Paper #3- 1087 words

Not Your Body

American is known as the land of the free. But, with all the rules and regulations placed on what we can do with our bodies, that freedom seems a little farfetched sometimes. If I wake up and choose to walk down the street, pay six dollars for a pack of cigarettes and suck down twenty or so of those little burning death sticks, then that is my right. I should not have to worry about how far I am from a door or listen to people complain. If I feel that I have become a little too flabby due to laziness and choose to shoot myself full of steroids, the choice to get into shape, with considerably less work than it would usually take, is mine. If I feel that those steroids made me a little too ripped and I'd rather be a little more convex, it is my right to walk to the nearest fast food place and choke down fifteen to thirty of those grease covered burgers without having to pay an extra tax because it is deemed “unhealthy”. Overall, I should be able to do whatever I want with my body as long as I am not hurting anyone else. Protests of smoking cigarettes, using steroids, or ingesting unhealthy foods should be stopped because it is a person's legal right to do these things, they already has an array of restrictions and it is common knowledge that they are deadly. Nowadays, it seems like everything gives you cancer or some other deadly disease. The biggest fuss is usually made about tobacco though. Tobacco is one of the only legal substances that people protest against. It is much more common to hear someone complaining about smoking causing cancer than about Boston creme donuts causing diabetes. It is not like the people who smokes don't know that it is deadly. No one lights a cigarette thinking, “This is the healthiest choice I am going to make today.”. Although, some people do smoke for health related purposes. Some people even smoke because it makes you look extra cool. Rogan Kresh said, “it used to be sexy and desirable to smoke...[Now] you're committing some grave moral wrong”(Leach,554). It is every person's god given right to pursue happiness, as long as that pursuit doesn't take away another person's rights. The argument against this would probably be, “Second hand smoke kills non smokers, so it should be banned.”. As a non smoker, I have never felt the repercussions of second hand smoke. Most of my family smokes, along with most of my friends and most of the people I have met in college. If the smoke is too overwhelming, it is possible to do this neat little trick we learned through evolution, walk away. Someone smoking near a restaurant doorway has almost no chance of affecting you, unless you have a preexisting condition, which isn't really their problem. I'm less likely to die from the second hand smoke of the guy enjoying a four minute cigarette break while he waits for his food than from the brain aneurism that will probably follow me listening to someone not silencing their child who has been screaming for the past thirty minutes for no apparent reason. Overall, people smoke because they are addicted or because it calms them or because they enjoy it. Regardless of the negative effects, they smoke because they choose to. A big deal in sports is steroids. These muscle enhancing drugs have obvious results and commonly known side effects. Saying muscle enhancements is cheating is like saying working out is cheating, people who work out are not naturally that strong. They take protein supplements as well as other vitamins. Malcolm Gladwell stated, “...an American physician gave the drugs to three weight lifters, who promptly jumped from mediocrity to world records”(532). Muscle enhancers are a risk the user takes to become the best. No one has ever become the best by not taking risks. Plus, who doesn't want to look like they just jumped out of an episode of Dragon Ball Z? Also, steroids guarantee that everyone will fear you. No one wants to fight a real life Hulk. Yet, these “drug” users are treated so disrespectfully in the world of sports. Gladwell also stated that, “Even as we assert this distinction on the playing field, though, we defy it in our own lives”(540). People invent pharmaceuticals to enhance our daily lives. After a hard day of walking around or being productive, I like to fill my stomach with utterly sickening ingredients because my tongue deserves to be happy and my stomach deserves to be filled. When I first entered my high school, they enacted a “wellness policy”. Essentially, fat kids were using the money their parents gave them to buy snacks and unhealthy food and the parents complained so the school had to make some changes. I wouldn't say I am the healthiest kid, but I've always kept myself in decent shape. All throughout high school, my school would not allow the sale or distribution of most candy, including chocolate, or any pop. Also, all the delicious food that I had heard so much about from upperclassmen was replaced by a worse tasting, but healthier version. People should stop complaining about the distribution of fatty foods. No one forces them or their loved ones to partake in the wonderful act of eating these artery clogging goodies but they shouldn't try to take away my ability to stuff my face full of a free trip to the graveyard. As Sandle Sabo-Russo would say, “Being obese, or overweight, she says, is not always about food”(Leach, 555). A little exercise does more than neutralize the effects of these foods. It really has nothing to do with these foods, but with the responsibility of the people eating these foods. Protests of smoking, steroid use, and the distribution of fatty foods should be stopped because it is everyone's right to have access to these things. Cigarettes are known to be deadly, but people should be allowed to smoke them. Steroids are known to have negative side effects, but people should be allowed to use them to get muscular. Fatty foods can be pretty effective killers, but they are delicious and people should be allowed to eat them. When people make certain choices about putting certain things into their bodies, they should keep those choices to themselves.