more than yesterday, less than tomorrow

in ancient greece, it was believed that cohesive proportions of facial features were the secret to a beautiful woman. during the victorian era, features like tiny lips were considered the epitome of beauty. in our modern day, i personally believe that standards of beauty are constantly being redefined and uprooted every day in order to fight back against restrictive and harmful frameworks for physical representations of self. bruce norton, a political science professor at american university explains, "what is considered a beautiful face is often influenced by what is going on in society." this is evident, at least in the united states, under the current system of consumer capitalism. industries thrive off of creating and forcing insecurities upon (not limited to, but addressed in this post) women everywhere. for instance, cosmetic surgery has become an immensely profitable industry worldwide because of the normalization of getting surgical procedures done onto someone unde

Mid-way through sophomore year, I decided to join the Engineering Club. I had been going through a teenage crisis at the time, still unsure about what I wanted to do with my life in the future, and at that point in time I had decided that maybe I could just follow in my father's footsteps and become an engineer. It was almost as if the heavens had heard me, when I saw the flyer, once taped up onto the window, on the floor after school. I immediately snapped a picture of it, and sent it to my best friend Manny, who also had an interest in engineering (one that actually stuck, lol). I still remember what that day was like, when the two of us walked into the first meeting. I was late, as usual, because I wanted to fix my makeup in the mirror before heading downstairs. By association, Manny was also late, because she didn't want to show up before me. We trekked downstairs after the final bell, and I immediately understood what I had just walked into. The scope of the room wa

we all inherently judge people by their appearances. even if you consider yourself to be a kind and welcoming person, you still make judgments of people based off the way they look. it's true that first impressions drive someones perspective of your character, and presentation is the first thing someone can observe about you before you open your mouth. when we make immediate judgments of a person, we size them up; compare them to past experiences, types of people we've interacted with, and then consider how to go about communicating with that person in an acceptable manner. the way we judge people depends on personal expectations. for me, my natural mindset was realized after i read deborah tannen's piece, there is no unmarked woman . i noticed that i tend to read more into women than i do with men. sometimes the voice in my head becomes too nasty, and i feel shame for thinking mean things about women i don't even know personally, just from the way they look. on the o