Blog # 9

How was the issue of food and weight discussed in your home? Was it ever a control issue or a point of conflict for you? How much influence do you believe your family has on the way you feel about food and your body today?

My family never had any kind of big issues related to food or weight. I still remember my mother feeding us different types of meals on a regular basis which was an example of a perfect diet. My mother is a health and environment teacher in a local school and my father is a district education officer who monitors hundreds of schools within a district. Being a health teacher my mother definitely knew all about a healthy and balanced diet. Inside a house, I used to eat whatever my mother used to cook and those diets were fresh and healthy. However, my parents were not satisfied with my body image. I was a typical skinny high school guy. My friends often called me a “stick” as I was the tallest and skinny guy among the all classmates. This skinny body image sometimes had a negative impact on me. I often had a discussion with my mother about this matter and I used to ask her, “why I couldn’t gain some weight and be a muscular guy?” This was definitely a negative influence of media and society’s so called “glamorous body image”. However, I never thought I had any kind of eating disorders or unhealthy diet. My parents believed that obesity brings a lot of health problems and it’s better to be a skinny guy, yet a healthy person rather than being a fat person. My family always focused on a healthy diet lifestyle rather than delicious food eating lifestyle which is often a big problem among all Nepalese people who often eat spicy, hot and oily foods. My parents never had any kind of restrictions over the foods that me and my sister ate. However, my parents considered binge eating and skipping meals as an unhealthy eating habit. Those family beliefs and teachings still influence my eating habits. My mother still calls me sometimes just to check what kind of foods I am eating. She often gets afraid of all those junk foods that we eat here in the United States and tells me to cook my own meal at home. So, somehow I believe that we are all influenced by those eating habits that we practiced in our childhood and some habits imposed by our parents during our early childhood.

Blog# 8 Menopause and Cultural Perspectives

Menopause could be a topic of fear and embarrassment for many women throughout the world but in medical term it is labeled as the end of menstruation which means that women, no longer be able to bear a child. Menopause could be a painful phenomenon for many women but physiological effects are more painful because in many cultures it has been viewed as a negative event. For an example, Menopause has been perceived in the United States as a difficult time for women, during which they experience uncontrollable moodiness, irritability, and depression ( Alexander et. Al, 2010) In Nepal, menopause is seen as a positive natural phenomenon. When Women and girls are having their regular menstrual cycles, they are not allowed to enter temples (a place where Hindu people go to worship) because it is seen as a sin to allow women to the temples when they are having menstrual cycles. Women are not allowed to cook or enter to the kitchen when they are having menstrual cycles. So, when menstruation stops or menopause starts, women feel themselves very delighted because many social restrictions they are facing no longer will be able to bother them. They are also given more respect as this phenomena is seen as gateway to an elderly life. In some of the Nepalese tribes, menopause is celebrated like other common festivals and it is believed that women have now gained a state of purity. In rural Nepal, some tribes force women to stay outside the home during the 4-5 days of menstrual period because they think it’s against the god’s will to allow them to enter the home. This cultural practice could be found in many educated families too. So, In Nepal’s context menopause is something related with the freedom of negative cultural practices. So, women will definitely be able to overcome this cultural burden once they go through this cycle regardless of physical pain they go through.

Works Cited:
Alexander et al. (2010). New dimensions in women’s health. 5th ed. Sudbury, Massachusetts: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.

Blog # 7

Many people equate STDs with immorality, promiscuous behavior and low social status. What are you thoughts on this statement?

Transmission of STDs are definitely a result of many careless sexual behaviors that people practice. However, sometimes it can be transmitted to an innocent people by their partners who suffer from this disease. I wouldn't say STDs are carried out by some kind of specific population but i think STDs easily affect those people who practice sex with more than one person without taking proper precautions. However, defination of a sexual practice with more than one partner could be labeled as immorality and promiscuous behavior by the society in one part of the world and same opinions could be labeled as a modern civilization in another part of the world. So, the question is whose socio-standards are relevant regarding to the transmission of STDs? For, example, i grew up in a society in Nepal where people usually hide these diseases because of a social denial. A person who practice sex with more than one person is labeled as a characterless and of lower moral standards. However, in United States people are involved in multiple sexual relationships and it's still valid.Some organizations have revelaed that widow and teenagers are among those people who are affected the most. But i would say that these STDs diseases have no barriers and could affect anyone whether they are old, young or teenagers but in my opinion STDs are really a problem of those people who practice unsafe sex with more than one person but i don't want to label them as low moral personalities. However, we can't deny the fact that some people tend to have developed those promiscuous behaviors and they are the most susceptible to these kind of diseases. So, it's people and their careless sexual behaviors who transmit and develop the STDs but i don't think it's an appropriate approach to label their behaviors as promiscuous and immoral acts.

Blog# 6

I think having children is a great responsibility in this 21st century's context. We all dream about having a family and children but i am not just prepared for this at least for some years because for me, career comes first. It's not that i am trying to escape from a responsibility of having a family and children but in my opinion we all have to think that whether you will be able to give your children enough time and care that they deserve? If not then there is no point of having children. My parents got married when they were 21 years old the they had their first baby when they were 24. My mother still gets angry when my father didn't come to visit her when i was born because he was too busy chasing his dreams and career. It was 20 years ago but now the time has changed. Today, childcare is one of the most important topic for all new parents who are planning to have children. Today's society and education that we are getting teaches us to take this matter seriously and raise our children with our presence all the time. But i am afraid that if i marry right now and have children i won't be able to cope with all these problems, like; family time, childcare and i don't expect that from my wife too because here in the United States we are all busy chasing our goals and career. I think when we talk about having children we are not just talking about our needs but we will have to consider basic children needs too which includes; adequate love, discipline and moral values. At the moment i am not sure how can i play my role of being a wonderful father and that what bothers me all the time. It's not that i don't want to have any children in my life but i think i am not prepared to be that father who can spend more time with his children and bear a responsibility of raising them nicely with a good learning environment.

Blog# 5 Contraception

In what ways could someone's culture, beliefs and practices influence contraceptive decision making? Provide thorough examples based on some of your readings and your own personal experiences. What were the beliefs about birth control/contraception within your own home and family?

It's true that in some places people's daily life activities are directly associated with the place's cultural norms and values. Family planning and acceptance of contraception are still a taboo in many cultural beliefs around the world. Even though today's 21st century has developed different types of educational materials to teach people about the use of contraception, some cultural beliefs still play a big role of whether to accept the use of contraception or not and the use of contraception is still seen as a sin in many cultures all around the world. For example, In many Muslim cultures , the use of contraception is forbidden because they believe that reproduction is a god gifted thing which shouldn't be ruined by the use of contraception. The Roman Catholic church still forbids the use of barrier methods of contraception which is seen as a some kind of abortion. So, i think our cultural values, beliefs really influence our decision of using contraception. In my family the use of contraception was discussed very often because both of my parents were also the teachers in my school and i got that teaching environment all the time whether it's in school or home. I still remember my mother helping out those uneducated women to know about the use of different types of contraception and their advantages. Sometimes the situation used to become very tensed as their husbands try to force their women not to follow the teachings that my mother used to give. I grew up in a small society of a North Eastern Nepal where people were so religious and in some cultures the use of any means of contraceptives were seen as a sin at that time. But, after some years their religious beliefs and norms were changed due to excessive learning environments about the family plannings and the use of contraceptives. So, i think misconceptions still do exist in many society where the birth control and the use of contraception are forbidden but we can change that by the means of education and other learning environment.