To get us thinking about what effect our appearance has on others, and why people often go to extremes when creating their own personal style, here are two newspaper articles (with a bonus vocab exercise added to the second!):
from The New York Times gets the ball rolling by discussing the case of Susan Boyle, a very plain looking Scottish woman who became an internet sensation in 2009 after appearing on "Britain's Got Talent", which launched her highly successful international career. Unsurprisingly, she has since made major changes to her appearance. We all know that we tend to make snap judgements of other based on their looks, but why do we do so?
2. Body
piercing revival is ‘rite of passage’ as well as fashion
The
Independent (www.independent.co.uk), Saturday 8th
March 2003
The practice has been described as self mutilation, a violation of socially defined standards of beauty and
a "fashion-caused infringement of physical immaculacy". Now a new
theory has been advanced to explain
the growing popularity of body piercing – it is a rite of passage and a way of
marking significant life events, especially traumatic ones.
The proliferation of body
piercings in the past decade has worried doctors and puzzled psychologists.
From the traditional site of the female earlobe, jewellery has spread across
the body and is now proudly displayed
in the eyebrow, nose, lip, tongue and belly button – to name but a few of the
possible sites – and by both sexes.
Its popularity is growing around the world and is expanding across social
and age groups, says Aglaja Stirn, a psychiatrist at JW Goethe University in
Frankfurt, Germany, who has made a study of the practice.
There are few reliable statistics for the number of people who have had
piercings but one US study of college students found 42 per cent of the men and
60 per cent of the women had them. An Australian study of 10,000 people aged
over 13, found 8 per cent had some form of piercing. Writing in The Lancet,
Dr Stirn says body piercing has been a common practice in almost every society
around the world but the reasons for its sudden growth in the West remain disputed.
Dr Stirn says it is important to combat
prejudice by recognising the "often intense motivations" behind the
activity. One view is that piercing is undertaken to increase self esteem.
"The need for even young adolescents to improve their appearance and
self-esteem with extreme and even risky measures can be viewed as evidence of a
regressive trend in Western culture," she writes.
Others believe fashion drives piercing. One study found that piercers
wanted to "create something different, individual and lasting on
themselves".
But from her own study of 104 people who had piercings, Dr Stirn concluded
that the motive ran deeper and often marked triumph over adversity. "These individuals got their piercings at special
moments in their lives, to commemorate positive experiences or to mark the end
and overcoming of negative ones. There is a strong relation between tattoos and
piercings and personal events, especially if traumatic."
Body piercing can also be seen as therapeutic
because the procedure is followed by weeks or months of self care, involving
bathing and cleaning the pierced site. This "forces the individual to be
concerned with their body and themselves during the healing process". Dr
Stirn says better regulation and
understanding of the reasons behind body piercing are the best way to protect
those choosing this method of "conveying ... a sense of identity and a coherent self".
The pleasures and risks of adornment
Addie Chinn, at 23, has four piercings – three in his ears and a tongue
stud – and a tattoo. He works in a bar in east London and is planning his next.
"Lip, nose – I'm not sure. I'm thinking about it," he said.
As a 16-year-old with long hair and an instinct to provoke, he got his ear
pierced for the first time mainly because it was forbidden by his school.
"It was more of a rebellious impulse.
I would do anything to assert my
independence," he said.
His next came two years later during A-levels. "It wasn't planned but
I was finishing school and I wanted to mark
the event in some way. It seemed the right thing to do." At 21, he had his
tongue pierced. "It was overcoming another barrier that attracted me. It hurts."
'Like banging a nail in wood'
The dangers of body piercing were highlighted
by the case of Katrina Healey who lost part of her ear after a piercing gun
instead of a specialist needle was used to insert a gold stud.
The gun shattered the cartilage
and she lost the top of her ear after it shrivelled and died – the gun should
only be used on the lobe. Katrina
had three operations and needs plastic surgery to rebuild her ear. She was
awarded almost £14,000 in damages.
Her mother, Karen Hudson, had refused permission so Katrina, then 12, had had
the piercing behind her back. When the piercing developed an abscess she was in
agony.
The Body Piercing Association said: "Using a gun is a mistake. It's
like banging a nail through a piece
of wood."
Find words in bold with the following meanings
1. round
part at the bottom of the ear: ____________
11. damaging the body: __________
2. sudden
desire to do something: ____________
12. obstacle: ____________
3. fight
against something negative: ____________
13. demonstrate: ____________
4. well
organized and coordinated: ____________ 14. helping you to recover:
____________
5. state
firmly and stand up for: ____________ 15. hitting very hard: ____________
6. money
paid as compensation: ____________ 16.
very difficult conditions: ____________
7. celebrate
the importance of an event: ____________ 17. controlling: ____________
8. showed:
____________ 18. debated, the
subject of disagreement: ____________
9.
decoration: ____________ 19.
propose, put forward (idea etc.): ____________
10. break into small pieces: ____________ 20. sudden increase in number: ____________
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