Working Out in Weight Room

The school weight room - trust me I have been there, even though I look like a stick - seems to be controlled with the big macho football players all the time. I can hardly remember seeing a girl in there who was in there by herself. She always part of either the girl's soccer team "hell week" or the indoor track girls using the treadmills. Never, have I seen a girl in there just because she wanted to come and lift.

It's not really that girls just don't want to be in there, more that they are so fixated on their own image and the weight room has slowly become stereotyped to become the "mans man" room. It's also not that girls don't go to the gym at all, more that they avoid using the school weight room.

The one time I saw the whole girl's soccer team in there, I started hearing complaints from all those hard core lifters about the large crowd and waits to use the equipment. The social disruption created when girls begin to enter the school weight room shows why this are has become a gendered section of the school.  All the large football player sized people in weight room make it awkward for girls to go in there; these people create a sense of intimidation, which shies away anyone new to weight lifting. In a sense, the weight room is also sectioned off to only the already "big guys".

To resolve the social stigma around the "ownership" of the room seems to be a very difficult problem. The only thing between girls and the weight room at this point is their own conscious; they need to get out of the mindset that they will get judged for using the largely masculine room at our co-ed school.

Running away from the Negatives

We as people are often only drawn to the small negative things rather than all the positives around us. It seems natural, after a long practice, to just look at all the things that went bad instead of noticing how much improvement has been made. This impulse to dwell on the negative is very much similar to the impulse Didion shows in Vegas marriages.

In Vegas, people seem to just get married when they have nothing better to do. There is no thought put into it, especially the long term effects of such a sudden acceleration in a relationship. The consumer craze that is created by Vegas marriages generates the high divorce rate in Nevada compared to around the national rate. People's obsession over material items has slowly transferred to a larger range. With everyone getting married, it's almost like another item that can be bought so that you can be like everyone around you. And the way Vegas commercializes these weddings definitely adds to that. Each chapel offers "better, faster" services.

Similarly the impulse to fret over the negative is stimulated by people's desire for material goods. After buying something, everyone is super excited to use it. Yea you share good memories with it, name the thing, but as soon it breaks, it's like it never existed. You think why did I even buy this piece of crap and just move on forgetting about all the positives. This impulsive nature of people makes everything seem so dark, because as soon as you finish worrying about one thing, the next task is placed in your hands with all sorts of new negatives to cry about.

Society provides so many material and commercialized goods that people have started to lose the ability to understand the true value of everything around them. We as people need to stop fretting and start enjoying life :).

"Track"ing the impact of American Culture

For the past few months, my grandparents have been spending part of their extended visit from India at my house. Behind all the complaining about the cold weather (in India they think its "cold" when the weather drops under 55 degrees), I have noticed many small hints of not only how American culture is beginning to shape them but also how their heritage contrasts with mine.

The first thing my grandma said once she had settled in here was something along the lines of "hey Vibhi, come and teach me how to turn the TV on so I can watch my Indian dramas." Looking back this at the moment it actually seems pretty shocking how the wave of consumerism in American culture had impacts worldwide and into India. For them, they grew up with basically no technology around them. They didn't have their own cellphone until they were in their 60s and still to this day don't own a computer. This dramatic difference between the life I live with the life they grew up in characterizes the huge change society has seen both materialistically and consumeristically.

Another thing that caught my eye about them is their obsession over their iPad (a gift from my mom and my aunt). To say my grandma uses it 24/7 would be an understatement. The thing is basically glued to her hands. Never would I have thought that my own grandparents use the technology around them more than I do. The story behind the iPad actually goes back to their last trip to the US when they fell in love it. The ability to play games such as Angry Birds and watch YouTube videos all packed in one small rectangular tablet fascinated them. Their craze for American products was a signal to me of how materialism has progressed vastly through society;the feeling that once they saw something they needed it have one for themselves. Similar to how Wallace mocks the American people and their obsession over "lobster T-shirts and lobster bobblehead dolls and inflatable lobster pool toys," (665).

The sight of my Indian grandparents eating Jets Pizza in one hand and having an Apple iPad in the other will continue to shock me, but it clearly demonstrates the effect of American culture on people throughout the world.

A Life Race with your Father

While watching the Superbowl, I started to think how we talked about how fathers are the more sport-sy parent. The father-son tradition of watching a ballgame or playing catch outside supports this belief. However, what Manning fails to see is that just because his dad relates to him physically doesn't mean that he doesn't love him. His "physical" words are his way of expressing his love and feelings for Manning. Similar to how each ball thrown by a father says I love you. There are many different expressions of love which Manning is trying to demonstrate through his piece.

When you look at the whole story it is clear that the organization represents an arm-wrestling match itself. The beginning shows how Manning is always fighting and struggling to understand his father's love for him. His inability to comprehend this love shows his how he still hasn't matured. However, as the story progresses you see how Manning slowly gains strength and grows up a little. Despite the fact that he is growing up, he still doesn't understand his father and almost feels detached from him. Even though he beats his father in this middle part, it represents how the roles are reversing from the father being the protector to how Manning now has to care for his father. Finally, as the tide in the match shifts in favor of Manning, we see him maturing and how he "realize[s]...in the last hug [he said] that he loved me". This illustrates how the arms are now leaning with Manning on top. The ending, especially the last sentence, demonstrates the uncertainty that Manning has completely won as he is still doubtful about father's expression of love.

Manning's ability to replicate the structure of an arm-wrestling match in his piece makes it not only effective, but also relatable.