The Oracle (E-Journal)

G. Bishop,  Karen

58 
Twin Souls 
Free Verse by Karen G. Bishop 
i’m in love now 
and she is fine 
not physically 
her insides are pure 
cuz’ she knows who she is 
i’m in love with 
her ability 
to strive 
after hardship 
i’ve watched her growth 
we met a few years ago 
in passing 
i was too young 
we didn’t talk much 
i wasn’t ready 
for someone like her 
she scared me 
she was smart 
intelligent 
confident 
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she learned 
to hold back 
analyze, assess 
the inner being 
of every individual 
she connected with 
she stopped the love train 
if love wasn’t returned 
she being comfortable 
in her skin 
gave me butterflies 
as we lay 
I asked 
why she was 
content with life 
and her being 
she said… 
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i genuinely loved, those 
who didn’t genuinely 
love me 
i’ve fed individual souls, nurtured their bodies 
who struggled to do the same 
i’ve mended hearts with my twin-soul 
10,000 times over 
i’ve learned 
there is a beauty in wisdom 
beauty to life 
the beauty to learn, is my ability to remember 
remember that, we are souls 
walking a path, with little guidance 
having to maneuver 
among the living and the dead inside 
we are all 
finding our way 
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and I cried... 
that woman, i fell in love with 
is me, the new me, 
the healed me, the conscious me 
the growth of me, kind to myself me 
the acceptance of me 
i am in love


English

Twin Souls

The concepts of individual autonomy and freedom of choice are prevailing trademarks of Western postmodernity. Using Michel Foucault’s concept of the manifestations of power in conjunction with Susan Bordo’s critique of postmodernity, I will argue that the postmodern concept of “choice” is not the product of pure individual autonomy. Rather, societal norms, history, and hegemonic power structures play an insidious part in forming the choices people make. In applying these concepts to cultural standards of beauty and the increasingly normalized practice of cosmetic surgery, I shall provide an examination of how power structures coercively maintain women’s subordination and oppression through a veil of absolute self-determination and choice

L’ Italien, Angela

Plastic “Perfection”: Examining the Role of Autonomy in Cosmetic Surgery

A prima facie look at relativism, even from the perspective of the most honest inquirer, often appears to be quite the seducer. The aim of this paper is to present a defence of a realist position pertaining to knowledge to show that relativism is in fact self-referentially incoherent and cannot be defended objectively; furthermore, my focus shall be a criticism of relativism in general but, more specifically, relativism in the landscape of epistemology.&nbsp

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Twin Souls

Plastic “Perfection”: Examining the Role of Autonomy in Cosmetic Surgery

ESCAPING FROM THE MORASS: A CRITICAL SURVEY OF RELATIVISM AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

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