"Her Chee-to Heart" and "Not Just a White Girl Thing" represent two opposing extremes to one "problem" in western culture: The over-abundance of food. In "Her Chee-to Heart," Jill McCorkle tells the story of her obsession with junk food. This personal narrative goes into her life as a "junk-food junkie" as she describes the overwhelming sense of joy she acquires by the artificial flavors, vivd colors, and sweet-salty tastes that you just can't find in healthy food. While McCorkle embraces the over-abundance of food, Susan Bordo does just the opposite as she discusses the problems of body image in her article, "Not Just a White Girl's Thing." McCorkle discusses the problems within females view of the "perfect body image" as well as her opinions of the media.
Biases are very prevalent in both stories, as it seemed like they both tried to sway you to their way of thinking. Both stories gave you detailed explanations to the author's opinion, and both used real-life events that took place in the narrator's life in order to further their credibility.
Both stories exhibit the massive effect of American media on the world. America is the leading producer of movies in the world, so its no wonder that people around the world are influenced by western culture. This is especially true in Asian countries, where I noticed many similar trends to America. When I visited South Korea I noticed that they also put a lot of emphasis on how a person looks. Everywhere you turned you could see images of fashion models, clothing stores, and stores filled with beauty products. Not only that, but the styles were also very similar to here. It was very interesting to me to see how western culture has affected another country.
Bordo noted in her passage that women strive to achieve this body image because they wish to appeal to men, which I found odd considering it is women that set the standard for beauty. When you go into a grocery store and see magazines filled with articles on how to diet or makeup tips, you'll notice that all these articles are written by women. Never will you see a magazine in a man's perspective on what girls should wear, how they should style their hair, or any kind of makeup tips. That being said, is it really fair to blame men for women's ideals on body image? These magazines are popular solely because they play off of women's insecurities. And why are us females so insecure? Because most of us rely on the approval of others to feel good about ourselves. That is the ONLY reason issues like this have come up. That is the ONLY reason fat acceptance campaigns have skyrocketed. And it is the ONLY reason females everywhere have eating disorders.
I appreciate (but don't entirely agree with) McCorkles insight on food. McCorkle at least has the gusto to stick to her ideals and not pay any mind to what others think of her. I found joy in her piece as she expressed things that make her happy, although it wasn't an entirely healthy addiction.
I personally believe we should advocate for eating healthy instead of this idea that we need to sway everyone to thinking in one way because, lets face it, that's entirely unrealistic. By promoting health, we create a society of more productive and happy people.
This is a great way to view each article. I agree with you about McCorkles article, because let's face it the food she ate was a little over the top. I support the idea that she's happy and if she's happy why interfere with her life. I think it's interesting that you took your experience from visiting South Korea to further proof the point that Western culture has affected many other countries.
ReplyDeleteNice discussion, Kirsten. I completely agree that health, both physical and mental, should always be the focus rather than body image. I also agree that we as women are perpetuating unhealthy habits and preoccupations. Luckily, that means it's something we can stop doing.
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