"Thin is not in": The cultral Difference in Body Image

"Thin is not in" The Cultural Difference in Body Image

By : Marnita Thomas

Society is always pushing diet pills and ads for losing weight. Shoving the image of skinny models and celebrities down your throat telling you to believe you are supposed to look this way to be hot! What’s sad is that people start to believe it.

Magazine headlines reading "lose weight now" "how to look hot in a bikini in 10 days". No wonder why people are obsessed with body image. The media is setting the agenda! That "Thin is in!"

The media's image of body image greatly influences mainstream (Caucasian) society. Peoples standards of beauty varies across culture. What may be beautiful to one person may not be to the next. White women choose a significant thinner ideal of body size than black women. The end result black woman experience less eating disorders than white women. For instance in my culture being thin was never in! Black women prefer a more voluptuous shape, an hour glass figure. In Africa women on the heavier side would correlate with being wealthy. In America a white women on the thinner side would correlate with being in shape. In my culture a women with hips, butt, and large breast is considered “a brick house” aka beautiful.

There is truly a cultural difference of body image in African Americans . Black men drool over women with curves. Such as Beyonce, Kim Kardashian and Amber Rose. Black men like there women with thickness to them and most importantly booty! Whereas white men favor large breasts

For years black men have made music with titles such as “Feeling on your booty (R.kelly), Back that a#$ up ( Juvenile) and “I like big butts! (Sir. Mix A lot). It’s hard not to be influenced by what’s going around you. Black women also feel the need to conform to this ideal beauty. White women may starve themselves thin. Black women may overeat or go as far as surgery illegal to gain a bigger booty.
http://youtu.be/xkLE-GORLVk

Mainstream society is just starting to catch up to the more ethnic- idea of beauty. That real women have curves and... its okay. Its about time people are starting to love their “junk in the trunk.”
http://youtu.be/6mOQh3evqsI
I’am naturally thin and I have people walk up to me all the time to say I would kill to have "your" metabolism. I tell them well… I would kill to "your”matoblism. If I woke up today or tomorrow with a hour glass figure i would feel like i just hit the lottery. Black culture is more accepting of a larger body type. we tend to ignore the media's message of thin is in.  I feel that in my culture you have to find that happy median in between (not to skinny and not to fat)some people may call it “PHAT” (pretty hot and tempting).

Society has to learn how to stop being so easily influenced with body image. I know it’s hard because the world is so superficial. Sometimes people have to stop it with the superficial bull crap! There’s more to women than the way we look. Its what’s on the inside that counts. (and I know that’s just something that ugly people say, but seriously) we have other things going for ourselves. other than our bodies and being a sex toy for men to play with. These are the reasons why so many young girls are suffering from low self-esteem. You have to love yourself first because if you don’t then who will? So the next time my thick, bootylicious friends stick their big butts out to take a picture. they better move over cause the skinny girl is coming through, and in my mind I’m pretty, hot and tempting too!

　

　

　

　

　

Human Sheep

By Charles Conrad

"Your mind is totally controlled. It has been stuffed into my mold and you will do as you are told until the rights to you are sold" ~~~ Frank Zappa

This semester we have seen many ways the top 1% of the human race controls the bottom 99% through various methods, many of which are held firmly in place through huge bureaucratic structural systems. Many of these systems have been in place for decades and some have been in place for centuries. IBM has recently introduced a human tracking implant known as the Verichip to assist the top 1% in their accounting process.

 

The Verichip is a radio frequency identification or RFID chip that can hold ALL of your personal information & send it out to anyone holding a receiver. The advertising premiss is that if you are sick and incoherent or unconscious it can immediately inform a hospital or EMS team who you are and they'll have access to your complete medical file. There is also a push to have everyone chipped as a way of monitoring the US census. It would also help avoid any possible hold-ups when traveling abroad because you would easily be identified as a US citizen. The implanted chips would also solve the illegal immigration problem. Anyone without the chip would be considered an alien.




The down side is that IBM also wants all of your personal history included on the chip. Your financial, insurance, criminal, medical, purchasing, voting, travel, & work histories. Imagine driving your car and a cop pulls up behind you. They would immediately have all of your driving history, your criminal history, your work history, your voting record, & your complete financial statement right there on their computer. They already have computers with camera's reading & running your tags automatically without the officers doing anything on their own. Imagine the interest law enforcement has in this technology. They would be able to catch ALL of the bad guys with their eyes literally closed! Cops want these things & they want them NOW in the name of your personal safety & security.

Here is an actual product video from IBM for the Verichip. Imagine yourself going into a shopping mall. The mall could instantly read your shopping preferences stored in the chip & immediately pitch you personalized advertising.  It's not hard to imagine how valuable this technology would be to advertisers. Remember, this is real & it is current. This is NOT science fiction.

IBM also uses this technology to track packages. RFID's are in use every day. This is how UPS can effectively track your packages. Here is another IBM RFID tracking commercial but this time for tracking shipments.

Tracking packages is fine & dandy but is human tracking by RFID implanting the wave of the future? There are many silent voices in big government and big business that are pushing heavily for these chips to be implanted in all American Citizens. The advertising campaign toward John Q. Public for this agenda will be one of health, safety, & security. There is also an agenda to have these implanted in every newborn in America so that law enforcement can easily track and protect any child that is reported missing. It is going to be advertised as making their lives safer & more secure but is that what we really want for our children? To be branded, tracked, and herded like cattle?

In fact they would not even be able to go to the bathroom without being watched yet this is NOT the scariest part of the computer monitoring programs being implemented today by big government. There have been many recent discoveries in growing neurons (brain cells) on computer chips and the Pentagon has been investing millions of dollars into this technology. Human brain cells will actually grow & infuse themselves as one with the chips. These "neurochips" are the direct link joining man & machine. The technology is here & it is happening now. .

The good side of this new science is that prosthetics may be able to be controlled via thought. In other words truly bionic limbs can be created & operated with these chips being completely organically integrated into your brain. The scary part is as I mentioned the Pentagon has been investing millions of dollars into this technology to put microprocessors into the brains of soldiers. Kurzweil has developed these chips so that unlike the Verichip which is a transmitter of personal information the new chips have receivers too so that thoughts can be transmitted into your brain. Can you imagine a battle hardened soldier long after discharge suddenly being fed information to go out & assassinate someone? These theories of brainwashing have been around for centuries but with this new technology it's just a matter of flipping a switch and uploading the desired target to the soldier's brain. The advertising premiss is that it can send them soothing thoughts to combat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This is real folks & it's coming to a soldier near you. It is called "Transhumanism." Look it up.

Human / computer interfaces & implants are being applauded by the top 1% as the means of complete and total control over the the bottom 99% turning us all into Human Sheep.

Imagine if we could hack the mainframe...

ALLERT!

I posted "Human Sheep" a couple of days ago & just found the latest Verichip commercial.

Are you ready to be assimilated?

Modern Counter Culture

By Charles Conrad

I will start by saying that many of today’s social norms were once counter cultural or taboo. Many modern norms started out as hard fights against oppressive, demeaning, prejudices bearing many human casualties right here in our own country. Many of these norms we take for granted today as though their fights had been won long ago but almost none of them have been completely won & as soon as we become complacent that's when all the sacrifice is lost. For example, just last year sitting Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said that the 14th amendment does not apply to women & that not only women but no minority actually shares equal protection under the law according to our constitution. If anyone thinks oppression of women doesn’t go on today think again. Women’s salaries as compared to mens have dropped considerably over the last several years for the same job as a man with equal education & qualifications. There are many conservative thinkers that feel a woman’s place is in the home. Just 100 years ago women in the United States could not vote, should not consider an education, & it was considered taboo for them to work. On top of that The Equal Rights Amendment has never been ratified so there is no "Equal Protection Under The Law" in the United States. Would a Woman President seem to "Counter" modern culture? There seems to be a whole Counter Culture built around slandering our black president whether he was the best man for the job or not. The fact is that Counter Cultures have many faces in modern society both Good & Evil depending on which side of the fight you're on & what we call common sense "Norms" never stand in the way.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

(I'll remind ALL of you again. The Equal Rights Amendment was NEVER ratified.)

Time for some modern Counter Culture activity Suffragettes?

The fight isn't over yet!

The Sex Pistols pissed on their audience in opposition to authority & formalism.

And their Counter Culture crowd just LOVED it!

Sometimes oppressive & violent ideologies become Counter Cultures unto themselves.

(These people call themselves Christians.)

Less people have been murdered in the name of Satan than in the name of God. 

Why?

If marriage is between a man & a woman who can a transgender marry?

This Counter Culture says they can marry anyone they damn well please!

Legalize it!

This is what's happening around the world.

Why? 

One thing is for certain, a Counter Culture by it's very nature will offend someone's sense of "The Norm".  The main ideal I wish to discuss is the Modern Peace Movement which isn't a whole lot different than it was during the Vietnam era. There is a Counter Culture movement today that is once again becoming main stream that believes the United States has been acting as an oppressive & ruthless empire against much of the rest of the world. That our foreign policy & our tyranny is directly responsible for what happened to us on 911 in New York City at the World Trade Centers. They believe that the violence & oppression we impose on other nations will insight further retaliation against our own nation. They believe our deceptive lending & foreclosure policies on poor nations followed by "Regime Change" & “Nation Building” around the globe is completely unconstitutional & has led to widespread hatred for the United States. This modern movement is making a play for the White House. 

‎"The reality is that our military presence on foreign soil is as offensive to the people that live there as armed Chinese troops would be if they were stationed in Texas. We would not stand for it here, but we have had a globe-straddling empire and a very intrusive foreign policy for decades that incites a lot of hatred and resentment toward us." – Ron Paul

Did you know Bechtel & the World Bank financed the Public Water Works in a city in Bolivia & then raised water rates by over 200%? According to their contract they not only owned the water in the system but the water in the streams, lakes, & rivers.. & even the water that fell from the sky? If you couldn't pay your water bill & tried to collect rain water to drink you would have been arrested. We wonder why our capitalistic "NORMS" are being COUNTERED ?!?!? Why our flags are being burned. Why other nations around the world want to destroy the US & our decadent culture?

The Modern Counter Culture 

Peace Movement Says,

"Stay out of the personal affairs of other nations.

Bring the Troops Home

& 

Be nice to everyone OK?"

Modern Counter Culture.
It makes you think.

Counterculture Today and in the Past

Counterculture By: Anthony Sanchez

According to our book "Sociology Matters," a counterculture is: A subculture that conspicuously and deliberately opposes certain aspects of the larger culture.

Many may argue that there are countercultures in every day communities all over the world. People that individually go against the norms and do what is not expected of them. But, a counterculture is much more than that. A counterculture is a movement, a larger group of people that believe in the same ideas and take a stance not only politically but in many other aspects such as in pop-culture.

In the United States, there has been one instance in particular when a counterculture had a large influence on the way society changed and interacted with each other. In the mid-1960s there was a strong movement that is known today as the "Hippie Movement." During this movement many ideas were spread and had successes politically. For instance the effects the Hippie movement had on the Vietnam War. The effects of the Hippie movement can still be seen today, through its music and art, but my question is: "Is it still a counterculture when more and more people begin to follow?"

Today there is a movement that many may call a counterculture. In the latest years there has been an uprising in the Gay rights movement. Someone many people would consider a leader in the movement is Lady Gaga, to the extent that many of her fans and followers refer to her as Mother Monster. Lady Gaga and her "Born this Way" movement has been very controversial and "outspoken" with their beliefs, making them clear and concise to the public.

What I find interesting is that both the hippie group and the the up rise of the gay equality movement is that both cultures are basically fighting and wanting the same result: freedom to be themselves and peace, and both movements not only spread their ideas politically but in the pop world as well. But both are still considered to be going against the norm.


Lady Gaga's song "Born this Way" not only shares its idea in song, but her ideas have been spread in the political arena, with some success as well, with the disbanding of DADT (don't ask don't tell).


Above is Lady GAGA latest video, where you can clearly see how she purposely tries to stand out and give her stance on her ideas.

To Be or Not To Be Defiant?

By Carl Roberts

What does that word mean?

Deviance.

Many different meaning are derived from deviance. Some are how behavioral standards and norms are being broken by everyday people. Basically people failing to conform to socially accepted behavior and beliefs, and customs.

Deviance in today’s society is very different then how many of our parents and grand-parents perceived it.

Today’s society see's deviance as being unruly to authority or a young child being disrespectful to someone of higher stature then them. Also some crimes are signs of deviance such as grafitti by a group of young children, and many other signs of vandalism. But deviance has taken a turn for the worse since the sixties.

Deviance to them was listening to rock-n-roll and creating a hip new fad spreading peace and love.

So back then being defiant meant not wanting war with another country or listening to the Beatles. These signs of defiant behavior lead to a ban of rock-n-roll music, hippies being seen as bums and slackers with no signs of a future. The everyday working men and women seen violence as the olny option with other countries; and the devils music was corrupting the new generations soul and those who didn’t believe there beliefs and views was defiant to society.

Are these hippies being defiant by putting flowers in the soldier’s rifles? These were not signs of deviance, but enlightenment by trying to share nonviolent beliefs and love on the world. There views of love was about tryig to change the hearts of the world. One of the ways was the feel good music that the conformist seen as druggie tunes to other druggies. Later on in history many other non-violent groups were created, but none seen more defiant then these hippies.

 How could this be seen and compared to today’s society of what deviance is now and what it was then?