True Beauty is fashion

With all of this fashion talk throughout my columns I realized that I do not spend enough time talking about how it plays a role in each of our lives. It’s crazy to think that by just putting a simple outfit together can make a bold fashion statement.

 I am not trying to make any false assumptions of what you think of fashion, but I think fashion and beauty go hand in hand. What people may not realize is that fashion and especially beauty is skin deep.

So why would I be talking about fashion and beauty in the same column? Because I feel as if not enough people take the time to take a good look in the mirror. By taking a good look in the mirror, it’s as if you are accepting yourself for who you are on the inside and that you should wear yourself proudly no matter what you are wearing.

Take for example, the campaign for Dove. Now I know it may sound silly talking about a beauty product, but what products are in fashion are just as important as what clothing is in fashion.

The campaign for Dove “For Real Beauty” teaches female people that no matter what skin type, body type, or nationality you are, you are always beautiful and that you shouldn’t let anyone bring you down. Dove products have something for every season and every scent. But the ultimate message of Dove’s campaign is that it teaches females to be a natural beauty.

Maybe I am wrong to also assume this but I think that a lot of females do not realize how shallow fashion can be. Just because a female chooses to dress alternative does not mean that she is a mean person. Just because someone chooses to dress in Victoria’s Secret PINK clothing line doesn’t mean that they are preppy and stuck up.

Fashion is like a word. What I mean by that is if you give a random person a particular clothing line to dress in, you can pretty much describe it in one word.

Maybe I am starting to sound a bit shallow myself about fashion but I feel as if a lot of people like to live in luxury and buy the expensive and top brands. But what people do not realize is that with every season, the clothing is changing rapidly. Something that was in season last year does not mean that it is in season or fashion this year.

People like to keep up with the fashion trends that come every year. But with fashion there comes with a lot of judgment and hatred towards of what a person is wearing.

I think that it is wrong for people to wear specific fashions just because they feel like they are being forced to dress a certain way.

Fashion can be a make or break deal to a person’s self esteem. It’s not like the old times where parents picked out the clothing for their children and made them look a certain way. Now, times are changing as years pass by.

The funny thing with fashion is that people try too hard to look good. What do I mean by that exactly? I feel as if people are trying way too hard to make a powerful statement. Some of the fashion statements that I have seen can either make a person look good or look bad.

But I guess the message is that even though fashion will never die, it doesn’t mean that people should change just because something else goes into style rather quickly.

Keep it classy, not trashy

Fall is here, we are seeing pumpkins everywhere, and there is a lot of orange and black being used in every department store I go into. That’s right everyone, I’m talking about Halloween. This is the holiday of costumes and going out trick or treating for candy.

Halloween is the time of year when I get to see the different costumes that people get to show off and it also lets me see what costumes are still considered to be in style. Do you remember when costumes used to be so simple when we were little kids?

It seems as if every year costumes are changing and newer costumes are being developed by creators of the costumes. In every single Halloween store I have been into, there is a costume for pretty much everything.

The big thing with costumes especially for women, and don’t take this offensively but it seems as if the costumes are appearing to be “inappropriate.” I think that Halloween is just an excuse for women to take it up a notch to the extreme no matter what other people will think.

 Do you ever notice when you go into Halloween stores that every model on each costume looks the same as every other costume? I believe that the creators of the costume make the women look more degrading and sometimes it can hurt the self esteem of others. It’s like the display of the outside bag is telling women that they are supposed to have a slender body and big breasts.

I’m not saying that Halloween is my least favorite holiday. I love Halloween mostly for the candy and for the pumpkins.

Sometimes I feel as if Halloween is more of a competition among women. Halloween is starting to remind me of Lady GaGa because of the crazy outfits that she is seen wearing. I know that the two comparisons sound funny and do not make sense, but I believe that Lady GaGa wears her crazy outfits to make somewhat of a positive statement, whereas women who wear crazy costumes to just show off their bodies.

You may think I am crazy for writing a fashion column about Halloween. If you think about it, it makes absolute sense to write a fashion column about Halloween because it does attract attention and it attracts fashion.

Maybe I am appearing to be jealous because of the fact that I can not wear the over exaggerated costumes because I have an average body. I choose not to wear those types of costumes because even though Halloween is supposed to be all about fun, I just think I can a lot more fun without having to wear a crazy costume.

Fashion will always make a statement, especially when Halloween season rolls around. A lot of us get excited about Halloween but people like me just treat Halloween like it’s any other day of the week.

Maybe at this point I am sounding a little crazy talking about fashion in Halloween but at the same time it doesn’t sound crazy at all. It’s going to be interesting to see what kind of costumes that women will be wearing this year. With all the costumes I have seen, I don’t think costumes can get any worse or any better.

Throughout this talk of Halloween costumes, the message of my column is that just because I do not like the costumes that are being created doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t change the person. I believe that Halloween is all about harmless fun. As I said before I am curious to see how the fashion trend of costumes carries on this year.

Protest it

For this week’s column writing assignment, Professor Fitzgerald asked the class to write a column about the Occupy Wall Street protest and our feelings about it.

 At first when people in class were talking about it, when I generally hear the word “strike” or “protest” I generally think of that it would be about people losing their jobs due to the lack of economy or about education.

Because in this world, and especially in the news it seems as if we can not get enough about the ongoing problems about the hopes of keeping jobs or budget cuts for education appearing.

So after watching a few news videos and reading a few columns, I learned that the Occupy Wall Street Protest is an ongoing protest that has reached people throughout the nation.  

To sum up what has been going on about the Occupy Wall Street is that, “Wealthy individuals who own giant corporations have bought off our Congress and bought off our government and, you know, the people no longer have a voice anymore,” one protester told CBS News (Cbsnews.com).

So what does this mean for the working class people? Does this mean that I am being fooled by Congress thinking that they are actually trying to make this world a better place?

I believe after reading one of the major articles that I have quoted that is featured on Cbs’s website, among the people who feel like they do not have a voice, I feel the exact the exact same way.

All the protestors in this movement and everyone around them had one message. One of the protestors Jesse Lagreca says, “The wealthiest one percent is taking advantage of working class people. They've been selling us faulty financial products, they've been taking huge bonuses while depending on society to bail them out” (Cbsnews.com).

It really does not make any sense for businesses to try and take the easy way out by creating more problems for the working class.

What lies in the future for the working class? I mean we already have a bad enough economy with the lack of jobs available out there. I think that businesses do not take into consideration of how bad some people have it out there.

Because of how ugly this protest and how real it is, I’m thinking that is there is hope for a big change between the working class and the wealthy.

Just because business executives get into a big mess they can just easily get out of it, but say if we as a nation got into a mess that we could not escape, it would be on us to get out.

I have never really been much into politics or protests, but this protest has me very interested to see on where this can lead. Us as a nation, we can only hope for the best. Like I said before, if we work hard as a nation to get a message across, big things can happen.

Like an old friend of mine once said, “Keep your coins, I want to see change.”

Throughout this protest, it is not only affecting the wealthy and the working class but it is also affecting every community out there as well.

It is almost like taking candy from a baby. Big businesses do not have to worry about anything that can mess up for them, but yet the working class has to work extra hard if they get themselves into trouble.

Having lack of a voice and lack of being heard is like being invisible. No matter how much you try to get a message across it sometimes does not work the first time around.

I am very interested to see more about the protest and to see and to feel the change.