Sam McManus

February 2, 2014February 2, 2014

Skinny Girls Can’t Win

“I like ’em round and big, and when I’m throwing a gig I just can’t help myself. I’m actin’ like an animal, now here’s my scandal.” -Sir Mix-A-Lot

Fashion magazines show the “ideal” female as ridiculously skinny, and hordes of young girls growing up buy into this vision of what they need to look like. Look at the runway models and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Kate Moss was the epitome of this type of “beauty” in the ’90s, with her severe looks and her angular body. And don’t get me wrong, some women are born like that, concave instead of convex. There’s nothing wrong with looking that way when it’s natural, when you’re not starving yourself to make that a reality, robbing your body of much needed nutrients in order to look like that “ideal.” Let’s look deeper into why that image exists in the first place.

In the middle ages there was what I refer to as the Botticelli ideal, where images of women showed them to be voluptuous goddesses with curves to spare, and they looked natural, beautiful, content in themselves. That’s because while men may not have valued women for their brains in that time period, they did value a warm, full body to come to bed to every night. It was cold back then, and so many of the people lived without proper heat, so a full-sized woman helped out a lot. Seriously, though, both men and women realized then the ludicrous nature of the “starving woman.” If you were starving then you were probably homeless and didn’t have access to good food, and that wasn’t seen as desirable at all. So what changed?

Here’s why skinny girls can’t win in our society:

They never think they’re skinny enough
Most aren’t born with the body type so they do what it takes to get there
Those who are born with the body type are judged for it
People tear down others instead of lifting them up
While this “ideal” is still espoused by many women, more and more men want that Botticelli ideal Continue reading “Skinny Girls Can’t Win”

February 1, 2014

Separate

The process of trying to blend Of crushing individuality For a chance at acceptance The art of transition Idealistic at best Split into pieces Drifting farther apart In this sea of chaos But I remain invisible Their collateral damage Fading into the background Of a world I tried to embrace In the autumn of discontent … Continue reading Separate

January 31, 2014

Cutting Room Floor: Part 5

Shhhh. I have a title. Don’t scare it away. It took me a very long time to come up with one, but titles have always been difficult for me. Luckily, though, they haven’t ever left me high and dry when the pressure is on. 18 days to go, and I definitely needed a title so … Continue reading Cutting Room Floor: Part 5

January 30, 2014January 30, 2014

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

There’s a young man going to Harvard who had a 4.0 GPA last semester. That’s no surprise, as Harvard is one of the top universities in the country, and it takes someone with superior academic ability to even be accepted. The surprise is that this young man was born and raised in a trailer park, to a single mother who had him when she was a teenager.

This young man went to public schools all his life, and walked a mile to get to the bus stop every morning, but he never let any of that stop him, and he never felt like he had to apologize for it either. Instead, he broke the cycle and is in the process of making something of himself. Why should that be so surprising? Because unlike so many others, he believes in being other than what he was. He believes in a future of his own choosing, not the one he was born into.

“A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to come true, by the very terms of the prophecy itself, due to positive feedback between belief and behavior.” -adapted from the theories of Robert K. Merton

I liken it to the placebo effect, whereupon a person feels the effects of a drug they didn’t actually take because they believe they did take it. It’s all in how you approach your life, not in how others see you. That’s one of the major problems in society, the feeling that everyone else knows us better than we know ourselves. Too often we give in to peer pressure, to the ideas of everyone else about who we are, and about where we’re going in life. But it’s not about them and their views. It’s about how we envision our lives, and we can’t afford to forget it. Continue reading “Self-Fulfilling Prophecy”

January 29, 2014

The Humorist

“Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.” -William James

Girls like guys who are funny, right? I imagine if every female had to take a quiz with a list of attributes they admire on it, a sense of humor will probably be high on the list, but is it really the case? Well, think about it this way: if a guy is always serious, things would get boring rather quickly. But that’s where common sense plays a part. A guy who is never serious would also get tedious in time. It’s all about walking that delicate tightrope between the serious and the humorous.

But, of course, if I knew where that line was all the time, and how to stay atop it without falling, I would be a genius. Most guys also can’t balance that well all the time. So we try our best to read the “signs” given off by whatever females we happen to be engaged with (engaged being a state of interaction in this case). I can’t tell you how many times I haven’t been able to read those signs and some bad things resulted from it, or when I read the signs the wrong way and made a mess of things that way too. In those instances, I just tell my wife, “You knew this about me when you met me.”

Not the right response when the lady’s not too pleased that you’re joking during serious time. Believe me.

I do pride myself on being funny, but that kind of quirky funny, you know the type. I’m the guy who takes the obvious punchline and overdoes it, making the reaction funny, not necessarily the joke itself. I guess you can say I’m over the top in most things I do, but I do have the corniest jokes. Continue reading “The Humorist”

January 28, 2014January 28, 2014

Checked Out: Week 3

You know, since I started this series I find I’ve been taking the time to read more than I was previously. Don’t get me wrong. I have always read a lot, but it seemed like I had fallen off just a little bit, and this series has given me a sort of revival. What has also helped is talking to more people about books. It’s funny how many people I didn’t realize were readers, people I talked to every day about so many other topics, but now I have more reading buddies, which is always more exciting. It also means, however, that my “to-read” list has grown in leaps and bounds. Currently at the top of my “to-read” list:

1. The Tiger’s Curse, by Colleen Houck
2. Divergent, by Veronica Roth

So many people have recommended both of these series that I feel my life won’t be complete until I at least start them. Yes, in this instance I gave in to peer pressure. When it comes to books you should add to your reading list, I think that’s the only time I think you should have no problem following the crowd. I guess I figure you can always stop reading if it doesn’t interest you, so why not at least start? I also recognize, though, that series books are a commitment, which is a reason I like to keep at least a few individual novels to break it up, or for when you’re waiting for the next book in a series (like I am with the Mortal Instruments series).

Books I have Checked Out this week…

1. The Impossible Knife of Memory, by Laurie Halse Anderson

2. The Tyrant’s Law, by Daniel Abraham

3. Little Black Book of Murder, by Nancy Martin

4. Teardrop, by Lauren Kate

5. Sycamore Row, by John Grisham Continue reading “Checked Out: Week 3”