(11/29/25 4:26am)
With Trump’s presidency has come a lot of change. Some of these changes have included cuts to medicaid and SNAP, demanding the deportations of more than 139,000 undocumented immigrants and much more. However, this is only month 10 of a 4-year presidency. He has made many more promises for the future. One of these promises include ending mail in ballots, which he claims to make the voting system a breeding ground for fraud. But if Americans lose access to mail in ballots, what will it mean for those who rely on them to vote? What will it mean for our country as a whole?Though there are in person alternatives to voting by mail, polling places are often inaccessible to many Americans across the country. This explains why nearly 60% of Americans voted using mail in ballots in the 2024 election. People who live in rural areas are one of the groups who rely on it most. 50% of urban polling places serve an area of less than 2 square miles, while rural polling places can serve an area of greater than 62 square miles. The numbers speak for themselves. The long distances people in rural regions must travel makes it nearly impossible for people to vote in person, especially for those with families, jobs, or other responsibilities that prevent them from having hours to spend driving to vote. Mail ballots are a tool used by 22% of the rural population, yet even they face more barriers to voting by mail. These barriers include strict witnesses, a verifiable excuse to vote by mail, and limited postal service coverage. Mail in ballots should be accessible to more people, not less. It should not be a lengthy, exhaustive process to simply vote, a right given to all US citizens.Another community who heavily relies on voting by mail are people with disabilities. Unlike rural voters, the issue of accessibility to in-person voting isn't distance, but instead physical barriers of entry. Although many poll places are required to be accessible by the ADA, there are still numerous violations that occur, such as the lack of ramps or elevators.There are also the challenges of getting to polling places. Finding accessible transportation is not easy. People with disabilities are twice as likely to have inadequate transportation in comparison to non-disabled adults. This explains why a large majority of those who voted by mail in the 2020 election were people with disabilities. Mail-in ballots help prevent the hassle of getting to and into polling sites, making the voting process easier and more efficient for the disabled community.Although accusations persist, Trump’s claims of corruption within the mail-in voting process have been debunked numerous times. In fact, many sources have found that fraud in casting your ballot by mail is extremely rare with only about 4 cases of mail voting fraud out of every 10 million votes over the course of 4 elections (2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022 general elections). The hypocrisy of his claim has also been pointed out due to the fact that Trump himself recently cast a mail-in ballot in Florida after questioning the security of the method. It leads us to question Trump’s motives on his stance. Why does Trump consider it permissible for himself to access this necessary tool of voting by mail, but impermissible for others? Is there a distinction between him and these other voters, who arguably need this option more?No matter the answer to this question, losing mail in ballots will have a deeper impact on our country as a whole. Certain communities, such as those with disabilities or those in rural areas, may be pushed away from voting out of sheer hopelessness. Without a way to get to the polls, they may see no other option. Voting is a right, not a privilege, and by taking away this right from any group of Americans, our country must be stripped of its title as a democracy. It is not enough to have in person polls. Though Trump can throw baseless claims of fraud around all he wants, we must accept what is best for the American people. America is a democracy, we must start acting like one. If not, we will begin to shift to oligarchy. This simply cannot happen.
(10/29/25 4:11pm)
Skinny culture. You see it depicted everywhere: in social media posts of Instagram models, on billboards showcasing thin bodies, and in the dieting culture that consumes us. Also known as “the thin ideal,” skinny culture perpetuates a narrow standard of beauty where having a thin body, little fat, and a small waist is considered the ideal body type. While commonly seen in Western cultures, this phenomenon is prevalent around the world. To truly understand why we live in a society where thin bodies are idealized, we need to understand how skinny culture became mainstream. Dieting culture began as early as the 1840s, when Sylvester Graham, a Presbyterian minister, began advocating for a women’s diet, which he said correlated with being a healthy and moral person. His followers ate mostly graham-flour bread, vegetables, and water. In the 1860s, a protein-heavy diet called the Banting Diet became popular. This rise in popularity correlated with the end of the corset trend. Previously, corsets had been used to alter a woman’s body; however, it was only meant to rearrange fat, not decrease it. When corsets came out of fashion, women were no longer able to reshape their natural bodies, causing many to turn to dieting. Perhaps the most significant factor causing women to diet was the development of food science and the introduction of calories. This allowed people to track and cut calories in order to control their weight. By the 1920s, America was fully emerged in dieting and skinny culture. By the end of the 20th century, the magazines, advertising, and film depicted exclusively skinny models. Having a thin figure became universally celebrated. In recent years, body positivity and inclusive representation has begun to pop up more often. That said, the skinny body standard is still dominant in mainstream media today, and especially due to the rise in consumption of social media. On social media, people are constantly surrounded by pictures glorifying thin bodies. Photoshopping tools have also become more pervasive and mainstream. Online, bodies are edited so that people have smaller waists, legs, or other skinny features.The problem isn’t exclusive to women. Muscular and lean bodies are increasingly being marketed to men as the ideal body type, encouraging abnormal eating patterns or steroid usage. Studies on how social media has impacted body image have shown that participants feel more negative or dissatisfied with their appearance after only 10 minutes on social media. Not surprisingly, there has been a surge in eating disorder prevalence globally in the last decade. In America alone, it is estimated that around 30 million people will have an eating disorder at some point during their lifetime. Although many struggle with body insecurity, it most significantly impacts certain groups, specifically women and people of color. Empirically, colonialism and institutionalized racism has used weight as a means to justify discrimination of black people. A lot of the beauty standards we see today are rooted in racist ideologies that thin and skinny bodies were more beautiful. This has created generational harm for people of color. In 2019, a study found that Latinx, African American, and Asian Americans are more likely to have disordered eating than white people. However, they are half as likely to be diagnosed or receive treatment. For women in general, diet culture has been and continues to be used to control how women look and behave. Pressure on women to achieve skinny bodies trickles down to younger ages— a study by Smolak in 2011 found that 40-60% of elementary school girls already worry about becoming “too fat.” Skinny culture doesn’t only affect one’s confidence; it is also related to negative impacts on both physical and mental health. Disordered eating affects the nutrition your body gets, which can harm your heart, digestive system, mouth, teeth, and bones. People with an eating disorder are also 11 times more likely to attempt suicide. Every 52 minutes on average, one person dies from an eating disorder, leading to 10,200 deaths each year. These statistics can not simply be ignored. What will happen as media consumption increases as technology develops over time? Although the diversification of media has happened in recent years, skinny culture remains a pervasive, systemic issue that must be addressed.
