Stigma In The Incredible Woman

The short story by Andre Dubus follows Louise from age nine up until the time she becomes a mother. It gives insight to the damage that can be done when loved ones force negative body images on young children. Louise’s mother starts her on a self-destructive path, which Louise will never overcome and continually affects her life. This is reinforced by the similar opinions of her relatives and friends who make her feel that she will only be truly loved if she is thin. The prevalent theme of Dubus’ “The Fat Girl” is the destructive way society views food addiction and how it adversely affects women.

Perhaps in a similar way, mislabeling has happened to gluttony. In her book Glittering Vices, Rebecca DeYoung argues there is more to gluttony than simply overindulging. She wrote, “Gluttony is about taking excessive pleasure in food” (143). In this paper, I will overview DeYoung’s view of gluttony, including her understanding of what constitutes it and highlight its noticeable aspects, such as the glutton’s stomach becoming their demigod.

In Alice Randall’s “My soul to Keep, My Weight to Lose”, Alice discusses her developing insight into her large weight problem.

Cinderella Ate My Daughter follows the life of Peggy Orenstein, a journalist as she takes on the impossible task of raising a child. As one source puts it, “Orenstein spends the 256 pages of Cinderella Ate My Daughter asking paradoxical questions and playing devil’s advocate. Despite the many questions and few answers, one thing remains clear: consumer culture has infiltrated every aspect of our lives, beginning at birth. Nearly every stage of life has been externally defined, marketed, and consequently, commoditized” (ACSD). After Orenstein explains how through marketing and media, girlhood is conceptualized, she describes the internal implications that defining girlhood can have on girls.

Throughout the memoir, the author uses very exaggerating literacy that heightens how the illness of her mother’s is being emphasis and how it's seen as alien. ‘“ They had “open her up”-a phase they used - and has looked inside, it was staring out at them, at the doctor's, like a thousand writhing worms under a rock, swarming, shimmering, wet and oily- Good God !- or maybe not like

Anorexia applied to every little aspect in her life, which is where it differs from anorexics who are only worried about food. She found herself counting every calorie that came near her body and digging through encyclopedias for every element in her food. Her new coming skinniness didn’t come from her sister’s nickname of “Sister Infinity Fats” that even her parents joined in on, it merely formed on something Jenny considered a hobby. But her “hobby” became more than that after a while, thinking she would be “condemned to hell” for taking up so much room and felt guilty for eating. As Jenny neared college she desperately filled her schedule with every activity she could fit into her schedule from French club to drama club.

Yusufali claims in her essay, "Whether the 90's woman wants to admit it or not, she is being forced into a mould." (page 49) As explicated by Yusufali, this type of influence by popular media manipulates young women into developing signs of bulimia as they are sticking their fingers down their throats, or overweight adolescent females hanging themselves. Yet, fortunately, Rabinowitz's character realizes as she attempts to peruse the nigh-impossible goal set by the media: "I have my whole life to spend fixing my body to fit the mould." (page 49) however as these two quotes convey different subjects, both revolve around the concept of "the mould". Rabinowitz's character realizes that attempting to reach that goal will be futile, and that even if it is reached, the majority of one's life would have ended.

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

Uncovering Deeper Meaning in Andre Dubus’ “The Fat Girl” In the critical period of forming her identity, Louise battles with her obesity. Criticism from her family and friends cause her to question her body image and consequently, her self worth. Louise is not the only adolescent to struggle with her appearance; with his depiction of her transformation, Andre Dubus addresses those whose view of themselves is marred by society. After years of her weight and emotions fluctuating, Louise realizes a deeper change. Through Louise’s journey, Dubus communicates that the power to change oneself emanates from one’s self control and ability to surpass societal pressure.

This quote shows that even though Mairs sometimes has difficulty accepting her illness, she knows that there is a growing acceptance of people who must deal with the difficulties that she faces. This ultimately lends a hopeful and positive tone to an otherwise serious and depressing section of her essay. This contrast in tone, but general feeling of hope is key to the type of emotions that Nancy Mairs is trying to educate her readers about. Mair is successful in using multiple rhetorical strategies to connect with the reader.

Teal Pfeifer in her short story “Devastating Beauty” discusses the effect of portraying skinny ladies/models that are wear dress size 0 or 1 as the ideal body size in most advertisements. The author points out the fact that,this can be damaging to most women, especially young women who view these adverts. The young women who see these adverts begin to feel displeased with their bodies, and a vast majority of them venture into different kinds of diet. She further emphasized that adult females are not the only ones affected, but also young girls (Pfeifer 2). According to Slim Hopes, about 80 percent of girls below the age of ten have either been on a diet before and have stated that they want to be skinner and more pretty.

Isabelle-Marie plays a key role in the upbringing of her brother as she destroys him physically by tormenting him in order to make him ugly. This is evident at the beginning of the book when Louise leaves Patrice and Isabelle-Marie at home alone. “By depriving him from food she could make pale and wan, and this creature who had never known the touch of misery would become her puppet, her own spindly puppet”(15) Unlike a proper mother who nurtures, loves, and cares for their child, Isabelle-Marie chooses to torture Patrice by depriving him of bread and making him starve. This leads to Patrice becoming sick and very weak, symbolizing that bread is a source of physical torture

This ongoing has been a large discussion for many people. He exemplifies that through Eric Schlosser of the “Dark Side of the All-American Meal” (2001) and how San Franciscans, fretted largely about, “the nutritional dangers to their children’s health, began the last century by banning “roving pie vendors” who catered to the “habitual pie-eating” habits of schoolchildren and prohibiting the sale of soft drinks on school campuses.” (Leitcher) The question then becomes at the center of all the health promotions advertised, the advice spoken, and advocacy, to what lengths do one literary novel change the social fabric of how Americans look at food

In the article “The Globalization of Eating Disorders”, Susan Bordo analyzes misconceptions about stereotypes associated with eating disorders. Bordo explains that eating disorders are no longer associated with one particular race, gender, or nationality. He notes that “we are dealing here with a cultural problem. If eating disorders were biochemical, as some claim, how can we account for their gradual ‘spread’ across race, gender, and nationality?” (Bordo 642).

Society's woman is a marketing tool: it is seen as an object, used to sell a myriad of products. Advertisements never seem to associate women’s bodies with intelligence. This is perhaps why it is extremely easy to see women simply as objects. Atwood demonstrates her disappointment in society by saying, “Money flows into this country or that country, flies in, practically crawls in … lured by all those hairless pre-teen legs” (212). She recognizes that not only