Blog 092514

          When I think of beauty, I think about the goodness and warmth of a person. A superficial viewpoint many people have of being beautiful is being thin and pretty with clear skin. I would not see someone who puts other people down or thinks too highly of themselves as beautiful, I believe beauty is based off of being a good person with a positive outlook on life. At times I would say I can show beauty through treating others with kindness and being inclusive, but of course, like most people I've had my weak moments. There have been times where I've shown little to no beauty, like most everyone has in their lifetime. In a physical point of view, I believe everyone is beautiful. The previous question made me feel slightly uncomfortable, because I believe beauty can be defined in many ways. I would see beauty in America as a negative thing because of all of the standards and unrealistic expectations people have in their minds in order to become "beautiful". I don't think gender makes a difference in peoples definition of beauty, and I believe that everyone has beauty and it's a fairly important characteristic.
          I believe if Rachel had watched the Ted video, she would've been pleased by the model speakers words. It would've been encouraging and comforting to hear that everyone deals with insecurities in their body type. I think Rachel could connect to, but also be slightly insulted by the video about curly hair. Although it is possible to get your hair chemically straightened, it's important to feel comfortable with your natural hair too. On page 11, Rachel says "Aunt Loretta puts her nails in my hair and makes one part then another.". This shows the painful and timely process Rachel and her family would go through to simply achieve a certain hair look.
          In the physical sense, I believe these videos relate to what I wrote earlier about beauty and societies perception of it. If it was up to me, I wish everyone could be comfortable with who they are and not have certain goals to attain based off of other peoples bodies.