Part 5 Readings

Article 24, Rape as Social Murder, definitely caught my attention. I have always thought rape was a horrible thing, probably one of the worst things that could happen to somebody. Reading those details and getting that mental image made me cringe for girls that have experienced such an awful thing. It's sad that so many girls have had to experience rape. I wish more girls had the strength to report these guys so the government could see how prevalent this situation is and come up with a much harsher punishment for the rapist.

Another article that stood out to me was Article 26, Trends in Delinquent Girls' Aggression and Violent Behavior: A Review of the Evidence. Its hard to believe that between 1991 and 2000 girls' arrests increased by 25.3% while arrests of boys decreased by 3.2%. I think girls are starting to fight back from all the shit they have been put through and that is where all this violent behavior is coming from. In the past girls have always been supposed to sit quietly and not voice their opinion or fight for something they thought was right. Guys ways have always been the right way, and that was that. Today, more and more girls are learning to stand up for themselves. Violent aggression and behavior is in no way the right way to stand up or fight for what you believe, but that is what a lot of girls have started doing. Also, I think so many girls have been abused by their boyfriends and see fighting as a way to channel negative emotion. They got abused when they did something wrong, so in return they abuse somebody else when something is done wrong. It goes back to the circle of violence. It's the only was some girls have been shown to solve problems, so they try to use violence to solve theirs.

Part 3 Reading

In response to Part Three, the article “Not Just a Paper Doll: How Models Manage Bodily Capital and Why They Perform Emotional Labor,” really caught my eye. It’s amazing to me what models will do to get the body they need to be recognized by modeling agencies. Modeling is such a stressful occupation in its self. Between the emotional labor and the physical labor, it can really be a lot for a girl to handle. Models are usually young in age, and all this stress at such a prime time in their life makes it even harder.
Models tend to become anorexic or bulimic because their weight is such an important thing. I’ve never understood why the models we are supposed to look to for fashion advice are always these girls that are so unreal in size. It’s almost kind of discouraging when it looks one way on the model and then looks totally different on someone of normal size. Why can’t models just be people of normal size?
I think the media is corrupting these girls by making them think they need to be super skinny to be able to be successful. I know it was their choice to become a model, but the lengths these girls are going to is way too far.