Leading Post: Meanness and Leanness

I both agree and disagree with Douglas's chapter on "Lean and Mean". She talks about how beauty standards help empower women and turn men helpless. I don't think that is true for all guys. Many guys want someone who is real and they will take that over someone who acts like the "queen bee" because frankly they can be huge bitches. Douglas talks about the power of the relationship of being lean and mean but how many of these girls are selling out to look like barbie? She says places like Victoria's Secret and Hooters are based on breasts and size zero waits. I think this can be very true but I think these places can also make women feel comfortable as well. I like Victoria's Secret because it can make you feel good about yourself, you don't need other people to know what your wearing as long as your comfortable. Also, Hooters I like to eat there because I think it shouldn't be considered a guys place just because of what the waitresses have to wear.

When it comes to plastic surgery I tend to agree with Douglas and the problems she talks about with surgery. Many women get it done for the wrong reasons but there are right reasons to the surgery as well. For example, women with back problems because there breasts are to big can be a physical health problem and surgery can help. Also women who because of hormonal imbalance look more like a boy with barely AAA cups should be allowed some help to feel more like a women. You also can't forget gender transformation. These extreme cases allow these women to live better lives, where as the normal cases I don't really agree with. Stress can be hard on women, especially in college when it becomes harder to find time to exercise and we can't forget about those freshmen 15. These emotional issues can make women resort to eating disorders hoping that it will make them feel better about themselves but in reality it just makes them more unhealthy. Shows like Swan, transform normal looking women to someone they don't even recognize. Men said "they loved the women and thought they were pretty much just fine the way they were, but that the relationship, and especially their sex lives, were suffering because the women had no self-esteem" (224). You will obviously come across some men who think this idealistic women should be for everyone and they make fun of people that aren't but we should give them more credit. Not all men are that shallow. Women face the stereotypes when they have large breasts and they are blonde. They are considered dumb but sexier.

So what about this queen bee problem. IS is really that bad? I think it is unrealistic that just because you are popular that you are necessarily a bitch and bully people that aren't. I think it is about the personality type of the girl. There are girls who are popular and do bully but there are also non-popular kids that in turn bully the popular ones as well. It is a vicious cycle of growing up, being different, and hormones. I think bullying in general is a problem but I don't think it is based on just popular kids. The example they give with "Mean Girls" is very unrealistic and also a cliche. They forget to mention when Janas forms a plan to get Regina and starts this whole War.

This leads into the article by Fausto called "Hormonal Hurricanes". This article talks about how women's hormones are the source of blame that men place for their logic reasoning of why women don't deserve promotions, raises, the same pay, ect. One excuse that I love and think was so outrageous was that we "don't eat as much and therefore can't think as much and are biologically less intelligent and have smaller brains". That is so false. I think men can get threatened by powerful women so they need a reason to get them out of the way. They also blame PMS for the disturbances and why women lash out and kill their boyfriends. Did you ever considered that maybe those women are just crazy?

Overall, I agree and disagree with Douglas's points on meanness and leanness. Also, I believe Fausto's article brings to light many issues that men have with women and what their rational really is.