It made me realize that for women, the grass is always greener on the other side. If you have large breasts, you want smaller ones. If you have small breasts, you want larger ones. If your butt is too flat, you want to make it rounder. If your butt is too round, you want to flatten it. If your legs are too long, you want them to be shorter. If your legs are short, you desperately want them to be longer. I literally could go on and on forever. Bottom line: women, myself included, should really start appreciating themselves for who they are, no matter is anyone else likes it or not. We don’t need approval from others to be happy.
A lot of my friends from home ask me why I don’t have a boyfriend here at Penn State, and I simply reply that I don’t look like all of the other girls. Most Penn State men do choose women who fit the stereotype that I described above. If often wonder…when do the rest of us get noticed? My mom always says, “Oh, honey, you’re the type of girl every man wants to marry.” Well, that’s nice and all, but what if I don’t want to wait until I’m 40 to find someone?! I just find the whole situation unfair, and I’m sure there are other girls out there who feel the same way I have always felt. This leads me into the play we got to see on Tuesday about ethnocentrism. At first, I was totally confused of what was going on, but then it all sunk into me. I didn’t understand what was happening at first because I thought it was odd for a woman to want smaller breasts, because like Dr. Mulvey mentioned, all girls today do their best to have as much cleavage showing as possible. The play opened my eyes to a culture where small, flat-chested women are the ideal instead of busty Pamela Anderson look-a-likes.
Regarding this video comment posted, it is really refreshing to see a female actually saying this out loud to reaffirm our beliefs. The girl in this video was talking about reminding females that we are all beautiful, inside and out, no matter what we look like. Personally, I feel that this concept is nice to hear, yet I never really believe it myself. With the media the way it is now, how could I? No wonder so many women have eating disorders and are not satisfied with themselves…we have to live up to a certain image that men will find to be attractive. I know that some guys have certain “types”, and some actually are attracted to girls who do not look like the norm, but most guys that I know like the typical bombshell—tall, thin, blonde/brunette, large breasts, large butt, tiny waist, big lips, large eyes, and long legs. This is why most of the time I feel like I do not measure up to the standard that women must meet today.
The question of global availability comes into play…should there be more regulation?...should there be more wholesome video games created? Personally, I feel that video games displaying sexual torture, rape, stalking, and violence should either be banned or never made in the first place. I find it very amusing that Japan would not make any kind of statement to CNN, only that the government realizes that these games are a problem and they are checking to see if the game industry is self-policing itself. Obviously, this is not working. I feel that more attention should be paid to the regulation of the ideas that video game creators have, so that these crude video games would not even have a chance to be put on the shelves in the first place.
In one of the more famous hentai video games, “Rape Lay”, players can grope and even lift up the skirt of the female character, her mother, or her sister. Also, repeated rape of the characters is commonplace, too. This is just absolutely ridiculous to me, because in the United States these situations are exactly what boys and men are taught NOT to do. Men are taught to respect women and not touch females inappropriately. Yet in Japan, this is what boys and men are being taught to do?! Absurd. Rightly so, these video games have infuriated women’s rights groups due to the extreme amount of sexual violence shown, especially rape. I am very happy about the fact that “Rape Lay”, as well as other vulgar video games, have been taken off the shelves in Tokyo, Japan. But, now it is still available to the entire world…people of all ages can download the game and play it in the privacy of their own home.
In response to this video, all I have to say is..."wow". Like many other people have written, it is absolutely shocking to see how far the production of video games has gone in today's world. I thought the United States was bad enough, but I think Japan has really gone too far. I know they have always been known for their video games and animation, but this recent culture of hentai games is appauling. In these games, violence against women is featured, such as rape, torture, and bondage. I find the object of the games, revenge, to be disturbing, also. It also surprised me how CNN could not even show full clips of the hentai games, because in the United States, they are considered to be "pornographic". The hentai games then go global, since once they are advertised in Tokyo, Japan, they are then digitized and put online for the whole world to see...meaning, even innocent, little children could be exposed to these games and brainwashed.
. It will be hard to get used to being in a minority, but it must be done because the situation is inevitable. I am extremely interested to see how people will be treated in their different races once the changes take place. Will whites still be treated well when they are the minority? Will the Asians, African Americans, and Hispanics be treated with more respect as the majority? The future will tell us soon enough and we will be able to see where the transformation is going to take us and how the world will be run and managed.
A fact that I found to be really interesting is: “The Census Bureau estimates that minorities will constitute a majority of the nation’s overall population in about three decades and a majority of Americans under age 18 in about one decade.” This fact strikes me because it’s shocking to realize how soon everything will be changing in the world. People get so used to the same things and familiarity that large changes take time to adjust to. At the same time, having a mixture of races can be a good thing and a positive change to the United States and can promote more bonding and less segregation among all of the races.
Take Penn State for example...I'm very used to walking across campus every day and being in a sea of white faces. It becomes almost a comfort level for me to be in such familiar surroundings, since I also come from a very small town with mostly all white people. At times I do wish that the Penn State University Park campus was more diverse, just so that I could feel like I was growing more culturally. It makes me wonder if once white people become the minority, will we be treated as other minorities are treated presently? Everyone, no matter what color, deserves to be respected, and it scares me to think that in 2050, the white population could be treated as though they are lesser than everyone else just because they will be the minority. It comes down to the fact that people are not 100% comfortable in situations, unless they have familiar people and surroundings around.
Personally, I really enjoyed reading the article, "Births to Minorities are Approaching Majority in U.S.". While I'm not surprised by the facts stated in the article, I think that it's very eye-opening to have the cold, hard truth about the transformation that the United States is currently going through and will be going through over the next several decades. As a white woman, I find it to be honestly terrifying that by 2050, the white population will mostly likely be the minority.
![[Avatar]](/images/avatar26.png){kind=avatar}
Joint