In Suzanne Britt’s essay, “That Lean and Hungry Look,” she shares her thoughts in a most provocative, wittingly way. Britt compares fat to thin people and their personality traits. She comes off strong in her opinion of thin people. At first the reader may feel awkward and may be somewhat offended. She seems very strong with her dislike for thin personalities OR perhaps she is only making the fat personalities feel better. Britt quotes Julio Caesar by saying, “Thin people need watching.” (1) She feels they are untrustworthy, for they are most judgmental. Brilliantly, she uses sarcasm and humor to portray her feelings towards body image. To put it simply, thin people live a dull, rigid life whilst fat people live free and happy. At first, Britt seems angry at thin people. She makes snide comments about their life choices. She thinks they don’t know how to have fun or just relax. Thin folks aren’t even allowed to be nice, according to her. Her logic goes like this, “The main problem with thin people is they oppress,” (10) comparably, “fat people are convivial.” (12) Britt uses her life experience with her ‘thin’ friends and how they make her feel. She recounts the time her four friends, one being thin, were putting together a jigsaw puzzle. The thin friend suggested they …show more content…
It brings feelings of laziness, bad choices and poor diet. Thin; this word has a positive connotation. The first thoughts are healthy, good choices, fit and well groomed. Britt wisely takes those two words and flips the psychological affect they have on the reader. She uses the word, ‘fat’ in just about every sentence, making the word/thought seem more acceptable, appropriate, and likable. The intention of her essay is to make the reader think differently of being fat or thin. By adding humor with a touch of seriousness, Britt accomplishes what she set out to do. To make being ‘fat’ not so bad. However, being thin has a certain stigma in and of
Fat acceptance: A basic primer Critique essay Cynara Geissler’s article “Fat Acceptance: A Basic Primer” was first published in Geez Magazine in 2013. Geissler addresses a lot of issues about fat acceptance and how it is affecting our society and people’s attitudes towards over-weight people. One of the reasons why Geissler thinks that is because many health industries now days have a slogan “Thinner is better” and that makes over-weight people seem lazy or just not willing to put the effort to become better. Most importantly Geissler mentions that health industries and causing people to make a negative attitude towards overweight people which can be seen.
She doesn’t care what other people think of her. Meal scenes are very important tools in books, and they allow readers to get more insight on characters in
When seeing the title “The Fat Girl” by Andre Dubus, I assumed it to be another story about a fat girl who would be depressed and insecure about her size. However, as I started reading, I learned that Louise, the fat girl, was not ashamed of herself and I became interested because my assumption was wrong. All the conflict about her size came from her mother and other relatives or friends. The title itself tells what the entire story is about. The entire story is about the life of “the fat girl”.
It is known to us that there are many people who are born genetically large, while there are many fat people who choose to be casual to have large-scale meals every day. As for the latter kind of people, it is their choices that make that decision that they prefer to be obese rather than to be in shape, which thus loses their own attractiveness. Therefore, facing the choices of being a model or being obese person, I would choose the model without doubt. Meanwhile, after reading Akst’s essay, I notice one problem that people who always try to make others feel guilty for preferring attractiveness often acquire little fortune in the life.
In Andre Dubus’, “The Fat Girl”, Louise decides to stop dieting when she finally accepts herself. In Louise’s first step of accepting herself, she recognizes that her husband’s flaws are greater than hers. Louise’s husband, Richard is a shallow and vapid character who only cares about materialistic and vain things like boats. When Louise gains weight he is unaccepting and callous towards Louise. This becomes evident when Louise says, “I never knew how cruel you were” (170).
Fat acceptance is a radical concept that most Americans shy away from discussing. This is not the case with Hillel Schwartz’s essay “Fat and Happy?” from his book Never Satisfied. Schwartz discusses the way fat people are treated by society and what he believes life would be like if we lived in a Fat Society rather than the current Skinny World we live in. In his article it seems that Schwartz’s goal is to capture the attention of as many different audiences as possible by using sarcasm and many different sides to his argument that fat acceptance should be an important value in society.
When Louise is at her thinnest and is perceivably most attractive, it is presumed she will stay that way. However, she gains all the weight back, thus going against the assumption that being thin is enjoyable. Furthermore, Dubus uses figurative language to compare Louise’s struggle to that of others: “For a while she stood eating in the dark, then she turned on the light” (245). With the motif of darkness symbolizing Louise’s blind indulgence, and light symbolizing her newfound awareness, Dubus communicates Louise’s development of self-control and
She becomes sarcastic once more as she states “ I have never been called crude names, like “fatso” or “lard bucket.” In reality, she has been called all of those crude names which is precisely why she does not want to call others of size the same names that she is being called. The crude names that others have called Peck demonstrates her point of view of discrimination against people of size. Progressing on, the author addresses more about how she never picks up magazines and reads the criticism that the authors receive for portraying overweight women. Peck is highly cautious with her words as she says “I have never picked up a magazine with the photograph of a naked woman of substance on the cover, to read, in the following issue, thirty letters to editor addressing sizeism..”
“In the past, eating disorders were generally considered to be confined to young white females from middle-to-upper class families living in Western societies” (Caradas 112). Both studies exploit the false stereotypes associated with eating disorders and culture. Both parties believe that non Western cultures are being influenced by the “slim is beautiful” idea. Each view points out the false misconception that non Western cultures traditional ideas of being thick is related to health is protecting them from eating disorders. Studies prove all ethnicities have shown concern towards body shape and eating attitudes in recent years around the
The majority of modern society’s advertising conveys an oppressive message to American women. In advertisement campaigns, women are typically only considered and marketed as beautiful if they fit a very specific mold that society has created. Women who don’t fit this mold of being feminine, thin, and pretty are shamed and encouraged to change. However, it isn’t just the “ugly” women who are shamed in the media. There is a consistent message that runs throughout advertisements that suggests that women are lesser than men, and that they exist solely for the benefit of men.
From an early age, we are exposed to the western culture of the “thin-ideal” and that looks matter (Shapiro 9). Images on modern television spend countless hours telling us to lose weight, be thin and beautiful. Often, television portrays the thin women as successful and powerful whereas the overweight characters are portrayed as “lazy” and the one with no friends (“The Media”). Furthermore, most images we see on the media are heavily edited and airbrushed
Unfortunately, it’s in our human nature to form judgments on people upon gazing at them. Although it’s not something that can be diminished in us, it is something we can rightfully control. A recent incident happened at the bank where a man, who was on the heavier weight side, came into the bank using crutches to help him maneuver. A co-worker saw him and made a comment on his looks which lead me to reply saying it’s unfair to make impertinent comments on random people. It’s imperative to remember that we are unaware of what an individual’s circumstances may be; what if the person has certain health conditions that cause them to be a certain way?
Those who tell the people who are over-weight to love themselves and to be comfortable with who they are and not to care what people say about them because their words do not matter. In Jennifer Grossman’s article she mentions what the activist means, she states, “They believe that people should love their bodies and that people should eat anything they want” (Grossman, 34-38). There is no doubt that the quote is very true, but the talk about obesity does more than trigger the feelings in a person. Obesity is much more than just a person’s feelings it is much more. Obesity can lead to so many more problems in the ones health if not taken care of properly.
In the story, “Fat Lady”, by Irving Yalom, the psychiatrist reveals his story of how he dealt with Betty, his obese patient as well as, how in the processed it helped her lose nearly 100 pounds. The story includes a very strong prejudice and countertransference. Throughout all the distaste he had in the story, surprisingly, he managed to successfully treat Betty. Transference and Countertransference In Yalom’s Fat Lady story, he mentions two words transference and countertransference, which I considered a significance throughout the story.
In the poem, When The Fat Girl Gets Skinny, by Blythe Baird, the poet addresses the issue of social ideology and how these trends affect young women. Told in a first perspective point of view, the poet supports her theme by describing how teenagers are being affected, establishing a social conflict of false need to achieve trends by identifying motifs for teenager’s actions, incorporating the use of life experiences from the past to the present tense and finalizing with a shift to highlight positivity in change of habit. Baird’s purpose is to illustrate a major conflict among young women who are being affected by social idolization of being skinny. She creates a mood of hopeful in order to inspire young teenagers who are currently harming