war on drugs.

Some things I'm doing in my social deviance class:

I believe that the so-called “war on drugs” has definitely been a failure, or at least a misguided or sham attempt at driving drugs out of America. The United States government must know by now, after three failed attempts to combat drug use and the failed attempt at prohibition, that harsher negative action against drug users is not the answer. I am a firm believer in positive action towards being sober as a cure for drug use. When you react to something positively, whether it is illegal or not, what you are working positively to make happen, will happen. The more we refer to “the war on drugs” and react more harshly towards it, the more negative attention drug users and sellers receive, and they more they will continue or redouble their efforts. In the case of marijuana being illegal in the United States, we need to simply look at other countries that have legalized marijuana systems. I think America needs to make faster moves towards this solution, because regulating marijuana use while it is legal is much easier than trying to control something that is always trying to be hidden. However, it is in my opinion that this country makes too much money off the illegal sale of drugs for them to risk legalizing anything and having it be much more inexpensive, such as in the case of tobacco. In the case of other “harder” illegal drugs, I believe that we should use positive action to decrease the want for Americans to use these drugs, my making them more “taboo” in society and less accepted. These are obviously large changes that will need to be made and they will reshape society as we know it, but slow and steady wins the race and simply coming down harder on offenders will not work as it has not in the past.

face reading.

After looking so much into the extremely creepy sanpaku eyes, I came across another branch of psychology that I thought was interesting: physiognomy, or the practice of face reading. Scientists, doctors, and psychologists of ancient times relied heavily on this practice, but recently it has fallen out of use. There are few professional face readers in the country, some being employed for the CIA and the like to profile suspects etc.

Physiognomy is said to be able to tell you a person's personality, character, what medical and physical problems or affluences they have, and even if they have the makeup of a serial killer. I came across the website of face reader Kathy Thompson, which had a lot of interesting information. Traits like your lip size can indiciate how giving you are: small lips are reserved and honest, while large lipped people are very generous and talk a lot. A lot of these traits and their meanings that I read about were almost reassurances of things that I already knew I thought about people, but never put into words.

Look at a few of these websites and surf around, there are hundreds and thousands of traits that mean different things, and if you become proficient at reading faces, you should be able to read, manipulate and control any person or situation that you encounter. Promising, no? Grab a mirror and see if you believe it!

Face Reading: Personality Traits

Face Reading: Heath Problems


Here is a "stress chart" that goes along with my previous posting on sanpaku eyes:

have a good laugh.

I found some of these old sketches and drawings I did when I was about 13 years old. Needless to say I was obsessed with anime, sailor moon, and neopets. Me and my friends would spend all our time at middle school drawing and hiding manga from our teachers behind our textbooks... ha! I grew out of that one, but I never stopped being artistic.. I still always was the one drawing or in pottery or photography class in high school. Only in college did I stop, even though I'm always drawing at work or the one my friends pick to paint their room. I think I'm going to start drawing again? Stay tuned for something seeing as I'm going on a road trip to Pennsylvania to stay in the boonies for a week... plenty of free time.

sanpaku eyes are extremely creepy

Okay, so recently I've noticed this really strange phenomenon. There's this girl that works at the restaurant I work at, and I've always thought of her as, well... weird. Something about her eyes made me think that she could be a killer. Then the other day someone told me about something called "sanpaku eyes", and that she definitely has them. Apparently they are supposed to be the mark of the devil or something. However, upon doing some research, this is what I stumbled upon at BBC..

The Japanese have a word for one such condition, sanpakugan or 'three whites' eyes, often shortened to 'Sanpaku'. The amount of white, or sclera, that is visible when someone is looking straight ahead can say a lot. When a baby is born the coloured part of the eye, the iris, is neatly centred between the upper and lower eyelids with the sclera only visible at the sides. This indicates that the baby is unstressed and in good physical condition.

But there are states of ill-health that may cause the lower or upper sclera to become visible. Traditional Chinese medicine and homeopathy relies heavily on assessing visible often seemingly unrelated symptoms. When the lower sclera is visible, this is called 'Yin Sanpaku' and is attributed to physical imbalances in the body. Drug addicts, alcoholics and people who eat too much sugar or grain may exhibit 'Yin Sanpaku'. 'Yang Sanpaku' is where the upper sclera is visible and is sometimes indicative of mental imbalance. Psychotics, murderers, and people generally filled with rage are said to be liable to exhibit 'Yang Sanpaku'. However, stress and fatigue may also cause this symptom.

Here's a picture of some people with sanpaku eyes that you might recognize:

A lot of celebrities have had sanpaku eyes in the past. It may also be associated with premature death. A list of famous people with sanpaku eyes and their age of death: Abraham Lincoln-56, John F. Kennedy-46, Robert F. Kennedy-43, Heath Ledger-28, John Lennon-40, Marilyn Monroe-36, Elvis Presley-42. It can be known for anything from beauty to the mark of a cold blooded killer. Some nationalities will even run in fear from a sanpaku eyed person. Upon more research, a macrobiotic diet can apparently cure this "affliction"; which consists of things like brown rice, vegetables, and beans. I just think its plain creepy. What about you?

A few good quotes of the day:

"And by the way, anything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt"

Sylvia Plath

I like this one because its pretty much my inspiration for starting this blog. Trying to get myself to stop all the self-doubt and be myself is a daunting task right now. Closing yourself off in hopes that people will like you because you cross no lines is pointless. You will most likely be seen as a personality-less person. Might as well always put yourself out there, because if you hold yourself in with someone the real you will come out as you feel more comfortable, and you just wasted all that time being someone you thought they would like. If your personality is on display for all to see, you will attract the people that truly like you for you.

"There is no fear in love, for perfect love drives out fear"

1 John 4:18

I just liked that one.

Right now I'm taking two sociology classes: Group Psychology and Social Deviance and Control. The Group Psychology class is not very interesting to me, mostly because its a lot of material I've already studied. But the Deviance class is very interesting to me. Right now I'm learning all the causes of deviance, but it really all seems pointless because the point of the class seems to be to teach you there is no cause for deviance. The most interesting theory is the Labeling theory to me. Here's a little of what I'm working on:

There are several relativistic theories concerning deviance in society. One of these theories is known as the “labeling perspective”, which “serves to shift attention away from the characteristics of people that break rules toward people who make and apply those rules” (McCaghy et al. 80). This perspective does not seek the reason for deviance in the individual, but instead analyzes society and groups for creating the norms and defining what is deviant for that group. For example, something one society believes to be deviant may may be positive or the norm in another group. Therefore we are no longer looking for something to be “wrong” with the deviant individual, but rather both deviants and nondeviants are essentially the same, and the audience in which they act decides if they are breaking the norms. For a broad example, I myself would consider suicide as a deviant act. But in other religions and groups in the world, suicide may even be considered admirable. The labeling perspective also explains Primary and Secondary forms of deviance, because “labeling not only involves the defining of persons and their behavior, but may also heighten the likelihood that the behavior will continue” (McCaghy et al. 82). Secondary deviance is different from primary deviance in that secondary deviance occurs when the primary act of deviance is reacted to by others in a negative way. This reaction can cause the deviant behavior to no longer be stemming from the original cause but as a response to the negative behaviors that are a consequence of the original act. An example in my own life lies in my homosexual cousin. Growing up in a religious town in Michigan where my family is from, he always kept his homosexuality to himself for many years. Within the confines of my religious and conservative Michigan family, homosexuality would be considered highly deviant. When he announced his orientation, many of the family members disowned him and were extremely upset, including his parents. Even though the family didn't accept it, they went on to “label” him as a homosexual, and he was more identified as a homosexual, resulting in the secondary deviance. However, when my cousin graduated high school, he went to college and now has a group of homosexual and liberal friends, and associates himself with that group. This is interesting because it definitely displays the labeling theory in that his behavior was seen as very deviant within my family, but as normal within his group in college.

I guess I just think that this is interesting because I see it everywhere. Groups and cliques of friends always look at another group negatively because they aren't just like them. So who says what is right? I guess its just all in the group you pick to be a part of.. I've been in so many extremely different groups and cliques through my life, from the punky anime/manga obsession to a track and cross country athlete, to a competitive figure skater, to a professional ballet dancer, to a sorority college girl. I don't know who I am. In each of those groups I've never found myself looking at someone else as deviant though. At least not in a negative way. I feel like I myself am always the outsider seeking acceptance.. and I've done it with so many different people so many times, that I really don't know who to conform to anymore.

There is a first for everything.

Well, might as well start off with a little bit about myself. I always hate these "firsts", where you are starting something new that nobody knows about, and don't know if it will really succeed. Right now im typing to a audience of, well, me. It's always embarrassing if things never really go past that.

I'm a junior in college, from a small beach town in southern Florida. When I was growing up, I always enjoyed making websites and keeping blogs, and after going through a lot of tumultuous events in the past few years, im hoping to find a bit of my old self and make a little sense in my life. They say that in the first year of college, many students go through an identity crisis. Is that possible to last your whole life? Perhaps that is my reasoning for studying psych. Maybe a few of you will find this blog interesting, because believe it or not I sure have an interesting story to tell that takes a lot more than one introductory post.