Through the article “Sizism – One for the Last ‘Safe’ Prejudices” by Sally E. Smith, I discovered that sizism really affects many aspects of one’s everyday life, such as job opportunities, travel issues, and the way people view a “person of size” in general (86-88). Smith uses many of these to prove how much sizism is not as safe or acceptable as one may think. Although with all that Smith has proposed, I honestly do not feel that it is as big of an issue as she makes it.
I do believe that the media really depicts what beauty is “supposed to look like,” which is being thin or muscular, but to some people being “fat,” as Smith would put it, is just as beautiful. Personally, I really do not like the word "fat," I prefer the term overweight or the politically correct term “people of size.” Throughout Smith’s article, she refers to “people of size” as “big,” “heavy,” or “fat” people (86-88). She uses all of these snarl words to bring a negative connotation and generalize that people view overweight people this way.
Smith also implies that being overweight does not only limit the person by just his or her appearance, but factors such as capabilities and endurance should apply. For example, when she explains that "fat" people are discriminated to get jobs strictly because of their weight, the first thing that comes to my mind is modeling (86). Stereotypically, I picture a lobby full of slender women and brawny men, who are waiting for their name to be called for getting the part in a lingerie advertisement. Then, I see an overweight woman walk in, and everyone is staring, chuckling, and whispering, making her feel out of place, but now that is diminishing and there are plus sized models.
I also I thought about the article “United Sta...
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...onses associated to being overweight, even though in reality weight is not the whole issue. Sometimes because these children are bigger they are the bullies to smaller children. And what about those children who are picked on because they are too tiny in size?
I found that in all of these reasons, Smith only says that they (the oppositional side) are discriminating against "fat" people, but she refrains from going deeper to present why they do it. Sadly, there are some people do discriminate against the “people of size.” Although just because something is done, like a policy revision or disqualification to a job, due to a person’s weight, one should look deeper into the reason why it is done. Do not always misinterpret this as discrimination, because it could possibly be done to benefit that person in the end. Maybe even ensure his or her safety in a time of crisis.
Christa Kurkjian explains in her paper, Is “Fat” the New “F” Word?, that Carver transforms the social norm of being fat—and ugly—to something of a “saving grace” (Kurkjian 3). However, I have to disagree with Kurkjian on her thesis. I truly do not feel Carver’s intent for Fat is to transform the word “fat,” but to elaborate on how people perceive fat.
In “Cruelty, Civility, and Other Weighty Matters” by Ann Marie Paulin, she was trying to get across a very important message: skinny doesn’t mean happy. The main idea was about how our culture in America encourages obesity because of the food choices they offer, how expensive weight loss pills and exercise bikes is, and etc., yet the culture also is prejudice against these same fat people that they encourage. It’s a constant back and forth in America between what is convenient with the little time we have in between everything we have to do each day and working out to be skinny enough for everyone to not judge you. Ms. Paulin wrote this article for literally everyone, this article was for skinny people to show them like hey, you’re not all
The article “Fat and Happy: In Defense of Fat Acceptance” is written by Mary Ray Worley, a member of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance. She writes of her firsthand experience as a “fat person” in society. Throughout the article, Worley explains what it is like to be obese and describes the way society treats those who have a weight problem. She attacks the idea of dieting, criticizes medical professionals for displaying an obscured view of health risks, and defends the idea of exercising to feel good rather than exercising to lose weight. Unfortunately, her article seems to reflect only own opinions and emotions rather than actual facts and statistics.
“Fat Acceptance”: An Argument Lacking Validity Cynara Geisslers’ essay “Fat Acceptance: A Basic Primer,” was published in Geez Magazine in 2010. The focus of the essay is to refute the pressure of society to be thin and promote self-acceptance regardless of size. While this essay touches on many agreeable points, it tends to blow many ideas out of context in an attempt to create a stronger argument. The article takes on a one-sided argument without any appropriate acknowledgement of the opposition, overlooks the risks of ignoring personal health, and has a strong feminist ideology associated towards the essay which tends to make the validity of her argument questionable.
Akzia: After the Germans invaded Lvov and made several changes, rumors spread throughout the town of an akzia, which is Polish for the deportation and killing of a group of people. The first akzia in Lvov was for children, which made Aurelia too upset and anxious to do anything. Her dad had already started to build a hiding place for her in a wardrobe. One morning, she woke up to outside shrieks signaling the akzia; Aurelia’s first reaction was to hide. When the Nazis came to search the house, Aurelia’s dad, Isaac, told them that she was already taken, but that did not stop them from searching. They were very close to finding her, but lucky did not. Later on, there were a couple more akzia; there was one for the elderly, and two akzia for all Jews, which the Gamzer’s luckily escaped.
Among African American women, trusting in the health care and medical research has become to a lower level. Studies show that obesity rates in black raced women which are enhanced by risk factors, shows that approximately 40% moderately and severely overweight women considered their figures to be attractive or very attractive, which indicates a relatively positive body image (S, Kumanyika, 1987). Adding to this as Gay is a black raced woman who is obese, still feels proud of her own body image, no matter how big she may-be she is still proud of her body and appearance. Gay quotes, “When you’re overweight, your body becomes a matter of public record in many respects. Your body is constantly and prominently on display. People project assumed narratives onto your body and are not at all interested in the truth of your body, whatever that truth might be” (Gay, p.120). This shows that no matter what her body looks like people will always be judging you depending on your body image in
The central problem with fat oppression comes from the way in which we as Americans are taught to look at people. Everywhere we look - TV, movies, magazines and so on - thin people are portrayed as glamorous and cool. The encouragement of dieting is terribly prevalent and the dieting market takes in billions of dollars every year. Our society is obsessed with fat and the loss of it.
In May of 2013, the issue of the underrepresentation of alternative body types—unusually large or unusually small, big-chested or big-waisted, too tall or too short, and so on—came to a head when Mike Jeffries, the CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch, had an exclusive interview with Benoit Denizet Lewis of Salon Magazine. In it, he answered the question of why he does not carry any women’s sizes above size ten in his store: he does not want any “fat, uncool” people seen wearing his brand. (Benoit)
In the article, “Fat Is a Feminist Issue” in They Say I Say, Susie Or Bach claims that women in America are viewing themselves as overweight, and they must have a feminist perspective rather than to blame others for their “failure… to control their weight, control their appetites and control their impulse: ( 449). She also explains her view on the obesity issue with women in the United States. Or Bach demonstrates that most women are seen as beautiful only if they are thin. She also points out that being obese and overeating is much more painful experience for women due to the society having high standards for women and their weight. She seems frustrated with this and explains that women fought to have equal. Women are established into a caretaker role due to the “only known genetic difference” between the sexes: females’ ability to give birth. Not only that woman gives birth and feed their infants, but they are expected to be pleasing, attractive and even sexy. Another part of not only to be attractive, but to fulfill her part as a mother and wife, a...
If we were to remove plump models from the camera, and keep thin models onset, than it would create a standard of beauty in which motivate young children, and even young adults to live a fit lifestyle by achieving their goal of having a slim-physique.”That’s body shaming, it isn’t right for you to judge a person by their body weight” a statement commonly used by people who don’t regularly exercise, and eat healthy; like all ideals, it is not something that you are
In conclusion, women should be comfortable in their own skin and shouldn’t feel compelled to be as thin as a model. Women need to feel appropriate and content in their own skin, and to not feel inferior to the model on TV or pasted in a magazine advertisement. We are all different and no woman is exactly the same and even the ones that seem to be picture perfect have flaws and love handles, and women need to realize that is the truth. So, by accepting one’s self for who they truly are and what they have accomplished in life is what is going to boost our self-esteem. Once the world understands this, then the media won’t have such a monumental affect on society.
...th the modern era defining beautiful as having less weight. (WiseGeek, n.d.) Another argument is that thin is a feminist issue and they just use this as a headline grabber because 39.4 million of Americans suffer from obesity and the British NHS survey of Disordered Eating noted 620 hospital treatments for anorexia or bulimia (with some patients registered twice or more) for 2005 to 2006 as opposed to 17,458 for the same period for obesity. They also argue that more material is being saved when models are thinner and clothes look more elegant and drapes effortlessly on skinnier models. Most models and designers argue that models are not supposed to eat and they are meant to be skinny to sell more clothes or make them look more appealing.
Physical beauty is constructed by the society that we live in. We are socialized from a very young age to aspire to become what our culture deems ideal. Living in the United States, as in many other Western cultures, we are expected to be well-educated, maintain middle-class or upper-class status, be employed as well as maintain a physical standard of beauty. Although beauty is relative to each culture, it is obvious that we as Americans, especially women, are expected to be maintain a youthful appearance, wear cosmetics and fashionable clothes, but most importantly: not to be overweight. Our society is socially constructed to expect certain physical features to be the norm, anything outside this is considered deviant. Obesity is defined as outside the norms of our culture's aesthetic norms (Gros). “People who do not match idealized or normative expectations of the body are subjected to stigmatization” (Heckert 32). Obesity is a physical deviance; it is one that is an overwhelming problem in our society as we are always judged daily, by our appearance. Those who do not conform to the standards of beauty, especially when it comes to weight, are stigmatized and suffer at the hands of a society that labels them as deviants.
Skinny was not the most beautiful thing to people, and it was not as big of an issue as it is now. So where did the ideals change from curvy being beautiful to skin-and-bones skinny being beautiful? In the 1960 's, popular figures like Twiggy promoted being skinny as beautiful, around the same time the Barbie doll became popular with young girls (Bahadur). Sure, many people are actually born skinny. But some are born big-boned and cannot help that they are that way - and they should not have to worry about it. However, we as a society have changed these ideals because we are constantly exposed to the media 's rendition of what being beautiful should mean and accepting it. The fact that being bigger used to mean that someone was wealthy just goes to show that our culture has completely thrown this principle away. But, however appalling the issue may be, there are solutions to this terrible problem that is still on the rise and hope that it will get better. Instead of letting these vulnerable people look at magazine covers and wish they were in different skin, our duty as a society is to promote the embracement of beauty and self-confidence in everyone. Motivational speakers, many of which have had their own share of self-esteem issues in the past, need to be brought to the surface and get their messages out in the open even more than they already are. Jessica
Susan Bordo states in her article “Never Just Pictures”, that children grow up knowing that they can never be thin enough. They are thought that being fat is the worst thing ever. The ones responsible for this are the media, celebrities, models, and fashion designers. All of these factors play a big role on the development of the standard and how people view themselves. Everyone at one dreams about being the best they can in any aspect. But to achieve that most believe that one of the big factors is outer beauty. So people look at celebrities and fashion designers, and believe that to be accepted they have to look like them. That’s when they take drastic measures to change their appearance because they’ve been influenced by the Medias idea of “beautiful.” This feeling mostly happens in women but in recent years the gender gap has become smaller. Now men also feel the need to look good because of the media. On the TV, instead of having infomercials ...