For my second artifact I showed the class a clip from the movie, “Meet the Fockers.” In this movie, Greg and his new fiancé, Pam, come back to Greg’s hometown to meet his parents. His fiancés parents tag along for the trip. Pam’s parents can be looked at as a very traditional, clean cut, “by the book” elder American couple. This shouldn’t be a problem. However, it turns out to be the prime problem in this movie because Greg’s parents are also around the same age that Pam’s parents are, but they are sex therapists. The clip I showed the class opened with Greg finally returning home and his mother coaching a sex therapy class showing elder people different sexual positions they can engage in. Greg then becomes very embarrassed and asks his parents to dial the way they normally act down so that Pam and her parents don’t become too embarrassed by his parents. This can be related to the article, “Feeling old and ugly, look again” because it relates to how the author says that many people who aren’t considered “old” relate the “ew” factor to elder people and expressing their sexuality. It also relates to how the author is proud of her sexuality and her aging body. Greg’s parents show that as well. They aren’t ashamed of their sexuality and they embrace becoming older as something positive rather than negative.
For my first artifact I showed a clip from the movie “This Is Where I Leave You.” The clip displays similarities that can be compared to the article, “Proper Families.” In the clip, the characters are all brought back to their home town for the loss of the families father. While there, it seems as though that the family is nothing but dysfunctional. Always fighting and arguing and disagreeing on family concerns and issues regarding the funeral. During this clip, the two brothers start to fight on the front lawn. They start such a big commotion that all the neighbors rush out to the lawn to see the commotion. To stop the fight, the mother and the mothers friend who was the house keeper for them when her husband passed away started to kiss in front of the entire neighborhood. The mother explained to the children that she had fallen in love with the house keeper and that she was now a lesbian. This caused the fighting to immediately stop. From that point in the movie the family seemed to get along and accept each other for who they all truly where. This relates to the article because it is describing a family that is not the “typical” family structure that society classifies as traditional. However, it proves that it doesn’t matter who is apart of your family or what it looks like. If your family works for you and the ones you love, that’s all that should matter.
In the beginning of the month, reality star Kylie Jenner, did an interview and photoshoot with Interview magazine that sparked much social media scrutiny. Kylie Jenner posed in a wheel chair wearing provocative clothing for the magazine spread. She essentially sexualized disability, which to some was contradictory to what society does to individuals who are actually disabled. Many disabled women spoke out arguing that society attempts to desexualize women with disabilities, yet when a celebrity poses in a wheelchair, she recieves praise and attention. So what happens when an individual who is actually confined to a wheel chair does the same pose? Erin Tatum, who suffers from cerebral palsy decided to make a statement by recreating Jenner’s pose to make a statement. Her point was that she is more often than not overlooked for being in a wheelchair, and the idea of making it to the front page of a magazine is extremely rare, but if being a wheelchair user is now a trend thanks to Kylie Jenner, then she has been a trendsetter for decades. It is unclear what type of statement Kylie Jenner was attempting to make, but many argue that it was not a positive one.
The double standard demonstrated by this photo is offensive, and perpetuates several of the myths discussed in class surrounding disability and sexuality. Many often believe that people with disabilities are asexual or are unable to have “real” sex, yet one of today’s sex icons decides to pose as a wheel chair user. The larger issue here is the representation of individuals with disabilities in the media. It is extremely rare, if seen at all. Since Tatum’s post, many disabled individuals have spoken out, and have also re created the wheelchair pose. These posts have been shared numerous times via Tumblr and other social media platforms.
Hello! My name is Christina and I presented my second artifact on Gloria Steinem discussing her feelings about growing older to Oprah Winfrey. Steinem along with Oprah are both important women to society. Steinem was one of the famous faces of the second wave feminism that took place in 1963. I was happy to have found this video because other than pictures there is not much on the Internet about women’s feelings, as they grow older. I thought that it was interesting that a video featuring Steinem could be accessed and that it went well with the article that discussed older women’s views about getting older. It was fascinating to watch this video and hear Steinem discuss her reasons for why she was looking forward to getting older.
In the video (the link is included below), Winfrey cuts right to the chase with asking Steinem “do you fear aging”? Steinem goes on to say that she did fear aging in her 50s but has since taken a different approach to aging, as she grew older. She is in her early 80s now and thinking about aging is something that does not phase her much anymore. Steinem goes on to say at the 0:48 mark that she “loves being older”. She is nervous about death but is more concerned being older than pondering death. This deals with the reading about growing older. The reading discussed how women should be happy that they are growing older and their body is changing. While, Steinem did not confirm that her body’s looks have changed she did discuss how she had reservations about growing older but quickly got over it as she aged through other decades. However, many women think like Steinem and figure that after they turn 50 their life will change in a drastic way when that does not happen majority of the time. I leave these questions for one to think about: How do you view growing older? What is the life that you see yourself leading into your older adult years? What is something that you would tell a young co-worker or friend about aging?
Hello! My name is Christina and I presented my first artifact on the CW television series “Jane the Virgin”. The series is based around Jane and her family and extended family and friends who are all helping Jane as she deals with motherhood (she was mistakenly artificially inseminated by her doctor), attending college, and other things that happen in her life from episode to episode. However, the show presents flashbacks and when Jane was a young age her grandmother told her that her virginity was like a flower. Her grandmother placed a high emphasis on virginity as Jane’s mother became pregnant with her as teenager, and her grandmother would not want to see Jane become like her mother. One day, Jane’s grandmother tells her that “virginity is like a flower” and then “crumple up the flower and try to make it whole again.” Jane realizes that she cannot do that and learns about virginity that way. What her grandmother taught her really stuck with Jane and while her friends were interested in sex and sex education she was less interested in it. She valued virginity and has been waiting for the right person to come along so that she can lose her virginity in a special way.
This artifact relates to the reading “Sexuality in Adolescence” because while the authors discussed many factors that influence one’s sexuality they did not discuss virginity. When I was an adolescent virginity was something that drilled into my head like Jane’s grandmother did to her and I could relate to what her grandmother was discussing. I think that telling adolescents about virginity, and that it is something important to people will help adolescents as they begin to navigate romantic relationships. While, one cannot gain their virginity back they can hold onto it for as long as they would like. I think that it would be beneficial for adolescents to know about virginity (although it is a bit of a myth to some) because it is something that influences people’s reasoning’s to have sex or not, and it is something that might be important to adolescents when children are experiencing many changes with their bodies. In terms of the show, it was an interesting analogy to a flower and I am glad that I could share the clip. Also, consider when did you learn about virginity? How was it told to you? Has it influenced your feelings regarding sex?
Hi I’m Bethany Skees and I presented my second artifact in relation to the article “Feeling Old and Ugly? Look Again” written by Margaret M. Gullette. In this article, Margaret steers away from the stigma that old people are ugly and cannot be sexy anymore by rediscovering her body in a whole new light. She comments that when she was younger, there were plenty of things she would have liked to change about herself but now that she is older she thinks she is very sexy and she is so happy that she is aging. When describing her body, she uses words such as sturdy, touchable, elegant, powerful, and voluptuous. These are not words you are likely to think about when thinking about an aging body. I figured everybody that used this article would find pictures and videos of beautiful old women and I wanted be a bit more challenging. The video I showed is a video titled “Old is Sexy” and it is basically a home made antique furniture store commercial. I chose this because the title itself is extremely related to this article, but also because I feel there are so many things in our society that we love even more when it ages. Wine, cars, furniture. Our amazing bodies should not be an exception. We should grow to love our bodies more and more the older we get because they have kept us alive all these years.
Hi my name is Betsy and my artifact was on the article that was for Thursday. The article was on older adults who have dementia and have sex. I found that I can relate to this because I live with my grandparents and my grandfather has dementia. I have experienced the different stages that dementia has and how it changes over time. But since reading this article I have thought more and more about if people with Dementia should have sex. Just thinking about it makes me think that it shouldn’t be allowed because they don’t know what is going on. But my grandfather has a period of his life that he forgets but if you talk about a time in the past he can remember all of the details. That’s why I think it should be okay for them to have sex if dementia is just a period of time that is forgotten not that they can’t remember how to have sex. But the article I found talked about two patients of a nursing home who both have dementia were having sex in the nursing home. The nurse was called to the room and the woman in room was married still and the man was divorced. Like previously stated, they both had dementia. The article focused on the way that human touch doesn’t go away with age. That older adults still have sex but the conflict was that the couple was both dementia patients. That is what the huge issue is. I guess I can see that the woman was still married but maybe that was the dementia was her not remember that she was still married. I don’t know the whole story but I don’t get why is it a huge issue if people with dementia have sex. I previously last week had to write a 15 page paper on my grandma and her life experiences. One of the sections I talked about her relationship with my grandfather and their marriage. She told me that her and my grandfather have not had sex since 1992 when my grandfather was diagnosed with prostate cancer. I felt like that was a really long time but that made me realize that she never had the issue of sex with a dementia patient. But I think I could see how it’s an issue of someone who isn’t a dementia patient and one who is. I don’t think the disease is something that could be a reason why dementia and sex is not okay. I could say I agree with both sides.
Hi, I’m Hallie Hayden and the second artifact I presented was a scene from the movie “Grandma’s Boy.” In the scene a young many ends up having sexual relations with an older woman. I related this video clip to the article we read for class “Feeling Old and Ugly? Look again.” These two things relate because the article is about an older woman who is seeing herself and her body in a new light, she is appreciating her body and thinks that it is beautiful in older age. The video shows an older woman very comfortable in her sexuality, which is something we don’t see very often, especially not portrayed in media, which is another thing the article talks about. In this video clip the old woman feels sexy, and is portrayed as a very sexual being. When I first watched I thought it was a scene like others I have seen in funny movies, where having sex with an older woman is portrayed as a joke, and something not to be take seriously. Yet when I was asked if this scene was a joke, I thought about it again. She is not really portrayed as laughable, she is meant to be skilled in sexual acts, and the young man actually enjoys his time with her. I believe that older women should be portrayed in media as beautiful and sexual way more often. We all are going to age, and it shouldn’t be something shameful, we shouldn’t lose joy in life with age we should gain it. Getting older does not mean getting uglier. Hopefully, as the woman did in the article, we can all learn to appreciate our bodies as we age and learn to love the skin we are in, from now until we are old and grey.
Hello, my name is Emily Atkinson and I did my presentation on Thursday over the article titled “Intimate relationships”. There was a main section in the article that talked solely on the attachment theory. The attachment theory states that there is an ability for an individual to form an emotional and physical “attachment” to another person which gives a sense of stability and security necessary to take risks, branch out, and grow and develop as a personality. Bowlby, who is the main psychologist in this article talks about how a child’s sense of attachment depends on the relationship they make with their care taker, which is typically a mother or a father. He also goes on to say that this experience is very natural for the child and that attachment doesn’t always have to be sexual. Physical touch is a child’s first tangible connection to a mother or father. In this video, children are blindfolded and walk down six mothers standing in a line. The children then touch the faces and hair of the mothers to figure out which one of them is their mom. This displays the natural experience that the attachment theory has in all of our lives, especially in children. This is a phenomenon that takes place without us even knowing. Being about to pick out your mother in a group of other women in a special task that we can accomplish based on our sense of touch. This video was actually very eye opening for me in the sense that I did not realize such a thing could be so easy. I had never seen anything like this before but after watching it, now that I think about it, I could probably find my mom in a group of people too if I were blind folded. I believe I could do this because I had such an attachment to my mother growing up.
For my second artifact, I chose a commercial advertisement from Dove and related it to the Feeling Old and Ugly? Look Again article. Even thought the article was aging and the video was not, I thought they both really related to the idea that it is important to remember that you are beautiful. In the video, a forensic science artist asked strangers questions about themselves to describe what they think they look like and while they answered he began to draw. He would then ask a different stranger that had the opportunity to meet that person to describe what they looked like. Every single person had something positive to say compared to what the person said about themselves. Once they artist was done drawing both portraits the strangers had the opportunity to view them. It was a very sad moment for those strangers because they realized that the other person described them better than they described themselves. I think this video did a great job showing that people are too judgmental about their own bodies and they are ruining their self-esteems. We need to remember how beautiful we are and I think this is a great message for those that need the reminder. This definitely relates to the article because the woman suggested that if we all take at least two minutes in our day to tell ourselves what we love about ourselves then that can create a great attitude towards the rest of our day.
I think that idea is great and that we all need to remind ourselves that we are beautiful. In today’s generation, we are so wrapped up in social media that we forget that we are beautiful too. We need to stop comparing ourselves to models or actresses that we see in tabloids or on billboards. More than likely they have been photoshopped. We are comparing ourselves to something that is not real so we judge ourselves. It is unhealthy the way we treat ourselves so I think that this advertisement was a very strong message and I applaud Dove for creating it.
My Sexuality artifact deals with the topic of sex education. I believe sex education is very important to be taught in schools today. During the class we talked about the different age to teach sex education. I never really thought about teaching elementary sex education, but I do think it could be helpful for those aged students. We have the puberty talk around fifth and sixth grade but not full on sex education. When I was growing up I had sex education in seventh grade and everyone had to take it. I felt that at that age it was appropriate for students to learn about sex and become educated on the subject. I remember having a student teacher teach some of the unit I could tell he was uncomfortable teaching the subject, but it’s something that needs to be taught. When we talked in class I couldn’t believe how many people never had sex education when they were growing up. Not only did I have sex education in seventh grade, but I also had it in high school. It was a good refresher to the importance of the subject.
The video is from the popular teenage movie “Mean Girls”. The movie is based around 4 different high school girls and their life during high school. In the scene it shows a health teacher talking about sex education. On the chalk board behind him it says abstinence only and it’s circled. This isn’t the only way to teach sex education. He says in the clip “don’t have sex because you will get pregnant and die” then he goes through different positions. This isn’t the truth and the movie is poking fun at a very important topic. At the end of the clip he says okay here are some rubbers, which goes against the abstinence that is written on the board. Overall the clip just shows then when teaching sex education it’s important to be knowledge about the topics and to be comfortable talking about it in front of the students. High school students are sexuality active and some aren’t knowledge about the danger if they do not protect themselves overall, sex education should be taught in schools.
For my artifact I found several pictures from google images after I searched “aging and beauty”. When I first searched the term I thought I might find a picture of an older person that might lead to a website or article I could use to go along with the “Feeling Old and Ugly? Look Again” article. Instead what I found was a bunch of pictures of younger women who were being compared to older women, or older women who were shown trying to remove their own skin to reveal the younger women beneath. This link, Aging and Beauty, shows the pictures that I found in my search. These pictures showed a woman unzipping her old and wrinkled face to reveal the smooth young one underneath, side by side comparisons of young and old women, one woman peeling off her older face, an old woman looking into a mirror and seeing a younger version of herself, and many more. These pictures only took me a few minutes to find after I started looking for them. The fact that when you search aging and beauty and it gives you pictures of older women trying to look young again and not older women who are beautiful or happy was very disappointing to me. And the few women who they did show that were actually smiling and happy were almost always either actresses and models or were on ads for some kind of anti-aging cream. When you looked at these pictures that came up it made it easy to think that the only way to be beautiful when you are older is to look young.
In the article the author, Margaret M. Gullette, talks about this. Gullette says, “Ad campaigns only exits to get us to want their product badly. By giving us views of younger models they create a critical comparative eye”. This is exactly what all of these pictures were doing. They put young and old together and showed young as being preferable to old. Not many people looking at these pictures will think “oh, I want to look like the older woman” because that is not what is show as being desirable. Cosmetics and other beauty product manufactures are not going to want women to be comfortable in their own skin. If a woman is comfortable in her own skin then the companies do not make money. It is in their best interest to make women feel bad about themselves and how they naturally look so that they can make the most profit.
Gullette, M. (2005, August 4). Feeling Old and Ugly? Look Again. Retrieved December 12, 2015, from http://www.alternet.org/story/23885/
My name is Kelly Brooks and my second artifact relates to our reading, “An Affair to Remember”. I chose the video “Sex and the Nursing Home” because I think the experts brought up a lot of very good points that speak to the nature of sexuality among the elderly and the problems that have risen in the nursing home regarding it.
Many of the elderly people who reside in nursing homes have dementia, like Bob and Dorothy from the reading. While attitudes and beliefs about sexuality among the elderly differ, many people particularly take issue with the idea of someone with dementia engaging in sexual activity. The problem with this focuses much on consent and whether or not someone can truly give consent if they are not in their right state of mind. In the article Bob’s son was very against his father having sex with Dorothy and in this situation, he considered her as the “aggressor”, as if she was acting out inappropriately or taking advantage of his father. Bob believed that it was possible she would want him to marry her so she could have his money when he died. However, Dorothy’s daughter was very happy her mom found someone she loved, especially so late in life, and recognized that it was a good thing for Dorothy. Even the doctor said that sex was very good and healthy for the elderly and that it wasn’t dangerous for them to be engaging in it, but quite the opposite. As shown in the article, reactions to this can vary, but those who disapprove tend to STRONGLY disapprove.
In this video, the experts discuss that often the staff in nursing homes are extremely uncomfortable with the residents engaging in sexuality–so uncomfortable that they don’t want to discuss it and when they report it, they do so in a pathologizing way. Often, the families of elderly nursing home residents will receive a call from the nursing home staff, saying that their parent is being “inappropriate”, “acting out”, or being a “pervert”. The experts urge families to ask lots of questions because it’s very common that this behavior is actually happening within the relationship of a husband and wife or a romantic relationship that has formed over time within the facility. Many people tend to view the elderly as they do children, people who aren’t sexual and shouldn’t be partaking in sexual activity. However, we are all sexual beings and that is not something that dissapears when we become older. As the experts said, “you’re never too old for romance”, and intimacy can be a wonderful thing for these people living in the nursing homes.
This video touches on the idea that society tends to reserve the right to sexuality for only a certain age group of people, restricting and/or barring these rights from elderly people in nursing homes. But elderly people deserve privacy and they have the right to express their sexuality and have intimate relationships. It is normal for sexuality to take place throughout the lifespan because human beings were made for companionship. I think that the faculty in nursing homes ought to consider their attitudes and policies regarding this matter, because a lot of harm can result from the way we choose to react in these situations if we are not careful and sensitive to the needs of the elderly. Rather than projecting onto them what we think they ought to do and not do, we must recognize their right to make those decisions for themselves and respect their needs, desires, and wants.
My second artifact has to do with the disabilities power points about awareness. This is an important section to know about because many people have some form of disability even if they do not want to admit it, while other have such a noticeable disability that many people don’t think to ask questions about it they just make fun of the person with the disability. Making fun or talking behind someone’s back is not the way to find out proper information about the disability, the proper way to find out is to ask the person with the disability about information on the disability, chances are the person will gladly tell you about there disability if you ask nicely.
The artifact that I found is about a little girl with a disability that is bringing awareness about her disability and others disabilities so that others know that it is okay to ask some questions and to share the proper information about the disability. People with disabilities are just like everyone else and while they might have a few differences due to there disabilities they are just like everyone else; they want friends and family members to understand and treat them as everyone else is being treated.
In the article “An Affair to Remember” the couple is elderly and in the dementia ward of the nursing home, which caused an instant reaction and panic from the workers and family members of both elderly members. The elderly man and women considered themselves to be a couple and all the other people around them did not feel the same way or even try to understand the two elderly adults. The family members of the male in the home, relationship moved him into another home so that this would not happen again or have any chance of this happening again.
The artifact that I thought went along with this article was a video from D-News that I found on YouTube “Why Old People Have Sex”. In the video the reporter talks about how it is hard for everyone to think about elderly having sex because they begin to imagine the elderly body parts and also parents/grandparents having sex which is what grosses everyone out. Sure everyone knows that everyone has sex and that elderly have sex but it is just harder to imagine sometimes because they are old and possibly injured or could become injured through having sex. Also the fact about them having sex is hard to think about because people just do not want to completely accept that the elderly are just like everyone else and want to have sex. Throughout the video there are lots of stats given to show that elderly are sexually active and that they enjoy it through there 70s or 80s, “until they can no longer have sex”.
I presented to the class the article “Sex and the Senior Citizen: How the Elderly Get It On.” This article relates to our class reading “An Affair to Remember” because it is implying that the myth that the elderly cannot or should not have sex needs to stop, and explains that the older population is still sexually active. Several different surveys and studies were conducted to fully prove this occurrence. In the United States, 43 percent of men and 22 percent of women over the age of 70 still have sexual intercourse. This thought can be disturbing or something some people may not want to hear, however it is very relevant to the lives of senior citizens. The article states how sex “should remain a vital part of their lives long into older adulthood” and is “emotionally satisfying” for both males and females. It is told that some men over 70 would like even more sex than they are currently having. A point this article brought up was that there is a large issue with the sexually active seniors not protecting themselves during sex. It is stated that the lowest rate for condom use belongs to the age group of those that are 60 years and older. This lack of protection amongst this population most likely stems from the fact that they no longer have to be worried about pregnancy. However, they still do have to be concerned about STDs. In order to detect STDs such as Chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis, Medicare began free yearly screenings for the elderly in 2012. It seems unusual that this would have to occur, but as stated, it is very much needed. Sex among the elderly is so often misunderstood and may be seen as disgusting, but it is a very important part of their lives. As a culture, we have made sex to seem like an act that is only for a certain age-range of people and therefore see anything outside of this age-range to be unacceptable. “Sex and the Senior Citizen: How the Elderly Get It On” is a quality attempt at proving that the myth that all older people are not sexually active is false.
I did my artifact on the article “Handiwork: Want a satisfying sex life?” This article talked about how id partners would share the load of parenting they would have a much more satisfying sex life. This was the case because both partners were involved on the managing the household. This was also the case because the managing of the household and of the children wasn’t just on one person. In the article they found that when they split childcare they had a much more high quality, well-rounded relationship. My artifact presentation was based on a blog post by marriage and sex therapist Todd Creager. He discussed was in which after each partner has figured out how to equally share the load at home, it can still be difficult to make time for intimacy. Finding time for a quality sex life can still be hard even when the household duties and the raising of the children are equally shared. Because of Todd’s extensive research in the area of marriage and quality of relationship intimacy and quality sex lives he was able to give tips on how to improve your sex life while raising young children. These tips included: Is one, keep creating an erotic feeling in the atmosphere. He says that partners may not have time for long, slow love making but you do have time for 1 minute make out sessions. Second, have multiple babysitters on call at all times. Set time aside for each other and make sure that if one babysitter is not able to help you have multiple on call. A third tip that Todd gave for partners equally raising children is if the passion between you seems to have subsided or dwindling maybe it might be helpful to see a marriage and sex therapist to get more in depth tips on how to rekindle the fire between each other. Lastly, the other tip that Todd gave partners was to not be afraid about “sexual noise.” Children will not be traumatized by the noise that they hear. If both partners are concerned you it can be helpful to practice safe sex. Todd reminded all partners that parents that work together still have to work on their connection.
Danielle Friedrich
The video was of a man, Henry, who had criminal charges pressed against him due to having sexual relations with his wife, Donna. After Donna was diagnosed with dementia, a case worker informed Henry she could no longer give consent to sex. Henry didn’t think anything was wrong with what they were doing because it wasn’t penile and vaginal intercourse, and because she was his wife and they had been doing sexual acts for their whole life together.
At the beginning of the semester, we discussed how everyone’s terminology of what sex means is different. Some people consider oral to be considered sex, digital (finger) to be a part of sex, and even just penile/vaginal intercourse. Due to this, in the video, Henry stated that when he heard he couldn’t have sex with his wife anymore, he thought it only meant intercourse.
I connected this video to the article The Affair to Remember. Bob and Dorothy live in an assisted living facility and both were diagnosed with Dementia. Bob’s son walked in on Bob and Dorothy engaging in sexual activities. Bob’s family decided to move Bob out of the assisted living facility. Dorothy’s health went downhill after he left. Dorothy didn’t know why she was so sad, but knew something happened. The article stated that maybe someone should have protected the couple’s right to privacy. The line for privacy within a couple’s relationship can be crossed easily, but where is the line for the government to feel it is time to intervene?
In the article, family and staff tried to avoid legal disputes between the relationship between Dorothy and Bob. In the video, the court is trying to charge Henry with criminal charges due to having sexual relations with his wife after being informed consent couldn’t be given after she was diagnosed. At the end of the video, Art Caplan stated that couples need to have the discussion of sexuality before they get to the stage where consent could become blurred. I feel that even if you give consent for the future, consent could be changed in the time between then.
Hi everyone, I’m Imari and for my second artifact I showed a quick video titled “Sex among nursing home residents causes concern”. I thought this video was appropriate and interesting to share with the class because this directly related to the reading for Tuesday, “An affair to remember” by Melinda Henneberger. From the reading, Bob and Dorothy, an older couple that resides in an assisted-living were caught someone engaging in a sexual activity. Bob and Dorothy both have dementia and this is where consent and understanding of what was going on became the topic of debate and a problem for both the son who caught them and the facility they lived. This correlates to the video showed in class because the focus was on elders, especially the baby boomers and their sexual rights in nursing homes. The video mentioned that the older generation’s sexual desire is still very strong within this age and continues through the 70’s etc. However, around these ages, dementia is very prevalent among the older adults especially Alzheimer’s disease. Many nursing homes fail to realize and recognize the sexual rights of their patients especially of those with cognitive disorders who they feel are not able to completely give consent. The line between their sexual freedom and sexual abuse become tricky and unclear because both can say it is consensual, however due to the disorder this sparks the debate of if they really understand what is going on. In “An affair to remember”, the author explain that the legal issues regarding this topic is complicated because the safety and privacy concerns of those with mental health disorders especially with dementia. The topic of sex and the elderly makes many people feel somewhat uncomfortable or they don’t take their sexual rights serious but more of a joke because we tend to not like thinking about them engaging in this type of behavior and still being active because of their age. Both the reading and the video implied that sexual activity in elders is a good thing. The article mentioned that gerontologist recommend sex for the elderly because this can have numerous benefits such as improving mood and overall physical function. I also talked this article in relation to both the reading and the video. The article talked about a married couple Henry and Donna, Donna had Alzheimer’s disease and Henry was being charged of sexual assault. This article explained in more detail about the debate of mental health disorders and sexual consent. This is different from someone who had drugs alcohol. Donna passed away a week before her husband’s arrest, but the jury found Henry innocent on the felony charges. I will post the link this article for more information about the couple and the case. full article link: http://www.psmag.com/health-and-behavior/to-have-and-to-hold-consent-and-intimacy-for-people-with-alzheimers
Hi guys! I’m Sydney and I quickly showed a video about a model being photographed and how the photo taken was photo shopped in such a way that it looked like a very different person. I related my artifact to the article “Feeling Old and Ugly- Look Again” because the speaker in the story discusses how we learn to hate the parts of our bodies that are being shown perfectly in advertisements and magazines. She states, “By giving us views of younger models they create a critical comparative eye. That eye rapt in delight only by the tall anorexic body. It is ready to frown contemptuously at the average American woman, 5 foot 4 inches tall and 140 pounds” (Gullette 194). She also talks about how the face receives to most critique compared to the rest of the body. Her criticisms of what society shows us today in magazines and ads is perfectly shown in this video. There is a young model who walks in with only underwear on and poses for a photo shoot. After a photo was taken it was photo shopped. It was photo shopped in a way that made her look slimmer, longer, and younger. The photo shopper stretched out her neck, legs, and arms so that she would appear taller. They also cut off about 2 inches in her stomach area. This goes back to the “tall anorexic body” that the speaker mentioned in the article. The video also zoomed in on the models face and photo shopped every detail of her face to make her look flawless. This validates the idea that the face is the most critiqued. Because of this idea, the photo shopper had to make sure that the model’s face looked perfect. This video was interesting to me because even though we are constantly shown the anorexic tall body in the media we never know what is actually real or what has been photo shopped. It is very easy for model’s pictures to be tweaked and those who are looking at the picture would never know what had been changed or enhanced. The speaker in this article is very empowering. She is very comfortable and confident in her skin. She has learned to love parts of her body other than the parts that are focused in on and what we learned to hate because ours don’t look like the one’s in pictures we see everyday. This video was intended to show others that even though we see pictures of beautiful women everyday all of the media, we will never truly know what was changed or manipulated to make the picture the most perfect picture it could be. We have learned to hate parts of our body that may not even be the true parts of the bodies being shown in the pictures.
