Is lighter always brighter???

Women in Mali have been intentionally bleaching themselves to embellish their beauty. Doctors have warned many women that by bleaching their skin it causes them to become anything but salubrious, another major side effect of bleaching, is cancer. As of now there are over 100 bleaching products in the capital of Mali, Bamako. Although many women are using these products their only response is "The creams make me white, and impart a certain charm." Little do they know they are just getting mesmerized into this trend of pain and stupidity. Any women that refuses to bleach their skin is thought upon as "second class."
Women use these cosmetics to become salacious and more beautiful to attract men.They claim that Malian men prefer women with pallid skin,and its true, most men will only receive dowry from women that bleaches her skin. Anyone that is not ebullient and eager to whiten themselves is frowned upon in society and is asked to not participate in activities with other "white" people. The thing that is provoking this epidemic the most is that the people that sell these cosmetics are jovial about their jobs therefor selling more products in return.This in many ways resembles what is going on in our society in America. Women are drawn into these sexy models saying get a big butt and small hips NOW! But really all they are doing is trying to take a short cut, and putting their wellbeing in danger. It always seems like people are never satisfied with the way they look and are always trying to change their appearance.

Beauty Commercial!

1. What were your gut reactions to this commercial?
Well, I was aware this was going on but it really makes you realize how messed up our society is and how everyone just wants to cover up every blemish on their body. It didn't disturb me as much as it should have but since we just did a project on this in Graphic Design, we were already aware of how beauty industries are louring people in to their schemes. I have to say though, the best part of this video was the very last quote. The reason that I liked it so much was that the phrase is so powerful and many people don't even think about it, or simply ignore it and that is why nowadays most women won’t even go out of the house without putting make-up on. Before it was just a once in a while thing, now it has turned into a daily routine, like brushing your teeth.


2. What do you think about the central message of the commercial? Be specific and give examples to support your ideas.
The main idea of this commercial is to get the word out to caring mothers saying they need to tell their children about these things and to not become obsessed with looking "perfect" just to impress someone else. My theory is that if we were supposed to cover our faces up with make-up and all this surgery, why go through all this trouble, why not just put a bag over your face because that’s basically what we are doing anyway. So this is the meaning that I got from watching this video.


**If you would like to see the video for yourself, CLICK HERE**

Symposium Reflection!

A symposium during the time of Socrates was a place were men got together and drank, gambled, and sex with prostitutes. The only women that were allowed in these meetings were the prostitutes and the women playing instruments, to enhance the mood. The deeper meaning of these meetings were to discuss the philosophy of many different matters. The four main things that they came up with during these conversations were the 4 "cardinal" virtues, and thoese were:

• Prudence (Knowledge)
• Fortitude (Bravery/Courage)
• Temperance (Moderation)
• Justice (Fairness)

Even though these are the ones that Socrates and his pupils came up with, they are solely in the eyes of the beholder. This means that everybody's perception of these topics are different. We discussed these four virtues, one if the topics was talking about how there is a fine line between courage and stupidity, we came up with that for it to qualify as being courage there has to be a reasonably purpose. Anyway after we did this, we came up with ideas saying that if we could add one more thing to this list of virtues, what would they be. We came up with many great ideas the one that stood out the most to me was, commitment. The reason that I say this is because it basically states how you can master all these virtues, you have to be committed to learn, committed to the act of bravery you are about to preform, and you really have to be committed to being fair and sharing the equality amongst others.
I thought that this was a great seminar and discussion, I can see now how Socrates and all his pupils could talk for hours about all these topics and questions. This discussion really made me think and opened my mind to many other thoughts and completely changed my perspective off all things "perfect."

Women in Ancient Greece

1. How did women's roles in society differ from Athens and Sparta?
Well there are many ways that the women from Athens and Sparta differ, but they all come down to one thing, the women in Sparta have a lot more freedom. The women in Athens are just one step above slaves. Women in Athens were split into groups, the slave women, Athenian citizen woman, and the highest of respect, the Hetaerea, the Hetaerea women were much like the china Geisha.
Unlike the women in Athens, women in Sparta were given a good education, owned much of the land and were respected by their husbands. I didn't like that the women in Athens were treated so poorly. We are all humans and I think that all humans should be treated the same and not like slaves.

2. If the Greeks are considered so advanced, so culturally elite, why do you believe gender equality (equality between men and women) was not established?
Well I cant figure out why women in all of Greece were treated so badly. All society believed that the only job that women had was to basically have have children and to raise them. Even though the women in Sparta were treated a lot better than their "sisters in Athens", men would still lend their wives to other men to produce a child. So as you can see women were not treated with respect. Men thought of them more of an object rather than a companion.

3. Based on your understanding of women in Ancient Greek society, how do you think women were depicted by artists at this time?
Well since all women in Greece are perceived as not doing anything but help populate the land, I think that all the paintings and sculpture s will have the women either naked or with a baby. This is all just all what I got from the reading. I personally don't agree with anything that they believed in. I think that all men and women need to be treated the same and not treated like objects.

SOCRATES' CAFE

1. What is so beautiful about youth?
The reason that I think that youth is so beautiful is because little children are young and open to all ideas and have nothing to worry about. Another thing that makes being young beautiful is that they have nothing to regret and everything to look forward to. Many adults wish they were young again, mostly to possess these traits. Also children are energetic and always having fun, and they don't get as tired as easily as say someone older.




2. What are your thoughts on the idea of a "perfect" human form today? What is it in your culture for men? women?
I do not have a "Perfect" human form, because I don't think beauty is what makes humans, its their personality and how they view the rest of the world. I am different than the rest of society (in many other ways than just this) because most people judge other people and classify them by what they look like. I, on the other hand, don't care about looks, personality is all I care about. The only kind of person that I try to stay away from are people who think the whole world revolves around them or who put anybody down because of their thoughts or appearance.

My Perception Of Beauty

Waterfalls are so beautiful because of the simplicity. There is a never ending supply of water and they sound very peaceful. If you follow the water rushing down the path of the waterfall, you will see that the water never strays to far from the main flow. This along with many other ways symbolizes humans. Humans are creatures of habit such as the water always following the same path. And no matter how you look at them you will notice that the water flow is always the same and yet never alike.



The reason I think that children's laughter is so beautiful is because even though there is all this bad in the world, children are unaware of it and therefore see past it. They are in many ways, what adults try to be like. Many moods but yet one always seems to emerge among the midst of all other doubt, happiness. The sound of their laughter can cheer up any body from a bad mood, and brighten someones day.

1st post!

Woot my first post!