1) Watching Dr.Deb Cohan video about eating disorders was interesting. Thank You so much for sharing this! I 've watched many informative videos, documentaries, and read books about eating disorders but, this video takes the cake! Dr. Deb Cohan talked about a set of sociological themes for everyone to consider such as: qualitative research and sociology, and narrative memoirs on fatness(sociological memoir), along with examining issues of the body and obesity she discovered with students. As a Sociologists Dr. Deb Cohan made it clear that she wanted to take us on a journey to help understand how and why the body is seen as something so "seemingly private" and "intimate" but is actually a "public issue" that relates to social structure.
In Wil Haygood’s essay Kentucky town of Manchester illustrates national obesity crisis he turns a spotlight onto how obesity is affecting the nation. He discusses what it is like for one family in particular to deal with obesity. Haygood also writes about a study done by Jill Day, and gives a plethora of facts on the matter. Wil Haygood observes that the people of Kentucky Town, Manchester, like the rest of the nation, are overweight and suffering obesity. In this essay he talks about a family of three, a father and his two daughters, who live in this town, are affected by this.
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.
Who Displays Courage? “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It 's when you know you 're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” As Harper Lee once wrote, courage is something that anybody can show, as long as you forget about if you are going to lose or win and your selfish reasons and just remember why you are doing it. In “Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes” most of the characters show courage at some point so it was difficult to pick just one person.
" 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
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”.
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.
Pop-culture sets ridiculously high standards for what is now a day called “skinny” or “pretty”. Beauty is no longer within; beauty is only what people see. These unrealistic standards of society forces young girls to conform to this ideal of perfection. What would you do if you found yourself on the heavy side- dare I say “fat”?
“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
Beginning on the day we are born, we start having a perception of the world around us. As we get older, this perception begins to encompass judgment, especially in terms of public appearance. In many plus-size women, the way they are perceived publicly becomes one of their biggest insecurities. Published in 1980, Lucille Clifton’s poem, “homage to my hips” that describes a woman’s pride in her curvy figure and Meghan Trainor’s pop song, All About That Bass, hitting the charts in 2014 to encourage women to accept the way they look, both promote self love and body positivity. Clifton’s poem and Trainor’s song both advocate for self love and body positivity among women through their unique lines or lyrics in their pieces.
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.
Obesity is a disorder where people have excessive body fat, which leads to many health problems. It is usually caused by the overeating and lack of exercise. Obesity has been looked down upon by our society due to the medical issues that it causes. As a result of this, a fat acceptance movement was started to protect obese people from discrimination. This movement is bad for society as it makes people think it’s okay to be unhealthy and that everybody else should change their life around for them to be happy about being unhealthy.
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
Men and women nowadays are starting to lose self-confidence in themselves and their body shape, which is negatively impacting the definition of how beauty and body shape are portrayed. “...97% of all women who had participated in a recent poll by Glamour magazine were self-deprecating about their body image at least once during their lives”(Lin 102). Studies have shown that women who occupy most of their time worrying about body image tend to have an eating disorder and distress which impairs the quality of life. Body image issues have recently started to become a problem in today’s society because of social media, magazines, and television.
