new eating disorders

This article (if its classified as that) came up on my yahoo home page about two new eating disorders

http://health.yahoo.net/experts/dayinhealth/new-eating-disorders-are-they-real

probably not a credible source but interesting to read about "orthorexia", which is basically just being really conscious about eating healthily to a point that could lead to other more serious eating disorders such as anorexia. It may be impossible to eat exactly the right things in the right amounts at the right times and never have some stress or anxiety over it, or to take it to the point of obsession. We are constantly putting labels on what is healthy or desirable, and they all seem to end up in the same ball of confusion, conflicting with all other ideas. You have to be skinny, but eat a lot; you have to work out, but not too much and not too little, and not look like you're trying too hard; you're supposed to be skinny but not look too skinny or you're labeled as having an eating disorder. the list goes on and on.

Parenting

Regarding last weeks discussion in class, I had a few after thoughts on parenting. I found myself asking the question, do we think women have a desire to fulfill some sort of fantasy involving having and raising a girl? Is there an ideal or desire to have a beautiful daughter that a mother can dress up with and give them everything to be "beautiful" so they will grow up to be popular and have maybe the "ideal" childhood, all the while having a great relationship/friendship with their daughter and possibly viewed as a "cool" mom...? What is a cool mom anyways?? And how to we define a good parent? ...Definitely an intimidating job, in my opinion.

Women don't leave the kitchen

I'd like to share with everyone a pleasant comment someone wrote on my friends white board drunk....

"If a tree fell on a woman, what was a tree doing in the kitchen?"

....enough said.

Women and Business

Last Thursday night I attended the speaker Dayna Kleinman on a presentation about success and how to achieve it, etc. She only briefly discussed women and business but the couple of minutes she talked about it she raised some incredibly valid points which I had never thought of before. First she said that she still thinks it's a man's world, meaning that men still dominate in most of the business world. She had watched many people get promoted, mostly men, forcing more and more women out of the higher position jobs. She also raised the issue that women have different pressures and life decisions to make than men do, something that they just don;t have to consider or take into account ever. She said she once received an offer to move to Seattle for two years for business because the two people asked before her had families or obligations making their lives much less flexible. The most important thing she brought to our attention, in my opinion, was that women just don't ask for the same things or negotiate in the same way as men do. For example, when taking another job they couldn't pay her as much as she made at Merrill Lynch so she asked for things like more vacation time and a predetermined bonus for the next two years. Many women aren't as bold to make demands or negotiate deals in a way that men might, something interesting to think about. I'm not sure if I agreed with everything she said, but I hadn't ever questioned it either.

women: so complicated they don't even know themselves.

The other day I was given some intelligent insight on women, from a guy, obviously. We were talking about the "snow storm" that cancelled morning classes, when I said I can't wait for spring. I also mentioned that I think I might like spring better than summer, which he told me wasn't a surprise because "all girls like spring and fall the best because they are obsessed with change. Summer and winter are predictable." Thanks for clearing that one up. Anyone who was confused before, now you know.