Changing the Body Story in your Mind

I have to admit that a lot of what I have done with my life until I got to college has had to do with my body.  My body has been the reasons for both my success and my failures. I'm pretty good at a lot of things, but there only a few I can do really well. I used to be a really good dancer. I basically ate, slept, and breathed dance for nine years of my life. Since I don't have the typical "ballet body"  or I was just doing things incorrectly I actually did have some injuries. I had inflamed tendon in my Achilles tendon and had to wear a boot, broke my wrist, I've had numerous problems with my back and my hips and I still have knots in my calves to this day. Basically I have worn my body out. Minus all the injuries, I was still good. I got to dance a lot of major roles in the Nutcracker, Alice in Wonderland, Dracula, Sleeping Beauty, Coppelia, and a few others. I went away for a summer to dance at Miami City Ballet's summer intensive. I got to do a lot of cool things because of dance, but it was also my biggest downfall.

Like I said, I don't have the typical body of  a ballet dancer. I'm not "small enough" in the areas the count and I also don't have good feet.  So when it came time to audition for companies my senior year this was a problem. I began to fell really bad about myself and had the worst body self-image, but then I remembered that it was my body that had helped me do all the amazing things that I could do.  Even with all my supposed imperfections I was really really good. I could have danced professionally if I found the right company for sure.  But eventually I decided to give up on dance because I didn't want to be a part of something that made me feel bad about myself. I was tired of feeling bad over something that I knew wasn't a problem. I by no means think there is something wrong with my body. So every time I begin to feel nostalgic, I remember the times when I was at my best not my worse.

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Hi Barbs and Kens,


My name is Arlissa. I am a junior Organizational Communication major with a related area in Public Relations. Yep. It's a mouthful, but it basically means that I want to do entertainment PR. I went to a Performing Arts High School in Cincinnati where I was a dance (ballet) major. Sadly, I quit dance when I came to Ohio University in the fall of '08. It really is a sad story. I miss it, but I'm kinda just seeing where life takes me right now.


I chose to take Women and Writing because I've heard stories about the rhetoric one. So far I am loving it. English has always been one of my favorite subjects so I'm not really bothered that we will be writing a lot. I especially like how much of the writing we will be doing will be online. Being a Coms/PR major learning about blogs and wiki's is  beneficial for me.


 I'm really excited that our topic is Barbie. Weirdly enough, I think that I am more of a fan of Barbie now than I was when I was younger. I dunno maybe I'm influenced by Nicki Minaj or something. I have very few memories of Barbie, but when I was in pre-school I had this amazing black princess barbie cake. The doll was on a stand and the cake was her dress... I think. I wonder how they cut that?


As I said in class the other day, ironically, my friends and I were thinking about going as different types of Barbies and our guy friend go a Ken for Halloween. I think it's a cute idea, but I have no idea what Barbie I would want to be. What are your favorite barbie's/what Barbie's do you think my friends and I should consider being?