farewell!

If there's one thing that the husband gives me a hard time about, it's my reading of celebrity gossip online..or more specifically--Perez. Somehow, with all of his haranguing of me, I never feel guilty. And now I know why. Health Communication is wrapping up for the semester, and in our last two classes we have spent some time reviewing what we have learned over the last several months. One of the major things that Dr. E has focused on in our discussions is the fact that the mass media really is public health educator #1. We try our best with our public health messages but we really aren't the true educators out there. So, the take home message is that in order to know what the world at large is learning about health, it's important for us public health folks to educate ourselves. We have to watch Gossip Girl and American Idol. We have to know who Miley Cyrus is. And we have to read a tad bit of celebrity gossip. So hub--take that. Reading Perez is homework. Who knew? With that, I bid farewell to my post in the blogosphere and leave the blogging to the pros. I've enjoyed it all--the banter between friends, the poetry, and the posts written by my cat. Thanks and ta ta for now!

thanks to rosie

About a month ago, dear rose hipped me to a PBS special on the non-biological determinants of health. Since then, I have been watching the video clips incessantly and will be showing several in the final installments of the Health Psychology course I am teaching. Those students sure love their video! Because this 4 hour series is so dang good, I thought it would be wrong not to share it with you all.

Have a look at the trailer:



For access to all of the clips, go to the website for Unnatural Causes:

http://www.unnaturalcauses.org/video_clips.php

thankful

As many of you know, this was an especially rough week. But in the face of that, I was presented with the most wonderful set of family and friends--even colleagues! I feel very blessed. So, I head to Chicago with a (still) heavy heart but a grateful one, too. And that's probably the best thing I could ever hope for. Thanks and so much love to you all.

Getting back to my roots. Period.

We watched an excellent video by Jean Kilbourne called Killing Us Softly in class yesterday. Watching it, I immediately felt like I was having a warm slice of mom’s apple pie. Not that mom really ever baked but you know what I mean. The video addresses the ways that women are portrayed in advertising, as well as the potential negative impact of such portrayals. I know, I know. This is a very played out theme... I vividly remember the passionate debates about this very same topic playing out in my high school English class. That said, I felt a little spark go off inside of me when I was watching it. Made me feel like getting back to my roots…

Lately, I have been missing (just ever so slightly) the research I did as an undergrad. I studied none other than (drum roll please) the menstrual cycle. God was it ever fun to talk to people about my research back then. Everyone squirmed. And I loved it. I personally had the opportunity to learn about people’s experiences with the menstrual cycle in India and the US. Oh, the stories I heard!

Re-inspired, I have decided to talk a bit about this topic in my upcoming lecture on sexual health. In preparing, I decided to see whether YM magazine still existed and whether it still had the section on embarrassing period moments—Say Anything (one of the MANY sources of negative portrayals about the menstrual cycle). I was happy (?) to find that indeed the magazine is still operating and now has an on-line version so that girls can post their embarrassing period stories at all hours of the day. Read up right here: Say Anything. I was saddened to find that very little has changed about the way the menstrual cycle is portrayed to young women. The words “embarrassment”, “shame”, and “disgusting” were at the forefront ten years ago and still are… Who benefits from this? Certainly not the young girls. And certainly not the environment, given that the message being conveyed is that you must change your products every couple of hours to avoid the horrors of a bad period story. With that, I will leave you with a current Kotex ad that BLOWS my mind. Judge for yourself who the beneficiary of this portrayal might be…