Women of Mali

The already beautiful women in Mali are deciding to embellish their features by using bleaching products that makes their skin white. These bleaching products make their dark skin more pallid, but cause pain and blemishes. Women bleach their skin to be accepted and be viewed by men with a more salacious desire. The thing is, women are causing unsalubrious pain to themselves it is hurting their moral well-being. These women probably have ebullient personalities and are very jovial, but they probably do not know the harm they are doing to their bodies. I find it mesmeric that women would bleach their skin just to be accepted or draw more attention to men. I hope that in Mali the women educate themselves with what they are doing to their bodies and stop bleaching their skin for the good of themselves.

You Tube Commercial Response

The campaign for beauty you tube commercial was really amazing. It really showed what is going on today with body image and how girls are being influenced by the media's perspective of beauty. I liked how it actually referenced other commercials, billboards, and magazine adds. The commercial empowered me and I hope it will also empower others.


I believe that the central message of this commercial is to turn away from the media's perspective of beauty. In our world today, the media has "brainwashed" us with their perspective of beauty. It's time that we stop listening to the media's idea of beauty and start realizing that everyone is beautiful inside and out. I think that this is what the commercial is getting at. All people see are super skinny models and believe that everyone should look like this. We were all made in different shapes and sizes. Everyone is unique and we need to embrace that. I believe that this is what the campaign for beauty is trying to express to us.

Symposium

During our symposium, we began talking about the four cardinal virtues. It was really interesting to hear others views on prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice. We spent a lot of time trying to understand how these four virtues tie into our daily lives and even if they do. Then, we were asked to say what virtue we would add to the list of virtues if we could. I said that I would add tolerance. I would like to add tolerance because our world is and has been troubled with hatred. The world needs to gain tolerance for other races, religions, and cultures. I believe that tolerance would be a great virtue towards the list of the four cardinal virtues.
Overall, I really enjoyed our symposium. It opened my mind to new ideas and beliefs. Now I have a better understanding of the Ancient Greek society and my classmates views.

Ancient Greek Society

Women's roles in Athens were very different from those in Sparta. Women in Athens were more refined I guess you could say. In Sparta women "wore the pants" in the family, had control of land, and competed with men in athletic competitions. In Athens, the women also had control of land but they had a guardian called a kyrios who controlled every aspect of the woman's life. In Athens the women were more restricted to what they could do, unlike in Sparta where the women were able to have more freedom.

Even though the Greeks were considered advanced and culturally elite, I believe that every great society has it's flaws. As for the Greek culture, one of it's flaws was gender equality. Overtime, gender equality did change as most flaws do.

I believe that women were depicted in more of a reformed manner by artists. After understanding Ancient Greek society more closely, I realized that women were supposed to act proper and therefore artists portrayed this in their artwork.

Beauty

Youth is beautiful. Youth is beautiful because when you are young you're in love with life, care-free, and ready for anything. When you're young you let your confidence shine through and that, I believe, is beautiful.

Today, many people believe that a "perfect" human form is a skinny beautiful woman or a man with stunning features, good looks, and a "hot" body. The thing is, everyone is different. I believe that people's views on a "perfect" form need to be changed. I personally don't think there is a "perfect" human form. Like I said before, everyone is different and you aren't going to see a super model walking down the street on a daily basis. The culture we live in today is corrupted with perfect beauty and unrealistic fantasies. Women are expected to look perfect, have a large chest, and be skinny. Men are expected to be somewhat muscular and have good looks. The crazy thing is we were all born with different shapes and sizes and that is why we are unique. Our world needs to turn away from our images of a "perfect" human and realize that we are all beautiful and unique.

What is beauty to me?

Nature
Nature to me, is beauty. I believe that nature is beautiful because it was created to make people happy. Nature is lush and beautiful. When you go to a forest, for example, or see pictures of one, you see the scenic green trees and bright flowers and it puts a smile on your face. Nature is untouched beauty. It hasn't been remastered or photo-shopped. It's just there, beautiful in itself. Nature is what beauty is to me.






Laughter
I see beauty in laughter. Laughter is beautiful to me because even though everyone speaks different languages we all laugh in the same language. I also believe laughter is beautiful because everyones' laugh is different. From high-pitched to low-pitched, you never hear the same laugh. Your laugh gives you your own special personality and that is beautiful. Laughter is what beauty is to me.

I have created my blog =].