Assignment #5

When we get up in the morning, what do we do?  We go straight to bathroom, brush our teeth, mash the zits that have formed over-night.  Then we get in the shower.  We wash our hair in our $20 a bottle shampoo so it will be bright, shiny, and healthy.  Then we lather up in our Axe body washcause who wants to smell like regular soap?  Then we shave so we’ll look fresh and clean.  Then we get out and start the hair working.  You add the thickening compound, the mousse, blow dry it with your salon-quality blow dryer and set the look with hairspray that your eyes bugged out at when you saw the price.  Then you have to find something to wear in your closet full of “nothing to wear.”  You really just want to put on a tee shirt and sweatpants, but there’s some voice that tells you that Ralph Lauren looks just a little bit better than that.  So you give in, remembering the old saying, “If it’s uncomfortable, it must look really good.”  After you’re “dressed to kill,” you head down the stairs to the kitchen in search of anything good to eat.  You really want bacon, eggs, and biscuits.  But of course, who has time and just imagine how many more pounds that would add to amount you already need to lose.  So you settle for a muffin, knowing you’re going to be hungry by 9 o’clock.  And then it’s off to school, in your car.  You like your car, it’s not an old clunker like a lot of kids have to drive, but it could be much better.  And you arrive to school and park by the kid who has the nicest car in the school, the one that turns the heads of even the teachers and administrators.  It’s just not fair, is it? 

So what was the earlier paragraph about?  Body image.  The things we revolve our entire lives around.  And for what?  Recognition?  Legacy?  Or is it because that’s what we’re taught to do?  People are taught from a very young age to look their best and have the best of everything.  Who teaches us this?  Parents, family, TV, media, friends, school?  Or all of the above?  If you guessed the last option, you are correct!  Without even meaning to, we try to make ourselves better than we actually are because “It’s what you’re supposed to do.”  Most people strive for weight loss, beauty, and a killer social life.  Few ever achieve all of those things, and even the ones who do keep trying to better themselves.  This is all so we can look and be just like those models.  You know, the Abercrombie ones, the ones in Vogue, the MOST perfect ones.  All the media teaches us is that we need to look just like the people they advertise.  And we fall for it every time. 

I found a website that really explains body image and self esteem in detail:  http://kidshealth.org/teen/food_fitness/problems/body_image.html.

It correlates with what I said, but I didn’t really pull any information from it.  If more people realized just how deeply these things affected us, I think some people might change their habits.  After writing this (definitely not before) I see just how much these materialistic ideals consume me.  But what can you do?  Theirs always one huge obstacle in the way from overcoming these issues:  high school (a.k.a. the Mecca for self esteem issues).

Pencil Face

Wow!  There’s not much else to say about the SCAD video “Pencil Face.”  It was weird, funny, and creepy all at the same time! lol  If you look REALLY closely and think REALLY hard, you can find an actual message/lesson in the movie!  To me, that message is “Don’t let your wanton desires consume you.”  When the girl had the opportunity to draw whatever she wanted, she drew food and gorged herself on a cake.  She wanted to play so she drew a kite.  Then, she wanted a huge lollipop.  Instead of as lollipop, she received what I can only describe as a portal to hell.  Little bit of a let down from a lollipop….

Then, the black hole sucked her in and I can only guess it devoured her.  It was way creepy.  Of course, as I said earlier, the mood of the whole clip was creepy.  A deserted town, a pencil with a face, a pencil that makes portals to the underworld.  But the major “Creepy clue” was the young, pale girl with long, black hair in scraggly dress–the stereotypical horror story victim. 

I have no clue what I would do if I had a pencil like that.  I probably wouldn’t even use it for fear of the first thing it drew would suck my body away!  I mean, if I KNEW it wouldn’t try to kill me, I would probably draw money.  Lots and lots of money!  I’m talking trillions!  Like bail-out worthy amounts! lol  If you have money, you can get any other material thing you want–without worrying that instead of a car you were going to get eaten alive! lol 

A bit misleading…

I only got 6 of them right on the ethnicity sorter.  I felt confused by a lot of them…. half of them looked white to me!  It was a lot harder than I thought it would be in the beginning.  There were a couple that I just really had no clue on and guessed!  I tried to picture people of that certain ethnicity that I know and compare the pictures to them and the way they looked.  That’s not the best way to go about it!  I guess that just goes to show that people can be different, even if they look the same in my eyes.  I mean, everyone is different, but looking a certain way sometimes gives misconceptions about people prematurely.  I know I’m guilty of this, but this exercise shows that people aren’t always on the inside what they appear to be on the outside.