Changing perceptions in self-image

Today, in the language class, we watched a video called Comfortable: 50 People 1 Question. The beginning of the video resembles many others, which purpose is to change people’s view towards their own body. These videos are made specifically to catch the attention of consumers and to convince them to buy a certain product. The ambiguity of the message this videos send is extraordinary. This particular video, however, deals with the same topic but from a different perspective. As adults and children are asked “The question” we realise that there is depth in the phrasing of the question that brings to the surface a singular social phenomenon. 

“If you could change one thing about your body, what would it be?”

After watching the video I had three specific questions about the answers to that particular question. Why do adults want to change physical characteristics? How is it connected to the reason the give for wanting to do so? Why do children want to add characteristics that can give them abilities and not change the ones they have?

While looking for information about the matter, I came across an interesting research. A global survey was done, supervised by Maja Becker, a social psychologist at the CLLE (Laboratoire Cognition, Langue, Langages, Ergonomie, CNRS / Université de Toulouse II-Le Mirail). The results indicate that regardless of our personal values, we base most of our self-esteem on the fulfilment of the dominant values of our culture. This information might be helpful when trying to find an explanation for the abysmal difference between children and adults’ answers. When we are children, our body is a precious gift: it helps us play, eat, and communicate. We accept it as it is. Furthermore, we want to make it better by having abilities that would help us do what we enjoy. This way, the answer most children give in the video makes sense. It is related to an enhancement of one of our abilities: to have shark teeth to eat a lot, to have a mermaid tail, to be as fast as a cheetah, etc.   

As we grow up, nevertheless, our perception changes. Our circle of acquaintanceship grows, and we start being influenced by the opinion of our peers. This situation leads to a categorisation of Physical characteristics: some are valued and some are perfect to be mocked.  Unfortunately, the view of our body is distorted by society’s aesthetics values and we lose the positive impression we had of our self-image. This might be the reason why most adults explained that they suffered a lot when they were kids due to the fact that their physical characteristics were considered abnormal.

I believe that it is of the utmost importance that we stop for a moment and reflect on our self-image. Do we consider ourselves beautiful? Do we hate some characteristic of our body? I so, why? Is it really our opinion or somebody else's? If our opinion is influenced in a negative way by others we need to start leaving aside those negative comments and embrace a positive opinion towards ourselves. This will contribute to our mental and physical health and to our attitude towards ourselves and the others.

Speech codes: important but disregarded

A few days ago, Iwas talking with my father and one of my brothers about the insults and words that generally appear in certain popular programs. Suddenly, my father said in a peculiar voice: “culo, culo y culo”. My brother and I looked at each other and started laughing. Then I said: “Well, that’s the only time the use of that word is funny and that’s only because he’s so shy and explodes after being teased so much”. To this, my brother interjected: “Yes, he and Maronna. Do you remember when the teacher says “Maronna, tiene un uno, tiene un uno, si” and the look on his face. We all started laughing. Then, my brother expressed that if without swearing, Les Luthiers could make us laugh then they were worthy of his respect. We all agreed and the topic of the conversation changed from programs we did not like to our favourite performances of Les Luthiers.

El poeta y el eco. Les Luthiers

Canción a la independencia de Feudalia. Les Luthiers

This situation made me reflect on the fact that both my brother and I understood what my father was trying to convey without him explicitly expressing it. I believe if an outsider had been standing with us, she/he would never have got the meaning of the conversation. We made a connection between insults and a specific situation that made us laugh. This was possible due to fact that the three of us had watched many performances of the comic group Les Luthiers. 

The main idea that came to my mind when reflecting upon it was that, sometimes, to communicate with someone not only do you need to share a language but also have a certain code in common.  After searching for information about it I found that Ethnography of communication "is the analysis of communication within the wider context of the social and cultural practices and beliefs of the members of a particular culture or speech community. It is a method of discourse analysis in linguistics that draws on the anthropological field of ethnography. Unlike ethnography proper, though, EOC takes into account both the communicative form, which may include but is not limited to spoken language, and its function within the given culture. general aims of this qualitative research method include being able to discern which communication acts and/or codes are important to different groups, what types of meanings groups apply to different communication events, and how group members learn these codes, in order to provide insight into particular communities. This additional insight may be used to enhance communication with group members' decisions, and distinguish groups from one another, among other things". (Wikipedia) 

Reading this, I realised that the existence of these speech codes havebeen studied for some time and are a reflection of social attitudes. However, this important aspect of communication is not taken into account by many people in their everyday life. It is only when a clash between groups occurs and an explanation is needed that this difference in speech codes becomes known. When outsiders cannot understand, the group perceives it and needs to change ther code to include those people,  or risk alienating them.
Personally, I feel like an aoutsider every time people talk about TV peograms or soap operas that I haven't even heard about. Nevertheless, this does not happen a lot. I have, however, witnessed many people struggling to understand when my siblings and I make references to books or movies. When that happens, we need to explain every single reference and communication is disrupted.

Have you ever felt like you could not understand a word, even when they were speaking in Spanish? Have you ever had to explain certain reference or comment to someone?

Interesting discovery

While I was relaxing last Saturday night, I heard a male voice commenting as if he were at a boxing match or a similar sport. I started because none of the members of my family watches those kinds of programs or are interested in watching sports. When I followed the sound and went into my brother’s room, the screen showed a video game playing. After asking him about the comments he explained that he was watching the finals of the word championship of LoL. Having no idea what he was talking about, I left him alone and set my mind to looking for information about the video game and particularly the finals. What I learnt is surprisingly interesting (at least for me).

What is LoL? A simple explanation

League of Legends (LoL) is a multiplayer on line arena video game that was released in 2009. In League of Legends, players assume the role of a character, called a "champion", with unique abilities, battling with a team against other player or computer-controlled champions. In the most popular game modes, each team's goal is to destroy the opposing team's nexus, a building which lies at the heart of a base protected by defensive structures. Each League of Legends game is discrete, with all champions starting off each game fairly weak and progressing by accumulating gold and experience over the course of the game.(Wikipedia)

After getting to know a bit about the game I searched specifically for the World Championship. What I learnt is that in 2014, the season 4 of the World championship was held.  The grand finals were held in South Korea and a massive audience was present to enjoy not only the game but also the music of Imagine Dragons and other activities. The music band was invited due to the fact that they played the song “Warriors” for the video game. As regards the team that won the prize, it was constituted by 5 players from South Korea, and the opposing team by three players from China and two from South Korea. The winner took home the prize of a million dollars and prestige among gamers. (LoL World Championship) 

LoL Wold Championship. Season 4 

All of this surprised me. A few years ago, gamers were considered to be weird and left aside by most people. They were even mocked and insulted. I find positive the fact that now they have created a community in which they can enjoy themselves and create bonds with other people with whom they share interests. I also like the fact that each team is not necessarily from a specific country but from all over the world. I know in some cases the language and cultural background makes it easy to gather a team of people from the same country but some of them are from different countries.  Another positive thing about this Championship is related to the fact that whenever a player acts in a negative way he is given a fine and prevented from playing. These negative attitudes are not only related to technical aspects of the game but also to the respect they show towards other players. In addition, nowadays universities have begun granting scholarships related to sports to gamers. I know this might not sound fair to athletes but I find refreshing the decision to give people who have different interests, the opportunity to have a better education.

I know there are negative aspects to take into consideration when talking about video games and the Championship, its creation to bring money to large corporations being just one of them. But I was really surprised by the positive atmosphere and values that both the organisers and players of the video game seem to project, taking into account the violence depicted in it.

New meaning or veiled insult?

What comes to mind when 15^th birthday and party are said in the same sentence? Maybe what comes to mind is that the decoration generally reflects the personality of the birthday girl?  Perhaps the existence of a certain hierarchical difference between people going to the dinner and those going after 12 a.m. is what your mind conjures up. And maybe, the delicious food, the awesome music and the emotional time watching videos and remembering the life of the person being celebrated is what triggers the smile slowly appearing on your face.

When last week I went to a party, all of these aspects of an event that is rooted in our culture were on my mind. And although they were all present, one situation shocked me and made me reflect on the difference between generations:

The group of friends attending the party had made some posters and stuck them all around town. They had the purpose of saying Happy Birthday to the girl throwing the party. What really left me speechless was the content of those posters. The title was: “Se busca negra inmigrante” and then, a list of offences such as “ser una p#&%+”, “tener un sentido de la moda peor que un mendigo”, “dar los peores consejos del mundo”. “apestar”, “ser lenta” etc. In the end it stated that all was a joke and wished the girl a Happy Birthday.

After reading such texts I felt terribly uncomfortable. I wondered if the birthday girl felt flattered or insulted by it and if it was a common occurrence among teenagers. Being there the entire weekend, I could see this group of friends interact several times and I realised they communicated with each other making use of words that for me are insults. They said “pelotuda”, “cabrona” and “boluda” as if they were endearments.

This situation made me question the use of those words. Do teenagers use these words with a change in relation to the original meaning or is this type of communication a veiled war of egos? Do they feel offended or flattered by them? Are they aware of the real meaning of the words? Most of them did not even blink when talking while making use of these specific words so I suppose they are attributing new meanings to insults. Either way I would never consider an insult a term of endearment and if someone refers to me in those terms I would stop them and ask them to treat me with respect. I do not care if their reasons are good; if somebody tells me “boluda” I will not hold them in high esteem.

What is your opinion? Do you think words change their meaning according to the context? Are there any words that you have heard said as a term of endearment but you consider them not to be?