Wrap Up Week 3: Public Space

When I think about the World, I think about the unlimited amount of opportunities we have to learn and grow as a society. I begin to think about how we've come so far in technology and innovation, while remaining true to ourselves and never forgetting about our heritage or our roots. However, my opinion of the world is greatly different from everybody else's opinion of the world in countless ways. Central Park for example,  is a place to me where people can have a wonderful time laying in the grass with their friends, or experience the fantastic Zoo or carnival that they have every single day. It's a great place to meet people and it's always open to the public 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However a new phenomenon has been introduced to the world, and it is called Pokemon Go. Pokemon Go has taken over the world by storm, and it has easily caused many major changes in our environment. People are now walking and traveling to different parts of their city in desperate search to capture new and rare Pokemon in their quest to "Catch 'em All." Many different places like Central Park have been primetime locations for these avid Pokemon players to travel to and play Pokemon. Central Park used to be a normal destination for people to come and relax, or walk in the park, and a very well known tourist location, but now many people who have downloaded Pokemon Go have decided to flood Central Park because it is a great place to find amazing Pokemon. I think that Central Park is a great place that both enables and disables people. I think that it enables people to interact with other people around them especially now due to Pokemon Go, and it's a great place to come and relax and just have a good time. However, I also believe that it disables people because a lot of the things that people do at Central Park requires running, walking, and now hunting. So, people who have a leg disability won't find Central Park as lavishly as we do. I think that Central Park could be modified by adding more things that people who have a disability, of any variety, could partake in and enjoy. I think that Central Park is a great public space that could use a little new innovation.

Week 3: Body Disabilities

Body dysfunctions or disfigurations are something that are very common among people. Some of them are noticeable and some of them hide within our bodies. The word disability is very different from being disabled in my opinion. A disability could mean a number of things but to actually be disabled means that your body isn't as physically fit as somebody else is. In the article, "I'm Not a "Person With a Disability": I'm a Disabled person," I've noticed a lot of significant things that happen to Lisa that also happened in the world around us. She doesn't believe that she is disabled. She believes that the world and the society that we live in give her the label "disabled." She proposes the ideology the being disabled and having a disability basically comes down to the fact that you can be medically or physically injured or disabled, or you can be socially disabled. And by saying socially disabled, she means that the world has provided you with a label that only they can change. After reading through this article and after looking at the last two themes from Week 1 and Week, I have noticed a common trend. Whether it's being fat or overweight, or you're a body builder or you're anorexic, or you are disabled or you have a disability, the world around us will always give us a label. The society that we live in today will always determine who we are before we learn who we are ourselves. It's like we are predetermined to be characterized a certain type of way because we look or act or dress a certain type of way. And after we are labeled, people begin to harshly judge us or criticize us because we don't fit into the social norm. I think that we need to stop labeling people and the way that they are all together.

Roxanne Edwards vs Laci Green

Roxanne Edwards and Laci Green are both incredibly gifted and smart women. They both have very valuable ways of viewing life and how to live with their life. Roxanne Edwards is a female body builder who is obsessed with trying to have the perfect body at any means necessary. She worked long hours on trying to have the perfect body in her mind, and now she is extremely satisfied with the distinctive measures that she has taken to achieve her perfect body. On the other hand, Laci Green is YouTuber who has a unique way of life and the way people react to their life. She has many popular videos on her YouTube account that are argumentative towards most of the common perceptions that we may have. In one of her videos that happened to resonate with me in a number of different ways is her video "Fat Shame." In this video, she provides a new way of thinking about someone's body. To summarize, she firmly believes that your body, no matter what shape it is in and how it looks, is your body, and it is your responsible to love the hell out of it. I think that this article and this video disagree. Roxanne Edwards believed that it's okay to look the way that she looks, and she turned her life around in a dramatic way by working out in extreme conditions to achieve her body builder figure. In her article she talks about the negative remarks and the positive feedback that she gets from the way that she looks, and she states that "You were already strong before you started. A steroid just allows you to do it for a longer time so you’re able to create more muscle." I think that her way of viewing life is an extremely unique way of looking at life, and I think Laci Green would disagree with her way of thinking. I think that Laci Green would argue the fact that no matter what way your body looks like, whether you're "fat" or whether you're toned, you shouldn't allow other people to define who you are as a person. I think that both women provide great claims and information to go with their claims. I would have to say that Laci Green is really convincing though, and I really enjoyed watching her videos.

Week 2: MOD to your Body?

I think that the universe has ultimately allowed us to live in this generation curse where we believe that people who are overweight or fat are horrible, terrible, and unhealthy people. From birth, I was always told by my mother to not end up like my father and his side of the family, whom were all overweight adults. I can't really write her and tell you that my mom was wrong for raising me up with this value because it was taught to her when she was a kid too by her mother, and I'm pretty sure that this has been a very common pattern amongst many different families for decades. I always thought that this notion was the correct way of living because even when I attended elementary and middle school, all the kids who were fat were insulted and ridicule. I noticed from a very young age that the way that your body was shaped or looked would decide what type of person you were, and the type of people you got to hang out with. It's like a social ranking status based on your genetics and the amount you weigh. The skinnier you are, the more respected you are. If you were fat, you were automatically unhealthy and a loser. After watching the "Thinspiration" and "Fat Shame" videos on YouTube, it gave me a whole new perspective on life and the way that I view it. I realized that the word fat doesn't actually have to mean an insult, and it also doesn't have to mean that you aren't healthy. I also realized that I was one of those people who were apart of the problem. I believed that that being fat was extremely terrible for you and that people who begin to hate you for it. After watching these videos, I realized that it's okay to do whatever you want to your body because it's your body and you are the only one who's ever going to live with it. So, if you want to enjoy it, enjoy it and make the most of it. Let's not be apart of the problem any longer. Let's put an end to these insults and remarks about people and their weight. It's time to move on from these pointless arguments with people who want to degrade you based on how much you weigh. I think that we could ultimately put an end to the negative way that people use the word fat.

Can the Medical Field cure our imperfections?

Our imperfections define who we are as a human. No matter how hard we try, we are all born with certain characteristics and traits that can be easily distinguishable. Some of us are born with genes that allow us to be unique. Some of us are tall, some of us all short, some of us are fat, and some of us are skinny. In my mind, I think that's perfectly fine. We as humans have the right and the choice to be our own person and do our own thing in life. Some of us are perfectly fine with who we are and where we came from, and we choose to embrace our best traits and sometimes, even our worst traits. We learn from our mistakes and things that we don't like about ourselves and we choose to adapt at our own pace to be a better form of ourselves. However, I also believe that no matter how we try, some of us will never be happy with who we really are. That's why we have things like implant and reduction surgeries, which allows us to be who we actually want to be through expensive and painful methods. These surgeries allow us to achieve the perfect body that we always desired, and allow us to easily be the person that we've always fantasized about being. Also through medical technology, we can easily repair or fix any certain disabilities that feel ashamed about or tend to hid, just like Neil Harbisson who was born with a color blindness disability which only allowed him to see in black and white. He started to wear a new piece of medical technology which allowed him to feel the colors that he couldn't see through vibrations. I found this extremely interesting because with the new innovation of medical technology, and the nonstop growth of this field, we can soon hopefully be able to find and cure any type of imperfection or disease that might naturally occur in our life.

Can humans actually achieve Perfection?

It seems as Humans, we try to do whatever we can to be "perfect." But, what does that really mean? According to the Merriam-Webster's dictionary, the word "perfect" means "having all the required or desirable elements, qualities, or characteristics; as good as it is possible to be." Basically, this definition is telling us that to be qualified as perfect, we must consist of absolutely no flaws whatsoever. So, why are us humans obsessed over the fact of trying to be achieve perfection? Over the past three hours, I have read and looked at six different accounts of different human beings trying to be "perfect" in their own unique way. I was extremely interested in the article regarding Roxanne Edwards and her distinctive way of living life as a female bodybuilder. She spent months in the gym working out and going through difficult rigorous training to achieve the perfect body that she wanted. She dedicated her whole entire life for one goal, to look good naked. Now, she is extremely happy with her new look and she doesn't care about the people who embrace her or discriminate her because of it. I think that being perfect is just a label that we as humans use to describe something that we want to achieve. I don't think that people are obsessed with being perfect, however I think that people are more anxious to be accepted and applauded for who they are. I don't think it's about being perfect or trying to achieve perfection for many people who say that they want a perfect life, or a perfect body, I just think that humans just massively crave attention. And for most people, to get the most recognition or attention that they crave for, that requires them to go through extreme measures. So, the next time you're thinking about trying to have the perfect job, or the perfect body, or even a perfect life, ask yourself one question. Are you really trying to be perfect, or are you just not satisfied with your life now?