The Heavy Cost of Light Skin: A Mali Story

In the article, they talk about Malian women bleaching their skin. Bleaching their skin causes a pallid look so they look lighter. They think that bleaching their skin will embellish their looks and will be regarded as higher class. Sure, bleaching your skin is all the rage over there but it comes with a very painful choice. The burning of your skin, the chances of skin cancer just to look your best to others but not yourself. The women say men like them when they bleach their skin, higher dowry. Women who do not have a lower dowry than them. As they walk into the stores filled with all the creams they use to bleach, so mesmeric, so hypnotizing that it makes it so they buy and bleach and kill their skin.
I think it 's sad and disturbing what these women are doing just to be considered higher class, is this the price they pay for trying to be beautiful? Is it really worth it? This is horrible to their health, salubrious, and still they use it, the burn their skin just so their lighter. One women said that it has a certain charm when you have bleached skin, it makes them salacious. I find that disturbing, if I'm not charming the way i am then that is just fine by me.

Campaign For Beauty

1) What were your gut reactions to this commercial?
When i saw this video i was disturbed by everything that people use just to be beautiful. It was sickening to see people undergo surgery and take medicine/pills to be something there not which is the problem with the world today. Everyone wants to be like something there not and then they go through all this stupid stuff because they don't like who they are. When i saw the little girl standing there, I was wondering what was happening and why she was there just staring off in the distance. And when they got to the end and the words said "Talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does", I was very intrigued. It made me start to wonder what was happening currently with our views on beauty.

2) What do you think about the central message of the commercial? Be specific and give examples to support your ideas.
I think the central message of this commercial was telling us that we shouldn't believe anything that we hear because the media puts so many ideas into our head of what is what and we get bored of our own self and ideas, so we follow someone elses opinion/idea. The bad thing about following someone elses idea is to the fact that then were not able to gain or create new ideas because we lost our own self in the process.

The Four Cardinal Virtues

At our symposium, we discussed our perspectives on the four cardinal virtues which are:

• Prudence (Knowledge)


• Fortitude (Bravery/Courage)


• Temperance (Moderation)


• Justice (Fairness)

Since I was late, I only caught the back end of the conversation, leaving me to guess what everyone was talking about. What I heard of the conversation was what was our perspective on these four virtues. As I listensed in, I heard a lot of great perpectives and thoughts about the virtues. There were also debates going on about how these virtues make you perfect or help you or not to strive for perfection. I chose not to talk because I didn't really know what was going on. Near the end, we were asked to see what virtue we would add if we had a choice. My two favorite virtues were acceptance and trustworthiness. If we accept each other then we have can live in harmony without discrimination. And if there is trustworthiness then there is a sense that we can trust everbody and don't have to worry about them talking behind their back.

Beauty?

1) What is so beautiful about youth?

Basically, anything is beautiful about youth. Youth is something that radiates lots of energy and happiness that it spreads from one person to another. It's like a disease but a very good one, one that a lot of people would like to catch. It's contagious and gives you a warm feeling inside. The main beauty of youth is seeing someone full of life and happy with how their life is going, not letting the bad times get in their way and going on not knowing the troubles that await them yet ready to face everything that world has to offer them.


2) We know what "perfect" most likely means to Socrates by looking at ancient Greek sculpture and art and drawing inferences, but he doesn't describe this "perfect" human form. What are your thoughts on the idea of a "perfect" human form today? What is it in your culture for men? women? What are your thoughts surrounding those ideals?

There is no perfect human form because no one was made perfect in this world. We all have flaws and that is what makes us who we are. If we all were perfect then there would be no one who was unique, no one who was better, no competition. Competition is a way for people to push themselves to the limit to see who is better, if there's perfection then everyone would be the same and boring person who can do anything.

"Beauty is not in the face, beauty is the light in a heart"

-Kahlil Gibran-

What is Beauty?

When you look outside after it rains and the sun shines down, the raindrops always look beautiful. They look like like little crystals from a distance but up close they look even better. I also enjoy the smell after it rains, its a cool calming effect that can get rid of your troubles. What i really like about rain is how they land on plants and flowers, turning into these small round balls and staying there like the picture above.

"Why ask why? If it's raining, it just is."

-Doug Horton-

I think that eyes are a very beautiful thing. When you look at them, they make you want to stare forever. Eyes also show different emotions depicting a person's mood. You can tell when their happy, sad, mad, or tired. The beauty of eyes is that they come in different colors. And some of them can change colors which is also very interesting. Eyes also show innocence, mischeif, and regret. And sometimes you can tell a lot about a person by looking in their eyes, it's like your looking through them and searching for that certain something that draws you in and makes it so you never want to leave.

"Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through eachothers eyes for an instant."

-Henry David Thoreau-

First Post

My First Post. Yay!