The Right to be Natural

The United States has prided itself on being one of the most racially diverse countries in the world. For centuries millions of African Americans have lost their lives and suffered for the right of equality and fairness in a Caucasian owned country.

Sure, slavery was abolished in 1865, and the Civil Rights Movement ended in 1968 but the fact is America is not as liberal and racially unbiased as its lead on to be.

On April 1 the U.S Army updated its Army Regulation 670-1, a code of conduct that explains rules and regulations that each soldier must obey including hairstyles wore by soldiers. According to the new regulations, hairstyles commonly favored by African American women have been strictly prohibited and soldiers found in violation will face non-judicial punishment from commanders in the form of administrative discipline.

With the approximately 44.5 million African American inhabiting America, one would assume that there would be a better understanding the African American culture and traditions. African Americans have been wearing protective hairstyles such as twist, dreadlocks and braids for hundreds of years because of the unique growth pattern of kinky/curly hair.

Sgt. Jasmine Jacobs, of the National Guard, began a White House petition that calls for the U.S Army to reconsider their decision to prohibit the African-American friendly hairstyles.

“Most black women, their hair doesn’t grow straight down, it grows out,” she said. “I’m disappointed to see the Army, rather than inform themselves on how black people wear their hair, they’ve white-washed it all.”

On one hand, there is no way for an African American woman with natural hair to achieve the approved hairstyles without cutting off their hair, wearing a wig or chemically altering their hair. On the other hand, this should come as no surprise from a predominately Caucasian profession.

“Females with natural hair take strides to style their natural hair in a professional manner when necessary; however, changes to AR 670-1 offer little to no options for females with natural hair,” Jacobs states in the petition.

Regulations or not, the miseducation of many may lead to the oppression of a third of the female population in the army. Caring for black hair is an intense and time consuming process that if not done right would result in severely damaged hair, but it’s often eased by the hairstyles that are banned by the U.S Army.

Since African American hair does not have the same growth formation as Caucasian hair, it is understandable how black hair could get in the way of headgear. By braiding or twisting hair could be an easy solution for that problem. Most African American women that don’t chemically relax their hair have issues with pulling their hair up in styles such as a bun or ponytails because of the fullness and texture of their hair. Depending on the length and fullness of a black woman’s hair it could take up to two hours to straighten their hair using a hot-comb or flat iron. With the time restrictions that branches of military face that is an unreasonable amount of time to spend on your hair.

If hairstyles like ponytails and buns, that are convenient for Caucasian or other races that are known for having fine hair, were banned there would be utter chaos. The United States Army made a huge mistake by putting these restrictions into action. In their world there is no room for individuality only uniformity and it is about time that someone has brought this issue to light. African American women will continue to be disregarded unless a change is made starting here with the U.S Army.

The ENDfidelity

Quite a bit can be said about men who seem to have anxieties about certain aspects of their lives such as intimacy and commitment. But since when does every living male on this planet have anxieties regarding their interpersonal relationships.

Psychologist Mark H. Thelen conducted a study to compare the sexes on the Fear-of-intimacy scale. The study found men actually score higher than women on the scale. This finding supports the thoughts many women across the world regarding men and being terrified of relationships and commitment.

The never-ending debate on whether men are genetically wired to fear relationships and intimacy will never go away and for good reason. There is absolutely no proof or evidence that suggests men can’t be monogamous. Yet women are convinced that males cannot commit. But why?

When it comes to monogamy and showing any sort of affection, people automatically think of women. In most cultures, women are seen as the caretaker and men are seen as the protector and breadwinner. As early as history has been recorded men have been the dominant sex and among men the alpha male is promiscuous. As time goes on, the promiscuity is more for pleasure and to demonstrate masculinity than it is for reproduction.

A considerable number of acts of promiscuity and relationship anxiety are taught behaviors, not learned. The responsibility of these actions should typically be placed on what parents, peer groups and the media are teaching men and boys what it means to be a “real” man. Activist, Jackson Katz stated in the 2013 documentary Tough Guise 2 that from an early age men are taught to always rough and rarely show emotion.

Today in Western culture, many men praise other men for promiscuity and having the cliché bachelor life. It’s presumed by some that if you are monogamous in a relationship or sexually, then you are not a real man. Men’s social standards for each may be the root of why women are so quick to assume that all men are not willing to commit.

20th Century Fox felt as though it was absolutely necessary to embody the idea of hot shot promiscuous adulterer once again in a new film called The Other Woman. The whole concept of the film is a successful, highly attractive businessman is cheating on his wife, his mistress and his second mistress.

Without passing judgment on anyone’s lifestyle or pop culture, this begins the praise cycle of those men who glamorize adulterous acts and having multiple partners.

America has become utterly infatuated with pop culture, so when the news and social media tend to unknowingly commend particularly famous men for their adulterous ways it gets instilled that it is an acceptable act. Over the course of the years we’ve seen the media attention that men such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Robin Thicke and Bill Clinton received for their extramarital activities. The headlines may indicate that their actions are being condemned, but the bigger message the media is giving is that this is what’s popular and this is what is going to get you noticed by many.

Numerous other research studies questioned the motives behind men’s infidelity and lack of commitment. The website, EverydayHealth claims that approximately 56 percent of men have admitted to have anxieties about relationships and intimacy, which resulted in infidelity.

This machismo themed conclusion is negative in the sense that this is not how majority of men should be represented. The barrier some men were taught to have up at all times must come down at some point and during an intimate relationship is the time that is expected to happened. Sometimes that does not happens which leads to feelings of emotional disconnection.

Whether these actions carried out are deemed good or bad it will continue to happen. The various research studies being conducted, the thousands of dollars spent on couple’s therapy, the number of individual admitting and being victimized will only increase with time. One person’s mess should not account for an entire demographic.

 

The hunger games and your health!

It seems fairly logical that if you reduce your daily calorie intake drastically you can easily get rid of those excess pounds.

In this day and age it appears as though a startling amount of individuals are obsessed with the concept of weight loss.

When it comes to the topic of weight loss people tend to gravitate towards the easier task of consistently skipping meals. Despite the medical evidence and a general consensus from virtually everyone across the world, there’s still an ongoing issue of thousands desperately attempting to utilize this weight loss method.

An article in the December 2013 edition of Vogue magazine discussed the seemly ubiquitous fad that encourages those who follow the trend to either eat nothing for 24 hours between 1-2 times a week or skip breakfast and lunch, but have a high protein dinner.

This trend of meal skipping or intermittent fasting has been recently popularized by a New York Times best seller that endorsing the concept of skipping meals stating that fasting can protect against age related cognitive decline and as well as diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

A thing of that sort is what essentially leads some to believe that not eating is a legitimate way to reduce their weight.

Although it may look as if a particular demographic could possibly benefit from intermittent fasting, that does not mean that everyone will be able to reap the benefits of the demanding diet.

This seemingly simple solution to everyone’s weight loss problems undeniably ignores the worrisome truth that you would be drastically altering your body’s function.

The more pressing matter is the possible health related consequences for its practitioners. If you have decided to set a personal goal to reduce your daily food intake to one meal per day composed of one unseasoned salmon filet, a pint of quinoa and a cup of broccoli, then you are not consuming an adequate amount of nutrients while also supporting the development of diabetes and undesired weight gain.

Researchers have found that skipping meals throughout the day and then consuming a large meal at night can result in possibly hazardous changes to metabolism. Individuals that typically skip meals had a delay in their body’s insulin response and elevated glucose levels. These conditions are so severe that it could result in type 2 diabetes.

There is debate that intermittent fasting is still considered self-starvation and the gateway to many other eating disorders.

People in United States are aware of the prevalence of eating disorders in the county, but still do not see the damage that comes from skipping meals or the elimination of eating altogether. The latest studies have found that approximately 20 million women and 10 million men suffer from a clinically diagnosed eating disorder at some point of their lives, which includes anorexia nervosa.

The persistence to evade eating, escalated fear of weight gain and negative body image are all signs that point to an eating disorder such as anorexia.

For those who shared their testimonials in support of intermittent fasting, there needs to be much more objective research done with varied trials before crash dieters around the world can battle with the human’s primal response to food deprivation or what some may call hunger.

Western culture teaches people to aspire to be perfect in practically every aspect of their lives and at times base their lives and actions on trends. Drastic measures such as not eating for an entire day or missing essential meals throughout the day, is not a long-term health venture you should embark on.