Analysis Of Eating Disorders By Susan Bordo

The Globalization of Eating Disorders by Susan Bordo was a powerful article addressing the subject of eating disorders. The purpose of Bordo’s article was to bring the issue of eating disorders into a new light. Bordo proposes the claim that the increase of eating disorders is attributed to the images and media surrounding us. She provides specific examples and evidence of this to be true. She also not only shows the spread of this epidemic in women, but men as well.
Susan Bordo is an extremely credible source to write this article. Bordo is a modern feminist philosopher who has studied cultures around the world and the impact that the media has had on various cultures. She has spent many years studying feminism, and its effect on different cultures. She has wrote many philosophical works concerning the

subject of feminism and gender roles. Bordo is clearly extremely knowledgeable on the topic of feminism making her a credible source to write this article. The writing was very trustworthy and all data and evidence in the article, to my belief, was true and legitimate. Her diction in the article proved that she knew what she was stating. Her word choice proved her intelligence and her credibility of the topic.
Bordo used all three rhetorical elements in her essay.

The first and most obvious was logos. She used evidence to prove that logically her claim about eating disorders was true. She gave examples of cultures before exposure to the media and imagery of America, and their low rates of eating disorders. She then showed the rise of the epidemic after being exposed to the unrealistic images of people with unhealthy bodies that they now desired to obtain. Her most sustaining evidence was the exposing of cultures before and after being introduced to modern western culture. She told an example of the Nigerian culture and how it was introduced to the epidemic of eating disorders as a result of the infamous Miss World Competition. Typically in the Nigerian culture, women are naturally curvier and that is what is accepted as attractive. After many years of not winning, they seceded to the pressure of other countries, and sent a woman who was naturally skinny and had lighter skin. When sending the woman with the accepted qualities of other countries, they were finally accepted and the woman was found attractive enough to be crowned the winner. (The McGraw Hill Reader

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Her use of ethos was practiced simply by being the author of the reading selection. She is a respected source in the field of eating disorders and culture. Her expertise in this topic made her reliable source who could be found trustworthy of the audience. Her diction and writing style gave even more credibility to her claim.
Her most striking rhetorical element though was her use of pathos. Bordo exposed eating disorders in a way that not made you not only feel empathy for those who suffer, but to strike the emotion of anger in the reader. She did this in a way that made the reader feel angry for the reason why people around the globe were suffering from these ailments that had intruded into their lives. She exposed the feeling of sympathy for those who are suffering from this disease. She also stirred up the emotion of realization in the reader. She exposed to the reader that this could happen to any person, male or female, that are surrounded by the unrealistic media that is around them everywhere.