Introduction

Hello blog world! This is my first time to ever blog..so bare with me..I will get the hang of it eventually.

My name is Kate. I am currently a full time student athlete at the University of Oklahoma. I am a senior, but will have to take a fifth year to finish up all the required classes for my major before I can move on to physical therapy school. Since I am in the Health and Exercise Science major, Body Images seemed to be a very interesting elective class for me to take. I am extremely fascinated by the human body and have only really studied it from an anatomical view. But by being in this class, I hope to learn about it from a psychological standpoint, if you will. It is fascinating to me the way the body works, especially the brain, and I am very excited to see how this class will break down the way the brain perceives your body and how it looks to you. I know we may not actually get to the psychological aspect of that, but I hope I can maybe get some help and maybe draw some conclusions for myself.
As we get deeper into the 21st century, the issues surrounding body images only get bigger and more complex. The ways in which technology, the media, and fashion have affected the American population is incredible. Kids as young as 10 are starting to worry about what they are wearing to school, and how other kids see them. Girls know that what is acceptable and "popular" is to be very thin, blonde and tan. The boys see that they need to be buff and athletic with a good sense of style to be accepted and cool. They get these images from the media and the very accessible world wide web. I don't really agree with 10 year olds having to worry about what they are going to wear to school the next day. I think that they should be worrying about making friends, what to eat for lunch, and playing outside for as long as they possibly could. These issues have only been made worse throughout time, and it will be interesting to see how and if these "standards" change.
Some questions that I would like to be answered, or maybe have help getting started on are :
1. How many people have a problem or obsession with the color of their skin?
2. How young are kids when they first start realizing fashion trends and what is acceptable to be wearing or looking like?
3. Who makes up what the standards for being beautiful? Who determines that? Do I? Do the fashion people?
4. How many people suffer from Anorexia?
5. How does the American standard of beauty differ from standards across the world?

-Kate