Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Cosmetics and Self-Image

After yesterdays conversation about my Design Project 1 and what I really wanted to protray I went and researched Cosmetics and their link to self-perception and self image. I would really like to be able to link my window clings to an organization that promotes positive self-image in women but, I have yet to find the right one. I did however find a paper written by Sarah Scott a psychology major at Hanover College that did a social experiment to link anxiety to makeup. It was an amazing study. She had participants wear different types of makeups in different situations and measured their anxiety levels. The full research can be found here:
http://psych.hanover.edu/research/Thesis07/ScottPaper.pdf. I also checked into a few of the books she had on her bibliography. There seems to be a link between self-image in females and the confidence they derive from wearing makeup in different situations.



I did find the Step Up Women's Network promoting positive self-esteem in women. They are national organization, while they don't have an office in Baltimore they do have programs in D.C. and N.Y.C. http://www.suwn.org/

I also found The National Association of Self Esteem an organization that wants to promote self esteem into the fabric of American Society. http://www.self-esteem-nase.org/

Obama and Racism


I was reading an article at Worldpress.com from the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8258805.stm), it was an interesting article mostly quoting other publications about the current issues with the Healthcare reform. I am one of the people that belives that some of the opposition is because of racism. I know a family that is against Obama, they say for political reasons, but whenever we talk about his policies and reforms they contridict themselves and seem to only be arguing because they dislike him. I think that while they whitehouse is playing it safe and trying to stay in the middle of this arguement, I do think there is an undercurrent of racism in older Americans that is keeping the healthcare issue at bay.

While I agree with some of the statements in article they seem very bias as well. The quote by Maureen Dowd about the congressman who heckled the president:

"Surrounded by middle-aged white guys... Joe Wilson yelled 'You lie!' at a president who didn't. Fair or not, what I heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!... But Wilson's shocking disrespect for the office of the president - no Democrat ever shouted 'liar' at W when he was hawking a fake case for war in Iraq - convinced me: Some people just can't believe a black man is president and will never accept it",

which was quoted in the article, I think takes the situation too far. I don't think the congressman is outwardly racist and I think stating that way created a racial divide. I do; however, believe that in some way the remark was not about the politics but about the man. They did not want to listen so they cast it off as lies.

I am of the opinion that if there was not the word "racism" or the idea of the term of it then it would have died out long ago. In order to have the term, you have to have the ideas and those ideas lead to gaurding conversations and tentions between relations. I think political correctness breeds racism in some form or another. I don't think we should view Barack Obama as just the first black president (note: I do think he should be credited for this because it shows the progress of this nation), but I think he should be known for that he has done. He is a president that speaks his mind and isn't afraid to cause a stir. He is also the president and people should respect that.