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.
Burden (trigger warning for death)
I am heavy I am heavy I am heavy
The Process of Grief
***Death TW***
American Horror Story: Freak Show
I absolutely love these interviews that American Horror Story is putting out on YouTube. It definitely gives us a perspective on how those with unique bodies, view their own bodies, and learn to accept their own bodies.
I hate to be That person, but…
Being 4’11 and currently 90 pounds, I have never received so much body shaming and hate as I did when I was at Mary Baldwin College, an all-female school I attended freshman year. I thought that being at an all-female school, that the females would have mutual understanding, and respect one another. That they would be strong supporters of self-ownership, and believe that whatever we choose to do with our bodies should be our business. But what I found was the complete opposite. Continue reading
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.
From “Abs” to Men with a “V”
I remember in high school that it was “hot” for both guys and girls to have “abs” especially a “six-pack”. It was especially attractive if a guy or a girl had abs at all. It was almost like a major plus. I remember having conversations with my male classmates and they would often talk about going to the gym just to get “abs” so that they could get more girls to notice them and be more sexually attracted to them. However, it seemed to me that they also wanted to get “abs” just so that could feel better about themselves and their own body. It was almost as if they would feel more comfortable in their own skin if they had “abs”. One of my closest friends in high school had “abs”. My friend loved her “abs” because many guys thought that her abs were “hot”. She would always talk about how her abs really turned guys on when she would have sex with them. Having other guys express their excitement and arousal towards her body and her “abs” really made her feel good about herself. It often makes me wonder if those same guys would feel the same if she did not have “abs” and her stomach was just flat.
Male/Female: To be or Not to Be
After reading Dean Spade Mutilating Gender essay I am baffled and saddened. It seems as if gender binary is causing more strife in society than one cares to recognize or admit. Why does every entity in life need to be categorized in order to be accepted? Due to the ancient history of gender roles/identity and my new achievement of joining Biologist I am sure the discovery of karyotyping is throwing a wrench in the system. Continue reading
The Mirror’s Perception
“It’s not all bad. Heightened self-consciousness, apartness, an inability to join in, physical shame and self-loathing—they are not all bad. Those devils have been my angels. Without them I would never have disappeared into language, literature, the mind, laughter and all the mad intensities that made and unmade me.”
― Stephen Fry
Unruly Bodies 