Paying extra for larger sizes.

I read Alicia's post on her response to "No fat sizes". It got me thinking about clothes for plus sized people. If you are ever shopping most stores charge you extra for larger sizes. I started thinking about it, and i know there is the argument that they need to charge more because they use more cloth. This raised the question for me about why they only charge more for sizes once you get in any size larger than a large. If the argument about using more cloth is used then why doesn't a medium cost more than a small and a large more than a medium. There is more cloth used in each size other than a small. So in my opinion you either need to charge more for each size up or stop charging more for "plus size" clothing.

In Response to "No Fat Sizes"

I agree that it is wrong for clothing stores to exclude plus size clothing. A proposed question is why do clothing stores carry petite size but not plus size? Also to think about there are plus size stores specifically that don’t care petite or small sizes. One of the main problems with this I think is that women are conforming to these ideas. When this happens it encourages the younger generations to do the same and it ends up being a chain reaction. What should we do about this conformation or is there anything to do? Considering the image that America accepts and promotes, that is nearly impossible to achieve. What do you think?

Just a few thoughts...

I have a couple different things that I would like to cover in my post:

The first being a short film that everyone should watch if they have time.
Love Is All You Need? is the name of the film and it explores the idea of "heterophobia". In the film homosexuality is normal in society, while heterosexuality is viewed as deviant and abnormal. If you haven't seen this somewhere else already, I highly recommend anyone to watch. It really changes your perspective on things and society in general. And its only about 20 mins long.

Additionally, I just wanted to share a few thought on Tuesday's discussion of plastic surgery. I couldn't help thinking about surgeries that may be "necessary" or beneficial to an individual's personal health, but possibly sometimes viewed negatively. For example, breast reduction surgery may be viewed negatively and has been in the media. In the popular film "Superbad", the main character Seth says in regard to this surgery, "That's like slapping God across the face for giving you a beautiful gift." In this case even a sometimes beneficial surgery, that for example may help reduce back problems, is viewed as problematic.

Lastly, I think that the issues we have addressed in this class are extremely important and need to continue being challenged and discoursed. I know that society takes a long time to see changes and progress, but to sit in a classroom where many individuals feel changes need to be makes the future of change feel somewhat more promising. We are the future generation and even if we can't make progress ourselves, we can hopefully pass the knowledge and inspiration down to the next one.

In Response to 'So Awful'

I think that Violence against men is a huge problem too.  There most likely isn't a "ex-boyfriend" target, but there are tons of examples of music where violence against men is made to look 'humorous' or even justified.  I'm going to post a few examples.

The first is from Pink.  Although the video is supposed to pay homage to Steven Kings "Misery" the way that it is done is supposed to be comical.  If the roles of Pink and her boyfriend were reversed how would this hold up?  Wouldn't there be a public out cry against it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eocCPDxKq1o

The next is from Martina McBride.  This song is about a women who burns down her house after being abused by her husband.  It also alludes to the husband dying in the fire.  Is killing someone justifiable because they hit you?  The song mentions that people in the town knew that the husband was evil, so it would have been possible for the wife and daughter to get help without killing someone and without sending the daughter to a county home because the mother is in jail.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VPpAZ9_qAw

The next song is from the Dixie Chicks.  This song is about a women who is abused by her husband to the extent where she does get a divorce, but again he beats her.  The victims bestfriend comes back and they decide to kill the husband.  They are successful but they way that is portrayed again is comical, when is killing someone funny?  In any instance?  I don't know about you but I'm starting to see a double standard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw7gNf_9njs

This song is from Carrie Underwood.  It's about a women who finds her boyfriend is cheating on her, so she destroys his car.  People watching the video probably think, "wow, she got him" where in reality she's probably going to get a law suit.  This is suggesting that it's okay for women to do this to men.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaSy8yy-mr8

Miranda Lambert sings this song about killing a spouse after he beat her.  He's getting out of jail and she is going to greet him by shooting him dead.  Lambert's family growing up would often take in women who had been abused by men.  Often times in her songs if she covers a song about a women being abused she will switch the lyrics so men are actually the ones being abused.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajoI8X8Ys94

Again, we are killing men because they have cheated on a women.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vyZeF_DLq4

This song is from Lily Allen.  Although it is funny and catchy, the video shows how she had her cheating boyfriend beaten up, his apartment sacked, how she fed him laxatives and then ruined his job by destroying the records that he DJ's with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WxDrVUrSvI

This next pair of videos are from Lady GaGa, the first is Paparazzi where she kills her boyfriend after he subsequently attempted to kill her.  She poisons him.  The video does show her leaving the mansion and heading to jail, but the newspaper headlines say, "she's innocent" and "we love her again" both of which give her crime a positive reinforcement.  The next part, Telephone Ft. Beyonce shows the two of them poisoning Beyonces boyfriend and most of the people in the restaurant.  The video even gives the recipe for the poison.    The police at the end of the video are looking for them, but they just keep running.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2smz_1L2_0

I think I have supplied enough examples.  I believe that songs and music videos like these have more influence over a target that someone can purchase from the NRA.  These videos and songs play constantly on VH1, MTV and the Radio.  They are far more accessible to all generations of men and women rather than just a target that someone chooses to purchase, sometimes you don't have an option to the radio station.

All violence is wrong it doesn't matter if its women against women, man against man, man against women, or women against men.

Plastic Surgery Thoughts

As we were talking about plastic surgeries and especially thinking about bridalplasty I remembered a TV show I had watched a long time ago and wanted to reflect on that. I believe this show came on when I was in middle school, over 8 years ago. But the show was on mtv or vh1 and it was about a woman who was getting plastic surgery (I tried to find it, but have not yet). This sounds standard with what we had already talked about, however, this woman was perfectly in shape and already a model. But this woman wanted to have a tummy tuck and surgery on her chest. Her entire reasoning was to have a layout in playboy magazine. She was only ten pounds from her goal weight, but surgery was her solution. Now this show obviously made an impact on me, and I can imagine many others her were watching. I guess this exemplifies what plastic surgery kind of means to myself, personally I feel people often have surgery for very shallow reasons. And to make these varying plastic surgery shows so often just encourages the negative thinking about our "natural" selves. So should we be taking such a serious surgery and process and making them into game shows or shows at all?

So Awful

http://www.policymic.com/articles/40049/nra-sells-an-ex-girlfriend-target-that-bleeds-when-you-shoot-it

OK, this isn't really related to anything we've discussed in class recently, but I thought it was relevant in general and wanted to share. Someone posted this in one of my other classes and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it.

Apparently, an NRA vendor is currently selling a shooting target called "the ex-girlfriend". When you shoot it (strictly for target practice, of course) it actually bleeds. I do not understand how this type of thing is even allowed! It obviously perpetuates violence against women and gives men the power and authority to exert this violence against someone that they think is deserving.

Men's violence against women is no small matter. These types of things do not just happen in small, personal, anecdotal ways. This is a widespread social problem due, in part, to the fact that our society teaches men to be strong, violent, and sexually dominant. Boys and men are constantly being given messages telling them that they have the power in our society. This article explains that in the US, domestic violence is the leading cause to injuries against women- more than car accidents, rape and muggings combined. One third of female murder victims are killed by an intimate partner.

Domestic violence and violence against women is not OK. This mannequin is helping perpetuate this problem and, in my opinion, is condoning it. There is nothing OK about selling this type of product. Any thoughts?

Plastic Surgery

The focus of Tuesdays discussion was on women and how undergoing plastic surgery was becoming a cultural norm.  If this is the case, wouldn't that make it less deviant?  Men that undergo plastic surgery are up to far more scrutiny than women.  Plastic surgery is seen as a feminine thing to do.  I think this is based on the presumption that women are supposed to always look young.  Men can have their hair grow grey, but women must start dying their hair as soon as one grows in.  This is heard on just about every hair dye commercial, 'grey coverage.'  I understand that there are hair dye's for men but I think that is even seen as feminine.  Looking at men participating in plastic surgery would have really opened opportunity for discussion in what is socially okay for women to do and not men.  Often times we are bogged down by women being suppressed, but what about men?  And not just men of minorities, but the men that are part of the majority?  We often overlook the majority and ignore their problems.    Plastic surgery also shows how selfish our nation is.  Most plastic surgery is not necessary and is only done to make people "happy with themselves."  Rather than plastic surgery maybe they should go to counseling and learn to embrace what they have been given.  There are other people in the world that need plastic surgery in order to have a shot at a good quality life.  Girls who think their noses are a little too big, or think their breasts are too small should think about the little kids in third world countries that aren't allowed to attend school because their face is actually deformed.  This discussion on plastic surgery just reminded me that we all need a wake up call and little prospective every now and then.