Mascunlinity and sports

American athletes today are what kids are taught is "masculine".  Little boys all around America look up to these guys who make millions a year because they are good at playing a sport.  This is because since a boy is born they are taught that winning isn't the right thing, it's the only thing.  I remember when I was little growing up playing sports and how much I wanted to win.  Why did I want to win so bad?  Who taught me this?  The answer is my father, and the media.  When I was little a typical night was practice, games, or watching games on the television.  My father loves sports and I was raised that winning was good.  Anyway, back to my main point.  American athletes in baseball represent what masculinity is because in these games you "step up to the plate" or are noticed on the field.  This is masculine to me because as one of these athletes you are not afraid of failure.  You go out onto the field knowing if you mess up everyone is going to know about it.  This is being a man or being "masculine" because youre taking responsiblity at a young age and you dont want to fail.  Either way sometimes these competetions get pretty damn serious.  I mean at times there will be parents in the stands cussing at eachother at little league games.  Your taught to be a man early because you have pressure on you and you care about something deeply.  It's good to have your kids in sports at a young age.

This is not pointed towards anybody viewing my blog.  Trying to show how serious sports get sometimes even at a young age.  Stay frosty

We have come to hate the human body

In the first five readings since January 25th I found the article about why we hate the human body the most interesting.  I think I found this interesting because I never really realized how sick people are for loving to watch the human body be destroyed in films.  I have become accustome to seeing the human body destroyed so frequently that I feel as if it is just another form of entertianment.  But thats wrong.  You shouldn't want to see the human body destroyed...everything that we love in our lifes somehow has to deal with the body (sex, eating, etc.).  Overall I found this the most interesting because now I view things on tv differently when producers are demoralizing the image of the human body.

Peoples' perception of "ideal beauty" changes due to advertisment

Ideal beauty is something that you could say is "in the eye of the beholder."  Or is it?  Advertising in America I believe is not letting people have their own ideas and imagination when it comes to deciding the question, "what is beautiful?"  In the media you constanly see woman with unrealistic features to their bodies.  The faces and bodies are changed graphically on the computer in order for them to have "beautiful" features.  This is effecting Americas view on beauty and what it means.  People are being drug into the idea that beautiful is the women they see in the advertisments or on the tv.  This is wrong, as you can see on the picture below you can tell these pictures are messed with on the computer anyway and are giving viewers a fantasy of reality.  Basically what I am trying to get at is that America brings down the self esteem of many Americans by giving a fake perception of what beautiful is.  At the same time though, Americans need to realize what beauty is, and if they think an non-eating basically computer generated woman is beauty, then so be it.