Blog

Now that I have stirred controversy with my first blog post, let me introduce myself.

I am Mark, I am a sophomore Psychology Major with a Music Minor

If you want to see more of my previous blogs, I encourage you to check out https://sites.create.ou.edu/marksblog/, which is my blog from last semester, be advised that I will not be replying to any comments on that website.

So what Do I do for fun? I mostly Compose Choral music (here’s an example) sing, and run.

But I want to expand upon that vision that piece embodies, and so this summer I decided to create this Vocal symphony: Mentre Sognaimo, italian for “As We dream” this is my passion project that I want to use to give back to my community, which isn’t going to make sense until you read the above post.

What is Mentre Sognaimo? well this is a vocal symphony about slaves, and what better way to do that then tell the story of happy slaves. Wait, happy slaves? yes, Act I: Sogno, or Dream, is about slaves that are happy, I’ll provide the sheet music and then the lyrics.

Act I: Sogno

They say these chains keep us enslaved, but I’ve never felt so alive, and when the whip crack I know, what it means to be whole. And so we rise, and praise the lord, for god surely knows, without chains we’d have no soul (no soul). Living the dream, for massa says we’re free, and who am I to disagree? I don’t need no chains to see, the truth laid out before me, no slave can be free while not in shackles! Oh, they can’t see, so we can’t delay, oh, when we live (live out our dream). We wake up and praise god for our dream, if only the north could see, (Could see, could see, if they could,oh.)

Soloist alone: When I gaze at the sky, and starlight raise down on me, I wonder is this all we’re meant to be, are we put pawns in a grand white scheme (chorus: but we live in our dream) Ok then what does it mean to be free? Sopranos: it means we give our all, Alto: from sun up to sun down, Tenor: to keep ourselves safe, Bass: to keep massa happy. Soloist: They say these chains keep us happy, but I’ve never felt so comprimised, and when the whip cracks I know, it is not well with my soul (chorus: what soul?) the soloist is now removed for speaking against the group. Together: They say these chains keep us enslaved, but we’ve never felt so alive, and when the whip cracks we know, what it means (oh what it means) to be whole.

My thoughts on Act I: I wanted to create this juxtaposition between the music (very happy) and the lyrics, which paint a darker picture, but let’s give them credit, they get free food, and shelter, and freedom means risk, and these slaves move quickly to alienate those who don’t think they are living the dream, but It’s not all as it seems, now tying this back to generation gaps,

The idea that being complacent is better than action, because action is risk, we see that with the Berlin Wall, the Climate Crisis, the modern day US democratic party, the Y2K scare, and the rise of social media. The bottom line, action is scary, but being complacent damns us all.

The idea of a mico-generation is that there can be a shift in generations that isn’t big enough to warrant it’s own generation but rather its own seperate fragment.

Love Island is a game show in which conventionally attractive men and women from the US, UK or Australia are pulled from society and isolated on an island in Fiji, recorded 24/7 for 6 weeks, and paired up in couples in an attempt to find love, now I would go further into this but I feel most of this class is at least aware of the show.

Where generation gaps fit into this is what I believe are the rapidly chaning beauty standards in the US. I am specifically referecening the women on the show, and I will show the season 1 cast and the most recent season 7 cast.

I’ll say my piece on the guys first, it’s not really common nor percieved as attractive for a straight man to have some kind of cosmetic work done, so i would not say there is much of any difference, perhaps they are more toned and muscular now if anything.

I need to be very careful with my next segment, seeing as I am not a women, I’m going to choose my words very carefully, so I’ll begin with showing a picture of a cast of love island from season 1.

Notice the 3 women front and center, to me, everything looks naturally beautiful to me, and there are other gentlemen in this class that I think will agree, these are good looking women, now let’s show the season 7 women.

First Question: is there a noticable difference from the above picture? to me it’s undeniably yes and the biggest difference is the girl dead center, Huda. Something about her face is so unnatural to me, and even though I am no expert, I think her lip filler is obvious to see, as well as potential cheek filler and an obvious Breast Augmentation. I think several of them have a clear and obvious Breast Augmentation but the point is that in only 6 years, we’ve seen a major shift in what television considers a beautiful women. Why? Again fellas, would you say these women are attractive? highly likely, but I’m aware that there is a subset of men that don’t find the facial work attractive at all, so that begs the question, why? but first let me sight sources, again none of this is confirmed, so take it with a grain of salt.

Plastic Surgeon Speculation

Unofficial Before/ After photos

and so all is fair here are the men for comparison, Again no clear difference.

now onto the discourse, I believe this stems back to our old friend, social media and in specific,

I believe this started without our good friends the Kardashians, whom put on such a stain on the realm of beauty, and because our generation didn’t know any better, we believed it. I think a lot of this comes from a young girl who sees herself in the mirror, and thinks she’s ugly because she doesn’t look like a Kardashian, but whom doesn’t understand the amount of cosmetic work, lighting work and editing that goes into the photos she sees. Let’s be clear if I wasn’t earlier, this is not a thing that men care about at all, this is strictly a women on women issue. No man truly cares what you look like so long as you fall into the social accepted normal (Not fat, minimal acne, nice hair), it is true that some men have a preference for breast or buttocks size, but I don’t think getting work done will fix those issues, at the end of the day, you are either attractive to them or not, don’t chase what doesn’t want you.

Social media has damaged beauty in a way I don’t know is reconilable, so many women believe they are ugly because they don’t look like Kim or their other Celebrity of choice. Reality is this though, this is not a thing Men at large care about, they don’t actively seek out those with work done? Ok but they look better though, I hear you say, and I rebut that with you give men too much credit if you think they care deeply enough about this to always pick a women with work over a naturally beautiful one.

If you are struggling with this, 1. Put the phone down, take a deep breath, go for a walk, you’re not ugly. 2. This isn’t a real issue, this is a women-only issue, men don’t care. and 3. You absolutely do not need work to feel or be beautiful.

it’s also not always the safest, just saying.