Research Exploration Blog: Research Practicum

            In recent years, a lot of emphasis has been placed on the role that the media plays in affecting individuals’ body image.  On magazine covers, on television, and everywhere we go, it seems, the media is present to remind us that appearance is of the upmost importance and that we need to be thinner, wear expensive clothes, and just look perfect, basically. So the real question is, to what extent is the media dominating the opinions that individuals have of themselves?

            This process of body image destruction begins early, as little girls are exposed to Barbie dolls and other toys that seem to set up expectations for them that they retain for years to come.  It is no coincidence that the recent surge in the prevalence of eating disorders is likely linked to an increase in body image issues.  On television programs and in commercials, tall, thin women that weigh around 100 pounds are almost always casted to portray the everyday woman, when, in reality the everyday woman is actually around 5’4 and around 140 pounds, on average.

            The counterargument in this debate is that the media does not, in fact, have such extreme bearings on the way that individuals view themselves.  An abundance of studies and experiments have been tested which reveal that there is, indeed, a strong correlation between the media and body image, refuting the counterargument.  I intend to research a variety of case studies on these effects and, in turn, discover a lot of new information based on observed evidence regarding body image.  

            Through the UF Library, I have found some wonderful articles that I believe will really enhance my understanding of the topic and help me to dig deeper and write a more interesting and cohesive paper.  Thus far, I have found three very interesting sources: “Women's exposure to thin-and-beautiful media images: body image effects of media-ideal internalization and impact-reduction interventions,”  The Media and Body Image: If Looks Could Kill, and “The Role of the Media in Body Image Concerns Among Women: A Meta-Analysis of Experimental and Correlational Studies.”

            The impact that the media has on body image in people of all ages has interested me and fascinated me for a while now.  I do know a lot of background information on this topic, but I am hoping to develop a much more vast knowledge of all the real implications of this subject after researching and writing this paper!

The Achievement of Desire

In Richard Rodriguez's "The Achievement of Desire," the narrator refers to himself as the "scholarship boy."  I believe that there is a little bit of the "scholarship boy" in us all, as we are all striving to achieve our academic potential. Let's be honest, if we weren't striving academically, we probably wouldn't be at the University of Florida.  For me personally, I could not identify with the narrator's home life, because my parents are both college-educated and expect my siblings and I to get good grades.  However, what I could identify with the "scholarship boy" on was the idea that he was not really very intelligent, just good at regurgitating information on tests.  I often feel that I learn things simply to do well on the test, not because I really have a desire to retain the information in any capacity.  I loved that the narrator kept mentioning how people always told him that his parents must be proud of him, because I have actually heard the same thing many times after receiving an award or any kind of recognition.  The thing is, I know that my parents are proud of me, but it's not so much a choice for me to get good grades as it is my "job," as my parents like to call it.  They tell me that as a student, my job is to get good grades, just as their jobs are to make money to support the family.  I have been brought up to see education as more of a burden than a wonderful opportunity that many people don't have, unfortunately.  I, like the "scholarship boy," enjoy reading in my free time.  I don't read the extreme amount that the "scholarship boy" does, but I do enjoy reading a good book from cover to cover every now and then.  

Eula Biss' "The Pain Scale"

The pain scale, in my opinion, is simply not a reliable measurement of pain.  Pain is a subjective feeling and every single person feels pain differently, because most people have different tolerances.  As Biss states, "He was never impressed by my bleeding cuts or even my weeping sores." Biss is referencing her father, a physician, who believed that "most pain is minor." However, I'm sure many doctors see patients with bleeding cuts and weeping sores who, when asked to rate their pain on a scale from one to ten, would rate their pain a ten.  Does this seem to us to be a bit exaggerated? Absloutely.  Yet, who are we to judge the intensity of pain another person is feeling?  Pain cannot be shared or transferred, so the only person who truly knows how bad the pain is is the person who is experiencing it.  

Along with my thought that the pain scale is not reliable, I also believe it to be completely unnecessary. It seems like such a waste of time to try to explain to a patient how to rate the pain that they are feeling when they should be just focusing on how to fix the problem.  The real question is if the patient is experiencing pain or not.  I understand that this question also poses a problem, because how can we define the concept of pain.  The reality is that, most likely, people can distinguish between feeling pain and not feeling pain.  I know that when I have been sitting in a doctor's office and I have been asked to rate my pain, I tend to just say that it either hurts or it doesn't hurt at all.  The fact of the matter is, the doctor really just needs to know if the patient is feeling any pain, not really to the exact extent to which the pain is being felt.  I intend to become a doctor, and to me, it seems like a total waste of time to try and identify the patient's pain on a scale in the process of trying to relieve them of their pain.  For the most part, if a person is coming to see a doctor or a specialist, they are experiencing some degree of pain that is forcing them to be seen.

I found Eula Biss' "The Pain Scale" to be very interesting, because it sparked a lot of thoughts in me as I was reading.  This type of reading is what makes the wheels of our minds revolve.  Many confusing topics and correlations are discussed which force the reader to go to a new realm of thinking, so to speak, in order to understand the point of the reading.

Summary of Michael Pollan's "Why Bother?"

"Why Bother?" is the question that many people ask when confronted with ideas of making small living choices to reduce their carbon footprint.  In the world today, too many people believe that their individual impact on the national carbon footprint is too minute that nothing they can do or change in their daily lives will have any effect whatsoever on climate change.  However, according to Pollan, this perspective is what is making us so dependent and causing time to pass without any real changes being made.

Wendell Berry was a farmer and writer from Kentucky, who, thirty years ago, diagnosed the problems of industrial civilization as being too much "specialization." We are far too dependent on companies and other individuals to sustain us.  While specialization is a positive concept, in many ways, in the case of climate change, it is a major problem.  Climate change is the result of cheap energy, which makes it seemingly impossible to conquer climate change in our own individual lives.

The reality is, we have to bother in order to make progress in our communities and, eventually, in our nation.  By "bothering," you are setting an example for others, which can start a chain reaction that will lead to the majority of the community suddenly "bothering."  This sort of chain reaction requires viral social change, which is uncontrollable once an individual sets an example and starts a pattern.  The key is to start small: give up meat, observe the Sabbath, or, best of all, plant a garden.  Pollan believes that growing some of your own food is the single most powerful thing that each individual can do.  By planting a garden and producing some of our own food, we are changing our ways from being dependent and divided to being independent and self-sustainable.  There is an abundance of benefits of planting a garden, including food that is local, very fresh, very tasty, and very nutritious.  When you are working in the garden, you are burning calories without even knowing it, which is an added bonus of being your own producer.  "During World War II, victory gardens supplied as much as 40 percent of the produce that Americans ate."(p. 94)  If we are entering a time when, as predicted, we need to learn how to provide for ourselves, what better way to start than by simply planting a garden.

The fact is, planting a garden is the first step to real climate change.  It will cause us to reestablish ourselves as not only consumers, but also producers and citizens.  We will get to know our neighbors better and lose the sense of helplessness that so many people have acquired by depending so much on others to provide for their needs.  "As long as the sun still shines and people can still plan and plant, think and do, we can, if we bother to try, find ways to provide for ourselves without diminishing the world."(p.94)

Research Exploration Blog I: Idea development, Freewriting

There are many different topics that I would love to explore for the final paper.  Some recent hot topics include binge drinking on college campuses, whether or not companies should allow their employees exercise breaks during work time, whether legalization of marijuana in the U.S. would be beneficial or detrimental, etc.
Over the summer, I took a class called Personal and Family Health here at UF and learned a lot about the severity of binge drinking on college campuses, specifically here at UF! It is honestly scary and terribly sad how many kids our age participate in binge drinking, or overindulging, in alcohol on a normal basis.  In the past few months, I have heard of several kids that I grew up with who drank too much one night and ended up dying because of that one night of bad choices!  I know that binge drinking is becoming more and more prevalent, especially amongst college aged kids, and it is an issue we could all use to learn more about and become more informed about!
Recently, I have been reading and hearing a lot about companies debating about whether or not to give their employees time to exercise during work hours.  Some studies say that allowing the employees "down time" to participate in physical activity actually improves their work ethic and productivity during the work day! However, as always, some people would take advantage of the time and not use the time for its intended purpose.  I think it would be very interesting to take a deeper look at some of the logistics of this debate and some of the ideas and key points on both sides of the argument!
The legalization of marijuana has been being debated for quite a while now, and it is a topic that I am very intrigued by, because I see both sides of the story.  I know that marijuana really is helpful to cancer patients going through chemo and people with other diseases, but I also know that as with everything else, if marijuana was legalized, some people would take advantage and use it for recreational purposes rather than its intended medicinal purposes!
I find all of these topics very appealing and I would love to research and write about any of these, so that I will learn more about the topic in the process and be more informed!