always. switchfoot.

this is what happens when i listen to my "inspiration" playlist while studying for my calc final.

i make stuff about Jesus for my roommate.

yay yay yay!

thanks so much to everyone for reading :)

detours magazine winter issue :)

advertising's influence on the image of women.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the average American sees approximately 3,000 advertisements in one day. Ads try to sell us anything and everything…from toothpaste to vacation spots.  We see them in magazines, on television, in newspapers, and on billboards. Yet we all feel as though we are personally exempt from the affects of advertising. We just ignore it or don’t pay attention to it…while wearing our UGG boots and Buckle jeans.

We may not recognize the affects that advertisements have on us, but according to Jean Kilbourne in her documentary Killing Us Softly 4, advertising’s influence is quick, cumulative, and for the most part, subconscious. The affect that advertisements have on us as consumers is quite undeniable, even if subconscious. But what about the affects that ads have on us as people?

Advertisements not only convey messages about their products, but about who we should be as people, especially as women. These ads tell women that how they look is what is most important about them and use their bodies, or parts of their bodies, in their ads. The use of women in this way in advertising has detrimental affects on society as a whole. Some of these major affects are creating false ideals of what women should look like, silencing, and objectifying women.

Women are told today that they need be nothing more than long legs, a small waist, and large breasts, but the images of women in advertisements are almost impossible to attain. According to the website Healthy Place, today’s fashion models weight 23% less than the average female. Also, a young woman between the ages of 18 and 34 has a 7% chance of being as slim as a catwalk model and 1% chance of being as thin as a supermodel. But it was also found in this study that 69% of girls said that magazine models influence their idea of the perfect body shape. This reliance on magazines to portray the ideal body shape for women has lead to an astounding increase in cosmetic surgeries because of the impossibility of women reaching these standards by natural means. According to the website Plastic Surgery Research, in 2008, almost 92% of cosmetic surgeries were performed on women. Kilbourne’s documentary, it is stated that from 1997-2007, the number of cosmetic surgery procedures increased 457%.

Cutting women down to merely a size not only results in plastic surgery, but it silences them.

The message that women are looks and nothing more causes the disintegration of individuality and self-worth. Woman are often portrayed in ads as embodiments of innocence or even in bondage. Common poses in ads are of women covering up their mouths or dressed as young girls.

There is even an increase in ads that depict women as enslaved.

These depictions of women convey the message that women are passive and without power. With this idea of women increasing, the amount of violence against women increases as well. Advertising is filled with violent images against women and even eroticizes violence.

But this increase in desensitizing society to violence against women has lead to an increase in the violence itself. According to the Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse, domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women between the ages of 15 and 44. This is more than car accidents, muggings, and rapes combined.

Violence is also the result of the objectification of women in advertising.

Instead of seeing women as people, women are reduced to objects, helping to seemingly justify this violence against them. In many types of advertisements, women are shown as merely part of the product instead of an individual themselves.

This depiction of women dehumanizes them into something merely to be owned. Women are also commonly dismembered in ads. One part of woman’s body will regularly be highlighted in an ad. Also, heads and faces of women will routinely be excluded from an ad, reducing her to merely her body.

We many not each feel that we are personally affected by advertisements, but it’s no question that our society is. But advertisers won’t change themselves because the worse we feel about ourselves, the more they benefit. Therefore, it is up to us to speak up. We must pay attention and be aware of the messages that advertisements are conveying. Encourage education and discussion on the advertisements that so constantly surround us. And as the advertisements begin to change, so will the attitudes of our culture on the image of women. 

busy busy busy busy busy

[page one of my academic to-do list for the rest of the semester. in color to make it more enjoyable to look at.]

my psychology teacher explained today in class that people make lists and plan because they need control. i don't know what he's talking about.

poema.

brushing, stroking, making.
the colors of the world.
kindness, beauty, wonder, humility.
a touch of breath.
life.
GOD IS PAINTING ME.
- abigail lakey, sixth grade. dnow twenty-ten. 
[thank you for inspiring me by your poem and letting me work with it, abigail. you were a blessing to me this weekend.]

just to make your life a little more smiley :)

once upon a time... from capucha on vimeo.

psalm thirty-nine:seven

i talk about hope....well, literally all of the time. i mean, it's even the name of my blog. and the theme of the majority of my posts is hope. but why hope? what is it about this word that is so important to me? well, let me share....
two years, almost to the day, the Lord started a very much good work in my heart teaching me about the idea of hope. but i didn't really get it for a long time. as i started to begin grasping the idea of hope...i began putting my hope in all the wrong things. and this complicated things even more than they already were. and i couldn't understand why the Lord wasn't help. but He was....He always is.
finally, i really began looking at my life and were i had placed my hope. things weren't getting better and i knew there was something that needed to change. and the Lord spoke more clearly than ever, "YOUR ONLY HOPE SHOULD BE IN ME."
that was two years ago, and now i'm here....still trying to figure out what that idea looks like. but i've gotten closer, and will spend the rest of my days continuing to seek that for my life. but the Lord is faithful, and He is revealing more about Himself and myself to me every day. and for that i will forever be thankful.

and now, O Lord, for what do i wait?

my hope is in You.

[psalm 39:7].

you sir, are a genius.

laurent laveder

i know, right?! and if you want your mind really blown, check out his virtual pictures on his website.

[ps: thanks for showing him to me, mom].

my prayer this week.

[hipstamatic print]

lens: john s

film: ina's 1969

flash: off

december fourth. be the portrait of hope.

thanks for showing this to me, ryan jenkins :)

more kay.

i can see us years from now, bent with age, putting our heads together and laughing our same laugh over some ridiculous thing or other. no matter what, we'll always have our same old laugh to laugh together.

♥

these are my best friends.

[playing clue in dustin's front yard on a sunday afternoon].

[graduation].

[the framed picture andrew gave me for my birthday].

[love this].

[valentine's day - the boys made us dinner :) ].

[exploring a cave in the freezing march waters on spring break].

[prom].

[mission trip to puerto rico].

[twins].

["carol' at my birthday party].

[[ps - this is also the first day ryan met my father]].

[spring break :) ].

[baccalaureate service].

[[no, martin and katie do not go to my high school]].

i love and miss you guys! 

my past year.

i am a planner. i always have been. i plan out my day, my week, my month, my life. a year ago, i had each step of my life planned out. i knew how everything would play out, and how my life would look at the point that i am now currently in. but my year was much different than i planned...

i am going to a school that i swore i would never go to because it was "just a public school" and i was only looking at $30,000+ small, private universities.

i ended up in a group of friends that i love dearly and don't know what i would do without.

i drink coffee. (kind of).

i had my heart broken into more pieces than i saw possible to repair.

i won honorable mention in a photo contest. (more on that to come).

my family unexpectedly lost a dearly loved one.

i had a song written for me.

the Lord taught me more about faithfulness, brokenness, joy, and peace than i thought possible.

i'm a psychology major.

some of my closest friends are a girl i've known for seven years, but was never friends with, a boy who didn't speak my language when i first met him, and a girl from cedar falls, iowa.

i finally accepted the healing that i had been refusing for far too long.

i started a blog!...and then another blog!

i fell in love with a boy that was only supposed to be my best friend.

grey became one of my favorite colors. (not important, i'm aware. but i still think it's weird having a shade of black as one of your favorite colors).

i'm working with a hippie, an artist, and an activist to create a peace studies minor at truman state university.

my best friend lives four hundred and sixty-six miles away from me, yet still calls me after watching greys anatomy and tells me how we're totally meredith & christina.

i smile a lot more than i ever have.

plans are great. they help keep you on track and focused. but if the Lord puts something else in your path...screw plans! He knows way better than you do.


and always have no regrets. ;)

breathe.

the quote, "when you're struggling with something, look at all the people around you and realize that every single person you see is struggling with something, and to them, it's just as hard as what you're going through" is a concept that has always stuck with me since the first time i read it. think about that. we all have the struggles in our life that constantly sit in the front of our mind. that come to mind every time someone asks, "how are you?" because they weigh heavily on how we are. in the grand scheme of things, it could be something seemingly small, such as a phone call you've been waiting for. or, it could be something life-changing, like a fight you've been having with someone you love dearly. but no matter how big or small it is "in the grand scheme of things," to you, it's everything. it consumes your thoughts. it consumes your emotions. it can even consume your life. that thing, that unwavering struggle, can last a week, or it can last years. no matter how long the length, it always seems like forever.

but what about when that week or year is up? what about when that thing that has taken what seemed like everything out of you is over?


this is a beautiful time.
this is a time of healing. a time of joy. a time of praise. a time of victory. a time of peace.


i don't know where you are in life. i don't know what struggles you have. i don't know if you life is filled with more laughter or more tears. but i do know that there is always hope. 


we will always have troubles, we are promised that. but we are also promised that the Lord will be faithful to be by our side every step of the way. we are promised that He knows better than we do. we are promised that we will learn, we will grow, and we will be better because of our struggles. 


we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us [romans five:three-five].

REJOICE!

I see the loving, striving, not the defects. I see the conquest of your particular battle. I count it as victory, a glad victory.

I do not compare it with the strenuous campaigns of My great saints.

for you it is victory, and the angels rejoice, and your dear ones rejoice, as much as at any conquest noted, and rejoiced over, by Heaven.

My children, count the days of conquest as very blessed days.

[god calling].

dad

this is my father.

we went on a father/daughter date saturday night.

to his playground: cabelas.

and he had way too much fun.

i love him :)

thanks for the great night, dad!

don't stop believin'.

paige: "maybe she'd give me a piece of that. wait, woah!"

mom: "i wonder why there's a map of haiti here..."

paige: "maybe the titanic crashed near haiti."

mom: "paige, the titanic crashed near an iceberg..."

paige: "oh yeah...don't tell anyone i said that."

dad: "let's just play one more hand."

mom: "why?:

dad: "because it's 9:30!"

mom: "what, do you turn into a pumpkin or something?"

dad: "i like the idea of being a close family and all, but i don't think we all have to pull off the highway every time somebody has to take a potty break."

paige: "won't everything be written in mexican?"

i love you guys :)