TheVacancy.Net Travelogue

I am not just a photographer. Some art I have done in the past include collages, sketches, acrylic painting, and assemblages (a la Joseph Cornell).

Here is a previous collage, completed in roughly 2002 or 2003.


Anorexia, Collage with magazine clippings, 2002-03. Approx. 14.5" x 17"

This represents the emotional roller coaster of young women affected with anorexia: highly volatile, often oscillating between hating the disease and loving it. Young women are often bombarded with magazines like Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and Allure touting the mantra, Love your cvrves, or Love your body the way it was made, yet allow advertisements of stick-thin models and actresses. The dual nature of the magazine sends conflicting messages to the readers. It as if the advertisers are excused from this point of view because they are not really part of the magazine's image as a whole. Quite the contrary, in my opinion. The advertisements a magazine accepts speaks volumes about the mindset of the editors, writers, marketing division, and the company as a whole.

Detail views of this collage follow.

It is interesting that eating disorders affect mainly developed nations. As Americanization becomes global, and our entertainment industry infiltrates places like India and China, eating disorders within the infiltrated country increase.
What I find amazing is that America's wealth of consumable goods has reached such a high amount that we have actually the capability to develop disorders relating to a basic biological function of life: eating.
In countries where food is scare, thinness is a testament to the physical lack of food. Anorexia? Forget about it. Bulimia? No way. Food is too precious in these countries to become part of a disorder.
Am I calling Americans a country of gluttons? No.
I am calling Americans blind. In our race to produce, consume, and expand, we fail to notice the effects overproduction, overconsumption, and expansion have on our culture, on our environment, and on the people around us.
Anorexia and bulimia, without a doubt, are psychological disorders. But they are also a symptom of something greater.



"...[T]he mortality rate from eating disorders is the highest for any psychological disorder, even depression" (from Essentials of Abnormal Psychology, 3rd Edition; by Durand & Barlow, pg. 279) .

If there's one thing I do a lot of during my commutes, it's think. I think about taboos, why they are taboo; what causes artistic inspiration and why it's somewhat universal; matters of semantics and what phrases technically mean; and etymological derivatives.

Lots of big words, I know. I had to look some of them up, too.

But as of late, one thing I have been thinking a lot about is the word, Handicapped. To some people classified as handicapped, the word is offensive.

I'm the same as most--I thought, "What? You're joking. That's ridiculous. I'm not calling them crippled or stupid or useless!" Why would some people choose to call themselves "handi-capable" rather than "handicapped"?

Well, let's look at this.

Handicapped: disabled, unable, limited, restricted. All of these synonyms conjure up one overarching idea: limits. If you think about it, the very word Handicapped implies a limited usefulness in itself.

Handi-, or "Handy," as in: useful, available, on hand, at your disposal when you need it.

-Cap, or "limit." A Cap on income, a cap on spending, a top, a boundary.

Handicap: limited usefulness.

People with handicaps (not handicapped people), I can imagine, feel limited in their usefulness around the home, workplace, among peers, and within the family. One who is blind certainly should not drive a limo for a living. When confined to a wheelchair, people cannot run, walk, or jump--and therefore usually do not pursue an occupation that requires one to be quick on his or her feet.

Of course, society overall can place those with even minor handicaps in the "of limited usefulness" category.

I have a very minor handicap. I have a touch of scoliosis. Did that stop me from deadlifting 225 pounds? No. I didn't even know I had scoliosis until 2006. I deadlifted 225 in 2004. I don't even think about it--ever. I don't even consider it a real handicap.

But if I disclosed to my gym that I had scoliosis, they would not have let me lift free weights. It is a "medical condition," requiring "approval from a doctor." I know, because I've been a personal trainer, fitness instructor, and aerobics instructor. I used to tell other people to "get checked out" before "entering any physical activity."

In realizing the implications of the label, "Handicapped," I learned that we can't allow boundaries to be drawn by those who don't even know what we are capable of. Not just for those with handicaps, but for anyone. Naysayers attempt to put boundaries on you because they fear lifting the boundaries from themselves.

Lacey