Summary Of Culture Of The Thin Bites Fiji Teenagers By Ellen Goodman

Ideas of what beauty should be are a simple influence by the media. These ideals can be a simple commercial that projects the image of beauty as thin, certain skin type, and hair length. A lasting impression is made on all who view these images. Fiji was once unbiased as to weight and outward appearance of others. The women would greet each other without remarks or negative tone toward one another. Then in 1995 the introduction of the Television was brought to Fiji and would soon and forever change the way teenage girls and women would view themselves and each other. The riveting article “Culture of the thin bites Fiji Teens” brought to life the impact made by television on the island, formally without body image issues and the resulting problems the teens and women on the island would face. The author Ellen Goodman places blame on the negative images of women on Western and television influence.

The author uses colorful imagery to paint a happier time in Fiji before corruption of the Western World. Goodman uses research from Anne Decker, an anthropologist and psychiatrist to support her argument. She also uses statistics of anorexia and bulimia to make the reader see the true impact television made on their society.
The way this article is written allows the reader to see it through the authors eyes in the word choices that she used, such as, social disease, export insecurity, fat fantasyland image and illness give the reader the idea that television and Western views are corrupt and, the image projected on teen girls and women are not just a problem for Fiji but for women everywhere. Goodman makes her stance on these influences as a social disease that must