Hot Topics: Race, Gender, and Body Image in the Media.

Hello! I hope your week has been Gone With The Wind Fabulous! Today I looked like a teenage Dirtbag Rock Star. 

Alex and I went to a lecture this week hosted by the campus' Women's Resource Center about Body Image and Race in media. I spy a few miners in the back row!

This was the speaking panel. Only one was a graduate, the rest students. 

From left to right, Dominique started a feminist organization on campus to help women. Her issues with body image started because she is a belly dancer, and she knows that a large percentage of the audience thinks she's not fit. She overcame it for the love of the dance. Rachel, similarly, began at a dance academy when she was 2 which influenced her hate on her body. She feels she can give advice to others about being body positive, but can't take it. It's hard not to be affected in such a culture of body negativity. Next up is Meadow. She is an art education major and finds an interest in helping students feel more comfortable and diverse. She was anorexic when she was younger. Last, Shantel finds an interest in how the body is the center of the internet, advertisements, and social media. She felt self conscious as a young girl as a half asian half latina woman because no celebrities looked like her. Similarly, Dominique felt left out as a child because there were no barbies with afros or natural african american hair. It made her not like her hair and feel ugly. 

Throughout a lot of this lecture, I felt like this:

This topic is in fact a political issue. The media tells us not to worry about the way we look. If we worry and hate our body, we're self conscious and weak. If we love ourselves and are happy, we are vain and self absorbed. Society has a way to make you feel bad no matter what circumstance your in. cosmetic surgeries are rapidly increasing year after year because nobody seems happy with themselves anymore. Eyelid surgeries in Asia and skin lightening surgeries in Africa are among the top. As the opposite, tanning beds and bronzers and makeup helps white american women look and want to appear darker. Everyone is trying to look less and less diverse wanting the opposite of what they are. 

Body image is more than just people with an eating disorder. There are much more complex issues with body image, especially for transgendered folk. How can you tell someone to love their body when they feel they are born in the wrong one? This topic interests me because I try to change what society thinks is beautiful with my fashion and beauty photography. I don't exactly fit society's mold of a man and everything he needs to be. However, I am a man, and I like being a man. I don not want a sex change. Nonetheless, I do wear makeup and I do fashion. In the gay community, there are different categories of gays. Transexuals are individuals who have had the sex change. Transvestites are men who dress in women's clothing for sexual pleasure/fetish reasons. Drag queens are men who dress in women's clothes for performance purposes. I don't fit any of these categories. I'm a man who just likes to wear makeup and fashion. With my photography, I push the androgyny because I want to create a category for us men who like to dress this way just because that's how we want to dress/feel ourselves in. I know there are a lot of gays like me out there, and I know they are just as confused and don't know what to call themselves either. And if you don't have anyone to compare yourself to or call yourself to make your feel more "normal", that can lead to an identity crisis. If nobody creates this category, then I will!

Is it a man? 

Is it a woman?

... Do you care? 

See you next week!

MWUAH <3

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An Evening With Keith Boykin: A Celebration of Black LGBT History Month.

Hi! I'm back this week in a pretty scarf. Do you like it? Great.

This week, I walked into a lecture sponsored by an LGBT organization on campus. I saw quite the familiar crowd. There was a WHOLE ROW of miners!!! So funny.

11 of us. Anyway, the speaker of this event was Keith Boykin (In photograph Below). He came to talk in honor of "Black LGBT History Month". 

Boykin was a troubled child, but was always into politics. When he was younger, he pretended to be the president all the time and rode his imaginary limo. Little did he know that he was going to grow up to become highest paid gay to work in the White House. However, it wasn't always success. 

He first began by traveling across the country to help campaign their elections for presidency. His family and friends did not support this idea of his because they didn't think he would make money or be successful, but Boykin thought it was important to take the road less traveled. When he wasn't very successful, he went back home and taught history classes for money. Doing this made him realize that politics is what he loves, so he began to consult the city government. He started by helping campaigns of governors and senators in hopes to work with presidents again in the future. Finally, he decided to apply to law school. He applied to Washington where he had a full ride scholarship, and Harvard Law. He got into Harvard and went there with Barrack Obama. There, Obama was the first black student president of the school.  

While at Harvard, Boykin created the Coalition for Civil Rights which was to help support diversity on campus for minorities such as the handicapped, latinos, LGBT's, etc. He believed that diversity helped everyone because everyone can learn from each other. The group boycotted a lot of events. One time, he asked the dean of students to politely come talk to the group. The dean turned toward the door, and Boykin grabbed his picket sign and made his way toward him. The dean started to run from him, and he chased him around the quad. The next day, there was a photo of the scenario on the cover of the newspaper. This was the first instance he knew he had power. 

One day, he came to terms with the fact that he was contemplating his sexuality. He went to the Harvard library, checked out a book nervously from the LGBT section, and read it in one night. The next morning, he came out to himself and his mother. He wanted to be out, but not have to deal with coming out to everyone. He told friends and family, but his grandmother did not approve. On his graduation day, his grandmother decided to sit next to his boyfriend and tell him she didn't approve of their lifestyle. Boykin was upset, and decided to travel again. He quit his steady job after college that paid well, taking a rish to start campaigning again. He campaigned for dozens of politicians, but they all kept losing. Finally, he won with Bill Clinton, which is when he became the highest paid gay man to work in the White House. Years later, he left the White House to write books to help LGBT individuals and guest speak around America. 

He ended the lecture by saying that the LGBT community should be proud of the power we have. Gay marriage has been an issue in politics for years, but has rapidly progressed. In the past, issues the segregation and slavery took hundreds of years to fix. We are in a good place with a hopeful future. 

See you next week everyone!!!

MWUAH <3

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College Of Veterinary Medicine: Health & Wellness

Hello, I'm back! This week, Liz, Alex, and I all traveled to the University's College Of Veterinary Medicine for a lecture on health and wellness. Here we are. I look like a chic blind man. 

This lecture informed us on marijuana, energy drinks, and technology in today's world. This topic must be pretty interesting because it brought quite the crowd. 

I see some old vets, do you?! Anyways, the first speaker (Photograph Below) is Dan. He informed us on Marijuana. The scientific word for marijuana is cannabis. I think Dan enjoys his weed. He is very pro-cannabis. He starts off his lecture by stating that there has never been an overdose fatality, so cannabis is not dangerous. However, it is considered a gateway drug, and opens one's mind up to trying other hardcore drugs like cocaine. Cannabis isn't dangerous, but the person smoking it can abuse other drugs in the future. 52.6% of people that go to rehab for cannabis are not in rehab because they are addicted to it, but instead are just trying to avoid jail time. Most people would rather be in rehab than jail. Not only is this drug non addictive or dangerous, Dan also informed the group that it helps slow growth of tumors, breast cancers, and leukemia. Cannabis prolonged the lives of 36% of mice being tested for tumor shrinkage. Dan thinks the U.S should legalize weed. Last November, Washington and Colorado legalized it. He has seen the heartbreak of people die of cancer waiting for the states to legalize the harmless drug. 

After Dan, the next speaker stepped up. Her name is Yvette (photograph below). Yvette spoke to us about energy drinks. Consumers spend billions of dollars on energy drinks yearly in the U.S. The first original energy drink was Coca-Cola. Back in the day, it actually used to have cocaine in it. Coca-Cola actually isn't that bad for you. Energy drinks have 3 times more caffeine in them than coke. Energy drinks have positives and negatives. For positives, Yvette explains that they enhance reaction time for drivers, increase alertness, and upper body strength. Negatives include insomnia, anxiety, cardiac issues, and seizures. over the years, E.R. visits have increased in Caffeine Toxicity and Cardiac Arrhythmia. In fact, Monster has been sued for the death of a 14 year old girl who died due to Cardiac Arrhythmia. All in all, there has been 18 deaths: 5 with Monster, 11 with 5-hour energy shots. Yvette then talked about the worst of products: Four Loko. This is an energy drink mixed with alcohol, caffeine, and sugar. This product reduces one's awareness of how intoxicated you are. The caffeine prevents you from passing out, making you think you aren't that drunk and people end up drinking way more than normal alcoholic drinks. In November 2010, due to the deaths of Four Loko, all energy drinks were reformulated without the caffeine or they were taken off the shelf. 

The last speaker (Didn't catch his name) spoke very briefly about the myths of cell phones causing brain cancer. Many believe the radiation from cell phones trigger cancer cells, but it's a myth. Cell phones in the U.S. meet a safe absorbable level. There have been 3 studies where the radiation causes an increase in cancer cells, but there were a contrasting 7 studies that show no increase after 10 years of use. Over the years, people say brain tumors have become more frequent, but that could be due to the fact that cancer technology has drastically improved and doctors are much more successful in finding tumors. 

So all in all, this lecture has taught me that a smoke a day will keep the doctor away, Coca-Cola really isn't that bad and it can continue to be my favorite food, and cell phones are not villains. 

See you next week!!!

MWUAH! <3

  

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Hypnotist Steve Marino

Hi. This is me, Gino Baileau. I look like a floating head, but at least my face is glowing like that of a pregnant woman. I'm a photography major at the University of Illinois, and yesterday I attended a free event hosted by the Illini Union where a well known performer was putting on a show for students.

As you can see, me and my friend Alex were pretty excited about this event, and it drew a pretty large crowd. 

This is Steve Marino. He's from Boston, but performs across the country in places like Hawaii, Las Vegas, the Caribbean, and other major cities. He's also performed on national television. He travels to high school and colleges to entertain young crowds with audiences ranging anywhere from 30-1,000 people per show. He said he first began hypnosis when he was a math teacher in his younger years, and used it as a technique to relax his students before exams. 

After the show, I asked Mr. Marino more about the history of hypnosis to broaden my horizons on the subject. Apparently, the study of hypnosis goes all the way back to the 1700's with psychologists like Franz Mesmer and Sigmund Freud. In the past, a lot of these people believed that hypnosis was caused by magnetic fields from the universe. Some people were thought to have the ability to pick up certain waves that most humans couldn't. Today, hypnosis is simply defined as a psychological state of sleep marked by a functioning individual at a level of awareness other than ordinary conscious state. According to Marino, hypnosis is not a talent of picking up magnetic fields, but rather relaxing an individual so deep into their own mind where all consciousness is heightened.

Now to talk about the show. First, as seen on the photo on the left, Marino called 3 random individuals up on to the stage from the audience. He had one of the individuals shuffle the deck three times in front of everyone. Then each of the three individuals pick a card and think about the card in their mind. He takes a moment and says the color, number, and suit of the card. All three people go back to their seats. Next, he calls up about 30 people from the audience. 

He talks all of the random people into a tranquil, relaxing state of mind with all of their eyes closed (left). That takes about 5 minutes. Then, he goes one by one and taps each person on the shoulder and says "Sleep" (right). The individuals fall into a limp relaxation. 

Now, the people are in a state of unconsciousness, and will do anything hypnotist Steve Marino demands. Marino tells them to do outlandish things, such as making them play a piano that keeps floating up to the sky over your head (seen on the right).

The show then goes on, and he weeds out the people he knows are "faking" the hypnotic state, and only a few people are left on stage. He makes these people perform even crazier things, such as hug the complete stranger next to you intimately, shown on the left, and dance ballet and give lap dances, shown on the right. 

Skeptics, like myself, could obviously beleive that al of these people are faking their state of hypnosis. It seems way too far-fetched to be real. Nonetheless, it was an experience and I learned about something I had no knowledge of before my attendance to the event. For more information on this performer, visit his website at www.SteveMarino.com

Now, let's acknowledge the real topic of the evening: HOW BOMB WAS MY OUTFIT?! 

See you next week

MWUAH! 

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Vote For Linda!!!

Hey followers!!! Please take the time to vote for this Marvelous woman, Linda, by clicking this link and liking this photo on Facebook to help her win this contest!

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