The readings for this week have been all focused around social media, gender and stereotypes. How we both as male and females see ourselves, and what we strive to look like. There is an enormous amount of pressure to be not even just a teenager but an adult now. We see tabloids, movies and commercials all telling us how to become ‘beautiful’. But what is beautiful? How do you describe the word beautiful? There are things that we cannot change about ourselves, what if those things aren’t beautiful? Or what if there is beauty in all of us that we just can’t see anymore because society has blinded us with this unjust truth about what is meant when we say beautiful? For most of women’s’ history, I believe, there has always been this want to be beautiful. Isn’t that the goal after all, to be so pretty that a man has to marry you and you grow to have children of your own that will eventually get married and have their own family? Men and women everywhere keep themselves in this mindset about being what everyone says is beautiful. If you’re not a size 2 with legs that go on for miles, long wavy hair, bright eyes and the most gorgeous white teethed smile then you aren’t pretty, says the tabloids. Every day we see these pictures and ads for things that aren’t even related to beauty anymore, being shown to us by a young blonde woman, or a muscular handsome man. Eating disorders are a big issue that is rising with the influence of society. To look tiny one must not eat, or so the media is telling us. We can see it in everyday life that this is a serious issue and is not one that should be taken lightly. Movies, books, advertisement, they all show us these issues but avoid that fact of all the health risks and focus just on the beauty aspect of it. In women that get an insufficient amount of nutrients in a day the list of health risks is tremendous; irregular heartbeats, abnormal blood pressure, loss of bone mass, kidney and liver damage, insomnia, and irregular mensural cycles. The list for this disease in men is also ridiculously long, realizing that there shouldn’t need to be anyone living a life like this in the first place. There is no reason these beauty standards should still be in place after all the destruction they have caused people in their life. But it doesn’t stop at just the ‘perfect body image’, what about images of sexist attitudes, institutions and behaviors that can be used for making it known to all young people that they are not alone, and this isn’t how the world should portray people. Where are the support teams that are said to be there for these people when they truly believe that they are not beautiful? They are there when it’s already too late. When they are sick enough that they must be admitted into a hospital and held under critical condition until either they die or they miraculously survive but only to end up back in the same situations as soon as they return home and turn on the television to their favorite show, Americas Next Top Model. Women also have the problems of dealing with pregnancy and abortion and rape. All these things still seem taboo in modern society even though they are very real, and still happening today. These un-talked about topics are all touchy topics when it comes to the opinions of both females and males. While some are on board with feminism and having the right to have an abortion if you chose to do so, other are much more skeptical on the matter. And then it boils down to not only your rights but how did one become pregnant in the first place? Was there a hole in the condom you and your three-year partner were using, or was it a rapist that had impregnated you? What is the difference when you look at the whole picture, are you for one side and against another? So what would you describe as a feminist, how would you know if you are against feminism or are a feminist yourself. These are the questions that need to be answered because there is such a controversy between feminist rights and those that still believe that women belong in the kitchen. These roles that once just belonged to women are now becoming more and more commonly a man’s role in the household. Stay at home dads have become more popular in recent years than ever before. In the 50’s you could only imagine if a women were able to go out and work for a company, and now the CEO’s of companies such as Pepsi, General Motors, and even Hershey’s chocolate are all women. When you look at this issue as not little issues anymore, but look at the whole picture there is a lot of ground we have covered, yet there is still so much more to go. We have had amazing people fight for our rights that we today take for granted. But the fight is not over yet, oh no, the fight is just beginning.