Posting Assignment #3 (due Sunday 10/2, 11:59 P.M.; comment by 11:59 Monday, 10/3) Body Practices in Everyday Life

Find an example of a body practice from your everyday life (things you do or people around you do, images of bodies and practices and so on). Describe it (if it's an image, post the image, if it's a video, link to it) and explain what it does and how it does it.  Think: 'rhetoric'—how culture 'argues' us into subjectivity. Write in terms of our work, of course; things like: intelligible bodies, body practices, docile bodies, choice / agency (Leppert, 212-13; 243), 'pursuit(s) without a terminus' (Bordo, 166), constitutive power, 'other-oriented emotional economy' (Bordo, 171), praxis, and so on. 

My job and marihuana

In his article “Becoming a marihuana user,” Howard Becker explained that there are several steps to take in order to be an user of marihuana. And there are also changes in attitude toward marihuana while taking these steps. First of all, if a person wants to begin smoking marihuana, he usually cannot understand why other marihuana users are doing it at the first moment. Why is it? It is often because he is not “properly” using marihuana. Specifically, the amount of air he is taking is too much, or stuff like that. He also does not know what will it be like, what other people are feeling. Therefore at first he will feel nervous and will not believe that marihuana is making him feel better. What should he do to really enjoy marihuana? The answer is to ask older users how to use it correctly; those users know the sensation of the marihuana. With the advices from other users, the person gets to use drug for pleasure. However, even though he has realized the sensation of marihuana, he will someday experience new problems related to marihuana especially when he tries new types of marihuana. Now he has two ways to choose; either to ask advice and “redefine” the feeling of marihuana again, or to quit it.

I found that this procedure can totally represent the situation where I enter a new culture. For example, I recently got a cashier job, and it is my first time to work as a cashier. I was so nervous at first because I was afraid to make any mistakes that can make customers and the manager feel bad. I didn’t feel well on my first day. Being in a new social construction, in this case, the cafeteria, was a hard thing for me. Nevertheless, after asking questions to my manager, other employees, and resolving some fundamental problems due to ignorance, I found the job really interesting and meaningful because I started to like to talk to people like “How are you doing?” Now I really like it.

women's bodies and beauty

This is quite an inspiring read regarding female images in the society. I agree with Bordo’s idea of a Docile Body, that a body is a mirror of the contemporary “culture” and the value society put on women. I was reminded of my last week’s shopping spree in Abercrombie & Fitch store in the Mall of America where the salesgirls all have near “perfect” shapes and were walking models for the clothes in the store. When I was looking around in the store I was impressed by how the shirts and dresses accentuated the curved silhouette of the girls. And I started to have impulse of becoming like one of them, to be slim and curvy, so that I will also look good in all those pretty dresses.

Salesgirls are not the only source that we are unconsciously prompted the definition of “feminism” and “beauty”. We are constantly being bombarded with curvy women in bikinis on magazine covers, pleased women on TV advertisements with satisfactory weight-loss results and plastic surgery advertisements with photos that contrast the “before” and “after” bodies. This is Social Construction, which represents how the society sets value on people, transformed the “social norms” and how people consciously or unconsciously changed their point of view. Brands like Abercrombie & Fitch generally have smaller sizes and this makes girls want to lose weight to be fitted into “fashion”. A size 6 t-shirt will likely frighten most of us because size 0 or 00 is thought of as the “norm”.

It’s also an interesting phenomenon that the notion of an “intelligible body” has changed for some countries/societies because of globalization. As a female from Asia, the image of an Asian beauty was long ago imprinted on my mind – round eyes, small mouth, oval face and pear-shaped body. This notion of “useful body” was challenged when Western culture infiltrated into the Asian society. Nowadays many Asian women want plastic surgery to transform their smaller, round eyes into longer, bigger Caucasian eyes with deep creases on the eyelid. Other already slender women want unrealistically big breasts on their fragile-looking bodies. No doubt those eyes look nice, but will they fit onto an Asian face? Bigger breasts certainly look more attractive, but will the saline or silicon sacs stay safe under their skins? It is certainly strange for a woman to have Caucasian eyes and Asian nose on the same face, or an F-cupped breast on a rib-showing body. With more and more advertisement, movies and TV shows featuring western beauty in the Asian society, the traditional view of a “docile body” has changed greatly. This is a worrying trend for some scholars, but it is likely a trend that won't be easily reverted.

What is...high?

In Becker's essay about the social construction that is smoking pot he explains that first time users usually do not have a euphoric feeling because they do not know what to feel. He says that they need others, experienced users, to tell them how to feel. Similarly I personally believe that the first time a person uses marijuana or other drugs is the most important for whether or not they will do it again. For example if you smoked or consumed some substance and the whole time you were afraid of getting caught by some sort of authoritative figure you might say it was a bad high. That one bad experience may turn them off of any mood altering substances. In the same sense sometimes people may simply be turned off by the unnatural feeling or maybe an out of body experience.

Also I believe that the reason people try drugs definitely influences how they experience it. For example people doing it to escape a reality they do not like I would hypothesis would have a bad experience but also be more likely to become dependent even on non-addictive substances. Those trying a substance socially will most likely have a good experience depending on the experience of those around them. Finally those trying something on their own just for the experience I might guess would vary the greatest, whether they feel they are being desperate or are lonely in life or maybe they are doing it to reflect or just get a different perspective. Whatever the reason people use mood altering substances, it differs for everyone.

My personal opinion on why people should use mind altering substances is either for social recreation, personal recreation, or gaining new perspective on an issue or issues. I have always felt escaping problems through any sort of substance abuse is the fastest way to end up 6 feet under.

I'm a guy and I like being skinny (or do I?)

I am learning very rapidly that the person I am; is simply made-up, a mere Construction of society hidden in the façade of institutionalized discourse. What I am mean is, I always believed that it was due to my on volation (my own choices) that resulted in my personality, perception of self or even as simple as my favorite color. But it seems that all of that is false. As I grew up I was taught that boys like blue and girls like pink. That mere simplistic idea forms a part of who I am today and I can’t even claim that for myself.

We read Susan Bordo and her ideas of the female body, where she argues that women are being shaped by society to be pleasing the “others”. She claims that the media that we so faithfully listen to is continuously bombarding us with images and regulations that a female body is supposed to be, supposed to do. The Ideal body is dictated to us and molds us to be more like it.

It may seem like Susan Bordo can only describe women but look at men today, we all “know” that we are supposed to have muscular bodies in order to be received by society, we all "know" that we are suppose to eat meat (preferably everyday), we all "know" that the ideal guy looks exactly like a football quarter-back (or Cristiano Ronaldo for the more wildly received football). But the point is that we are formed by societies and that would have all been alright if the ideal self was actually good for us.

Such a cultural act of molding us into becoming the ideal, is harmful to most individuals; women start to starve themselves hence anorexia, bulimia and all kinds of eating disorders. Women won’t go out on a normal day without spending the time carefully laying on their foundations (as if the face was a construction site that needed a solid foundation) and drawing on their faces (make-up). Imagine how much time women would save if they just didn't care. We start forming our personalities according to the self centeredness encouraged by the society. Men are spending hours in the gym, buying weight products and trying to look like they can actually play a sport (irrelevant if they can or not).

In all I would say that, I would be contented being skinny but society disallows such nonsense. So I have to go to the gym...damn

High Culture- This is the post i intended to put up.

I thought that Howard Becker's writing was very interesting. It broke down what smoking weed really is and the culture that has built around it and almost sustains it. The part i really found intriguing is that first time users normally don’t feel the same "high" and it is shaped by what experienced users tell them they should be feeling.
In the reading Howard describes how people intend to "get high" but don’t really know what that means in concrete terms. This is where the culture really comes in to play. The people that make up the Marijuana culture play an important role in shaping the way that first time pot users experience this high. The way they feel is even shaped by what the frequent users feel. The frequent users often tell the lesser experienced user how he should feel and what feelings they should notice. The object in the culture is the Marijuana itself. The culture is built up around it; the subjects are the users who make the social experience of smoking. This social experience is very important in holding the culture together.
Becker really illustrated the importance of the subjects within the marijuana culture. Without these subjects the social aspect and shaping of what being high is wouldn’t exist. Becker really underlined the importance of this. The reader is in a position that really shows the effects of marijuana are basically what one makes of them. This really shows through first time experiences when people often feel frightened or uncomfortable. This idea really left me with more questions than answers. If pot users need their high to be shaped and can choose whether to notice certain feelings or not why is the drug so common? The only reason I can really think of is the culture propels its use and encourages its expansion to new users. The social construction created by the subjects in the culture is what makes Marijuana an effective drug and what attracts new users.

High Culture

I thought that Howard Becker's writing was very interesting. It broke down what smoking weed really is and the culture that has built around it and almost sustains it. The part i really found intriguing is that first time users normally don’t feel the same "high" and it is shaped by what experienced users tell them they should be feeling.
In the reading Howard describes how people intend to "get high" but don’t really know what that means in concrete terms. This is where the culture really comes in to play. The people that make up the Marijuana culture play an important role in shaping the way that first time pot users experience this high. The way they feel is even shaped by what the frequent users feel. The frequent users often tell the lesser experienced user how he should feel and what feelings they should notice. The object in the culture is the Marijuana itself. The culture is built up around it; the subjects are the users who make the social experience of smoking. This social experience is very important in holding the culture together.
Becker really illustrated the importance of the subjects within the marijuana culture. Without these subjects the social aspect and shaping of what being high is wouldn’t exist. Becker really underlined the importance of this. The reader is in a position that really shows the effects of marijuana are basically what one makes of them. This really shows through first time experiences when people often feel frightened or uncomfortable. This idea really left me with more questions than answers. If pot users need their high to be shaped and can choose whether to notice certain feelings or not why is the drug so common? The only reason I can really think of is the culture propels its use and encourages its expansion to new users. The social construction created by the subjects in the culture is what makes Marijuana an effective drug and what attracts new users.

Objects Created by Culture to Maintain that Culture

Though as individuals we are SUBJECTS of culture, our bodies can be OBJECTS of a culture, and that is exactly what Susan Bordo discusses in her writing. An OBJECT is some ‘thing’ that is part of a culture. It not only is produced by that culture, but also sustains that culture. Bordo elaborates that “The body – what we eat, how we dress, the daily rituals through which we attend to the body-is a medium of culture”. It can also be a very dangerous medium of culture. Anorexia is one example of this. A barely-there body is a reflection on our culture’s preference of skinny figures taken to the extreme. Bordo argues that this frail whittled-down body has both a social and a political meaning, reflecting woman's defined role in society. (House bound, self control, feed/help others first, taking up space)

That is her READING of those bodies. She is drawing conclusions and creating an argument from the visualization of specifically female bodies. Everything that you see, forces you to take a POSITION or to decide where you stand. For example images of thin women in bikinis on the cover of magazines, fashion shows featuring 100 pound models, television shows staring beautiful thin characters are OBJECTS created by our culture. These OBJECTS display the desires of the culture, and make an impression on the SUBJECTS whether they realize it or not, which then is reflected in the bodies of the individuals. This clearly shows how OBJECTS are not only products of the culture, but also maintain that culture.

Dear mom,

It is my duty to demystify and explain in layman's terms Susan Bordo's ideas surrounding femininity and bodies, which she has so kindly shrouded in the elusive jargon of academia. Bordo reads the female figure as a sign, one that reflects greater meaning and significance within the context of the cultural attitudes and normalcy of the particular era. Women, or rather, their bodies, serve as canvases on which social and cultural expectation can manifest; they are docile bodies, objects completely subjugated to the whim and governance of a disciplinary institution (in this case the power structure of society). To provide an example of this mechanism at work, Bordo writes about three particularly prevalent disorders throughout history that have afflicted women and how they in turn exemplify the ideal of a docile body, as well as in some cases subconscious acts of protest and politic: Hysteria, Agoraphobia, and most recently Anorexia Nervosa. Each is in its own convoluted way is a sign, a disease that signifies underlying social underpinnings that beg to be read from the woodwork.
Hysteria, prevalent throughout the 19th century, fulfilled the cultural identity of femininity established at the time, one of frailty, delicacy, and "emotional capriciousness".
Agoraphobia, prevalent throughout the 60's and 70's, did the same in an era where the feminine identity shifted back from the professional world to domesticity.
Anorexia Nervosa, the most recent condition that Bordo chronicles, reflects a culture obsessed with a slender, self depriving, pseudo-nurturing image (among other arguments which border on trans-gender assumption).
Susan Bordo argues her reader into a position of sympathy for women (and their bodies), they are objects subjected to the bondage of culture
and the physical imposition of its reach.

Being High- A Social Construction

In Howard Becker's "Becoming a Marihuana User," he describes what it takes for someone to feel high after smoking marijuana. The three main components are: 1. The user correctly smoking the pot, 2. The user recognizing the effects and connecting them with drug use, and 3. The user learning to enjoy the sensation. The first two steps are pretty objective, but the third requires some social construction. The subject, the user, may not instantly recognize the symptoms of smoking pot as being positive because many of them are "ambiguous," as Becker says. It is in this third step that a pot smoker must somehow learn to appreciate the symptoms of smoking. In the sub-culture of pot smokers, the feeling of being high is viewed as a very positive thing. So when a first time user is trying to understand what he/she is experiencing, a more experienced user often convinces the new user that the feelings are desirable. Because all of the experienced smokers enjoy being high, the new user assumes that being high is good and eventually learns to like it.
Very similar to this is the sub-culture of alcohol use. When you think about it, it is odd that people actually want to get drunk. Almost all of the side effects seem negative. Why is it desirable to get dizzy, have impaired judgement, lose your motor skills, vomit, and become unconscious? A first time user might feel very scared or uncomfortable when he/she becomes intoxicated. However, other people around often convince the user to drink more, and tells the user that he/she isn't drunk enough. This teaches the first time user that it is good to be drunk, a perfect example of a social construction. Another part of this construction is that doing questionable things while drunk is "fun", when in fact the exact same things could be done while sober. For example, it is more socially acceptable to have sex while drunk than it is while sober. For me, this reasoning is ridiculous. If someone allows him/herself to become intoxicated to the point of having impaired judgement, that person is still being irresponsible and should not be let off the hook for doing stupid stuff. And while things like this often don't make sense, it is just part of the culture that we create for ourselves.

"Docile Bodies" Subconsciously or Consciously?

As I’m writing this, I look at my mail on my desk, Express clothing magazine with a woman in tight skinny jeans, stilettos, and a cool top that extenuates her womanly figure. On my other side of my desk is another magazine, The Victoria Secret catalog, as I page through it I am continuously seeing size 2 girls with long legs, huge breast and long beautiful hair. Do I want these clothes? Yes, but why do I want them? Because they make these women look amazing. As I stare at the clothes in either catalog I start to imagine myself in this top or those jeans with these pumps. I am subconsciously or consciously choosing these clothes because of how these women look in them, as I’m sure many other girls my age are hoping and dreaming to look like these women too.

I’m thinking, why I would want to look like these girls, what makes me think they are so perfect and beautiful? Well as we discussed in class last week, it’s because of Social Construction. Social Construction is an example of how our society has transformed our knowledge and way of thinking, leading away from the inherent value of a view or position. My mail is a great example of this. Although centuries ago and still to this day in many different cultures, curvy women are looked at as beautiful. Even though that may still be true I find that in our culture such as in these magazines, we have socially constructed our culture to think the skinny, the prettier. The more expensive clothes you buy, the cooler you are. As best said by Susan Bordo “It’s a pursuit without a terminus, requiring that women constantly attend to minute and often whimsical changes in fashion-female bodies become docile bodies-bodies whose forces and energies are habituated to external regulation, subjection and transformation, “improvement”. Through the exacting and normalizing disciplines of diet, makeup, and dress, central organizing principles of time and space in the day of many women.”

As women we focus so much on our looks, on what others think of us and how to fix our imperfections every single day. We do this mostly subconsciously, not knowing why we particularly want our hair to be this way, or our make up that way. We try to fit into this Structured Subculture of beautiful women we see on TV and the cover of magazines, wanting to have their tiny waist, but still curvy body that in reality is probably photo shopped to perfection. And one of the main questions that you’re asking is WHY DO WE DO THIS?! In my opinion it’s because of what these women represent to the readers and buyers of these catalogs and magazines. It’s the men and women who look at them and get this perceived notation that this is what a beautiful women looks like, and this type of beautiful women wears these types of clothes and hangs out with these types of men. In a very weird subconscious way we are subjecting our bodies, almost as if our bodies were canvases that we continuously try to fix, reshape and contemplate about.

Now that we know somewhat why, the question is how can we fix this?

Social Learning

While reading Howard Becker’s article on smoking pot, I became aware of how much learning and behaviors are based on social interactions. Without other people and culture around, learning things would be impossible. We read textbooks written by other people to understand less practical knowledge and learn everyday knowledge simply by participating in society. In every type of culture and with every living being, knowledge of customs and necessities is transferred through communication with others.

Social Construction is a good example of how knowledge can be transferred through society. Social Construction is basically the concept that everyone in a society agrees to treat a certain aspect a certain way regardless of its inherent value. This kind of knowledge has to be taught, because there is no biological instinct to know how to treat it. Money is a good example of social construction. The pieces of paper that have no intrinsic value become useful, and worth something to people.

In terms of the article, pot smoking is almost entirely social (at least the first time smoking). More experienced smokers are there to help the first timer, by teaching them how to smoke better and by calming them down when experiencing frightening or unpleasant experiences. Without others, smoking for the first time can be terrifying and unsuccessful, and the smoker may not continue to smoke.

A personal experience I have with social learning is through jogging. While jogging or running is a natural human function, I needed help and advice to improve. In the beginning, I tried to learn how to jog by myself, but quickly became discouraged. I mentioned this to a friend of mine, who also jogs, and she began to teach me about pacing myself, hydration, diet, and varying locations. I became a better jogger through social interaction with my friend.

Culture is many things but it is definitely social. Without other subjects and participants to share experiences, give feedback, and teach us new things, it is unlikely that anyone would learn anything, and society as a whole would suffer immensely.

Becoming A Marijuana User

It is interesting how Becker's interviewees seem to uphold a biasness that marijuana users are uneducated people when we, realistically, know that once an individual enters college, there are more manifestation of marijuana usage through out the apartment complexes and dormitories. Yet, the writer, I felt, has completely and knowingly neglected this information and chose to continued stereotype through out his paper with words as, "you know..." or "Aint..sure."

Nevertheless, this journal reaches out to teach us a lesson about life. Becker is trying to make people like myself, non-marijuana users, to try and understand the reasons to try marijuana and enlighten our minds that it isn't just about being rebellious but because marijuana has some form of social foundation that links us all together. I found extremely interesting that the writer spends a lot of time, roughly two to three pages of the nine total pages, on describing how to smoke marijuana correctly to instill the everlasting "high" that is associated with smoking pot at such a large quantity. Maybe in some aspect, you can relate this to yourself in any type of field of work. Working on your first day, you may attempt slowly take your time, trying to do things correct so that you don't harm yourself and others. For example, The first time I set up a conference call, I took my time, tried to be precise while being very paranoid about "screwing up" and not receiving the emotion and sensation of a successful work. Once you retain that sucess and have experienced the emotional award of doing a great job, it can become an addicting feeling that you want to feel again, therefore leading to many others wanting to once again, feel that sensation of high where the feeling makes you feel as though you are in a different world.

Bordo's idea of Women's body

After reading Susan Bordo's "The body and the reproduction of femininity", I thought the relationship between the women's body and the culture.
I agree with Susan Bordo's idea. In our daily life, bodies represented carrier of culture and a powerful symbolic form. It reflect culture and fundamentally culture made bodies. People have different gesture in different situations. All body behaviors are regulated and restrained by many aspects. Different bodies depends on many social elements, like etiquette, tradition even belief. That's what Susan Bordo means "docile body". The subject is that some women want use a sort of symptom like apositia to "change their body", getting rid of weak body. It is ludicrous and all we have to do is just follow natural facts.
According to Susan Bordo's viewpoint, In this generation, the contemporary preoccupation with appearance and this affect women much more than men right now.
Bordo focus on practice about women's temperament. Bordo recommend one kind of theory that the rights is creative, not suppressed power. This theory is related to this article. Bordo makes a example about some disorders of women like apositia, hysteria and unfamiliar environment terrorist. In my opinion, Bordo want use these examples to indicate how women accept the body control come from society even how women believe in this kind of physically flagging. I totally agree with Bordo's position that the disorders of women is a kind of protest against those "culture criterion" of women. But they are not the effective and correct way to say out their protest, on the contrary, it will harm their health.
It is talked about in this article that some apositia women have same identity. They think that they experience how to control and hold themselves via apositia and they think by doing this, they can get rid of weak and helplessness of women's body. Unfortunately, I will give a negative answer to this topic and Bordo has coincident idea with me. It is just a sort of illusion and Bordo want to tell us that women pay the price for the conflict between idealize body and real body.
I think everything is changing with culture and we cannot always obey theory. let nature take its course. Theory is just a form and it can never change natural facts.

Restaurant Subculture: Becoming a Member

I read Howard Becker’s article called “Becoming a Marihuana User,” but as I was reading the article I could not help but identify the important steps of marihuana use with ‘becoming a member of culture.’ The article articulates three main steps in ‘getting high’: 1. Doing it correctly for maximum symptoms; 2. Realize the symptoms that are occurring; 3. Enjoy these symptoms. This reminded me if this new job that I started at a restaurant and how I am trying to fit into a new culture, but there are steps that I had to take in order to fit into this structured subculture. I had to learn new things like setting a table, serving guests, and wearing a specific uniform. The first part of being in this restaurant’s social construction was making sure I was doing all of these tasks the correct way. Sometimes they would correct where to put the forks or the water glasses or what color socks I had to wear. I could do it mostly correct, but if I wanted to get paid the most money at the end of the night it was important to maximize the amount of things I was doing correctly. I realized that I didn’t have to do everything perfect the first night, but as long as I was asking other people around me, I was improving. After learning how to do everything, I had to learn how I was affecting myself, customers, and other workers when I did these things. I realized that when I wasn’t setting tables the hostess would get frustrated because they couldn’t seat a new table. When I wasn’t clearing dishes the guests would get frustrated because they had dirty dishes in front of them. When I wasn’t serving the water, bread, and butter to guests the servers would get frustrated because I wasn’t greeting their tables. With more experience, I am able to see what happens when I do not do my job correctly and become a subject in this subculture. This job is only going to be enjoyable if I am able to do my job correctly and make other people in my surrounding culture happy. If I am unable to do this, then there is no point in continuing to work here because I am not accepted and I am not happy.

Pot and The Circuit of Culture

While reading Howard Becker’s, Becoming a Marijuana User, I started to compare the drug to The Circuit of Culture.

Marijuana is represented in many ways. Some believe it to be strictly an illegal drug that is not to be used or touched due to his harmful effects. Others view it as a recreational drug used for fun and pleasure. Others use to become part of some sort of group or environment. There are many tones and feeling towards marijuana. The subject stirs up a lot of controversy because many feel it should not be illegal due to the fact that the drug itself isn’t actually addictive.

Next when a person begins to smoke pot they gain an identity. The people who smoke marijuana use it for pleasure. They care about it because of what they get out of it. They gain an image and maybe even a group of friends. The non users often judge the users. They perceive them as burnouts and bad influences. The users are often generalized. One must understand that marijuana in itself isn’t addictive. It’s the environment and idea of marijuana that is craved.

Once a person begins using marijuana consumption plays a huge role. People who consume pot must buy the drug from a dealer. So yes, it is something you buy. It’s not cheap, but compared to other drugs, it’s affordable. Marijuana is clearly advertised as a harmful drug through anti-drug campaigns.

As with consumption, production is apart of marijuana as well. The user is paying for it and the money comes from their personal funds. People have to grow marijuana and sometimes the people who make it produce and sell it as well. One makes a good amount of money from selling it. So many types of people smoke marijuana for various reasons. They are not all the same person. One type of user could be a rebellious teenager and on the other end it could be a normal adult who uses it for recreational use or medical reasons.

Lastly marijuana is definitely regulated. It is illegal and against the rules in the United States. There are many loopholes though. One can acquire a medical marijuana license meaning they can use it legally for a medical reason. The government is charge of this ban/regulation.

Susan Bordo's 'Docile Bodies'

The body is truly a mirror of culture; from the way we dress and carry ourselves to the way we care for the body we have, we reflect the niche we are a part of. Sadly, Bordo’s statement on a woman’s cultural niche is bleak. She believes there has hardly been a shift from status quo. Women are still giving their physical appearance a great deal of attention. Even now, with so much importance given to a “powerful” less “hysteric” woman, physique still plays a part. It has become a reflection of strength; controlling one’s body, sculpting it to this new type of perfection, gives power.

In Bordo’s writing, the idea of ‘docile bodies’ takes on a whole new meaning. She posits that these “bodies whose forces and energies are habituated to external regulation, subjection, transformation” constantly mould themselves to the contours of societal wishes despite what the intelligible body wants, that ‘mind over matter’ does not truly exist as we hope. She also reflects on the consumerism surrounding these ‘docile bodies,’ how women are constantly shown images of the perfectly controlled body.

For all intensive purposes, Bordo’s writing on feminism and bodies makes a strong argument. However, I wonder how such generalizations about bodies can just be applied to the female identity. Society is narcissistic. We are presented with the images of beauty on a daily basis. Despite our better judgment, we end up gravitating towards those images. Even men put their bodies through unnecessary stress to achieve masculinity. Maybe the idea that Bordo puts forth has nothing to do with gender at all. It is a human tendency to look at the physical. It seems to have manifested itself in very extreme ways with women, but not just with women. Though this paper was meant to represent the female condition, we can apply across many races, many ethnicities, and any gender.

Women: Producers, Consumers and Cultural Regulation

In the Circuit of Culture reading on Moodle, I noticed a distinct connection between the cultural circuit and our class discussion about women in American Culture. This seemed to be a very good way to describe cultural theories because women describe about half of the culture as a whole, and a very "manipulable" piece of it. I will take the route beginning with Presentation to Consumption, to Identity, to Production, and to Regulation.

The Circuit begins with Presentation/Representation - or what the thing means and how it is perceived by the thing (in this case, women). Immediately I thought about the SELF magazine ads with half naked beach babes on the cover. This is representing "successful", "powerful", "sexy" women. What woman doesn't want all of those characteristics?! I'd buy a magazine if those are the traits I'd get from reading it. Which brings me to the "Consumption" aspect of the Circuit - where you buy/use the thing and make it a part of you. When the cover has a middle-aged woman with a glistening six-pack, I am going to repeat the ab routine they give you on page 25 a million times to try and look like that. In effect, the SELF magazine is literally becoming a part of my life.

When it becomes a part of my life, my identity is changed to “the girl who is obsessed with herSELF magazine.” Don’t forget that girl also has flat abs and huge boobs too, the magazine didn’t give her the liposuction around her hips, but thats only because it doesn’t have a license to perform surgery - if the magazine could offer surgery I’m sure it would PRODUCE some sort of medical practice to keep on absorbing more and more and more women across the culture.

Women and their self images are very sensitive topics, and it can lead them to do unbelievable things, when in reality bodies so thin, tanned, free of cellulite, that wear huge lavish jewelry to the beach do NOT exist - only in the culture created by SELF magazine. Where REGULATION, lastly comes in to “save the day” with rules such as setting minimum weights for models, or not allowing anything more than soft core porn on the cover of magazines. Its a constant game of tug-of-war between a society producing an image of the way they want culture to be, innocent humans trying to decide what is right, and the government, parents, peers, or bosses making the “right decisions” for all of the people who need someone else to make up their minds for them - therefore creating a culture.

Connecting Keywords to Pot

In Howard Beckers article on how to become a pot smoker, we learn about a specific culture or maybe we should call it subculture. This subculture is made up of the people who smoke marijuana on a regular basis. These people are still part of the culture that they are in, in this case I believe that it was a Chicago culture, but they have kind of made a culture of their own. The culture of marijuana smokers within their original culture. This article basically lays out how any one of us could suddenly become a pot smoker and join this subculture. The article acts as an object for us to study the culture. Pot is a very important part of this culture so it is an object within the culture. There were many subjects in this article who are members of this subculture, pot-users, who were interviewed to provide inside information on what it's like to smoke marijuana, and how to become a pot smoker. To become a pot smoker you basically have to learn how to smoke it in order to get high, you must talk to fellow pot smokers to learn what it feels like to be high, and you must learn to enjoy the feeling. This kind of reminded me of what it takes to start a new sport. First you must learn how to play the game, than you have to learn what it feels like to be part of a team, and than you must learn to enjoy playing the game. If you don't learn all of these things you will not want to continue playing the sport because you won't like it. In the same way people who become pot smokers have to learn how to love what they are doing or they won't continue. Marijuana is not addictive, the only thing that is addictive is the act of doing the drug. People begin to enjoy the people that they are smoking with and they like the actual act of smoking so they continue to do it. In the same way that a soccer player keeps playing because he or she loves the game and his or her teammates. Another thing that I noticed while I was reading this article was quite a bit of intertextuality. The pot smokers that were being interviewed all talked in similar ways. They all used a lot of "likes" and "you knows" making them sound undereducated and in some ways kind of trashy. This made me, as the reader, take a position against marijuana use because I linked it to trashy people. Everyone takes a position when they are reading, looking at, or watching something. Sometimes we don't even know that we are taking a position it just sort of happens.

Posting Assignment #2: Why Theory? And how can you explain it to Mom (Due 11:59 Sunday 25; comment by 11:59 Monday 26)

The Hard Part: Last week we offered a 'show and tell' project.  They're seldom boring, because we get to find things and talk about them.  This week we're asking you to engage with  ideas and readings.  It's so, so easy for this sort of writing to fall into the 'school essay' trap: quotes, dutiful summaries, claims about which nobody could possibly care, blah, blah, blah.

Please don't.  There are stakes in these readings—how we lead our lives; what our families and friends will be like, the relationships we form.  The nature of society.

So follow the basic rule of CSCL 1001:  'don't bore your friends.'  Take a position.  Think about how it matters.  Put yourself in it.  Mean it. Read close and sharp.  The job here is to help us all to see all the possibilities in a couple of ideas and one of two readings—and maybe a few things we hadn't thought of.

The Issue:  We've been building a theoretical account of culture and its operations, recently looking at the intimate, maybe scary ways it impacts us--in our bodies. Shorthand for keeping track of our work are the keywords naming basic concepts.
If theory is to be good for anything, if it's to do what Gang of Four suggests (Why theory?) and 'change how we act' by changing 'how we think,' it's got to make sense to normal human beings.  Mom for example.  Or your Uncle Abe.

1) Pick a couple of linked keywords (use the list from the 'News Forum' (Moodle) for a start, and maybe add (social) construction, body practices, and 'docile bodies.'

2) Write your blog post as if you were explaining 'em to your Mom (or some other normal human being whom you can visualize and know really well).

3) Working from an example (little one; yours or from the readings): use your keywords to explain / expand / confront / elaborate one of the key ideas or part of either Howard Becker on becoming a pot user, or Susan Bordo on bodies and femininity.

How long? Well, we always want to avoid suggesting that simply longer is better, but we’ll read whatever you write.  But maybe 3-400 words?

Your Proposal Is Acceptable 1: Barber's Pole--from Jared Staege, via Robin

Your Proposal Is Acceptable 1: Barber's Pole--from Jared Staege, via Robin
I found this image to be very interesting as well. I think that beacuse of the unrealistic way that this man is in the windshield it blinds us to the seriousness of the image had this been real. I think in our culture we are so used to seeing what real images of accidents look like through movies and other forms of media that we find the position that this man is in more interesting then the seriousness of this accident. We are so used to realistic images of accidents that an awkward one like this really catches our attention and humor comes with it.

What do our clothes say about us?--Nicole Bloms, via Robin

What do our clothes say about us?

On Thursday morning as I was standing in line at the bus station in Maple Grove I was watching the other people around me. One thing that I noticed is how everybody was dressed. The bus is a mode of transportation for many people who have jobs in the cities; therefore, many people were dressed in business attire. Men were wearing suits, dress pants, button down shirts, and ties. While the females tended to wear dress pants, dresses, skirts, high-heeled shoes, and fancy blouses. In the line for the express route to the University of Minnesota, males and females are dressed in mostly jeans, t-shirts, and tennis shoes. This started to remind me of our discussion about language and how all language is arbitrary. The way we dress is in a way similar to this idea. The lines that make our letters, which in turn make our words were picked randomly by somebody and just became a part of our culture. Similarly, the way we dress seems kind of random. Somebody decided one day that button down shirts and ties were considered dressy and professional enough to wear to a job. Somebody randomly decided that females should wear dresses when they go to their career or want to impress. Just as words have been widely accepted, the way we dress is something that has been accepted by our culture as a whole. Some people believe that clothes are a way to express themselves, but if we wear what is accepted by our culture is it really expressing ourselves or just following the rules?

Tin Man

This is a very common object seen around the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus. This is the sculpture named "Tin Man." "Tin Man" is a 35-foot tall, 6,000 pound piece of art standing outside of Lind Hall and the Mechanical Engineering Building. The creator Andrew Leicester is a famous Minneapolis sculptor. When creating the monster Andrew spent a lot of time asking opinions from faculty, staff and students so everyone would be happy with the piece.

The piece has a very triumphant position. Whether it is seen bending the steel pipe it holds in a feat of strength or if it is simply holding it up as a trophy is not necessarily important; rather its pose simply lifts people up and gives out a feeling of pride the way the Statue of Liberty might. Unfortunately though the name of the "Tin Man" has been tarnished because there is now superstition tied to it. It is said that if one walks underneath the sculpture that they will fail their next exam.

The "Tin Man" has a handful of signs it throws my way when I walk past it to class. The first day I was in awe of the sheer size of the creation and the reflectivity the stainless steel had in the early morning sunlight. These elements along with my already in awe freshman self left me thinking "have I actually started college?" The signifier that I received was the immense size of the sculpture immediately signified the vast size of the University of Minnesota itself and I was made to feel very small at that point.

Later I heard the tale of how anyone who walks under it will fail their next exam. This social construction put around the "Tin Man" cast him in totally different light. He was no longer the triumph or the correlation to size I made earlier, rather he had become something of evil. Now walking past him I give myself ample room to keep his bad vibes away from me.

Barber's Pole--from Jared Staege, via Robin

An accident

Did you laugh when you looked at this picture? Or did you feel sorry about him? To be honest, I was shocked at the first moment, but then I laughed because the picture somehow looked funny. In this picture, a man is accidentally crushed into the rear window of a car and his body is kept straighten even though usually people would pass out and faint. Not to mention, this is a serious accident that the man could die because of this. However, this picture also makes people laugh since it is not a picture that we always see; sometimes these strange views look very funny. That is why this picture is found in a category of “funny pictures.” Now it is a bit confusing. Why an accident is described as funny? Thesignifier in this picture is the man crushed into the front window of a car. But interestingly, as you could guess from previous sentences, in this rare case, the signifier could lead readers to two different understandings. That is to say, two different things are signified by this sign. First, it is signified that the man in this picture is in a serious situation where he might lose his life; accident is always scary. But, the other message which is signified by this picture is that this irregular scene looks funny. And therefore I would say the accident would be object and our feelings toward this picture such as shock and laugh caused by this picture will be the subject. Personally, I feel that the second meaning had stronger impact on me because I kept laughing for a while. Therefore, the sign in this picture made me take a position of laughing at it. And at the same time, it is also a psychological aspect of culture.