When Anorexia was trendy...

Some do Sara Lee, they do Jenny Craig. I guess they like the idea of being constantly sick, constantly tired, constantly cold and constantly hungry. I guess that they don’t mind becoming an introvert and anti-social. I guess they want to be lonesome and timid. I guess they want to obsess over every calorie they consume. I guess they don’t care that malnutrition can cause permanent organ damage, which can have severe repercussions in the future, where conditions could threaten one’s life. - I guess it doesn’t bother them that starvation can damage their brain and heart. I guess they don’t care about the risk of irregular heart rhythms and heart failure. I guess they think insipid complexion is attractive, as pale yellow skin is obviously the new sun-kissed golden tan skin. (Just ask Mary-Kate.) I guess the piercing and demeaning looks people give them, don’t bother them at all. I guess they won’t mind being defeated by their nemesis; I guess they won’t mind being dead.           

Fat: a very scary three-letter word that evokes women of their desires and discontentment of their body image. If gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins, then anorexia should be the eighth sin being the other extreme on the spectrum. Women struggle to mold themselves into an idealistic and artificial identity, as they claim to need to have the “perfect” body. Without the perfect body you cant wear this. Without the perfect body you cant wear those. Without the perfect body you cant do this. Clearly in America the obsession has become a craving. Body Fat Index. Cholesterol. Trans fat. Calories. Sugar. Total fat. Saturated fat. Sodium. Total Carbohydrates. Dietary Fiber. Sugar.

It is estimated that there are currently eight million anorexics in this country alone, primarily constituting this number are women striving for a “perfect” body, much like that of Barbie doll’s. We can't help but stare at beauty, yet we laugh at the means by which some people pursue it. We cannot accept beauty as itself. In other words, we do anything to mold us into the superficial “perfect” image we desire to be.

Unfortunately, anorexia on the West coast has become synonymous for third world country starvation.

It’s a disease, it’s a pandemic, it’s an epidemic. It’s called anorexia. In our modern Western American culture, fatness is seen as an outward sign of neglect of the body and thinness is viewed as a virtue that requires obsessive attention to self-control.  Why is it then, that in the Renaissance Era, a woman was worshiped by the curves she had, but now women are acknowledged by the number of ribs they can see?

  I can hardly bare to watch the sorry individuals who parade about feeling that they have to be skinnier than the skinniest person in Africa. These starving children in Africa simply have no choice. Across the world, there is an average span of life expectancy of 48 years with Sierra Leone having an overall life expectancy of 34 years. Eating disorders, once considered culture- bound syndromes, have emerged in cultures that did not formerly value slenderness, following introduction of western media and in the context of rapid social change and unrest.  

Now, women are rewarded for being the size of a stick by being advertised in magazines, on the internet, and on the news. Soon, the smallest size will no longer be an xs but rather an xxxxxs with xxxs waist. Why try to wait around for a Lindsay Lohan to go down to a zero-zero when one can fly 20 hours to Nairobi. Exploitation is there for the taking, but can the media be absolved from exploiting such young women? Why should we hog all the food when nobody eats it? We should send the excess provisions to those begging for the bare survivals in life. Why in America, a country that has earned its independence for 200 years, do we give up food and out of our own volition choose starvation as a lifestyle?

Regardless, I cannot help but gawk at the magazines that advertise such scrawny and waif-like women. What is the point of being anorexic? So you can be the skinnier than the skinniest model? For popularity gain? To attract a sexier man who is dating your competition: those skinny awful models? Trust me when I say that men would much rather hold their dead grandmothers bag of bones than their girlfriend who crumbles to bones as he merely pats her. Do these anorexic women desire the harsh lifestyle that anorexia necessitates? Of course, because being anorexic is cool. I guess its cool to always be sick, tired, lethargic, and cold. Being antisocial is cool.

Anorexia is the epitome of identity. As my first request I ask that the media ceases on effecting the progression of this negative feminine body image. With heightened competitions with so many trying to attract so few, women try to be thinner than their opponents and thus try to be more attractive in a society where outward appearance dictates social stature.

My panacea, which would ultimately solve all starvation problems in the entire world is that once these women can see every single ribs piercing their skin, as well as their chest cavity and knees bulging from their body, they will be satisfied. The only fat that they might have left would be ear lobe fat. As ear lobe fat would irritate them, we could hire a company that could turn their ear lobe fat into delicious, juicy steaks for these children and adults starving in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

Asch Paradigm

What’s the deal with conformity? Everybody says its bad, but could it be good? Take WW 2 for example, conformity was expected because nonconformity was fatal. Clearly, conformity was a necessary good. For decades there was a superior notion that encouraged humans to be moralistic and righteous creatures and thus conformity provided the means to advance God's wishes. Though this belief was present in many monolithic practices, it clearly underscored the freethinker and subjected individual experiences and impulses to respect for divinity and attainment of "perfection".

So what's so bad about conformity? Why does the outcast have to always be the hero? In Brain and Behavior we studied psychologist Asch. The "Asch Paradigm" was a series of experiments that demonstrated an individual’s response to group pressure. The participants were asked to compare the lengths of 3 different lines. Expected to announce their answers aloud, the group answers a few questions correctly and then started saying incorrect answers that seemed slightly ambiguous. An example of the questions asked was which line is longer A or B? The pressure to conform, even to the wrong choice, seemed to overrule individuality. Asch, as I did, expected that most people would refuse to conform to a wrong answer, but when surrounded by others who agreed on the incorrect choice, participants too voiced the incorrect response. This discovery reveals the power that even a dissenting minority can have. When the participants were asked about their decision making process, the subjects attributed their performance to their own misjudgment or "poor eyesight".

Sophia Vergara

 “Barbie Doll” tells the pathetic story of a young girl who goes through life with self-hatred due to her physical appearance. Since birth, this "girlchild" is exposed to the expectations of society and encounters the harsh realities of not meeting those expectations. The need to live up to the world’s idea of beauty incites years of severe self scrutiny that suppresses her self confidence. Therefore, the desperate girl chooses to live a restricted life that she assumes will lead to others' happiness. The pressure placed on the protagonist of “Barbie Doll” to look and act according to society’s expectations ultimately leads to her suicide.

Unfortunately, this pressure to conform to society’s ideal image still distorts the feminine self-image. In the PEOPLE magazine edition that was published right after the Academy Awards, stars were interviewed about their diet plans, workout options, and overall ways to stay healthy- clearly women are still socialized. As Sophia Vergara from Modern Family said "Because I'm Latin Im EXPECTED to be a little more plump and more voluptuous, so I don't have to be really skinny. I think THEY want me with a little bit of meat." When does this stereotypical, societal, and psychopathic torture end?

Streets of India

Curiosity was Marlow's opponent and mine too when The Streets of India Cafe caught my eye. Im adventurous when taste testing and one would undeniably say that I  love food so it seemed natural to want to meander into this street corner cafe. I guess Marlow and I share that in common because we relish in exploration and discovery. And sure enough the cafe was no longer a heart of darkness but rather a mine of flavor. Just as the jungle encouraged Marlow to transgress his moral boundaries to satisfy his curiosity, Streets of India encouraged me to transgress my comforting savory expectations to satisfy by oral fixations. From samosas to dosas, Encino's Streets of India knows how to do it up. It's the valley's newest hotspot. Modern, simple, new, clean, family owned, Nice pictures on the walls, and a couple of LCD TVs playing Bollywood videos. The owners are amazingly friendly, taking the time to tell me about all the food, its origin, and their own family history. It's a mix of Northern and Southern Indian flavors…. so I usually just order a bunch of things so I can sample and have leftovers. 

Their Samosas are perfectly crispy and have a tasty potato/pea/spice filling, but their dosas are even more impressive and HUUGGGEEEE!! They arrive with dipping sauce and coconut chutney and they are everything your dosa loving self could dream of. Lots of flavorful potato and spice filling, that perfect flakey crispness….and again, like the other food, very light on the oil. Dosas at other places sometimes get soggy really quickly due to the oil content but NOT here. The owners explained their food as being "Healthy Indian food"-  vegan and flavorful without being overly spiced or heavy on sauces. With that said, will you travel into the Heart of India?

Intro to Metamorphosis

The fear of alienation, desire to get along, and other unspoken pressures provide sufficient reasons for conformity. In Kafka’s novella, he describes the emotional, social, and psychological repercussions of Gregor Sampsa’s physical transformation. Because he is no longer able to financially support his family and resembles a vermin, Gregor feels increasingly isolated. Through Metamorphosis, Kafka conveys his anxiety towards society’s eagerness to conform, the ultimate driving force behind the alienation of individuals. As an orthodox Jewish boy living in Echo Park, growing up with the familial expectation that he would earn a living by practicing medicine, my grandfather, Stanley Zusman D.P.M., could surely relate to the extreme conformity he faced as a teenager. When questioned about his need to socially fit in, he recalled boot camp when he entered the army. This to me, offered the clearest example of conformity as necessary and non-conformity as fatal. Therefore, conformity provides refuge for those who seek to masque their insecurities and desire to equalize, but also is a mechanism which controls the herds effectively.

Conformity in the Classroom

The classroom is the breeding ground for conformity, expecting all students to arrive at the same conclusions, analyze the same information, and suppress opinion until the bell rings. I relate this scenario to bee societies, in which the queen bee feeds her workers (all genetically related) food which suppresses individuality and selfishness, coercing them to cooperate for the advancement of their group rather than selfish interests. Clearly, conformity provides the best outcome for this lifestyle.
Therefore, maybe Buckley's system doesn't seem too horrible.... After all, we all end up on a more level playing field and end up with hundreds of community service hours, the intellectual techniques having taken 10 AP's, an acceptance letter from Harvard, and great money-making careers,  but at whose expense? In this way I agree that elementary children should engage in more fostered and structured learning whereas, upper school students should be expected to have developed their critical thinking abilities and thus form opinions and perspectives on their own.