Sister Wives?

Sister wives is an American TV show about a polygamist family. The family includes Kody Brown his 17 children and his 4 wives. His first wife is named Meri which he has one daughter with him. The second wife is named Janelle with has six children with him. The third wife is named Christine which he also has six children with and the fourth wife in which he has one child with. Down below is a chart where you can see all their children's names. 

I'm going to be honest when I first started watching this show I dislike it a lot! I juts didn't like Kody ( the husband). I felt like he was full of it. It is hard for me to believe that he is in love with every single one of them or at least that is what he claims. Umm now is this really possible? To be in love with 4 different people at the same time and love them all the same. I don't know if that's true. 

I started reading on line about what others thought about the Brown family. I came upon a very short article written by Neil Katz on the CBS News website called "Could You Survive a Polygamous Marriage?" My answer to that is Hell NO! I'm serious I honestly don't know how these women do it? Maybe because I am a jealous person but I feel like everyone is jealous it's normal. 


In the article Kody says he is polygamous because of his faith. He calls their arrangement "accelerated personal development." He also says As for sex,  he takes turns with each wife on a "schedule," but the ladies never sleep together. Now this really grabbed my attention because the women are basically sharing this man...I try and try to think like they do but its hard because I wouldn't want to share my husband. Just the thought of him being with another women while with me infuriates me. So why is it that these women take it so good? Are they human? I mean don't we all get jealous? or upset? 

I cant seem to put myself in the women's shoes because like I said before it is hard to pretend that you don't mind sharing your husband. Now I can definitely put myself in Kody's shoes because he is a man and what man wouldn't want to have four wives? Right? I mean he literally sleeps with different women almost every day of the week. It is a perfect relationship for a man. If they get annoyed or frustrated with one of the wives then on to the next. If he gets into an argument with one of them he leaves. Its win win for him either way. Maybe there's a wive that cooks better or is more fun to be around or is a good listener. I mean he has it all. I don't blame him for doing that. 

Kody and his first three wives.

On another article on the Los Angeles times Mary McNamara critiques the show. She talks about how she can't seem to take Kody serious. She says that the wives are the ones who make a the show not Kody. She also goes on explaining how these women have always wanted to have sister wives. She quotes that Christine said  "I wanted the sister wives more than the husband." 




This article made me look at things differently. It made me understand the women's point of view. A view that I was having such a hard time trying to understand. These women have always wanted sister wives. It makes sense since most of them grew up in the same lifestyles.  Maybe they never had siblings or close girlfriends maybe that's all they needed. 

In the last article/blog by Katy Hall she talks about Kody's relationship with each one of them. In this article she quotes Kody " Why stop with one good marriage when you could have four?" This to me is a mentality of a typical man. It's one of those cases where the more the merrier?  In the article they also discuss about Meri feeling jealous. She asks "How would you feel if I wanted another man?" Kody answers "Well the vulgarity of that" with a look of disgust. 

This is exactly why I don't like Kody. Why can't they have other men? He says that "love shouldn't be divided, it should be multiplied". Really, so this apparently only counts for him. I honestly feel like the women have been somewhat brainwashed by this man. I feel like they are true to themselves while hes not. In a way I hate him but then again I admire the man. Because for him to have these women crazy over him voluntarily then he obviously must be good at what he does. I'm pretty sure every man envies him. 

Now here is a link to their interview. While I was watching this I began to get really upset. When they asked him What made you want to live this life...he seemed like he had no idea what to say and then he said "faith". At the end of the interview the news cast lady ends with "Well we will leave off with one thing it is illegal". 

Beauty is pain!

I'm sure that everyone has heard the saying  "beauty is pain"? Many years ago in the Chinese culture they took this saying very seriously.


 Foot binding was the custom of binding the feet of young girls painfully tight to prevent their feet from growing. Back then if a women had big feet ( size 7 which is average in the states) they were considered ugly. Having small feet was a must! If they didn't bind their feet then they wouldn't find a husband. If you had small feet it also meant you had class back then this was very important. They banded binding of the feet in 1912 although some women still practiced it in secret. 

Picture by Louisa Lim

I was reading an article written by Louisa Lim called ""Painful Memories for China's Footbinding Survivors". This article has so much information and I loved it because we get to here it from women who went through this. One of the women's is named Zhou Guizhen and she is 86 years old. She says that she regrets binding her feet, but back then it was her only option. "Because I bound my own feet, I could manipulate them more gently until the bones were broken. Young bones are soft, and break more easily," she says.


Imagine you had to do this to your feet? Sounds extremely painful to me. It is crazy the things that we will do in order to be accepted and considered beautiful. This sounds more like a brutal punishment. 

Picture by Louisa Lim

In the South of China there are still some women with "tiny feet". They have formed a community together and they talk about their personal experiences. 


Another women named Wang Lifen also talks about her experience. She says that her mother began to bind her feet when she was 7 years old. These woman can no longer dance or walk for a long time. 


"The bandages that women used for footbinding were about 10 feet long, so it was difficult for them to wash their feet," Yang says. "They only washed once every two weeks, so it was very, very stinky. But when I was young I was very free, because when I was naughty my mother couldn't run fast enough with her bound feet to catch me and beat me."- Yang


When I read this I was shocked! They wouldn't wash their feet for 2 weeks? oh my! It is interesting because a man wanted a women with these freaky tiny feet but then again they didn't mind the horrible smell? Their feet look very weird...I honestly don't know why anyone would think this was attractive? It's just one of those things where we would have had to be there to understand. 


Beauty does hurt. 


Down below is a link to the interview...
An interview with a couple women talking about their "tiny feet"

"Life in a Day"

I really enjoyed this documentary! It is amazing on how they even started with the film. All of the clips you watch were submitted on youtube. It is a very unique film! It really grabbed my attention because of all the different cultures. I learned what different people around the world do in a day. It is an amazing film! I recommended it! 


I was reading a lot of articles/critiques on this video and everyone has had the same opinion about the film as I did. In this article Cirina Catania talks about the steps it took for this film to be created. She also enjoyed the film! Her blog/article was short but I like how we had the same thoughts about it. Together with all the people that commented bellow her blog. It was only good feedback. :) 

Another powerful quote?

"America is the greatest of opportunities and the worst of influences." -- George Santayana 


Many things go through my mind when I read this quote. I think of how all the good but then again I think of all the bad. We aren't perfect; nobody is. Many people think that we are evil and have even said we are monstrosities. Can this be true? Can we be one of the worsts influences out there? 

Female Circumcision?

In an Atlantic article about Female Circumcision writing by Linda Burstyn a women named Genat says, "She said if I don't do these things, the girl will grow up horny. She'll be like American girls".

When she said "these things" she meant circumcising her baby girl. In many countries such as Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia circumcising also known as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a common ritual that girls get before the age of 15. A ritual that is said to be as common as getting a girls ears pierced. They say that if the child is not circumcised then she will be wild and crave men. 


Circumcision started many many centuries ago. We don't really know where it actually started at but we believe it originated from the Egyptians. They believed  that when snakes shed their skin, and emerged shiny and new again, it was undergoing rebirth. So they began to perform this on humans. 

The following are some forms of circumcision performed in women...

• Clitoridectomy; is the partial or total removal of the clitoris.
• Excision; is the partial or total removal of the clitoris and the labia minora.
•  Infibulation; is the narrowing of the vaginal opening through the creation of a covering seal.

For all we know is that many of the people that perform circumcisions don't use sterilizers and the blades are most likely dirty and rusty. It is not safe and they are spreading diseases this way. 

"Many of the immigrant mothers who are making these decisions about their daughters know little or nothing about their own anatomy. They are told that if the clitoris is left alone, it will grow and drag on the ground; that if their daughters are left uncircumcised, they will be wild, and will crave men; that no man from their home country will marry them uncircumcised" -Linda Burstyn

A lot of these mothers are not educated enough to know that none of this is true and that there are other ways to keep their girls under control when it comes to "craving men". Other things such as, educating them on why they shouldn't and what will the consequences be if they decide to do it. As for the mother, they should be more educated when it comes to this. 


The aren't educated because they don't have the resources to get this important information. These women can't work and they definitely can't go to school. Their culture is very different than ours. I feel like they need to learn more about the subject. 

 This also affects them not only mentally but physically. There has been many occasions where after they are married they have a hard time with pregnancy, childbirth and they might have some complications with sexual dysfunction. Many of these girls go into a state of shock and are even dramatized. Just imagine being in between the age of 7-10 and getting your genitals cut with a razor blade without any anesthesia...Sound painful? Yes. The pain has been compared to having a metal piece forced under your fingernail and ripping it back and forth until the fingernail comes off. 

I think that this is just brutal. I honestly feel that it's not fair why is it that they are always trying to tame women? as if we were animals or something? I just don't get it. Like Linda said in her article "This is a clear case of child abuse. It's a form of reverse racism not to protect these girls from barbarous practices that rob them for a lifetime of their God-given right to an intact body." We have a right to do as we wish with our bodies and others even our mothers shouldn't be the ones deciding if we want to be circumcised or not. This is not their choice to make. 

Here are some comments said about female circumcision...

Anonymous women said..."This happened to me. I may have forgotten the pain, but I will never forgive my parents. I have a young daughter. To keep her safe, I never visit my parents now."

A man who defends the practice says that he recently had his daughters circumcised. "I stood over her to make sure she cut enough," he says. "I wasn't going to let my daughters have those things!" 

I would hate if my parents did this to me too, and while I was reading the articles all I could think of it thank goodness I live here. I honestly felt the pain that these young girls where feeling and I wanted to cry. Then when I started reading some of the comments the men were leaving it just made me so mad! Comments like "We do this so they don't become whores" or "they don't have a right to feel pleasure like we do". Seriously?! Who do they think they are? This really made my blood boil. I am so for stopping this brutal act. 

I know that we all have to respect other people's cultures and thoughts but I found it extremely hard to agree to this. Specially because a lot of the women and men that allow this to happen believe so strongly in this but again have no real knowledge about about what it really does to these young girls. 

It is okay to believe in whatever you want and do as you wish with yourself but not when you are literally harming others specially when those others are young girls that can't stand up for themselves. 

Now, What do you guys think? Should this be allowed? 

Here is the second article about Female circumcision written by Paul Belluck a New York Times Journalist. This article talks more in detail about letting the doctors here in the United States perform this act on young girls vs the families taking them abroad to get their daughters circumcised with greater danger. 

This third article is written by Danish Ahmad Khan and he talks about the different religions that practice this act. 

(All the pictures found on here were taken by Danish Ahmad Khan)

Beautiful pictures taken abroad

"If you see something that grabs your attention then take a picture and keep the memory forever"

I truly enjoy taking pictures, I take pictures of literally anything that grabs my attention. It can be  anything from a lonely bench in the fall covered in brown and yellow leafs. Or it can be a beautiful picture of a sunset going into the ocean. 

Right before I went abroad my mother bought me a new camera. I fell in love with it! It was so much better than my old school camera. She knew how much I enjoyed taking pictures, it was really nice of her. My new camera was amazing! Nothing too fancy but it did take amazing pictures. 

I want to share with you guys some of my favorite pictures that I took while I was abroad...

The picture to the right is a picture of me with a magnificent mountain background. I was in Gorges du Verdon, France. This is located in the South of France. It is a beautiful place, there was a lake with crystal bright blue water and a white sandy beach. It seemed like the perfect place to be. 

This picture on the left I took in Milan, Italy. The reason why this grabbed my attention was because there is so much to see. There is the amazing well detailed church, there is the beautiful Christmas tree and there is the random train. I think that the Christmas lights and the wet floor makes this an amazing picture. This picture is one of my favorites. 

I took the picture on the left in Venice, Italy. I was walking by and seen this. It immediately caught my attention because the lights and how it reflects on the water. I think this is a beautiful picture. I love how the sky is blue and I love the fact that there are no sidewalks just water. Amazing!

This picture to the right was taken in Nimes, France. It is a small city in the South of France. The reason why I liked this picture was because I look so small compared to the surroundings. I stairs are huge! Their were so many trees around. I love pictures that have a lot of greenery.

I took the picture on the left in San Tropez, France. A well known and common city that is visited by celebrities. It is a beautiful expensive small city with a magnificent beach. The water is just amazing! Bright blue with white soft sand. The greenery is what makes the picture so beautiful. I love this picture. 

The picture to the left is Stonehenge. It is located in London, England. I waited until the sun began to set to take this picture. It came out just the way I wanted it to. It's beautiful. This one is actually on a frame on my wall. It is also a picture that stands out every time I think of my traveling experiences.

I really like this picture on the right. I took it in Athens, Greece. The reason why I like it is because of the green and white contrast. I love how unique their houses are in Greece. I love that they are as white as they can be and the blue doors. Although this door wasn't blue it is still a beautiful picture. 

                                                                                                                    

 I took this picture in Paris, France. I absolutely love this picture! It is also on  my wall. The reason why I love this picture is because of how beautiful the Eiffel Tower looks and the moon looks amazing too! I just love it and it might look photo shopped but believe me its not. This is is my favorite picture out of all of them. 

Bizarre foods around the world

People from all around the world have different taste in foods and there are some pretty strange foods out there, but they don't come anywhere close to the following...







 Water Centipedes. 
 In China eating water centipedes is quiet common for most of the people living there. Water centipedes are usually served deep fried and are sometimes confused by small/skinny shrimp. 
















 Bull's testicles and penises. 
This is very common in Spain. They are known to be a royalty dish in some countries. They also say that by eating this it will help you boost your performance in bed. 

Tarantulas. 
 In Cambodia frying spiders and then eating them is common. They fry them until their hair starts to fall out. This process makes it easier,  so they don't have to pluck them.    




















                                                                                  Balut.
 In the Philippines they eat balut. Balut is basically a fertilized egg that is boiled just before it is about to hatch. A balut is as common a a hot dog in the United States.

                                             Fried brains. 

 Fried brains are consumed in Mexico, El Salvador and even in some places in the United States. In the United States they are served in sandwiches and in Mexico and El Salvador they are served in tacos and burritos. 

Weird? Bizarre? Strange? or maybe appealing? These 5 foods are definitely not something we see or try everyday..but there are people out there that actually eat these foods. Would you? 


For me the centipedes and tarantulas just make my tummy turn. I can't imagine myself eating any of those two! It is interesting how every culture has their own strange foods. 

In my culture (Mexican) we eat many strange foods too but one of my favorites is "lengua" (cow tongue)! It looks really really disgusting but it is so good. I always use to tell my mom I hated cow tongue even though I never actually tried it. So one day my mom made tacos and she told me they were beef...She lied!! They were not beef they were the cow's tongue! It was really good so I didn't complain at all. 


So now when we look at these different foods we might want to taste them before we go ahead and judge them. 

A meaningful quote

"Cultural differences should not separate us from each other, but rather cultural diversity brings a collective strength that can benefit all of humanity." - Robert Alan Silverstein. 

We can definitely learn a lot from one another. We just have to give it a change and be willing to want to learn about others.

10 years old and already married?!

In developing countries child brides are very popular. Girls at the age of 10 are getting married to older men. 

Picture by Stephanie Sinclair   

 I was reading an article on the National Geographic website that grabbed my attention. They spoke about a 10 year old girl named Yemeni who went to a courthouse to request a divorce. She was only 10 years old and married to a man in his 30s. The sad thing was that her own father had forced her to marry this older man. At the end she ended up getting divorced and she wrote a book called “I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced". It was translated in 30 languages. This particular story made headlines and grabbed a lot of people's attention. 

After being married for only a month these young brides become pregnant. They are not even physically mature to have babies. Their pelvic bone's are not big enough to deliver a baby. This puts not only the child but the young mother in serious danger. 

 I could only imagine how hard this might be for these young girls. You see here in the United States most of us get married for love. We get married because we want to not because others are forcing us to. I can't imagine my father telling me that I have to marry someone that not only I don't know or love but way older. 

I am the type of person that tries to understand every culture but this is just something I 100% disagree with. I just don't see why this is okay? I think its okay to marry someone older but when you are mentally mature enough to know what you are doing. Not when you are a child with no rights. This is an issue that continues to happen. Now a days there are many people that work hard so this can be made illegal, but it might be harder than it looks. This is definitely a process.

Here is  An Article on Child Brides that I found. It talks a little more about the health problems. 

Architecture abroad is so much more interesting!

Why is it that we don't have all these beautiful ancient buildings like they do in Europe? We are famous for sky scarpers and that's pretty much it. Why can't we have castles and ancient buildings? I'm sure we do somewhere in the states, but we aren't famous for them. We do have beautiful architecture in the states but it is usually modern architecture. 


When I googled "French architecture" all these beautiful images came up and the very first link was the French architecture wikipedia. Now when I googled "American architecture" the wikipedia page was empty? Here is a picture of what American architecture looks like...

 To the left is the Seattle Central Library. As you can tell the building is very modern. It is really different and in this case I don't like it. I feel like it looks like it doesn't belong or as if it was a structure from outer space. 

The picture to the left is also another example of modern american architecture. This is the University of Alaska Museum of the North. 

Now the following pictures I took while I was abroad in front of the most amazing structures! 

 While abroad I was amazed by all the beautiful architecture! Especially because I am an architect major. I enjoy seeing detailed and roman influenced architecture. While I was in France I visited this beautiful castle "Chateau Chambord" located just outside of Paris. It was the first castle I've ever visited and it was huge! (picture on the right)

Here to the left is a picture of myself in front of an ancient church in Nimes, France. Nimes is small city in the South of France. The reason why this church grabbed my attention was because the amazing detail that it had. 

The picture to the right was taken while I visited Athens, Greece. These are some famous ruins near the Acropolis. I thought they were interesting because of how ancient they were. Some of these buildings were still standing incredibly after so many years. 















 The picture to the left was taken in London,   England. It is a picture of famous Houses 
of Parliament. This absolutely incredible!
It has so much amazing detail. 

The picture to the right was taken in Rome, Italy. It's a picture of my mom, sister, and I. We were standing in front of the Coliseum. This building grabbed my attention because of it's size. It is huge! it is also ancient which I love.