One topic that was discussed within the previous two weeks that stood out to me was the advertising of beauty products as “anti-aging” and the prevalence of negative attitudes towards aging. The discussion surrounding the book presented by some of my fellow students in the LCS class, Selling the Fountain of Youth: How the Anti-aging Industry Made a Disease Out of Getting Old – and Made Billions by Arlene Weintraub, demonstrated how various industries, including the entertainment industry, have further pushed social conditions that encourage people to fear getting older, both physically and mentally. This is further supported by regulatory conditions, including a lack of overview by the FDA for various “anti-aging” products, which are supported by dubious results in research. While the social conditions of beauty expectations and desiring youthfulness have existed for a long time, various companies capitalizing on them have recently pushed them into expanding demographics, both for younger and older audiences. In addition, we also discussed various ideas for our Healthy Aging Proposal for the following quarter, where we invest time and resources into a project aimed at benefiting senior citizens. My goal with this project is to focus on perception, as harmful stereotypes exist surrounding senior citizens, such as having unhappy lives or being unable to communicate effectively. In order to combat this, my idea was to produce a video that interviewed several senior citizens, which would center on a theme, such as past experiences. Furthermore, we volunteered in-person to assembly gift bags to be distributed to various programs focusing on the elderly and the homeless. It was nice being able to see other people during these times and to contribute my time into a cause for the sake of others.
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Martin NguyenMartin is a Biochemistry/Cell Biology major from Garden Grove, CA. A fun fact about Martin is that he played tennis in high school. Archives
April 2021
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