Now that the quarter is over I would not change anything about the course. I loved that everyone could openly talk freely about the articles and you know that it was a safe place to share your feelings. It was nice that there were women and men there from all walks of life. Each women had a different experience that we could learn from and grow spiritually, physically, and emotionally as strong independent women. Even when we were in our individual groups you could freely talk about the topics tell stories that related and there would be no judgment. Even before we watched “Thin” I talked to one of the girls, who were always in my group, about all the emotions I was feeling. She even told me that I should talk to the professor about what I was going through because she of all people would understand. She was right the professor did understand. While we watched “Thin” I even ran out of the room because it was too much for me to handle and while I was waiting for the bus with other members of the class I was not treated any differently. We were even talking about the movie about how difficult it was to watch. I made the comment, “yeah, well at least you did not run out of the room crying” and they were concerned with how I was doing. For that I appreciate. Even though that was a very hard week for me, thanks to this class I could take that experience that learn and become a better person.

The other thing that I liked about the course was the professor. I loved that you were not a “fema-nazi” blaming all the problems that women experience on men. If everyday focused on the point that everything was the man’s fault then I would have dropped the course. I appreciate that you picked articles that were not written by individuals with that opinion. It was also fun that you called me Twiggy. I hope that I will be the only Twiggy that you will ever teach. Thanks for a great quarter.

After I saw that commercial for the first time it made me laugh. Granite I had no idea what heroin was nor did I care but the commercial seriously made laugh. I even remember as a child running up to my mother to ask her if I could trash the kitchen just because I thought it looked cool. Even growing up I remember all the programs that were around to prevent children from doing drugs. One of the largest programs in my school was the DARE. We were taught to “Just Say No” even though I had no idea what drugs were. It was also ironic that our instructor, who was a police officer, was arrested for drug charges. There’s not a mixed message.

With all the programs, advertisements, and commercials that are still around I wonder whether they truly work. I ask this because you always hear about the individuals who “experiment” or “try it once” think about everything they learned from those programs. In my graduating class there was one student who organized a student assembly about the dangers of marijuana, even though him and his friends were high every day before class. I wonder if my school did not have the DARE program would more students would have drug problems.

If you want to check it out click HERE

Seeing this movie reminds me of Smashed. Throughout the book Koren constantly convinced herself that she was not an alcoholic. Even though it was clear that she was. Both Koren and Gwen would wake up in the morning not knowing what they did last night. Earlier I talked about how Gwen was convinced that she could quit at anytime. Koren stated that she needed the alcohol so that she could socialize with others. At least at the end of each story they were able to walk away with the proper tools to make sure that can hopefully remain clean and sober.

To glamorous the idea of a shopping addiction there is movie called “Confessions of a Shopaholic” is a movie that is based on a book, by Sophie Kinsella. The main character Rebecca Bloomwood is a twenty-five year old woman who has a shopping addiction. The movie follows her life living with a shopping addiction. Thanks to her shopping addiction is now in thousands of dollars in debt. When her bills start to pill up she decides to work harder to urn more money. Unfortunately, no matter what she did she was still in debt because of her addiction. I wish I could tell you more about the movie but it is not scheduled to play until 2009. So you will have to tell me how it is when it comes out.

Here is some shocking information shopping addiction is a mental disorder. According to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (DSM) when an individual has a shopping addiction it is called Oniomania. Oniomania is the compulsive desire to shop to eliminate any emotions of their sorrows. Psychologist believe that an individual develops Oniomania because the reason that the compulsive behavior occurs because there is a change in the brain’s chemistry. Individuals who have this disorder will suffer and often experience rapid highs and lows when they are going to make a purchase. Once the purchase has been made the shopaholic has a feeling of a personal reward has already gone to continue that sense of reward they will go shopping multiple more times. According to the DSM Oniomania normally develops at an early age by individuals who have low self esteem with parental neglect. As adults these individuals have learned to depend on materials for emotional support. Just like in the movie the main character individuals who have Oniomania accumulate an extreme amount of debt. Individuals can also experience theft, defalcation of money, defaulting on loans, and have financial trouble for the rest of their lives.
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After watching the documentary, “Killing Us Softly” I could understand why some commercials are designed to make women out to be an object. Before I would look at commercial and not think a single thing was wrong because commercials are supposed to be funny. Now I look at commercials more closely to see hidden messages. In this commercial the woman is only there as eye candy for the man. The woman does not even have a drink anywhere around her so why is she in a bar? Is she looking for the typical drunken response? She even seems to be educated so she should know better. There are other commercials that use woman’s bodies to help sell their products. Sky Vodka has one commercial where a woman’s body is the bottle. Woman’s bodies are used in alcohol commercials to provide the chance that if you drink that product than women will always be around you. This is not always true. Most women when they see a drunken person they do not want anything to do with them. There is nothing more unattractive than a guy how is falling down drunk.

Another problem with alcohol commercials is that they do not show any consequences of drinking. There are no clips of the next day. No clips of the vicious hangover or the chance of alcohol poisoning. Even a flash forward a couple of hours later so that we can see him preying to the porcelain gods because he drank too much. Even much later that night being rushed to the hospital to get his stomach pumped because he developed alcohol poisoning. There is even the extreme chance that he could take full advantage of the situation and rapes her. If the wrong type of man sees that commercial he could get the impression that raping a woman is acceptable. All alcohol commercials show on the bottom of the screen “Please Drink Responsibly” when how could you tell who is being responsible. Every body type is different a person who weights 108 cannot drink as much as someone who is 220 pounds. While who is the person who should be the responsible party? Should the establishment be responsible if one of their customers caused an accident? A commercial like this could possibly send the wrong messages that notice you are drunk; women will start to flirt with you.

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Brian’s family noticed a change in his behavior and attitude. He started to lose weight very quickly and was very tense around his family. Peter and Lois’s daughter Meg noticed that Brian was losing weight and she asks him what his secret was. He responded by stating “you want to know my secret PUT DOWN THE FORK”. If you have ever seen the show it is a funny moment because Meg is a little overweight and everyone makes fun of her. If this was not a cartoon the family would be able to tell that Brian was spiraling down a dangerous path. Eventually, his behavior got so bad that the family called Brain’s old therapist so that he could receive treatment. The family spent all the money that they saved for a vacation on Brian so that he could become clean and sober. When Brian enters rehab Peter sees how beautiful the center is and decides to vacation there.

Brian along with the other members who are entering the rehab center wanted to get clean, while Peter took it as a joke. When Brian walks into his room and sees Peter sitting on a bed drinking a six pack of beer. If Peter truly had checked himself in it rehab he would have been searched. Peter would not have been allowed to bring in anything that would prevent him from recovering. Even in the movie “Thin” all the girls who were admitted had their bags searched. They removed any medication, cigarettes, and tools that could be used to harm themselves or others. Once they are in treatment there are surprise room searches to make sure that they are not hiding anything. These girls can smuggle salt, sugar, and mustered packets out of the dining hall. There is another scene where Peter is having lunch in the dining hall and he trades a bag of “carpet fresh” for a cupcake. Peter could not understand how serious Brian was at beating his addiction. Eventually the counselors concluded that Peter was not preventing Brian from getting healthy. After reseeding that news he checked himself out of rehab. Since it was a cartoon there was no way of knowing who long Brian spent in rehab. Celebrities check themselves into rehab for only a couple of days even though treatment can take months. That was the last time they ever spoke about his addiction.

Several of the Thinspiration videos show hundreds of young girls drastically underweight happy and content with themselves without showing the consequences of their actions. Within the Thinspiration video there are images of young girls who have their hips and ribs poking out of their skin. The Thinspiration video that I choose was one of the milder video. These video girls are laughing and playing around proving that they were in control and not their eating disorder. There one of the Thinspiration videos that you can see flash words on the screen to promote the behavior. The words that show are: “So Skinny”, “Bones are Sexy”, “Natural Beautify”, “Twiggy”, “Give Her Wings so That She Could Fly”, “Perfect Body”, “She is So Skinny”, “Girls You Are So Beautiful!!” There are other videos where there are individuals who are inches away from death. In one of the articles we had to read the author talks about how she was dying from this disorder. She lost so much in her life. Counting calories and watching everything she ate was her life. Physically individuals will lose teeth, hair, organ function, and the ability to look older. I do not understand who these videos are supposed to inspire these individuals that looking like a Holocaust survivor is pretty or even sexy.

If anyone claims that these videos are not dangerous I would like to object. I was watching these videos for not even a half an hour and I started feel insecure about my own weight. I started to look at myself differently in the mirror. I constantly was thinking about the Thinspiration video were they flashed the name Twiggy. To anyone who knows me, this included professors; they all know that my nickname is Twiggy. I started to spin into a depression because I was not the same weight that I was when I got the name. While was still living in Cleveland I weighted 118 and I could not be happier. It was not until I was diagnosed with acid reflex, asthma, and vertigo. My doctor prescribed me steroids to control the asthma along with other medication to make sure I would never go back into the hospital. After seeing all the images I was will stop taking all the medications so that I would lose weight again. After a couple of weeks of seeing those images and talking to my doctor she told me that I should never weigh 118 ever again. She explained that I was heading down a dangerous road and that for once in my life I was actually healthy. She gave me a rice crispy treat and gave me the option of taking the medications and be healthy or not take the medications and go back into the hospital with a tube down my nose. I chose my health and not my weight.

If you want to check it out click HERE. Oh, I am just warning you the images are not suitable for minors

Since Lois was in prison Peter was left in charge of the house. Two weeks later the house was a mess. The whole family was wearing dirty clothes and there was garbage all over the floor Peter and the children are wearing dirty clothes and they had not eaten anything. Since the family could not survive without Lois they decide to break her out of prison. There the absence of Lois and the household falling apart is an example patriarchal switch. Within a patriarchal switch instead of the woman taking care of the house and children it is the roles are changed.

Ever since Winona Ryder was caught and convicted for shoplifting there has been more information about this addiction. The capitalists approach is when makes individuals feel unloved unless they purchase all kinds of items. It used to be that a person would steal item that they could not afford. Now this is not an issue for Winona Ryder because she is a famous movie star. Movie stars make millions of dollars staring in movies so there should be no reason that they would need to steal. During her trial it was brought to the judge’s attention that Winona had a serious problem.

Kleptomania is the inability or great difficulty in resisting impulses of stealing. Now kleptomania is different from shoplifting. Shoplifters will steal for monetary value, or associated gains and usually display intent or premeditation. People who diagnosed as kleptomaniacs are compelled to steal items that generally have little to no value, such as small toys, pens, and packets of sugar. When a person is diagnosed as a kleptomaniac there is treatment available. The main treatment that is used is the Cognitive-behavioral therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy is a psychotherapy which is based on cognitions, assumptions, beliefs, and behaviors with the aim of influencing negative emotions that are related to the appraisal of the events. Along with therapy kleptomaniacs are recommended to take medication. The medication that is available has shown a significant impact of reducing the intensity of urges to steal.

In class we watched a documentary called, “Killing Us Softly” which touched on the issue of advertisements using women. Before I would look at commercial and not think a single thing was wrong because commercials are supposed to be funny. Now I look at commercials more closely to see hidden messages. In this commercial the woman is only there as eye candy for the man. Sky Vodka has one commercial where a woman’s body is the bottle.

If you want to check it out click HERE