Roberta Seid Too Close To The Bone Analysis

Harrison Davis
Mr. Fanara
ACP
23 September 2015
Too “Close to the Bone” Summary Roberta Seid, in her article "Too ‘Close to the Bone’": The Historical Context for Women’s Obsession with Slenderness”, examines the positives and negatives of society outlook on obesity. Seids main argument in this article is that societies current perspective on body types are incorrect. Seid argues that the so called “religious” pursuit of having a slender and thin body is becoming way too extreme. She presents the pros and cons on this thin lifestyle. She shows this by using the example that one can gain social acceptance for being thin but the cost of getting to that slender comes at too high of a cost. She also uses an example of historical evidence. She states that in the past being thin was often looked down upon and that being obese was a sign that one is happy and healthy.

At this turn, there was a huge movement to become thin and that it was the best thing for society. This was the first time in society that individuals could be deemed as “obese” for weighing more than the average person. Seid shows this by giving an example of how this was applied to everyday life. She states that the popular belief was that if you were overweight it was because one did not have the desire or will power to become thin. She also states that it was common to make the correlation between being thin and being successful. Seid then goes on to present the point of view of women in this turn in societies beliefs. Seid argues that women are more affected by this strive to be thin and that if they do not follow this they will be looked at differently then the everyday thin women. She does this by showing the perspective of future historians looking back on this subject and saying that this “religious” appeal to slenderness was only for those that believed in how they were perceived over their own thoughts and