Category: NYTimes

Kristen Bateman’s “Foundation is Dead” causes me mixed feelings. On the one hand, strong women coming out and accepting their imperfections is so refreshing to me. On the other hand, Bateman’s article seems to be projecting that body-image issues are non-existent in this era. 

I have acne. Since my journey to body-positivity began, I’ve begun to come to terms with it. Still, I have issues with the way I see myself. 

I despise my blemishes. I soak them in chemicals and stab at them aggressively, and yet, they persist. Even a reminder of my pimples leaves me cowering in a corner in shame. Being a natural bodily and hormonal issue, my response may seem confusing to the outsider. But the stigma connected to acne has caused insecurities among much of the population.

I hate my body. My face isn’t quite gaunt enough. My neck and waist have lingering rolls. I hide my muffin top under high-rise pants. I abhor my thick thighs and wide forearms. I try to starve myself, but continue to gorge myself on junk out of surrender. It’s hard to explain my self-deprecating feelings to my 90-pound friends.

I don’t know when my self-hate will end. What I do know, however, is that self-content takes time and discipline to reach. Not everyone is able to accept themselves after accepting the accessibility and ease of a task, like forgoing effort of applying foundation.

I’m still working to overcome my body issues. But I can accept knowing that people out there are relinquishing the masks they hide behind.

Christine Hauser’s article “Single Mega Millions Ticket Wins $1.34 Billion as Jackpot Grows” details the successes of the winners of the recent Mega Millions jackpot, as well as particulars about the lottery process and the outcomes – both dire and breathtakingly wonderful.

As light-hearted a topic this article revolves around, once a more incisive look is taken into the subject, the content of this article leaves a bit of a bitter taste in your mouth.

To put it into the simplest of terms: people out there are living astonishingly impoverished lives while likely middle-class people are winning big bucks with frivolous means. One may argue that the U.S.’ poverty rate is a staggering 11.4 percent, with a poverty threshold of 12,760 dollars. And yet, Nigeria, Africa’s most financially well-off country, has a poverty rate of 40.1 percent. Is the difference not already astoundingly clear? Some change must be made to the U.S.’ so-called “lotto culture”. 

Hauser notes, “The odds of winning the jackpot were long, one in 303 million.” Accordingly, the U.S. population is 329.5 million. As vague as we can be, it’s still obvious the chances of an impoverished person winning the lotto is one in a million… or rather, one in three hundred three million.

This leads us to an argument about the American attitude regarding poverty in the U.S. Most disregard their born social class and trumpet hard work for success. 

We need to look past ourselves and towards U.S. poverty. Enough said.

In “Why So Many Children of Immigrants Rise to the Top” by Peter Coy, Professors Ran Abramitzky and Leah Boustan observe two reasons why immigrants’ children tend to outdo their peers: “First, the children [have]  an easy time outdoing parents whose careers were inhibited by poor language skills… Second, immigrants [tend] to settle in parts of the country experiencing strong job growth.”

My parents immigrated to the U.S. from China in 1995. As the child of immigrants, I’ve grown up with the idea of success from hard work pounded into my head; from five years old, I’ve had a lot of pressure put on me to achieve greatness in academics and all else. I’ve tried  my best to make my parents proud, reaching their high standards.

It was off-putting to read this article when I can relate to it. But it’s almost as if the professionals cited are disregarding everything my parents have done for me. It’s like, suddenly, my parents abandoning their previous lives, building themselves up from rock bottom, working hard every day for me and my siblings, doesn’t matter. My parents built me a strong foundation to achieve success and have educated me how. It’s not having better language skills than immigrants or “professional credentials”, or settling somewhere with “strong job growth”. It’s the mindset every immigrant must carry: Work hard every day to achieve true success. 

Immigrants come from tough situations. They’ve sometimes dealt with poverty. They know the merit in working hard to escape.