Literary Analysis Of Cheryl Peck's 'Fatso'

Katha Pollitt, in her essay, “Marooned on Gilligan’s Island: Are Women Morally Superior to Men?” addresses the topic of how difference feminists actually weaken women. Difference feminists believe that women are morally superior to men. Pollitt was invited to sign a peace petition, but realized it was actually demeaning to women. Throughout her essay, Pollitt discredits several difference feminists by stating the flaws in their claims. The claims difference feminist make are such as the idea that all women are nurturers.

Cheryl Peck writes her story ‘Fatso’ from her own point of view, comparing her experiences to those of different nationalities. Peck tells us that the same discriminatory experiences that a person of color may face whether it be about their skin tone or their body size, she has probably experienced just about the same injustices given her own weight. Although Peck does not directly tell us that is what she is doing but you get the idea based off of her writing. Peck is not trying to throw in anybody’s face that the things she has gone through is worse or more important, but just give people the idea that there is a first hand understanding and she identifies. First off she states that she has spent most of her life listening to people tell

The “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” McIntosh begins her essay portraying the unwillingness of men to admit that they are over privileged. Even those who are willing to admit that women are at a disadvantage have a problem admitting their privilege. McIntosh realizes that this denial of privilege does not only apply to gender but to race as well. She realizes that white people including herself are thought to view racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage but have never had to considered an aspect of racism that befits them; white privilege. Although being a woman puts McIntosh at a disadvantage she realizes that by not acknowledging her privilege she is unintentionally oppressing others as well.

“No-not you! Cindy’s the one who always does it. Have you ever run into her? She’s nothing like you. You’d never allow yourself to ever be seen with her!” This quote is significant because it just showed Cindy how really different she looked and what she so-called friends thought of her.

Do not say hello to my children’” (Stockett 406). Her exclusion, from her closest friends to people she doesn’t even know, has negative effects on Miss Skeeter. Society cast away Miss Skeeter, to the point where she had nothing left to keep her in Jackson. In conclusion, Miss Skeeter was excluded from the rest of her society because she refused to print the Home Help Sanitation Initiative and because she was carrying a booklet of Jim Crow laws. These two highly discriminatory reasons for alienating Miss Skeeter show that the society around her is highly discriminative.

This subject ties to sexism because Janie was not able to express herself but lived through the image of a hard working female. Interpreting the message of sexism in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Janie is now with another man named Joe Starks (Jody by the nickname Janie gave him) was a man in high wealth. Janie was not able to have the freedom she wanted with this man. Whatever he did she would have no say; Janie continued to keep silent regardless of what happened in their marriage, “No matter what Jody did, she said nothing.

All three of these articles share one common topic: body dissatisfaction leading to an eating disorder promoted by some type of media. Some degree of body dissatisfaction among women and young girls is consider a norm today. According to one girl asked to describe the “ideal girl” she described it as “5 ft. 7 in., 100 lb., size 5, with long blond hair and blue eyes” ( Groesz, Levine, and Murnen 1). This ideal is not attainable for all young girls and women and I can only imagine how horrible this would make them feel, always seeing images of ideal beauty and not being able to meet it can cause them to go to extremes to get the body they want. These young girls and women feel bad enough about themselves to do whatever it takes to

In Black men and Public Space, Staples uses his diction to come off as sarcastic, to add humor to his text. Hsiang, on the other hand, uses her word choice to demonstrate the fear and pessimism her race endures everyday. Although their diction used is a difference, the other difference is who their intended audiences were to be. For Staples, his targeted audience was geared towards young women who are afraid of black males. The audience he preferred to write this for was gender based, to make these young women who are frightened by him aware of unconscious prejudice and racism.

In Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees, she fights sexism by creating complex characters who break gender barriers and go against the stereotypes. Sexism is the belief that women are less than men. If someone legitimately believes another is below them, they most likely will not show any respect. Some people even go as far as not treating them as human beings (which they very much are). The novel's main characters, "...Taylor Greer and Lou Ann Ruiz confront two types of child neglect and single parenting: Esperanza's daughter, Ismene, and Taylor's adopted Cherokee child, April Turtle..." (Snodgrass, Female Victims).

One evidence, according to Hosseini (2007), “ “Go to Rabia Balkhi,” the guard said. A young woman pushed forward, said she had already been there. They had no clean water, she said, no oxygen, no medications, no electricity. “There is nothing there.” “That’s where you go,” the guard said”(p. 306). The women are treated as if their welfare is unimportant because women are thought of as a mere decoration to the society and are considered useless enough to not pay any attention to.