The issue of women and body image is definitely a major controversy prevalent in society today. Women of all ages have a specific perception of what they consider to be "beautiful" and try the best they can to adjust themselves to fit that description. I would say this is borderline unhealthy? We need to learn to accept what we look like and add our physical features under the category of "beautiful" in our minds. I put the word "beautiful" in quotations because I feel that there is no exact definition of the word. Yes, dictionaries may define the term as an adjective describing someone or something visually appealing, but visually appealing can encompass so many different physical features, not just what is deemed beautiful by the media. We need to get passed the notion that there is only one type of beauty. Like she said in the video of this blog, women come in all different shapes and sizes and there is not one that is the best or prettiest. The media needs to put a stop to making people feel like they need to conform to celebrity standards. Many people don't realize that when celebrities are featured in a magazine, TV broadcast, newspaper, or other form of mass media, they are severely edited to fix what society deems as "imperfections" to ones physical state. Technology is so advanced that digital editors can actually re-create and alter what we seem to think are blemishes so ones physical appearance. I am still blown away by this technology. I actually once watched a YouTube video of this digitalizing feature and it really is amazing. It truly makes someone look like a completely different person. All people, men and women alike, need to start to understand that these visions of beauty that we strive to achieve are not worth the time, cost, and effort. Like Sam says, we need to accept what we were given because if we didn't have these particular features, our ancestors would not have been able to survive whatever environmental conditions they were subject to. Also, when you think about it, our physical features and our style is what makes us different. Ultimately, it is a huge part of our individuality. What does it do if we all try to look like teh same exact thing. We will essentially lose a large piece of what makes up an individual. I think that if we just learned to accept what we were given and stop striving to be something that we're not, people will be ten times happier. Once we realize that the media makes us want to have things that we don't have so that we can spend money to get the things we don't have, we can start accepting that it isn't worth it to mess with what we were given.

I find this article extremely interesting. I myself come from one of those elementary schools that decided to incorporate Chinese into the regular curriculum. Once a day each week a Chinese-speaking woman of Asian descent would come to our class with her little cart, just like all the "specialist" teachers had to do being that the school budget didn't allow for many specialty teachers to have their own classrooms. She would spend about a half hour with us teaching us the basics of the language of Chinese. All I can remember is learning to say "Hi, How are you?" and the song "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes." I guess not much of it was really that memorable for me? I'm not really sure what the benefit of teaching Chinese in our elementary schools. Our middle schools and highschools don't offer Chinese as a secondary language course so what the point in starting something that is not going to be finished? After elementary school, our middle schools introduce us to both languages of Spanish and French. After these introductory courses, students are allowed to choose which of these two languages they wish to further study and excel in high school. I am also pretty sure that where I am from is one of those areas that there is not a huge Asian population. I am from Long Island and my town is predominantly Jewish. I am not sure why administrators and faculty feel that Chinese at such a young age will benefit us more than Spanish. In my opinion, I feel that Spanish is a more widespread language and can be used more throughout the child's lifetime. From experience, I have never needed to use Chinese in my lifetime. On the other hand, I have used Spanish, the language I chose to study throughout high school, numerous times. I think that much more people will end up taking a vacation to Mexico or an island where Spanish is the mainstream language before they even think about taking a trip half way around the world all the way to China! Maybe other areas in which the Asian population is greater, learning Chinese would benefit these children more, but I feel that my area would have greatly benefitted from being introduced to Spanish at such an early age, especially since Chinese is not offered in my district to be further studied in school. If the education administration want to continue introducing Chinese in the elementary schools they should figure out some way to incorporate classes so these children can continue their studies in the language if they think Chinese will benefit them the most. To me it just kind of seems pointless to introduce the language and basically say alright you have no mastered the Chinese of an elementary-level, which I am not even sure we did that, and this is all you can learn here.

The Japanese video games are absolutely absurd. They are beyond absurd. They are disrespectful, hurtful, unacceptable, and just downright morally wrong. Why should women be depicted as helpless victims of rape and such terrible violent, sexual behavior. I do feel that Japan needs to take action to regulate these video games. They have no business being created at all. I don't see one positive aspect coming out of them. I completely disagree with the thought that these games could be used as an outlet for the real rapists of the world and therefore decrease the rape crime rate. True rapists need severe therapy. They need to learn that inflicting sex and vioence upon women is terribly terribly wrong. Playing a video game where they can do the same thing in a virtual world is just going to make it seem more normal. It shows people that this is a real thing and this is what happens. This is not the way we should be portraying such a terrible behavior. These games are essentially promoting these violent, sexual acts and making them okay. If it is not okay in the real world, why is it considered okay in virtual reality? It just doesn't make sense. This also brings me to the thought of all those shooting video games. What makes any of these games okay? If they are not accepted in our society, why does a virtual world suddenly make it okay? The fact that the Japanese government wouldn not even make a statement to CNN about these reckless games shows mere embarrasment. They have to know that this is terribly wrong and something needs to be done about it. I wonder why the government has not created laws regulating the creating of such absurd video games. All in all, laws need to be made. What happens if little kids get a hold of these kinds of games? Their brains are no where near fully developed and these video games may teach them that rape and violence is the way to go. How are they to differentiate from what's right and what's wrong. In one of my other classes, we have been talking about the effects of violence and media. We learned that in many studies children tend to emulate exactly what they see. This completely proves my previous point. We also learned that video games on average have about 1.17 acts of violence per minute. That is a crazy number. However, on the other hand, there have been studies that showed that violence in the media is considered to be okay. It has been said that other factors overwhelm the media and that violent people choose to view violent media (not the other way around). It is also said that only a small number of predisposed children are affected, the typical viewer will not become aggressive because of it.

I agree with Sam Richards that this video clip is definitely disturbing. The irony of these little black children selecting the white baby doll as the one that they would want to play with is unbelievable. The question that I have is what kind of values are these kids parents instilling in them? Are these parents telling their kids that being white is superior? These children are so young and I just don't understand where they could pick up this kind of favoritism. I guess maybe school could play a big role. I wonder if nursery schools cater to all races, toy-wise. In the instance of the baby doll, do schools have white and black baby dolls, or do they only have white? If in fact they only provide white baby dolls for the children to play with, I am sure that since school is generally a learning environment, that theset black children are "learning" that white baby dolls are more fun or better to play with. I think that whether you have interracial classes or not, schools should have all different races of baby dolls so children are exposed to these kinds of physical differences at an early age and can better overcome the anxieties of being different or seeing different people. After watching this video it made me think, are white dolls the "generic" doll. In other words, is there a black doll made for every single white doll, or is there an abundance of white dolls. I feel that this is an extremely controversial issue. I was also thinking that although it is not a good thing that these black children are showing signs of feeling that their race is essentially inferior, maybe this is not all negative. The fact that these black children are overly accepting in playing with a white baby doll will parallel in real life. Maybe they will in fact be overly accepting of other races in general. Perhaps exposure to different races of baby dolls as a child is a way to open racial doorways and to grow up in a more united world. Overall, I think that this video is disturbing and black children should want to play with baby dolls of their own race. In addition, I don't feel that it is a negative thing that these black children want to play with white dolls. I feel it can be beneficial in the long run and can definitely open doorways to reduce racism in the future. Manufacturer's should think to make equal amounts of baby dolls of different races and display them all together. I think about when I was younger, I didn't have one black baby doll, not even a Barbie doll for that matter. I feel that if children are exposed to racial differences earlier in life, this can make for a better future.

The term "white guilt" is confusing to me. I feel that there are many perspectives in which you can view and understand this concept. In my personal opinion, I feel that I do not know what I am supposed to do. Do I play out the guilt card and take pity on those who feel personally offended by the acts of the past, or do I pull back and let the world know that I feel that I am in no way connected with the past actions of the white race. I think if I had to choose, I would pick the second option. I really do not think that I could actually attribute myself to the actions of my ancestors. I understand that it was a horrible occurence, it was a terrible time that needs to always be remembered so history does not repeat itself, but other then that what else am I supposed to do? Should we beat ourselves up over the past? No! We need to embrace the present and work to make our world today a better place. I don't feel that I need to apologies for something I had nothing to do with. I have no problem sympathizing with the terrible things that occurred and I 100% feel terrible, but in no way do I consider myself responsible in the slightest. There is also the issue that the people who feel vicitimized by the past will not let us make peace with it. They think it is wrong if we sympathize with them and they think we are being arrogant if we don't. Its a lose lose situation and there is no way to get around it. People need to realize that we had no control of what went on and that today is a new world. Clearly we don't live in a perfect world and there are still millions of problems, but we live in world that is much more advanced and civilized then it was in the past. We need to move on from feeling guilty and sympathizing. What we need is to find something that we can unite over instead of continuing to separate ourselves. The more we find things that differentiate the races the more issues we are going to come by and the harder it will be to overcome. White guilt is really a tricky subject and I truly don't know how to feel about it. It is hard to determine what is right and what is wrong. I really just can't attribute the past to my present. I don't connect with the horrible things that went on. Maybe if I try to see things from a different perspective I can better understand both sides and can get a better understanding of why I should feel guilty about the past actions of my ancestors, things I am so distant from.

I would have to say that I agree and disagree with these comments. It is definitely hard to know when it is the right place and time to say something. On one side of the situation, when racism is so evident to the point that it is demeaning to a group or an individual person, people need to learn to speak up. I think of the video of the Muslim woman that we watched in class. In this sort of situation I feel that the right thing would definitely be to stand up for her. When people are deliberately discriminating against a person or group of people, other people are needed to stand up for what is right. I personally have never dealt with any severe form of discrimination first hand, but I could only imagine how hard it is to stand up for yourself after being knocked down so hard. I know that there are so many times when I am so utterly upset and hysterical that I can't even get the words out of my mouth to say what I am feeling. This is probably what it feels like if you are being discriminated against. I many cases, it is too difficult to stand up for yourself and this is why other people need to learn that this would be the right time to speak up in defense of others. Even though many people may feel that this is not their place to be "butting in" to a situation that does not directly involve themselves, it really is. The person being discriminated against will be extremely thankful in the end. It is a great feeling when someone defends your honor. I also see the other side of the situation. Like myself, there are so many shy people in this world. In many cases people find it extremely difficult to stand up for themselves, let alone for others. So many people are brought up to keep to themselves and to not "butt in" to other people's business. If you think about it, there are definitely many situations in which this would be a good philosophy. I know there have been so many times that I wish my parents did not involve themselves in my issues. I know this doesn't compare to something like racial discrimination, but it definitely applies. People may not want to put themselves in danger by standing up for someone else. You never know where violence can come in to play and so many people are so fearful of what others may take to the situation. Overall, it is extremely hard to decipher when to step in and when to keep to yourself. Although standing up for someone may be admirable, there are definitely times when it is not appropriate to involve yourself in the business of others.

This article confuses me. I'm really unsure as to why Constance McMillen felt that she needed to ask permission to bring her desired date to prom. Why should the school board have a say in this decision? This is supposed to be a free country, she should just be able to go with whoever she would like to go with, in my opinion. I think it is kind of ironic that the school board feels that same-sex dates will distract the "educational process." I did not know that prom was considered an educational experience? I'm pretty sure that to the majority of students, if not all students, prom is considered a social event. We don't see textbooks and chalkboards when we walk into prom, do we? What distraction to the educational process could this possibly cause? I don't understand what kind of school wants to discourage social interaction. Along side education, social experiences shape a person for life and have just as big an impact as education itself. The prohibition of same-sex dates accomplishes nothing besides creating a traumatic social experience for students who wish to attend the prom with someone of the same sex. I thought the school district was supposed to look out for the best interest of its students, I guess not if they want to wreak such havoc in their innocent teenage lives. I also feel that by the school board banning same-sex dates, they are asking for controversy. I'm sure there are many students who feel strongly on the subject and will begin to riot and violence could possibly be involved. People do not control their sexual orientation, homosexuality is just as normal as heterosexuality and the school board needs to learn to accept differnces among its students. On top of everything, it is absurd that students are not free to wear what they are comfortable wearing to prom. If a girl wants to wear a tuxedo because she does not feel comfortable in a dress, go for it! What harm does it cause...absolutely none! The other students are not going to drop dead to the floor seeing a girl walk into prom wearing a tuxedo. Maybe some students will laugh, but that is it. Most importantly, it blows my mind that the school doesn't realize that the rest of the students are going to place blame on Constance McMillen for essentially being responsible for the cancelling of their prom. They are putting her in an extremely dangerous position in which people can cause serious problems and possibly use violence against her. Does the school board care nothing about the safety of its students, homo or heterosexual? I feel that this entire controversy needs to be re-evaluated and the school board needs to understand that they are making the situation into something that it is not.

Wow. I think Yvrose's optimism in this situation is outstanding. If this were to happen in the United States most businessmen and women would have panic attacks and break down right from the start, yet Yvrose has the determination and power to start from the bottom and work her way up. If I was in her position I would be crawling up in a corner and just crying until I couldn't any more. There is no way that I could imagine what it is like to have my entire life earnings swept away just like that. It's unbelievable. I want to backtrack for a minute and let everybody know how amazing I think it is that Yvrose basically carries her entire business in a plastic bin on her head every day. It blows my mind that Yvrose has only obtained the education of a fifth grader and still understands how to run a successful business. There are so many difficult concepts to put together to make a business successful and in some way, shape, or form Yvrose was able to figure it out without any common training that most people here in the United States go through. Exchange of different currencies is an extremely difficult conept to grasp with the knowledge of only a young child. I could only imagine what kind of business Yvrose could run with a college education and the training that all business majors go through here in the United States. I never realized how much we take education for granted here in the United States. I grew up with the assumption that I was automatically going to college and getting a job. There was no doubt in my mind and it kills me to see that so many people have to make do and get by with the little that they have. Yvrose is a remarkable woman for getting right back on her feet after such a disaster as this earthquake in Haiti. When I think about how Yvrose invested all her capital in the Dominican Republic the day before the earthquake occurred, it makes me think of September 11th. On the day of September 11th my dad was in the first tower just 20 minutes before the first plane hit it. Fortunately he go out in time, but it really makes you think that you never know when you're going to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I find it so sad that even though Yvrose invested all her money and now no one can pay her back, the bank is still demanding money from her despite the devastation that is known about worldwide. You would think they could cut her some slack being that she has to keep her kids in school and keep a roof over their heads, but of course there is no compassion.

I think this is absolutely absurd. For what purpose does the immigration law not recognize same sex partners? I don't think that the United States has the right to tear this family apart. People should be able to be with who they want to be with without interference from the government. Why can't we make our own decisions? I thought the United States was supposed to stand for freedom. All people, whether heterosexual or homosexual should not have to fear being torn apart from their families. A family is a unity and no one should have to feel unsafe within their own families. It must be terrible to have to go to sleep every night knowing tha when you wake up the United States government could be banging on your door trying to rip you out of your place of comfort and deport you. What satisfaction does this give these officials? It just doesn't make sense to me that anyone in their right mind could have the heart to do this. In my eyes they are not doing anything wrong, so why disturb something peaceful? There should be no reason that these people should be treated differently by the United States government just because they are gay. I am in full agreement that the United Americans Family Act (UAFA) should be passed immediately. This act says that same sex partners can petition for their foreign born partners so the can legally stay with their family without fear of being deported. People should not have to feel frightened and threatened in their own home, or anywhere for that matter. It also doesn't make sense to me that it matters that she is an immigrant. What's the difference? As I said before, the United States is supposed ot stand for freedom and free will so as an immigrant I think that she is undoubtedly appreciative of the freedom we are supposed to be instilled with in the United States. Why does the government want to make her re-think her choice in coming here? It just doesn't make sense to me. Not only does this hurt the one whose being torn apart from their family, but what about the family itself? In this case this woman had two young kids. What are they supposed to do? Accept the fact that their mother was just ripped out of her household without as much of a goodbye? No, that just is not right. I don't get why the United States government would want to cause such issues. They are inherently hurting families everywhere. Most importantly, these kids are going to suffer more then anyone. As we saw in the video, one of the young boys started to cry thinking about his mother being carried from her home against her will. Why does the United States want to cause such havoc?

I 100% agree that $7,000 is just whoa. That is a lot of money to spend on a sexually enhanced doll. I am completely in agreement with you that it is ridiculous to spend this kind of money on something like this. Especially with the economy the way it is today, I don't feel that this would be an intelligent investment. People need to concentrate on preserving any extra money and not spending it on unnecessary purchases. The more money we save, the better off we will be. However, aside from the outrageous price, I do see how these kind of features could be interesting to a single man who may not be able to meet women easily and would like to satisfy certain needs in a different way. I won't go as far as saying this technology is brilliant, but I do think that Douglas Hines will be very successful through his enhanced sex toy. People jump at new technology. I feel that society today is based around the improvement of it. The minute some form of advanced technology is introduced into the world, people go crazy and have to have it. Who wants to be stuck in the past with old gizmos and gadgets when you can get your hands around the newest, latest and greatest. Hines really gets into his clever invention with all the life-like features such as skin thats warm to the touch, comprehensive verbal skills, and snoring in its sleep. Although I do feel that it would be incredible awkward to take this as far as sleeping with a doll like this. To me that is just a little much. Hines will definitely make a fortune on a product like this. There is no doubt in my mind that the men of today will jump at such an advanced form of technology. In my opinion, men fall hand in hand with technology and sex, they love both, so what wouldn't they love about it put together? I'm not so sure that the male version of this doll will bring Hines as much money as the female form. Although women have sexual desires as well, I feel that men would be more inclined to make this sort of purchase. However, I'm sure there are some women out there that would absolutely love something like this. Everyone is different so who am I to say anything. Overall, I do agree with you that the target audience would most likely be geared towards men, not women. I am also in agreement with you that women would not want their significant others to own a Roxxxy. I personally wouldn't want my boyfriend to have something like this. I don't feel that women want something to take their place. I feel that this is sort of a sexist concept. Women don't want to be replaced by a doll, end of story.