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Size 6: The Western Women's Harem Analysis

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The Essay "Size 6: The Western Women's Harem" by Fatema Mernissi really hit home with me out of the essay's that were assigned this week. It is an essay about her realization of western civilizations obsession with being a certain size in order to be beautiful or considered normal. Growing up my family referred to their outward appearance as stocky or big boned. I have always been larger than the other girls in my age group; it has been a constant struggle the majority of my life to be a “normal” size. There is such a stigma on beauty, a perfection that sets us up to be attractive or not. Unfortunately that comes with a set of impossible guidelines all of which are fickle and seem to change with the times. We see images of models whose photos …show more content…

We all have different body shapes, and we all seem to want to change the way we look to conform to the current image of ideal beauty. We should embrace our differences, and stop trying to be something we are not. When I looked in the mirror last year I didn’t like how I looked. Not just that I felt out of place and unattractive according to society; I could no longer do the things that I used to love to do. I changed my diet, I cut out sugar and in the past year I have managed to lose 50 pounds. I am by no means waif like in my appearance but I can do the things I love again, like running and rock climbing. I feel more confident in my appearance and I no longer feel I am being judged everywhere I go because I do not fit into the ideal size mold that is demanded of me. I am not condoning obesity by any means nor am I condoning being sickly skinny, they are both detrimental to your health. I think a beautiful person is someone who is healthy and takes care of themselves. Doing this you will be exactly where you need to be, not one extreme or the other. Everyone is beautiful, every body shape, we should stop worrying so much about how we look and start focusing on what really makes a person great. Looks will fade; there are many admiral qualities in people that are so much more important, let’s start considering those beautiful

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(Pigott, 2). Likewise, Catherine altered her body size to meet their gender expectations and various cultural beauty standards. By applying the gender lens to this, we can better understand how gender expectations and cultural beauty standards intersect to shape women’s experiences of their body. It emphasizes how cultural beauty standards can have a significant impact on women's body image, self-esteem, and confidence. Women often feel the pressure to comply with the cultural ideal of beauty, which can lead to feelings of inadequacy, and shame if they do not fit the mold.

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