Technology.

Hello and oh my goodness it is good to be able to type this sentence.

Yes, it is required that we have two blogs a week, so it is a bit of a drag to blog because, no, I do not, in general, approve of blogging. I would rather have a corporeal assignment. However, it is a relief to be able to blog because I have spent several days being unable to blog because in the box where I am supposed to type my blog, there were ADDS!

Yes, you read that correctly, adds prevented me from doing my homework.

I figured it out, with the help of Google, that there were two extensions in my Chrome settings that I didn't add, and were actually allowing my internet explorations to be plagued with adds. Which was annoying on several levels; nothing was working correctly because ADDS, I spent way too much time closing pop-ups, and my educational videos weren't loading very well. (For those of you that don't know about my problem, it is this: when I am sick [as I have been recently] I watch educational videos. It's quite ridiculous.)

Actually, the point of this blog is the content of the adds. I was suddenly inundated with adds of all types--not just the types that Google has determined are good for me, but types that apply to all demographics. (Sidenote, clear your browsing history and cookies and all of that stuff as often as you can, it loses Google money as noted here: http://adzerk.com/blog/2011/11/why-google-built-incognito-mode) I had adds with women in various states of sexual objectification, and I went up on a pedestal that actually matches the recent topics quite nicely. And was referenced in one of my educational videos that I watched on TED.

Here's what I got out of this video: Sexual objectification is horrible. The media has truly gone too far. There is a different between art and oppression. I like not seeing the adds that were popping up on my computer. They were often exactly as Caroline Heldman described; I felt self-conscious about how I measured up. It was uncomfortable. On top of that, watching this video made me uncomfortable because I automatically noticed that the speaker had beautiful hair and that mine will never look like that, and that she looks polished and all of these other things. Then I saw the conclusion, where she took off her makeup, and I understood that she knew the affect she had on others when she looked that way, and she encouraged NOT doing that.

And I can see the practical side of taking time away from image, and the social aspects. But my problem was that I value beauty. And I express it by wearing clothing in shades and patterns and textures that are aesthetically appealing to me. And that isn't wrong. Sometimes I wear makeup. And that isn't wrong either. What is wrong is judging myself based on others, which is where our opinions are in convergence again.

So this may be unprogressive of me, but I'm going to continue to live my life outwardly the same, minus the adds. But I want to find a way to stop the objectification factor. Because when I have children, they shouldn't feel the same way that many young girls (and boys) feel today when inundated with adds.