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.
" The primary thing shown, is that fatness is a bad, temporary thing that leaves people forever traumatized. Negative characteristics of the character sends the very untrue message that all fat people are or should be ashamed to be that way, and do their best to shrink down their bodies as fast as
One of the interviewee, Ariella, a high school student expressed her emotion in the documentary: "We see so much in the media that there so much negativity towards woman and their weight and how they look and it just a representation of the pressure we feel to confirm to men's ideals. There this concept of the perfect woman who look this certain way and because if a woman doesn't like this way they are scrutinized. " The interviewee truly expresses her emotion during the interview thus creates a strong emotional mood for the documentary. Also the fact that a high school student is fully aware of this issue will truly appeal to the audience. The viewers will highly sympathize each interviewee since this experience is from their own personal experience.
Today’s society is surfaced with various problems, one of them being our diet along with obesity. The health of our country’s people has become a national problem. One’s diet is based upon their choices, but even then there are many controversial views upon what is healthy and what is not. Two essays that I read uniquely present their views on this topic. First, there is “Food as Thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating” by Mary Maxfield and then there is “Don’t Blame the Eater” by David Zinczenko.
In today’s media, being skinny has always been the ideal beauty standard. This author fought against it by showing how being fat is pretty too. The poem “Fat is Not a Fairytale” by Jane Yolen talks about the acceptance of being fat and the media’s negative outlook on it. The poem describes the wish of wanting positive fat representation rather than anorexic, life threatening waists that are considered “pretty” to media’s standards.
In “The Globalization of Eating Disorders”, written by Susan Bordo in 2003, the author declares that eating and body disorders have increased rapidly throughout the entire globe. Susan Bordo, attended Carleton University as well as the State University of New York, is a modern feminist philosopher who is very well known for her contributions to the field of cultural studies, especially in ‘body studies’ which grants her the credibility to discuss this rising global issue (www.wikipedia.org, 2015). She was correspondingly a professor of English and Women Studies at the University of Kentucky which gives her the authority to write this article. “The Globalization of Eating Disorders” is written as a preface to her Pulitzer Price-nominated book “Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body” which was similarly written in 2003. Through the use of many logical arguments and evidence, Bordo successfully manages to convince her audience that the media, body images and culture have severely influenced the ‘so-called’ trending standard of beauty and how it leads to eating disorders across the world.
Sickness refers to the social model and focuses on how a society perceives a disease. The social model defines obesity as the bodily differences that are misfit with one’s environment. This is exemplified with Western society and its perception of fat people. Obese people are stigmatized and often, ridiculed as unhealthy over-consumers who are to blame for being the cause of their
“How to Address Obesity in a Fat-Phobic Society”, written by Courtney E. Martin, is a short article about the widespread thoughts that fat and obese people are a problem from being lazy, instead of being looked at in a deeper and more scientifically way. Martin sets out to show that there is a lot that more to it than just the individual being at fault. Economic, culture, class, education and genetics are all factors that can contribute to why one is overweight. In the beginning, Martin tells us a story of her friend, Ellen.
“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 article I choose is written by Katie Thomas and entitled Companies Get Strict on Health of Workers. In America obesity is a critical issue howbeit, the cause for obesity is not black and white. Some people will make the assumption that it’s due to our eating habits, which can partially be true. Whereas others assume that we don’t care about our health. So why don’t we workout and eat better?
Every individual is different and unique in their own way, may it be their body size or the color of their skin. No individual is similar, which is precisely the point that Cheryl Peck makes in her essay “Fatso”. The essay portrays Peck’s view of the conflicts that she goes through in her life as an overweight person. She makes a point by point contrast to her imaginary life, repeating the phrase “I have never”, and her real life where she faces discrimination because of her weight. Peck’s use of tone and word choice highlights the purpose of her essay, which is to raise awareness about discrimination against overweight people to audiences who are thin and have not experienced any judgment from others.
The idolization of slim figures are blinding teenagers to believe it is a necessity to practice these methods. As Blaid describes society’s perspective, “If you develop an eating disorder when you are already thin to begin with, you go to the hospital. If you develop an eating disorder when you are not thin to begin with, you are a success story,”(26-27) this is to point out how society has manipulated the point of view on health conditions to be viewed as a
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
Obesity Proposal Obesity is a major problem in the United States. With the rates on obesity constantly rising we have to come up with a way to solve the problem somehow. Fortunately, there are some way that we can help and that includes helping the youth understand obesity, encouraging restaurants to improve their menus and nutrition facts and opening space for citizens so they can become fit and active. One of the main issues as to why America is obese is because of all the opportunities they have available to them.
Fat shaming involves criticizing and harassing overweight people about their weight or eating, in order to make them feel ashamed of themselves. Apparently, some people believe that making overweight people feel ashamed of themselves will motivate them to change their behavior so they start eating less, exercising more and finally start to lose weight. Others are just horrible human beings, plain and simple. Horrible people often feel comfortable saying things over the internet that they would not say in real life. However, when someone falls prey to body shaming, it puts a lot of stress on them and in the case of overweight teens, it can drive them to handle that stress by taking in more calories and gaining even more weight.
