Disease Prevention

I think there a lot of factors that influence women and the type of life styles they adopt and the measures they take towards disease prevention. I think one of the larger factors is their family dynamic and how they were raised. If you grew up in a house where members of your family smoked, statistically you're more likely to smoke. The opposite may also occur-you may refuse to smoke because you did grow up around smokers.
Another factor that plays a large role in our choices is convenience; how convenient is it? Can we 'do it on the run'? With so many women playing full time mom, full time student, full time employee, the family taxi service; time really becomes an issue. Marketing companies know this and play on it, which is why there are so many 'pre-made' meals. I remember walking through the store one day and I saw a ready-made tacos. Just heat and serve. I just about died on the spot. It says a lot about our society and what we value when we don't even have the time to make tacos from scratch. Back to the point; the average women rarely has time to spend a couple hours (from cutting the first vegetable to washing the last dish) to spend in the kitchen making a 'heart healthy' meal.

Friends and eating disorders

Eating disorders are a delicate topic for most people and special care must be taken if someone might have either anorexia or bulimia. My first step would be to do some research so I would have a better understanding of what is going on. I would more than likely attend some sort of eating disorder support group; hopefully I could find someone would be able to help me understand and lead in me in the right direction as to how I should confront my friend. If I played my cards right then hopefully I could take my new found friend to meet my other one. That way she could see that I really cared about her and I wasn’t trying to judge her. I think in these types of situations special care needs to be taken so the person doesn’t feel judged and they don’t feel that they have to defend themselves. Once someone gets into a defensive mood, you’d be better off talking to a brick wall. I think it's important to remember that you're there as a friend to show compassion and support, because the last thing they need is someone telling them that what they're doing is wrong, etc.

Midterm Reflection

Well, we're half way through the course! Yeah! I'll be happy when this class is over; not because of the class itself but because with each class I finish, I'm 3 credit hours closer to my degree!
So far I've been very impressed with this class; I've taken quite a few online courses and I think the organization of this class far succeeds any others I've taken! Even though I grip about writing a blog each week, I really like it. I think it adds a whole another level to the course; it helps bring interaction to a course that really doesn't have any.
I think of the modules we've completed, I've enjoyed module 4 the most. I found the whole chapter interesting and I really enjoyed researching FGM. I think FGM had the most impact on me because it made me remember that I am in no place to judge anyone else. Though I may not agree and I may believe their views to be old-world, I cannot pass judgement on them. I think the research I did on FGM also reinforced my belief that knowledge is power and it is the responsibility of empowering women falls on the shoulders of those who are empowered!
I can't wait to complete the rest of the course; for starters, I think each module will be interesting and, like I stated earlier, with the completion of this course, I'm one step closer to getting out of school!
I hope everyone has a fabulous spring break! And remember to be safe-there's crazy people out there ;)

STDs-are we promiscuous?

For years I haven't given a second thought to STDs being related to 'immorality, promiscuous behavior and low social status'-but when I read that, the memories of my up-bringing flooded my mind.

First off, STDs were never talked about in our house-there was an unspoken rule that we didn't talk about sex and since STDs are directly related to sex, it was never discussed. As a result, all of my knowledge came from friends and school programs. However, the few times it happened to come up in conversation, there was no mistake that only "hussy's" contracted STDs. This of course meant that only women were affected and they were affected because they "couldn't keep their legs closed"-I know it's crude but that's how it was discussed. Honestly, I've never really understood how my family could not talk about sex and when they did it was in the crudest manner. But I suppose my family dynamic is better left to the professionals!

When I think about STDs and its effect on those with low social status; I suppose I've always agreed. As I gain wisdom with my age, I see now that STDs knows no social order. I think those with lower social status tend have a larger risk of contracting diseases due to lack of funding, information and compassion.

As a side note, I would like throw in here that I think diseases are extremely fascinating. All things taken into consideration, they are intelligent and incredible at what they do. I'm in complete awe of them; what else can you think of that has killed millions of people (men killing men doesn't count) and continues to do so. They're tiny prokaryotic cells that logically shouldn't be able to wipe out generations yet they do. Consider this; HIV is killing the most intelligent life form on the planet. Point being that I personally think we don't give viruses the credit they deserve.