Media Monster (blog 3)

Even if your TV watching is non existent and you restrict your reading to actual literature and keep away from Cosmo, being blind and deaf would be the only way to avoid the media and it's messages. For parents, even the drive to school has billboards headlining makeup and unattainable body shapes. However, like many women's issues, it is the double standard that we cannot escape. 
While anorexia is an identifiable mark on our societies obsession with thin, another contingency has arisen bashing everything skinny. Post claiming "thin girls are like jeans with no pockets, you don't know where to put your hands," are covering the internet. Those with smaller breasts and narrower hips are accused of being "unwomanly." This attack perpetuated by other WOMEN is keeping body image purely sexual rather than allowing every body time being beautiful when it's healthy. Thinner girls are guilty of the same crime. These girls will brag about their diets and losing three pound yesterday, and everyone praises them for it! 
I think health educators have a tough job ahead of them. I think their only real foot hold has been the rise of the health nut. The notion that "strong is sexy." This still puts the praise in sexy, but it's a better spin. Educators can point to a lot of role models who are keeping themselves in shape. Michelle Obama's arms are a statement all on their own. Unfortunately there is a thin line between health nut and over controlled eating disorder. It may not be the best option, but it's at least a start.
The media monster has been hard at work the past few years. The war between skinny and shapely have ensured no one is happy with what they have. Skinny is still dominant, but the critiques have started piling up. Everyone loses here. We attack each other when we should be embracing the wonderful genetic gifts. Some magazines like  In Style have started running pieces on flattering any body type. It's not perfect, but it is a small shed of hope that someone else has our body type and can make it work. 

Blog 2

Oh "The Talk." That most uncomfortable and confusing conversation for everyone. As the kid, you don't necessarily want to be hearing about this from mom. As parent, are you really ready for your baby to know this stuff? I have not been in the role of the parent, so I do understand that my ideal situation may be dismissed as the fantasies of someone who just doesn't know what they're talking about.

However, I do remember my feelings when I had this talk with my parents. My mother did something that I've never seen another parent do. When I asked where babies came from as a small child, she told me "in the mommies tummy." What she told me after was the whole science of a mass of sperm breaking down the outer membrane of the egg inside of the body. After a very long explanation full of medical terms, I though I had it down. Her description never included the way the sperm got to the egg...

Once I was 13, I finally figured out what I was missing. I sprung the "how does sex work" question on her a little rapidly and she wasn't quite prepared.

Ideally, I would like my own child to have the microscopic biology down before I talk about the more attention grabbing definition of sex. I would want it to be a relaxed day where no one had to hurry off to be somewhere.I think everyone should start with 

"What do you know about sex?" 

You should know what your kid knows. And know what they may have learned that is wrong.

I think every talk should stress the importance of how important and special sex can be. Also including however, how dangerous unsafe sex can be. I will be asking my child what they know about birth control as well. Boy or girl, I want them to know about condoms and have them available. 

A sex talk should NOT include guilt. Ultimately, your body is wired to want to have sex. Even if it is the persons decision to wait until marriage, if it has been beaten into their brains that it is bad, that could include some serious mental baggage. 

Sex is a good thing. It feels good. It helps sustain the human race. It brings a level of intimacy to a relationship that is special. This talk has to be handled carefully. 

Blog 1

I have a confession to make. Hi, my name is Julia Piccolo and I watch Teen Mom and 16 and Pregnant. I feel like anyone else who admits to watching these shows will tell you that it's a train wreck and you just cannot look away. I've been on birth control since I was 15, have never had a pregnancy scare, and know that I am privileged to have this experience. There is a part of me that feels a little guilty for watching the shows, mainly because I think health related to pregnancy and a woman's right to choose what she does with her body is just that, a RIGHT.

Time Magazine a few weeks ago ran an article titled "What Choice?" It reports on the fact that even though the right for a woman to have an abortion was constitutionally protected many years ago, on a state level the movement has been losing ground. State legislature has been diminishing abortion rights ever since it became legal, and that is not the way I think this bit of history should be treated.

I also think however, that there are steps to be taken with education that could severely decrease the number of abortions. Like decreasing the number of unwanted pregnancies. I know that there are many thoughts on what should and should not be taught in schools as far as sexual education goes, but if someone does not know what a condom is there for, they will not use it. If someone does not know that there are multiple birth control options, they will not take advantage of any of them.

My mother (Kimberly) and grandmother (Carol) are both very serious advocates of women's health. Both of them marched during Roe v. Wade although my mother was very young. Carol is proud to have taken my mother to the marches. "I never wanted her to have any doubt in her mind that a woman's body is hers. No one should be able to tell me what is right for my body, especially if they don't have the same anatomy!"

 My mother works on the psychiatric floor of Presbyterian Dallas, and see's many women who were given no options with their body, and it has ruined them both physically and psychologically. "We should not see people on my floor of the hospital affected by mental disorders because of something that could have been prevented."

In my perfect world, everyone would spend 6 months each in military, retail, and restaurant service, and spend some time volunteering at a hospital. During my volunteer hours I helped mothers with severe substance abuse issues, and their new babies. These babies were not well developed. Their central nervous system is un regulated. It cannot "block out" noises or distractions like you and I can. It is continuous sensory overload. Others have incomplete brain development so have no higher functioning and will be chair or bed bound and do not have high life expectancy. These children are prone to seizures and can never develop as a working member of society. What if that mother had access to the pill? What if she had been taught to always use a condom. I feel that if we did not have to ask these questions, we would not see these situations.

So here begins our biographies. Hello fellow classmates and instructor! My name is Julia Piccolo and I, like many others at TWU, am a nursing major. I have many friends in the program who wish to enter into the labor and deliver division of nursing. I am fully impressed by these individuals that seem to make up a majority of the nursing students. I have plans on either going into the operating room or psychiatry. I have sat in on a few surgeries. I have no words to describe how truly amazing it was to watch those men an women work inside of a body. I have done a lot of volunteer work at halfway houses whose members were funneled though various hospitals. Mental health is an area that desperately needs help and reform, and I wish to be a part of changing it.

I have high hopes for this class. As a Plano kid, I am well aware that I have lived a sheltered life. Any problems I have are minuscule in comparison to even some less affluent areas of Dallas, let alone the global community. This class advertises itself as a perspectives class. I am wanting to gain just that.

Most of my time is filled by work and study. I work at a sports bar in Plano to pay for my education. Lets just say that football season makes the school payments a lot easier to make. When not working, I tend to stick to screens. Movies, NetFlix, computer games, and Xbox monopolize my time. These sessions are usually punctuated with a trip to a pub or restaurant with friends that I have had since elementary school.

As for my random fact that makes me fairly unique, when I was younger I went to a studio in Dallas to have my screams recorded. A majority of today's game (if they feature screams) include my voice.