Recently, I have started going to yoga classes at the RAC twice a week with my roommate and one of my suite mates. After going to a few sessions, I realized how much yoga makes me aware of my body in different ways.
First class: I walk into the room where the class is held, and I see a slew of medium-height, slender girls (and a few guys) with perfectly toned bodies who gracefully rolled out their yoga mats and sat down and stretched their perfectly formed muscles. Continue reading
I’ve recently came to the realization that people will complain about something but do nothing to change it. I do this all the time! Let’s begin with my weight. There’s not a month that goes by that I don’t hear something about my appearance. I always think to myself…. how lucky those skinny girls are because they can eat whatever they want and not gain weight. Yep, I’m sure you know at least one person like this. What gets me the most… is when I hear skinny people say they need to go on a diet. My face automatically drops… Like really?
I am certainly no authority on other women’s bodies and believe wholeheartedly that women have and should remain in control of their bodies, but I have a growing contention for Nicki Minaj’s remix and video of the song “Anaconda.”
I think at this point in my life, I can safely say that I owe most of my coping mechanisms to the vast amounts of fantasy fiction that I’ve read. Cartesian dualism has been an integral part of the way in which I built my world, and up until this point has been the only way in which I know how to reconcile what happens inside of my head and what happens in the outside world.
A few weeks ago I enjoyed the movie No Good Deed. I was delighted to add this film to my short list of those that don’t typecast black bodies. This movie was a suspense, not a “black suspense” but a gut checking suspense. After admiring Taraji Henson and Idris Elba awesome performance I approved No Good Deed distribution to homes of Americans and those overseas. I wondered about that individual that has never encountered a person of color and thought, here is a movie that you can watch. Continue reading
Most people think of appearance as a way of caring how much control has over your mind, your body and your life. Even though that many believed in the quote that says “it matters how you perform, not how you look”, in real life, that is not necessary true. Others do perceive you, and even how they think about you. Technically, I think that sometimes people really should not dress how they feel, but how they want to feel. Clothing is sometime that in creating the positive impressions, it can increase your perceived status among other people. The way you choose to dress sending messages to those other folks around you, but also to yourself. Caring how you dress will make you a more responsible, involved, approachable and confident. You really don’t want to dress up silly to embarrass yourself, nor troublesome others.
“People of Walmart – Funny Pictures of People Shopping at Walmart.” Their slogan might be more accurate if they changed it to “Body Policing at its Finest.” Now, I understand rolling your eyes at something silly someone does at the store, or a weird way someone wears their hair. More specifically, I can totally understand “cringe-worthy” outfits that don’t support someone’s body type as I’m an avid What Not To Wear fan. But People of Walmart really sets the standard for public shaming, no matter what the reason. You can be fat, skinny, black, white, short, tall, male, female – it doesn’t matter. If there’s something off about you, even in the smallest sense, you could be subject to getting posted on this site. Continue reading
The other day we discussed death, and the appropriate ways in which we dispose of the dead… the human dead that is. Which got me thinking to how differently and similarly we treat our pets who die. Right before I came back to school for this semester, I’m talking the Friday before I moved in on a Monday, the stray my neighbors and I took care of passed away. He was sick; he had a really bad thyroid condition, but that’s not how he died. Continue reading
Yesterday my professor was giving us a talk on how to act professional in our industry. He said, and I quote, “Ladies, you owe it to your gender to not cry. Once you lose that trust it’s very hard to get back.” Are you kidding me?! In all of the years I have worked in my industry I have never cried on the job, but I have seen girls AND boys cry for an array of reasons.
I agree that we are going into a stressful career that can be cut throat. And yes, if you cry on the job you are looked down upon. That being said he phrased it in the worst way possible and did NOT have to single the girls out.
If one girl cries on the job it does not mean that every single girl is going to cry. We are representatives of ourselves and not the entire gender. If a boy cried others wouldn’t think all boys were going to cry, so don’t think that about the girls. Also, if a guy cried he would be looked at as ‘sensitive’, but the second a girl cries she is ‘too emotional.’
I think this was a very sexist and misogynistic comment that was returned with a very dirty look from me. I do not think that a professor should make statements or be allowed to make statements like this in the classroom.
Earlier in the semester, I stated that I suffer from anxiety disorder, which is considered to be a mental health mood disorder. I have had to deal with this since I was 14 years old; just a freshman in high school. That’s about an eight year battle.My first episode occurred when I was in my final class of the day. I remember feeling as though I was acquiring a sense of tunnel vision, as I became dissociated from my body. The mind/body connection is implored here as I experienced an out of body experience. I could see myself being closed by an invisible force and could not scream, as if my voice had disappeared. I truly felt as though I might die, yet there was nothing anyone could do to help.
Unruly Bodies 