Story Of My Body Judith Ortiz Thesis

In The Story of My Body Judith Ortiz Cofer talks about her looks and how different people perceived them in unique ways. As Cofer starts the passage from the skin, and how it affects the main character self image. As a reader, I feel that Cofer grasped the concept of one feeling hurt or disheartened due to their appearance. She starts out the passage with introducing the main character. A young girl, who is insecure, about how she looks due to her chicken pox, which has permanently scared her face. She breaks up the story into sections, such as color, size and skin, in order to explain the other parts of the way she looked and how it affected her life. Cofer shows the reader how differently she was treated by those of the same race as her versus those that were not by guiding the reader through stories of experiences she had. For example, she talks about being people making fun of her for being pale when she lived in Puerto Rico and then later, being in schools in the United States, being ignored because she had darker skin than everyone else. I really liked this essay because Cofer really goes into detail to show the reader different things about her appearance and how they, along with the place she lived, affected her feelings and behavior. This story was interesting because you don’t

Staples and Rodriguez portray in their articles that even at very young ages juveniles can be victims of racism. Such young ages in fact that it leaves scars on them, as it had with Staples and Rodriguez, because they found out the reality behind being black or having dark skin. For example, Staples discovers at the age of twelve what being black is in a racist society, as a white women saw Staples at night walking near her and she ran fearing for her life.In addition, Rodriguez’s first experience of racism was at the age of seven from his mother telling him to put a towel over his shoulder to cover some of his dark skin. Therefore, both Staples and and Rodriguez had to live with the stereotypes and the profiling that comes with having dark skin from a very young age

As a child, Ermilia was transferred by social services from a foster home to her grandparent’s house. She is horribly mistreated and habitually reminded of how she is a burden to the lives of her grandparents. Ermilia’s character struggles with a sense of purpose and ambition. Although, Ermilia and her friends do experience severe relationship problems as they are caught up in violence in the streets while the Chicano rights movement is at its peak. It is important to examine the dichotomy between Ermilia’s grandparent’s viewpoints and her present outlook on the Chicano people. Ermilia’s grandparents were products of the Spanish conquest that later elicited forms of restriction and racism such as miscegenation laws and construction of freeways. They were conditioned to believe that containment and segregation was a natural part of Chicano life. It was not until the Chicano rights movement in the 1960’s that the Chicano community began to question the laws and legislations that restricted them. Instead of just being contained by the bulldozer, dogs, and helicopters Ermilia and her friends began to question, who were these people that brought these forces of containment and why? Thoughts began to cross Ermilia’s mind such as, “what might happen if the line of people wrapped themselves around the Quarantine Authority officers like a python? Demand. Protest. Organize.” Although, Ermilia may not be the

It is often said that kids don’t usually understand race or racism, and that is true until Janie is met with kids who have faced oppression all their lives. Janie is a young girl who is raised by her grandmother in the deep South during the 1930’s. Janie lives among many white kids and doesn’t realize that she is not white until she sees a photo of the children and cannot identify herself in the picture. “Dat’s where Ah wuz s’posed to be, but Ah couldn’t recognize dat dark chile as me. So Ah ast, ‘where is me?’ Ah don’t see me’”(9). Janie didn’t know that she was a black girl because she had always been treated the same as the white kids, and they never treated her any differently than anyone else. The only kids that ever abused her with their words were the other black kids at school, they always teased her for living in

Like most college students, my self-esteem is less than stellar. However, in the poem, “I have come to claim Marilyn Monroe’s body” by Judy Grahn the realization that hyper-sexualizing runs rampant in our society becomes apparent. Therefore, it is possible that my body is not the problem. In fact, if the narrator can use a classic symbol of beauty like Marilyn Monroe to, “Bust his camera with your long smooth thigh”, then I or any other subject of our culture’s warped sense of beauty is to blame for negative body image.

Many nocturnal animals burrow themselves during the day but at the first sign of any harm or threat the animal escapes through an emergency “get away” tunnel. Not only nocturnal animals, but many other animals run when they are encountered with issues. Unfortunately, in Judith Cofer Ortiz’s, “The Story of My Body”, the main character and narrator, battles with not being able to run away from judgment. Due to not being able to run away from the judgment of those around her, she struggles with her own self-image. Basing one’s self-worth ultimately on the judgment made by others can greatly affect one’s self-image.

Every night as I close my eyes, flashbacks from the day’s news, painted in vivid reds and blues, flash in my mind in rapid succession. Racial tensions in Baltimore. Protests in Dallas. The constant cycle of death and loss due to racial issues, set on replay throughout the country, throughout the world. It boils down to the significance of race- which stagnates in my mind everyday, sticks to the walls of my brain, like two interlocked magnets struggling for control. The idea wrestles in my mind. Race- it’s relevance and irrelevance, its strength and weakness, its push and pull. The person I am today is a result of the Puerto Rican culture that permeated in my household growing up- the bits of Spanish I would use to converse with my grandmother,

Cultural beliefs and patterns regarding appearance have played a key role in reflecting the effects of beauty standards in Asian-American society. Through recent decades, it has transformed to become a key component to consider when understanding how body image fluctuates from country to country. In east Asian-Americans’ case, they are more than likely to trace back their cultural identity within two main geographic locations: either from their ethnicity background (China, Japan, South Korea) or from their residential domain in the U.S. However, this raises the question of whether or not they conform to the dominant white or regionalized Asian beauty standards.

At that point, Jose came to the realization that he was not accepted and didn’t belong in the white world (p.57). This verbal encounter pushed Jose to address his internalized racism. Racism is the belief that some races are inherently superior physically, intellectually or culturally to others and therefore have a right to dominate them (Webster). Jose’s self -esteem was low. He taught himself how to fit in with his friends by denying who was. He laughed along with his friends who made fun of acting like he was not Latino, but indeed white. He acted white, dressed white, and talked white. He felt that it was natural for adolescents to question their identity, However, he did more than question, he denied everything that was natural to him (p.58). Jose not only wished that his skin was different, but his whole ethnicity was

The central Theme of the article “Experiences of a Body Out of Place” is about how people make assumptions based on appearance. Nothing is what it looks to be.

Culture shapes the context in which body image is formed, and hence it is a critical component to consider when understanding how body image fluctuates. After researching there seems to be two types of bicultural groups, Asian American and Black American women respectively when it comes to ideal body image. Cultural identification assimilated with culturally normative body ideals. In contrast, the opposite was true for external cultural cues, exhibiting a contrast effect. Among Asian American women, identification with Asian culture was related to a thinner body ideal, but exposure to Asian cultural (Fallon). Among Black American women, identification with Black culture was related to a thicker body ideal, but exposure to Black cultural(Fallon)

The idea of cultural identity is portrayed by Story of my Body primarily via the color of the young girl's skin. In Puerto Rico as a girl with that of a lighter flesh tone and a taller build she is looked upon as a pretty girl and her self identity being her feelings concerning herself show that. However as the tables turn and she finds herself in America her self worth changes just as her environment has. She is now darker, shorter, skinnier in comparison to the wide variety of girls she finds herself with both in public and private school. She goes through an uphill battle to prove her worthiness simply because of her outward features.

Gender is the state of being male or female. The word is used to describe, but gender does not define who a person is, or what they believe. Written on the Body, written by Jeanette Winterson gifts an example of a protagonist who 's name is unknown, who’s origins are unknown, and who’s gender is unknown, but even without all this needless exposition, which as little effect not the story, we are able to learn and enjoy the trials of our main character, and learn who they are without the need of knowing their gender. To achieve this Winterson uses writing techniques like Point-of-view, stream of consciousness, and conflicting character traits in order to create a world where one does not need to know the gender or name of the protagonist in order to relate to them or pursue a continued interested in their lives.

Nevertheless, the constant changes in society have always changed the beauty norms that many find acceptable and unacceptable. Ultimately, this divided those who meet and don’t meet the specific beauty means. Society is not the only influence on how individuals or groups may view beauty. Media has had an influential role on how beauty becomes conceptualize. The overall portrayal and representation of the ideal image of beauty is solely based on the high power controllers within society. They are responsible for maintaining that aspect of dominance. But, also responsible for the distribution of how beauty should look. Body image, hair, and skin color are just a few categories that the media as well as society has analyzed to determine the ideal definition of beauty.

A human body is considered a sacred and beautiful thing. It’s widely complex, with millions of different aspects and parts that make humanity amazingly different than other species in the world. However, the social construction of feminine beauty brings about issues of what is truly beautiful. Most countries have a different viewpoint, such as being bare chested or having a stretched neck. In America, female beauty is something that many argue over, but there is a clear consensus on some things: women should be skinny, but not too thin; blonde, but not bleach-blonde; fit, but not masculine; tan, but not orange; and of course, the classic big boobs, big ass, but an absolutely tiny waist. A majority of these are completely unnatural and require a great deal of work, or even surgery, to even come close to acquiring. In “The Body Beautiful” by Rosalind Coward, the reality of expectations on beauty is clearly and concisely laid out, making clear that our construction of beauty is very flawed.