This week, while I was visiting my family in Los Angeles, some of the female family members took a trip to a Korean spa. One of my relatives had done it before, and spoke glowingly of the experience. She warned us to prepare for a bit of culture shock (we’re Jewish-American, not Korean), but it was hard to prepare for the actual experience. I’ve written in the past about nudity in Estonian saunas, and how I acted like an atypical American by being totally okay in that context. The Korean spa experience was similar and different in certain ways. Continue Reading →
body acceptance
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When Our Bodies Change
All human bodies go through some measure of change, because we all start as infants and, depending on factors such as life span and sex, go through a number of changes related to reproductive capacities, aging, and illness. I wonder, however, whether contemporary Western culture, with its emphasis on conformity and fashion, forces us to pay more attention to our changing bodies. If the current trend is skin-tight-whatevers, gaining or losing five pounds would make a huge difference in what you can wear. The capitalist and commercialist aspects of modern America also play a role in how we perceive our changing bodies. Try this weight-loss diet! Continue Reading →