For Monday:
I simply can not fathom the lengths, expenses, and health risks that women STILL go through today in order to augment their breasts. While I of course don't care for companies such as Dow who continue to manufacture potentially-toxic "solutions," the truth is that if there were no "takers," the products/services would not be sold. I know that the particular essay to which I refer was written in the early 90's,but from everything I've heard, silicone oozes on. "Pink Think"--and a very scarlet version of it, to boot--will never be defeated so long as women feel that impressive mammmary glands are the key to being "whole."

Accidentally posted in last week's discussion:

 
I really got a kick out of the essay on body hair in /Body Outlaws./ I remember the slight disorientation I had on coming to college and being in a small community where virtually none of the women shaved. (Shaved their legs or underarms, that is. None of them had visible facial hair, so I don't know if any of them had to deal with that issue or not.) I quickly got used to it and it got to the point where it was disorienting to see shaved women's legs.

What's fascinating is that this social "requirement" of shaved legs is something that's been thrust upon us this past century, and is essentially a creation of marketing. It makes you stop and think that through advertising, women have come to think of features of their own body as "unnatural." And in my mind, that's a lot of what this course is about - discovering the ways in which our conceptions of women's bodies differ from the way women's bodies actually are and WHY there is that difference. Whose interests does that serve?

i was thouroughly disturbed by the passage in body out lows about breast implants and cosmetic surgery. it is ridiculous that most of these women have traumatic and long lasting effects as a result of thier implants. i had no idea that i was so dangerous, it just seems that becasue implants are so common that the procedure would have been tested and made safe by now. i guees there;s too much emphasis in how the end product will turn out and not enough wieght put on whethere the procedures to get larger breasts is safe. after reading i tried to do some research on implants, and i found a lot of websites on where to get them but not any sort of statistical data or reports about the success rates of the procedures. i suppose women who want these implants (or at least many of them) look past all of this becasue they want them so badly. its sad that there are so many ways out there that women can alter their bodies, not enough support is out there for embracing what nature gave you. instead there are only a few different models for all of the female gender is supposed to fit into.

The subject of cosmetic surgery has become quite warped and it seems to be the new addiction. Women who start can never stop, because there is always something more that can be lifted or tucked. There are even procedures for hair removal that are mind-boggling for their price and ambiguity. Hair issues and cosmetic surgery all stem from the fact that nobody seems to be happy with their bodies anymore. I admit I fall victim to the hair removal nonsense becuase it has been fed into me that women with any kind of excess hair is ugly and disgusting. So, then comes the ritual of shaving my legs and underarms, waxing and tweezing my eyebrows... and the list goes on and on. Everybody suffers from these insecurities, but there seems to be no popular reassurance out there that assures us our bodies in our natural state (hair and all) are okay. Pop culture sends us a specific message and then there are all the 'solutions' that go along with what society is telling us. Cosmetic surgery used to be a field that helped people who really needed it, but now it is a free for all. Anyone can get procedures done if they go to the right doctor and if they have the money. Hair will always be a problem, because it is simply not what most people consider beautiful for men and women, irregardless of how natural it is. Our bodies again are entities that we are supposedly able to control and the cosmetic industry in all its glory feeds off of that and all of our insecurities. The cycle continues, but I always ask myself where will we stop with all of this before it gets totally out of hand- if it hasn't already.

Im not sure what week we are on, but I am writing about the monologues (is that spelled right?) anyway, as per our discussion on wednesday, i still feel that a vagina surgery is not much different than other surgeries that help to make women feel better about themselves. However, I would go as far and say that any type of surgery to enhance your appearence other than a health issue is not right. All of these issues of womens bodies resort back to a think pink mentality where the idea of beauty is defined by the media establishment. I was listening to Howard Stern this morning, and a women was trying to get him to buy her breast implants. She said her breasts were the size of lemons. Believe it or not, Stern said she didnt need them becasue they were in proportion with her body. This reminded me of the movie Beautiful Girls, and a scene were Rosie Odoonell was talking about the fakeness of women in magazines like playboy and that in reality big women have the big breasts and big butts, and little women had the little breasts and little waists. The scene was funny but it definitely rings with truth.