11. October 2009 by student.

Last week our Andosciaville City Council denied a 14 yr old girl petition to allow her to have an abortion at the city run clinic. I believe a life changing decisions like having a baby should be left to the individual who’s life is going to be effected, not a stranger who will probably never see the baby.

I believe if a women truly does not want a baby, should not have to have one. A pregnancy may be a blessing when planned or wanted but forced pregnancy, like any forced bodily invasion, is unacceptable. Just like if the Government were to force a man or a woman to donate bone marrow, a kidney to another, or to force a women to undergo an abortion or sterilization, our Constitution protects women against forced pregnancy.

Should society force teenage girls to have a baby because they were irresponsible?? Like most irresponsible teenagers mistake are made, but as a society we should help them correct their mistakes and learn from them, not condemn for it. Forcing a child to have a child is putting both at risk of school failure, poverty, physical and/or mental illness. So if children from broken homes are more likely to suffer, why bring them into a broken home?? A women is born with millions of immature eggs, so I don’t see nothing wrong with sacrificing an embryo/fetus, to later bring a baby into a stable home environment.

Women have aborted because they did not want the child but now abortions are something that women are being forced into from boyfriends/husbands unwilling to be fathers, fear of the financial pressure, losing their jobs, having to quit school, becoming homeless, or parents kicking them out into the street. Abortion for these reasons can lead to Post Abortion Stress Syndrome. It is a type of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that develops when a woman is unable to work through her emotional responses from the trauma of an abortions. There are also women who abort and do so completely of their own free will.

Having a baby is a life changing decision that brings a great responsibility, of taking care of not one but two people. Not everyone’s situation is the same, so women should be more informed about the repercussions of each of their choices before they make one.

Posted in Social Problems | 3 Comments »

11. October 2009 by student.

It was right after the first week of high school when I realized that I wasn’t good enough. All the pretty girls were skinny, and all the pretty girls were popular. As I watched television I began to notice this as well- every well known actress or sexually appealing woman was skinny, flawless, and smaller than me. I was only a size 8, but when I looked at myself in the mirror, I saw a size 28. I was 5’6”, and weighed 140lbs. With my mousey brown hair and fat love handles, I decided it was time for a change.

I began to diet. Only fruits and veggies for me, maybe a little bit of bread. I cut out most carbs, meats, and any desserts. Yogurt for breakfast, some fruits and vegetable for lunch, maybe a small snack in between, and I would usually come up with some kind of excuse to skip breakfast. After two weeks, I hadn’t lost any weight and basically stopped eating all together. Not even a week after this decision, I fainted in gym class and was taken to the hospital. I realized that not eating was not the answer, and had to come up with something else.

I was fourteen when I first stuck my finger down my throat. It was after the night I got home from the hospital, when my mom made me my favorite dinner- fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and broccoli and cheese sauce with cheesecake for dessert. I was so hungry I ate nearly everything on my plate. My parents seemed satisfied, but I began to feel guilty. After dinner I locked myself into the bathroom, and five minutes later walked out a completely changed person.

I immediately noticed that I could get away with this easily. Every one thinks I’m eating, but when they weren’t paying attention, I would run to the bathroom as fast as possible to dispose of the grotesque amount of food I just consumed. I did this for the next three years. By the time I was a junior in high school I was seventeen years old, weighed 95 lbs, and guess what? I was popular.

I would learn in health class that the average pant size of a woman in the United States is a size 12, but there is no way this seemed realistic to me. The average size of every woman I see on television and in the magazines that are rich and famous is a size 1. There’s advertisements every where for diet pills and other weight loss programs. Every where I turn- the television, magazines, stores, and billboards, I am faced with thin, beautiful women. I wanted to be them, so I put my life in danger to become them.

The media was not the only thing pressuring me into being thin. My family wanted me to be perfect: perfect grades, perfect friends, perfect life. They pushed me hard, and I pushed myself harder. I became an overachiever. If I failed, I would punish myself. I would starve myself. After a while I lost control, and couldn’t stop myself. Every time I looked in the mirror the only thing I saw was fat all over my body. I was slowly spiraling down a deep, dark hole and didn’t know how to get out.

Finally my mom did something. She sent me away, isolated from all the outside pressures I was facing every day. I went to a rehab center. It was so much easier there, without the media, my family, and my peers pressuring me to be a different person, an unrealistic person. Between 5 and 10 million women and girls are struggling with an eating disorder. At least 50,000 of them will die from it. How far will people go to force an unrealistic life style and image?

**I have never, do not, and will never have an eating disorder or have ever come close to having one. The story above is not true, but told through the eyes of a young woman who struggles with an eating disorder. Although the story is fictional, it contains many common details and trends typical of a person with this disease.

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 3 Comments »