Many years ago I struggled to find out who I was. It may sound weird, but I think every person goes through that stage in their life when they don’t know who they are or how they fit in, in this world and that was me. When you are young no one ever knows why it’s a big struggle with his or her identity. Now that I have taken this Pop Culture class I have realized that I did not know who I was because the media influenced more than I thought it did. Now I realized that I didn’t know who I was because I wanted to be like every celebrity out there. I wanted to be skinny, wanted to have nice hair, have a clear face, and have nice clothes and shoes. I wanted to be like Jessica Alba, Jennifer Lopez anyone, but myself. I was so unhappy with myself because that is how the media made me, it made the celebrities untouchable people that everyone would want to be like them and should be like them. Every teenager struggles with their identity because of the media, what they see on TV the magazines etc. We all want the next big thing, the next thing the celebrities are getting whether it is hair extensions, pills to get skinny, surgery etc. To this day I still want to be like some famous celebrity look how they look, dress like they dress, but I’ve learned to accept myself and like myself for who I am. Although it is a challenge not to fall into the media’s gossip its better to be yourself than trying to be some famous celebrity that in reality we could never be, because we are not them and they are not us.

My group and I chose to read the book Flight Club this book is about a guy who just can’t find himself in the real world. He has spent many sleepless nights, according to the narrator he has insomnia, he says he doesn’t know if he’s awake or asleep. The narrator wants something to make him go to sleep, but the doctor doesn’t want to give him anything for the insomnia the doctor actually suggests to go to support groups. There although he is not severely ill he feels like he belongs there because everyone listens to him and his problems after that he is able to sleep. In these groups he meets Marla and he can’t cry and can’t sleep. So he joins the fight club. Long story short the narrator and Tyler Durden is the same guy, Project Mayhem, the dead of Bob, blowing up buildings was the side of the narrator that was scared to come out, but without knowing he came out and his name was Tyler Durden. In my group we wanted to touch base with some past concepts of the class for example we talk about Post Modernism how it ties to the support groups that the narrator went to. Those support groups where irrational and unscientific because the narrator wasn’t sick he just liked the attention and felt good hearing the diseases that other people had and he liked when people herd his problems, he also liked the fact that he could cry freely without the fear of being judged. We talked about consumerism and media, how for example Tyler was alter ego of the narrator, which is why he did the things, he did. We talked about simulacra which he said that with insomnia nothing is real its just a copy of a copy. Also, we talked about Risk Management related to his job, how he would forget when he scanned things in the printer cause he was so tired, at first he was scared to lose his job he would do everything his boss told him to do. Lastly we talked about Feminism, which was my slide. How Marla is related to feminism in the way that she did what she wanted to do, she didn’t need anyone she will feed herself by stealing food from her dead neighbors she would steal clothes and sell them, that is how she got she got money. I talked about how she is related to feminism because she will always get what she wants; she used sex to get the things she wanted. Marla talked about having Tylers babies and abort them, while she thought she over dosed on pills she implied that she couldn’t fall asleep and that she needed to stay up and by that she was talking about sex. With this slide I ask the classmates to give examples of feminism related to Marla or examples over all about feminism. I also edited some of my groups’ slides; I contributed on deciding that the class should be divided into two and start a debate. I also wanted to add a slide about what Tyler’s acid kiss meant and why he did it. I was going to ask my classmates why they though Tyler did that. I though it was because it was a way of control of the other people kind of like their master. I took the slide away just because of time issue, but it was discusses with my group members.

Going back to the article of the plastics. I was thinking and wondering what is the reason that they have to go off and get plastic surgery? Could it be that they have low self esteem, or was it simply that they were not happy with their bodies. What got my concern was that maybe with these girls new bodies they were exposing themselves into a lot of dangers. First they are exposing themselves to the danger of the surgery, what if something bad would happen while they are in surgery what if the surgery went wrong and they would be disfigured or maybe wont even come out of the surgery alive. What will happen then, all just because they wanted to look prettier and maybe even feel confident. Other dangers that comes to mind is them being raped, maybe their new bodies gave them a little too much confident that makes them dress very provocative giving guys the wrong impression. Although it is rare this situation might happen, whatever the reason to get plastic surgery can not be taken lightly it is a serious matter that needs serious though and if unhappy with your body plastic surgery has to be the last option women have. They need to think about the dangers that they are exposing themselves too all to simply feel pretty. Wise people say that the most important beauty is skin deep not on the outside because we all get old and wrinkly making all that surgery pointless.

Last week in class we were discussing the article "material girl." This article talked about how people are now being known as plastics. Women and even men are known as this because a good amount of celebrities have had some kind of surgery to either fix their lips, nose, fat, breasts or butt. Not only are celebrities exposing themselves to this danger, but teens see this and because they want to be just like their favorite TV show artist they will do anything that the artists is doing even changing their body, to something that is known as plastic simply because your changing to something that is not real, not you it is fake. My question is why aren't people happy with their body? We all know that we are not perfect that we have blemishes here and there, why is it so hard to accept who you are and not change who you are. We as a society need to start teaching our kids that beauty is not trying to be what other people, but to be who you are, beauty is inside the body not outside. Although trying to look pretty is not a bad thing, but not going to the extend to change your own body with plastic surgery. First, because it is dangerous and second because no one gets really any joy out of it if things go wrong. If you are trying to make yourself pretty for your own satisfaction change your look, not your face. Go to the gym get fit, get a new hairstyle, new clothe but not a new butt or new boobs. Be happy with who you are accept yourself and everyone else will accept you.