she was a big soccer fan. Didn’t he ever hear of the phrase: “It’s not what you where, it’s how you wear it?” Apparently he did not get the memo. When he started dating this one girl, he completely transformed his look. He dyed his hair brown, hit the gym, and started to wear more American Eagle and Abercrombie & Fitch. Maybe it was to meet the standards of her ex-boyfriend who was a model for American Eagle. Before graduation, he toned down his look. I have no clue what he is wearing now. I am not saying all guys are like this because this was a pretty drastic situation. From what I can conclude from this story, I think some guys conform to society. However, you do not see it as much as you would for females. Women tend to dress to impress and to boost self-confidence (on occasion). But are men as conscious as women about what they are wearing and how they look? Do they get self conscious too? I am curious to hear the male perspective of this because this is something I really do not talk about to my male friends.

I do not think Sam has significantly changed my opinion on topics discussed in class. Even though Sam thinks it is okay to talk about periods and encourages us to be open about it, I still do not talk about mine especially to my male friends. However, some of his discussions and the assigned readings have opened my eyes and taught me things I never knew of. I never knew of modern slavery and how many of the products we use come from individuals who are pretty much slaves in foreign countries. I was also shocked to learn that parents sold their daughters into sex slavery to pay off debts and that sex slavery is a major tourist attraction in Thailand. I also did not realize that in the United States, there are many impoverished people. Tammy’s story shocked me. The class may have not changed many of my opinions and beliefs, but it has allowed me to open my eyes and be less naïve and ignorant to the world and reality.

I really cannot believe that there was a video game on the market that alluded to sexually abusing and raping women. Really?! That is really demeaning towards women. The video games portray women as weak, helpless, and vulnerable. Also, the video game simulates a vulgar and disgusting act. What really made me mad was that there was not an option for the women in the video game to fight off their attackers. Come on! Give women some empowerment. Seriously, who thinks of this crap and buys this crap? Is it okay to rape someone? No. Is it cool to play a video game in which the objective is to rape someone? No. It also took the Japanese a while to take it off of the market. These rape video games should not have been on the market in the first place.

In regard to the question about affirmative action, I would rather have someone more qualified taking on a job or position than someone in a position to level out the playing field. In places like hospitals and the medical field, qualifications should supersede affirmative action because patients’ lives are at stake. The best of the best should be treating patients because they can perform surgeries, procedures, and any other medical treatments with the highest quality and lowest risk. The best and most qualified person for the job should be hired in all fields of work, not just medicine and without regard to skin color or gender. Someone should not be hired or not hired in order to level the playing field. In acting and theatre now, actors and actresses are hired based on talent and the ability to fulfill a role, not on their skin color or ethnicity. It is known as colorblind casting. For example, in the most recent Cinderella film, black singer and actress Brandy plays Cinderella and the prince is played by a Hispanic actor. Although these characters are typically Caucasian, Brandy and her counterpart in the movie were the most qualified for their respective parts in the movie. Other fields of work should take a similar approach to hiring….colorblind hiring. Work should be awarded to those who meet the qualifications, not according to affirmative action. Also, affirmative action can cause reverse racism or reverse gender discrimination.

In regards to the issues of nepotism, qualifications should definitely exceed that fact that the candidate may know somebody within the company or organization. I have witnessed and worked with people who got jobs through nepotism. For five years, I worked at a neighborhood pool as a lifeguard. Many of the board members had children and used their power to get them jobs at the swim club. Last year, two veteran concession stand workers were not rehired because children of the board members wanted jobs there. Even though these two former employees were more qualified than the new employees, they did not get the job because they were not related to any of the board members. The one employee who got his job through nepotism is being charged with theft (from another incident unrelated to the pool but still unacceptable). I recently asked if he would be rehired after the incident, and nobody could give me a straight answer. He definitely should not get his job back even though he has a parent on the board. Also, somebody who is perfectly qualified for a job should not be rejected because they know somebody in the organization. A person should be hired on the basis of their talent, skills, personality, and the ability to work well with others in the organization. Gender, ethnicity, skin color, and who you know should not be a factor on whether or not you or somebody else gets a job.

It seems that the Census will always be in a lose-lose situation when it comes to political correctness. When the Census developers created the Census, they included the term Negro with African American. One of the CNN reporters went onto the streets to ask individuals how they felt about the political correctness of the terms used in the Census. The African Americans approached about the Census including the word Negro seemed insulted. One woman said that obsolete term reminds her of slavery. In addition, there were not many options of Latinos and Hispanics when asked about their race and ethnicity in the Census. Maybe instead of having boxes to check off which ethnicity and race each individual is, the Census should just have the Census takers write in their race and ethnicity. The United States is so big that not everyone is going to be happy with the political correctness of the words in the Census. There might be some problems with implementing this solution, but it solves the political correctness problem.

When watching the point in the video “A Girl Like me,” I seriously got a knot in my stomach. To see those young girls prefer a white doll over a doll of their own skin color because they thought it was ugly, I was shocked and saddened that these girls felt that way about themselves and their race. They were ashamed of being who they are. It is sad because they felt so insecure about themselves and their race at such a young age. Being unhappy in your skin will not allow you to live a happy and fulfilling life. These girls will feel that they will not be able to fulfill their goals or live a happy life because they feel that their skin color will hold them back.