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No Shave November
“No Shave November” has become a trend where guys do not shave for the entire month of November, growing their victorious beards and basking in their masculinity. Well guess what boys, I’m participating this year. Continue reading
Not Feelin’ too Gouda
Cheese is definitely my favorite food. I am a strong advocate of cheese, have eaten it daily almost religiously, and believe that it can be incorporated into every meal of the day. Breakfast? Cheesy eggs. Lunch? Grilled cheese. Dinner? Fettuccine Alfredo. Dessert? Cheesecake. You name it, I will find a way to put cheese on it. Except not anymore, because I’m finding that cheese and my body no longer agree, and the way that I think about food and my body has been completely shifted.
Finding a Balance
Before I took this class I was never fully comfortable with my body, how it functioned, or of other peoples bodies. I would think it inappropriate or awkward to talk about bodily functions, saw myself as overweight and unattractive, and be overly self conscious around others. Continue reading
The Eb and Flow of Personal Space
As a frequent patron of the MTA I have been on my fair share of crowded buses.Yes, if you are a user of public transport your palms will now start sweating as I make you relive every time you’ve been on an extremely crowded bus.You will be familiar with the feeling of a stranger, varying in degrees of unsettling (if you think this is harsh you have not rode the Baltimore City Public Bus before), coughing hot moist mouth air down your neck from behind you, or mumbling into your ear, or having your crotch right at someones eye level for an unbroken 15 minutes, or, oh, God, accidentally touching the hand of some other person holding onto a metal bar for support. How awful.It becomes a consuming game trying to avoid any sort of contact with the people surrounding you as you’re all sloshed around a narrow moving vehicle. The whole sweaty crowd sways together and its absolutely nasty. I will spend my entire ride on the packed bus resenting the people crowding me and being offended that the person behind me is standing so close. I mean, nothing personal here, its just that you’re all bursting my personal space bubble and it is killing me. It is making my skin crawl. Im not even claustrophobic, strangers just aren’t supposed to touch strangers.
When Are Curves Too Much?
“Excuse me, but what you are wearing is inappropriate.” That is what I was told during my many years of attending Catholic school till the 12th grade. Now what my attire consisted of most of these times where yoga pants or leggings and a simple tee. I did not always wear those kinds of pants seeing that we had uniform skirts to wear that must be only 3 inches above the knee. There were only few chances to come out of uniform. But, that is besides my point. While I thought it was okay to wear comfortable clothes that did indeed cover pretty much all of skin, my school authorities thought otherwise. I understand the rules that contribute to having productive learning environment, but I can never fully agree with the dress code. With the dress code, it wanted to avoid tight clothing or attire that revealed too much, whatever that exactly means. We were basically being told what to wear because as teenagers, school authorities could not trust us to pick out our own clothing accordingly. Now Perhaps I told you these dress codes that were essentially assigned to “everyone” in the school were not exactly directed to “everyone.” They must have only applied to those with curves. It was one of those invisible rules that were not said but obviously thought.
Of Magnums and Male Egos; My Experience With Condoms
Neither of us ever thought we would have this issue. Continue reading
Illusion Never Changed Into Something Real
My first thought on reading this article from xojane about digitally retouching magazine photos was, “No wonder I’m so bad at spotting celebrities out and about!”
But if you want to go all the way down the rabbit hole, talk to a digital retoucher at a fashion and celebrity glossy, which is what I did. The retoucher I spoke with — who preferred to remain anonymous — is a 20 year veteran of the trade. He came up when digital retouching was in its infancy, when edits were still being painted on with an actual airbrush (like, with real paint). His mentor was the exclusive retoucher for one of the most famous supermodels of the 1990s.
I think in some ways we’re holding magazine photo shoots to an unreasonable standard of “reality.”
BMI bullshit and Fatness
Many people use the BMI scale to judge whether or not they are at a healthy weight, even doctors use this scale to assess health but it was never supposed to be used as a measure of health. Continue reading
Don’t want none.
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.”
Unruly Bodies 