Fat is contagious

This is a fictional book cover done by Kimberly Brittingham. She is an overweight woman in New York who designed the cover as an experiment to explore discrimination against obese persons. The story she tells of people's responses is very shocking, not because these persons reactions were somewhat peculiar, but rather because it highlights how common they are. You can read Her Account of the experiment for yourself.

Comments on the experiment can also be found on this site.

I believe the fact that we are having this conversation points to the fact that discrimination will continue to flourish in one form or another. People like to alienate anyone who is not like them or appears to be an oddity. While it is true that being overweight presents numerous health risks, the motivation to criticize does not originate from concern.

From my own experiences I find people tend to be critical of anyone who is not like them. For example I'm quite a skinny girl and people might think slim people have life easy, but it's not so. People still say mean things about your weight without even stopping to check their facts. If I got a dollar for every time people made comments about me being anorexic or starving myself, I would not have time to write this blog cause I'd be too busy spending my money.

This is not to say I can relate to a fat person's experience especially, experiences which involve people scorning you just because of your weight. At the end of the day it's up to each person to cultivate an acceptance of themselves and try to move past other people's negativity.

Anyway just had to make this post after hearing the story about the experiment...you go Kimberly!!!

Feminism Destroying Society

“In their battle to erase sex differences in every facet of modern life, feminists have squared off against Mother Nature, and she's no feminist. All of these women who make the world worse by waging a destructive war between the sexes are at war with Mother Nature." Kate O'Bierne

I sat riveted by a television programme on the cable station EWTN this week. Kate O'Bierne, author of the new book Women Who Make the World Worse purported that the feminist movement has hurt (American) women far more than it has helped them over the last 40 years.

O'Bierne's interview cited examples of how feminism has devastated American society: fracturing families; indicting little boys as oppressors and potential rapists; making American schools and workplaces into battlefields to advance feminist causes; and criticisng working mothers who afford their children "a soulless" daycare upbringing.

O'Beirne suggests that the feminist agenda is, at its core, not pro-female at all; it is instead anti-male, and she dismisses the prevailing feminist's line that men are the enemy of women's progress, suggesting that it is the professional feminists (Sen Hillary Clinton, Jane Fonda, Germaine Greer, Gloria Steinem and even "Carrie Bradshaw" of Sex and the City et al), that are most harming America and the rest of the world.

This article can be found at:
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/html/20060114t200000-0500_96574_obs_feminism_gone_wrong_.asp

Thought this article was quite interesting and was wondering what others thought about teh premises presented in the piece. Withholding my opinion for a later post.

Grills and styling gel

Grills and styling gel are fighting to be number one on my list of things that that black people could do without.

Styling gel I just hate cause I really don't know why so many people have to use it to make these ghetto fabulous hairstyles that not even a hurricane could mess up. No really, why do we hate our hair so much as black people that we have to subject it to bondage...thank god the jerri curl is gone...now can we do away with the styling gel?

Now onto grills...people find all kinds of reasons to look down on black people, now come on do we really need to give them more? Why would you want to cover up your pearly whites with something that looks like cavities in your mouth, is hard to speak with and I'm sure causes saliva to accumulate in your mouth? Come on, having grills on your teeth is not any sign of being hip, cool or rich, just a sign you will pay any amount of money to make yourselves look like poppy show.

People stop embarrassing me, especially you rappers...I'm tired of being associated with such stereotypes of blackness and tired of feeling embarrassed when I see you with your metal teeth on my tv.

Carnival vs Passa Passa

If you are a Jamaican or a Caribbean national then chances are you have heard of Passa Passa and carnival. This article is not specifically about the parties themselves but about how ideas of class and decency are dealt with in relation to the two.

Now I'm writing from my own biased point of view that I've tried to justify for sometime (unsuccessfully I might add) but to which I still seem to hold determinedly.

If you've ever watched any dancehall related clips (on youtube, the dancehall channel or where ever) that show women and men dancing together you will notice the dancing seems to be a little (well a lot) degrading to the woman. there appears to be no respect for the woman's body. She is thrown all about the place, the men jump on top of her and she performs all kinds of sexually explicit moves to get "the video light". I'm usually disgusted seeing these women allow themselves to sink to such levels. I'm especially appalled when I see women go to Passa Passa (a street dance) and other such events without panties on. These women will then proceed to dance exposing themselves to all and sundry, even going as far as to ensure their pubic area is captured on film by whichever videographer is present.

But my boyfriend has carefully pointed out to me how hypocritical I am because I am a big fan of carnival. catch me at any soca fete and I'll be wining away on whoever is near. According to him carnival is even worse because at carnival every and anyone has licence to come wine up on you and usually you and these persons are wearing almost nothing. I once participated in a carnival road march while at university and thinking on it for real i was basically prancing around on the road in panties and a bra because that's how small the costumes were, and I definitely wasn't being bashful about bending over and wining and jiggling. After all carnival is a time to get mad and lose my inhibitions.

Looking at both scenarios I have to admit even in my biased state that they are quite similar. why then do I look down on one and not the other? Apparently the whole class dynamics is at work even in matters of entertainment. therefore, it's ok for uptown, rich people to jump and prance in the streets in their underwear but not ok for downtown people to do the same?

Link to see a passa passa clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABjg4stSVNU

And a link for a carnival clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MYYzyoIdYs&feature=related

Watch and decide for yourself if I'm biased or one is more degrading for women. Maybe neither puts women in a good light.

ciao

The Value of Education

Growing up adults and everyone for that matter always say "Education is the key to success." lately I've been feeling this isn't true. Case in point, I'm 23 with a degree from a recognised university, and will soon finish my masters degree yet it's almost impossible to find a job.

I mean a real job, not any dead-end, paycheck to paycheck job (not that those are easy to get either). Granted this is not a rich country and the job market is a bit saturated, but still I see other people getting jobs I know they aren't qualified for...so why can't I get a job that I QUALIFY for? That's because education doesn't matter, being able to do a job doesn't matter. Who you know is what matters. I can testify, that's how I got my first job.

That's why sometimes I sometimes wish (foolishly some may say) that I had been born twenty years earlier, when education was a truly liberating achievement. Today you slave and study and cover yourself in debt (student loans) before you even reach twenty and at the end of the day for what?

You may say I should value education for the sheer joy of learning and not just as a tool for getting a job and a better standard of living. However I don't think anyone borrows money to go to school just for the intrinsic benefit of knowledge. Hell! we would all just cram into public libraries or stay on the internet and Google all day if we simply wanted to learn new things. But we go to university so we can get that piece of paper to prove we are "smart" so we can get a job and money.

So if we can't get the job after all that...What the hell is the value of a university education?

WELCOME TO ME!!!

New to the blogging scene but I have been reading some blogs and find the debate on some of the pages to be very interesting. I'm an opinionated person who loves to hear other people's opinions as well, so I'm hoping my page will one day grow to be a lively forum for discussions.

I have no idea how I'm going to sustain these blogs, hopefully ya'll will help me out. Most of the blogs I've read are written by Americans therefore I was hoping I could use this space to give some other viewpoint...a Jamaican one. (Don't misunderstand me, I wont claim to speak for all Jamaicans...just this one.)

Welcome to me and to you!!!!