[TA] How the Objectification of Women and The Citric Acid Cycle are Related

Let me tell you something right off the bat: I love slam poetry.  Actually, scratch that-- I am nothing less than obsessed with slam poetry.  I felt like a kid on Christmas when I saw how many of my optional topics of conversation were centered around slam poetry (God bless you, Ms. Pyle).  I've seen a lot of the options before, and I was so glad to see one of my favorites on the list: The four girls in the BNV Finals in Washington D.C.

The fact that the performers were four very young, well-spoken girls was empowering in itself.  To see girls my age saying something that so many women recognize is important but don't have the time, courage or eloquence to say is so inspiring.  I am giving each of them a big spiritual "ROCK ON," I assure you.  There is also a noticeably unique effect in the fact that these four girls are so culturally and ethnically diverse.  It shows that young girls of any background can agree on something big.  The most important thing you can take from the performed poem is that girls that cover up are not worthy of judgement or objectification.  Hold on, I'm not done.  The women who are scantily clad and make spend most of their time working in a strip club are not worthy of judgement or objectification either.  The POINT is that a woman dress however she wants to dress, act however she wants to act, and say whatever she wants to say as long as it is HER CHOICE.  By no means am I saying that women should not show off their chest or their butt or their thighs; the problem is that girls, very YOUNG girls, are subconsciously forced to believe that dressing a certain way is the correct because it will make men attracted to them. The way women are being morphed into sexual objects more and more in the media affects every single girl that is exposed to any portion of society.  Even if a girl avoids advertisements, television, movies, newspapers, magazines, and newscasts is still able to see the way the media portrays women through the way people treat each other in the real world.  This whole situation is a lot like the Krebs Cycle, also known as the Citric Acid Cycle in biology.  In the Krebs Cycle, oxyloacetate attaches to an Acetyl group and sends it through a very complicated process that expels a few NADH+H+, a FADH, some CO2, and a small amount of ATP.  The cool thing about the Krebs Cycle is that while all of this is happening, the molecules in the mitochondrial matrix are working to build that oxyloacetate back up to start the cycle again with the next set of Acetyl groups.  The objectification of women is a lot like the Krebs Cycle because it begins with the media, which pumps out more and more images and ideas that encourage the issues we have today.  Throughout the cycle, many complicated things occur; girls hate themselves, girls cut themselves, girls can't look at themselves in the mirror, girls think they aren't worthy of love from anyone (especially a boy), girls read magazines, girls starve themselves, girls make themselves vomit after every meal, girls read more magazines, boys read magazines, boys beat girls, boys rape girls, boys kill girls, girls rape boys, boys rape boys, boys and girls make it into the newspaper, boys and girls go to prison, boys and girls make national television... and it all cycles back around to the media.  Well, would you look at that.  Isn't biology amazing?

(Disclaimer: by NO means am I assuming that all boys beat/rape/kill girls. For goodness sake, I'm not a man-hater.  But it's an issue that I strongly believe is influenced by the media's tendency to objectify women and make beating/raping/killing women more OK than it ever should be.)