Unrealistic Expectations of Women
I can’t tell you how many times I have opened up a fashion magazine, listened to adds on the radio, watched commercials on TV, or observed the stereotyping in today’s extremely judgmental society and seen the effects that our expectations have had on people, especially young women. There are so many instances throughout the course of everyday life, that I feel expected to live vicariously through the body of a Victoria’s Secret model. I can only wonder how many others feel this way as well.
I was recently leafing through the pages of the 2002 Sport’s Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, and within a matter of five minutes, I was majorly downing my body and my looks. I couldn’t help but compare my body to that of a woman who is 5’10” and weighs 105 pounds, when the average female is 5’6” and weighs 140 pounds. It’s no wonder there are so many cases of anorexia and bulimia when a model, comparable to the stick figures drawn by kindergartener's everywhere, is yet another symbol of what is considered to be beautiful.
Another article that caught my eye was in an old Cosmopolitan magazine I just had lying around. It was entitled, “Five Fixes That’ll Make Him Want You.” Now, my initial reaction was one of frustration. Why is there so much pressure to make the opposite sex want you. It’s a dreaded curse that is utterly inescapable. We will always be trying to impress the opposite sex. There is always going to be something about us that isn’t quite right, or one flaw that if we could just in some way fix, we’d be perfect. Girls, let me ask you something. Do you think those models are happy? They are constantly under an enormous amount of pressure to keep the body they have, to not eat, and to be absolutely flawless.
Joseph Stalin became leader of the USSR after Lenin’s death in 1924. Lenin had a government of abstemious communist government. When Stalin came into government he moved to a radical communist society. He moved away from the somewhat capitalist/communist economy of Lenin time to “modernize” the USSR. He wanted to industrialize and modernize USSR. He had overworked his workers, his people were dying, and most of them in slave labor camps. In fact by doing this Stalin had hindered the USSR and put them even farther back in time.
In “On Free Choice of the Will”, Augustine indicates the importance of his beliefs and opinions of human nature and of God. He thinks as greatly of God as possible and centralizes his thoughts of goodness with the concept of being/form (God); he also gives a description of how God’s rightness can be interpreted clearly through the evil doings of the world. One of the biggest and most difficult problems facing people is the problem of doing evil. If God is being, unchanging, eternal and all-powerful, then how is it that people do evil? Augustine tries to solve the problem by examining the “source of evil” and “what evil is”. He explores the ways in which to live a happy life and an evil-free life by having a perfectly ordered soul—a life willed by the virtues—through free will. In the pursuit to find out how it is that evil exists, Augustine explores how people sin with inordinate desire as the driving force and free will. He lists the things we need to possess in order to sin and to live a happy life—goods of the will and temporal goods—that is, one cannot sin without temporal goods, inordinate desire, and free will. In the same way, one cannot live a happy life without goods of the will and free will.
We hear sayings everyday such as “Looks don’t matter; beauty is only skin-deep”, yet we live in a decade that contradicts this very notion. If looks don’t matter, then why are so many women harming themselves because they are not satisfied with how they look? If looks don’t matter, then why is the media using airbrushing to hide any flaws that one has? This is because with the media establishing unattainable standards for body perfection, American Women have taken drastic measures to live up to these impractical societal expectations. “The ‘body image’ construct tends to comprise a mixture of self-perceptions, ideas and feelings about one’s physical attributes. It is linked to self-esteem and to the individual’s emotional stability” (Wykes 2). As portrayed throughout all aspects of our media, whether it is through the television, Internet, or social media, we are exploited to a look that we wish we could have; a toned body, long legs, and nicely delineated six-pack abs. Our society promotes a body image that is “beautiful” and a far cry from the average woman’s size 12, not 2. The effects are overwhelming and we need to make more suitable changes as a way to help women not feel the need to live up to these unrealistic standards that have been self-imposed throughout our society.
Something then began to occur in late 1920. Lenin was having trouble pushing his policies through. In response to this, he decided to give his closest ally, Joseph Stalin, more power. On April 3, 1922, Lenin was able to have Stalin successfully appointed to General Secretary, or leader, of the Communist Party. With this new power, Stalin began building his loyal base. He appointed loyal followers to positions of power. This in turn made these followers all the more loyal and would not dare to oppose him later on. Thi...
In the beginning Josef Stalin was a worshiper of his beloved Vladimir Lenin. He followed his every move and did as he said to help establish and lead the Bolshevik party. Much of the early part of his political career was lost due to his exile to Siberia for most of World War I. It wasn’t until 1928, when he assumed complete control of the country were he made most of his success. After Lenin’s death in January 1924, Stalin promoted his own cult followings along with the cult followings of the deceased leader. He took over the majority of the Socialists now, and immediately began to change agriculture and industry. He believed that the Soviet Union was one hundred years behind the West and had to catch up as quickly as possible. First though he had to seal up complete alliance to himself and his cause.
...de sure to give only those who agreed with him any power, and eventually Congress was filled with a majority of Stalin supporters. When Stalin’s opponents took the left side, Stalin took the right and vice versa. As a result, Stalin maneuvered his way into the Party so much that he practically guaranteed his own success as Lenin’s successor. By the time the Party's core realized what had happened, it was too late, and the only person with the authority to challenge him, was on his deathbed and incapable of speech after a series of strokes. Stalin took down Leon Trotsky and in 1925, and forced Trotsky to resign from the party. Stalin exiled Trotsky from the Soviet Union in 1929, and had him assassinated in Mexico in 1940 (Stalin). Stalin knew how to use his position as an advantage, even to the point of abusing his powers, so they he could defeat his opponents.
What girl would not and does not want to look like Barbie, or one of those models you see on at fashion shows, or even a famous actress? They have this body that every girl wants and will do anything to get; tall and thin. These models are everywhere; they surround us in magazines, posters, advertisements, television shows, music industry, and at shopping centers. This perfect women figure is surrounding us, making us, women, believe that that is the only figure accepted in this world. Those women who do not look like that are laughed at, and picked on. Women will do whatever is on their hands in order to get the body everyone considers accepting. A few will go to the extremes and cut down on the amount of meals they are eating, they’ll increase the time exercising, and some will even get plastic surgery done. All this for the “pe...
Lenin’s death in 1924 left uncertainty about who should become the next leader. Lenin had discussed within his inner circle and mentioned Stalin and Trotsky as possible candidates but stated that Stalin should not succeed him because he was rude. Only Lenin’s inner circle knew about these sentiments. From the beginning Stalin was placed in opposition to Trotsky. After Stalin came to power in 1924 an opposition mounted involving Trotsky, Zinoviev, and Kamenev, this united opposition called for local control and autonomy as well as opening up debate within the party.The opposition had a centrist position in politics that aligned itself with the previous position of Lenin. Bukharin was another of Stalin’s opposition he represented the right and called for a continuation of NEP policy.Stalin opposed his stance by calling for rapid industrialization. In 1926, Zinoviev, Trotsky, and Kamenev were removed from the Politburo because Stalin saw them as a threat. On July 11th, 1928 there was an exchange between Kamenev and Bukharin in this communication they express a need for Stalin to be overthrown because he is manipulating ideology to support his positions.(Suny 2003)...
The presence of evil has been a conflicting view amidst various philosophers dating back thousands of years. With the belief in God across the world, an essential question arises: Since God is claimed to be omniscient, omnipotent, and all-loving, then how can there be evil in the world? Augustine of Hippo, a preeminent philosopher who was born in Algeria, North Africa in 354, had attempted to expound this significant contradiction. In 360, Augustine followed the religion of Manichaeism, which was founded by a Persian man named Mani. They believed that humankind, being a byproduct of the devil, was inherently evil and, therefore, not culpable for evil in the world. With the belief that humans were capable of free will, Augustine ultimately broke ties with the Manichaeans. Human beings as one entity of body and soul were made good by the almighty God and with their free will were able to cause evil phenomenons to occur, which rules out the idea that God is the cause of evil. Peter Kreeft was one that agreed with the ideals of Augustine and offered an answer to why God created the possibility of evil.
The most fashionable, sought after magazines in any local store are saturated with beautiful, thin women acting as a sexy ornament on the cover. Commercials on TV feature lean, tall women promoting unlimited things from new clothes to as simple as a toothbrush. The media presents an unrealistic body type for girls to look up to, not images we can relate to in everyday life. When walking around in the city, very few people look like the women in commercials, some thin, but nothing similar to the cat walk model. As often as we see these flawless images float across the TV screen or in magazines, it ...
Gregor Samsa’s mother, whose name is never revealed, is a physically and constitutionally weak woman. She cares dearly for Gregor which is first shown by her distress as Gregor does not wake up at his usual time. It is evident that Gregor’s mother has the hardest time coping with his transformation. She can not bear to lay eyes upon Gregor. Though she has trouble adjusting, she doesn’t stop loving her only son. As Gregor’s mother and sister begin to move furniture out of his room, his mother stops to contemplate whether this is the right course of action. As Sheldon Goldfarb states in his critical essay, “When his mother and sister start removing his furniture, his mother's second thoughts provoke him to resist: he does not want to give up his human past and the possibility of returning to it” (Goldfarb). On the outside, Gregor’s mother reacts with repulsion at the sight of the bug, but on the inside still cares deeply about her son underneath. Gregor is able to see this and it gives him new hope.
In his book Confessions, Saint Augustine writes about his conversion from a Manichee to a Christian. He confesses to God and asserts that God is “incorruptible and inviolable and unchangeable” (Augustine 111). Based on his deep faith in God, Augustine abandons the concept of Manichee dualism and believes in God as “not only [the] good but the supreme good” (114). At first he has no idea what the nature of evil is, but finally he starts to understand that the nature of evil is not a substance at all, but rather “a perversity of will twisted away from the highest substance [– God]” (Augustine 124-126). He contends that the totality, rather than the evil or goodness of individual things should be considered (125). In this essay, I am going to argue that Augustine’s reflection and understanding are better described as knowledge, rather than correct opinion.
In the Confessions, Augustine wrote about his struggle with understanding how evil exists in a world created by God. He questioned how it was possible and why God allows evil in his creations because God is supremely good. After delving into finding a solution, Augustine concluded that evil does not exist, and the things deemed as evil are caused by free will. This paper will argue that Augustine has successfully proven that evil does not exist by explaining his earlier explanation of the origin of evil taught by the Manicheans, explaining Augustine’s teachings, and finally, using the textual descriptions of Augustine’s unwillingness to convert as support for his conclusion.
... effects of a corrupting entity, what then is Christ’s work? How can a physical sacrifice save the world from sliding into nonexistence? The answer comes from another adjustment; Christ comes to pull creation back towards the eternal God. Salvation through Christ is does not look like Him coming as a warrior to vanquish the evil forces, but Him coming as a loving servant to heal the corrupted beings (i.e. sinners) back to their original state of grace. Thus, the idea of there being a war between forces of God and Evil is not compatible with truth of the Gospel; rather that God designed the world in harmony and wishes it to return to this state. This proves that, in the end, Augustine’s answer to the problem of evil is correct in accordance to Christian Confession.
In Augustine’s younger days he explored the concepts of Manicheism and studied the Manichee doctrine for nearly ten years. “Confused and bound by the ideas of his Manichee, Augustine’s interaction with astronomy and philosophy convict him that the Manichee beliefs are not the true truth” (Augustine 3, 135-136). Through the Manichee sect he was taught that God was not omnipotent and struggled...