HW 18: Is Anorexia Becoming Sexy?????

Okay so when you think of anorexia do you think about laughing or that anorexia is sexy?? Well some freaks that made the “Sexy Anna Rexia” costume obviously do. On the site Salon: Broadsheet at http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2007/10/04/anorexia/index.html there is a picture of the costume as well as a description. There are things like a measuring tape choker and a measuring tape that goes around your waist and a heart pin that says Anna Rexia. The dress is a little black dress that has a skeleton pattern on it. Disturbing much? Yeah I think so. This is probably my least favorite post of the in the past week because it is just disturbing. How can you poke fun at an extremely destructive disease that is hurting or maybe even killing so many of the teen and young adult women in our world? That is just as bad as making a costume out of some other harmful disease, say cancer or even malaria. That is just wrong. The woman that wrote this post said “Even as Anna Rexia makes my skin crawl like no other Halloween costume ever has, I’m also not terribly comfortable getting worked up about a costume for a holiday that is all about embodying our fears” Well, I am and I did! This was a horrible thing and I hope I don’t have to read about a costume like that again.

Lindsay

HW 17: Beyonce, Malaysia, and Midriff???

I am watching a blog called Salon: Broadsheet.The post I read about it called “Should Beyonce bow to Malaysia’s dress code?” at this site http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2007/10/02/malaysia/index.html . I acknowledge both views in this story. Beyonce isn’t going to do a show in Malaysia (one of her tour spots) because they don’t agree with the revealing outfits. Malaysia made a dress code that you have to cover up clavicle to knee in order to perform. On the other hand Gwen Stefani added more jackets and leotards to her wardrobe to comply with the dress code so she could do her show. This shows two different views of how to deal with this cultural difference. I agree with the way Gwen Stefani handled it. This is their culture. You are invited to perform in another country and you can’t change the way you are dressed to not cause controversy between cultures. No one forced these performers to come do a show in a country that does not allow women to dress the same as they do here; they chose to go to that country by themselves. On the other hand I don’t agree with the part in the article that says that Akon sang “Smack That” (which has some iffy lyrics) earlier in the year and he was not asked to change it. It just shows how women are portrayed in other cultures and how much pressure there is on them to act and dress appropriately.

Lindsay