Rating Women, it's a huge NO!

I am looking at the cover of People Magazine right now and the cover reads, "Beyonce World's Most Beautiful Woman!" In this world beauty is something that so many girls love but do not understand. Beauty is not being skinny, having amazing skin, straight teeth, and straight silky hair. Beauty is the way you treat others, the respect you give yourself, and the life you chose to lead.
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The only reason we believe sex sells and all the fake forms of beauty listed above are perfect is because media shoves it down our throat everyday. Girls believe they need to look that way for someone to find them attractive, or that they be accepted by others if they are beautiful. These beliefs only lead to eating disorders and a distorted self image. We need to empower women and all forms of beauty, not try to fit them all into one mold.

Ever since I was young and still to this day I have seen beautiful women grace the covers of our Magazines. I remember seeing tan skin, with dark straight hair, perfect straight teeth and I made the relation that it did not look like me. It took a long time to embrace my pale skin and my curly frizzy hair. It may not be the prototype of today but it is ME. If I continued to believe that I would be more attractive with a tan and dark straight hair, I wouldn't know what I would really look like. I would no longer be unique.

The fact of these media messages is that it begins to ruin young women's minds. We don't need to be judging and rating each other. Women need to stick together and understand that we are unique and yet all very beautiful. The psychological issues that come along with young women looking up to beauty magazines is so destructive and so unnecessary. We don't need to push perfection anymore. It is a time for change and that should include this image we all have of "beautiful" women.

The War on Drugs

I agree with Courtney's view on our Drug War. Her article is titles " The War on Drugs, Really?" and is located here. The United States does spend too much money on a war that we do not see any change in. We also spend so much time fighting the legalization of marijuana when we have bigger and more important issues in this world. Yes, Marijuana does alter your state of mind but there is a very small chance of overdosing. The article also included the amount of money spent on this war. Our government spent about $15 billion dollars in 2010. One of their thoughts is that having drugs available and easy to get will keep us from being healthy and safe. I agree with the statement, but since I have been in middle school accessing drugs is not hard. I don't use them but I think everyone knows some way or another to get your hands on them and I don't see this ever changing.

What we should be doing and what Courtney wrote in her article is that we should be helping with the rehabilitation of drug offenders. Throwing someone in jail for possessing illegal substances is not going to stop them from using or going back to that life as soon as they get out. We use so much tax money keeping up prisons, and we should be using that money to help with the people who are addicted to drugs. If we could provide them with rehab there would be a much greater chance of them making a change in their life. They need help not time in jail and then thrown back to the sharks. Our jail system is where we could help the war on drugs yet it's going against it.

We ultimately need to spend our money fighting cocaine, heroin, and meth that is taking over our slums and find a way to help those who are arrested for possession. If we are not progressing in these areas we are waisting our money.

YES WOMEN WANT FREE CONTRACEPTIVES, THOSE THINGS ARE EXPENSIVE.

I believe that free contraceptives should be offered. I'm not looking at this as a religious point of view but from a financial perspective. Birth control is expensive, even if you have insurance. If the health care bill is passed there will not be a co-pay on any contraceptive or sterilization. This is going to give women control over their lives and this is huge for todays society.

Some women will not use birth control for the only purpose of saving money. As we all know being sexually active and not using an contraceptives equals having a baby. This is happening all the time, especially in our economy. If women can not afford birth control when they want it, how are they going to financially afford a child that was not planned for. This will most likely lead to a family living off of government support for a very long time, when we could just foot the contraceptive bill. The good that would come from this bill would be babies being welcomed into a prepared home, fewer abortions, and help with the environmental problems caused by overpopulation.

There are some people who do not believe in offering free contraceptives and mostly known would be Catholic bishops. It is know that the Catholic religion is very strict on taking contraceptives but we have to have our eyes open to what is happening in 2012. The fact is that almost half of all pregnancies are unintended. And more than ever teens are becoming pregnant. You would think that becoming pregnant as a teen would get you grounded, not a TV show. Now that being pregnant is in some way glamorized by potentially being on TV, we need to have contraceptives available and easily assessable.

We need to push for this regardless of your religion. If this is not passed it is going to cause more harm than good. Free contraceptives does not mean that you have to buy a perspiration or take them, it's helping this country.