Morality of Fat....In the eye of the beholder

1. Respond to both articles discussing your thoughts. Be detailed and use at least 1 direct quote from the article in your response.

“In the eye of the beholder”
As the perceptions of beauty in the western world continue to be corrupting the minds of many Americans, it is apparent that this is also becoming engraved into other cultures around the globe. One of the main points that this article high lights is how the western world and western media is colliding with other cultures having negative side effects. I personally believe that western media and the beauty industry can’t be held entirely culpable for these negative effects, however I do believe that the media has a significant impact and influence on the public. As the article says it seems that “…women around the world are being presented with a homogenized standard of female loveliness - based primarily on Western attributes”. From what I’m seeing in today’s world, it seems that western media is projecting a “sole” image of female beauty. This image is largely based upon someone who is thin, and I find it distressing that there is a misconception that beauty=thinness. Throughout centuries it appears that beauty is often a reflection of one’s social status. During the Renaissance, a beautiful woman was typically plump and pale which was a result of their wealth. In modern society, a woman who is thin is looked upon as someone who can afford a healthy and luxurious lifestyle. What I find even more interesting, is how perceptions of beauty change as society and women’s roles changed and evolved. Referring to a comment given by someone else who read this article, the promotion of thinness mainly occurred during WWII as a ploy to promote rationing. This idea of thinness stayed with us after world WWII and has ever since been implanted into American society, and thus the global world.

“The Morality of Fat”
I believe that this article and the previous one go well and connect with one another. However, in The Morality of Fat, the article mainly high lighted America’s need to be healthy, and how we strive to do that. It wasn’t until the late 80s that this “New Age of Dietary Enlightenment” started to emerge and people began to become concerned about the food they ate. What I believe to be disturbing is how during this time period there was an increase in obesity and 1/3 of the population were overweight. I find it incredibly daunting that we now have the knowledge of what is healthy and not healthy for your body, yet we abuse or don’t know how to comprehend this knowledge in order to become “healthy”. One reason to why I believe this to happen is that “This country supplies enough food for people to consume 3,700 calories a day…” which is nearly double the amount of calories one should eat in a day. I believe it to be our human instinct to want to constantly feed ourselves and that would eventually make us “weak” and indulge in foods that are unhealthy. People in America have already obtained and been exposed to the taste of fat, and along with that we usually continue to want more of it. I believe that this taste for fat could be traced back to the fast food industry and how that industry has created their food in order to make them taste “good”. I agree with the author of the article when they say that, “The desire for indulgence duels constantly with the desire for a single, clear plan for healthful eating.” As a society we aspire to be healthy and to find ways in order to be this, but we often contradict our wants with our actions. However, even though we do this, many people often believe that by going on this diet or that diet, and slipping every once in a while is okay, because overall they believe that by doing this they are “bettering themselves and bettering society bite by bite”.

2. Evaluate your class' seminar discussions. Be specific in discussing what you learned, what interesting points were made, what you think about those ideas proposed during seminar.

Although I’ve experienced many seminars in the past, I believe that the seminars that we as a class have had for the past two days have been one of the most enlightening and interesting conversations I’ve had with my classmates. During the seminar that discussed the article “In the eye of the beholder”, there were many different points and ideas that were brought up that I found to be fascinating. A classmate of mine further explored how as women’s roles in society started to change in the 1940s, families values start dwindling, divorce rates go higher, and as technology and the economy progressed the need for convenience became prevalent. In this way, our views and the values we hold as people changed because of this convenience and this has effected our perception of beauty. Our advancements in technology and the economy then also pave the way for globalization, and through this globalization the western world/western media were able to project our “beliefs” onto other cultures. During one point in our conversation, we discussed how beauty is projected in our specific cultures, and through this I realized that a lot of what my culture finds to be “beautiful” could and seem to be a result of western influence. This seems to be the case for other cultures. But then we wondered, who is to blame for this, or if there really is anyone to blame? With this question we all agreed that cosmetic companies and the beauty industry could not be held responsible for this. A classmate of mine even said, “Blaming cosmetic companies for this, is like blaming McDonalds for America’s obesity problem…it’s ridiculous.” I definitely agree with this statement and hearing this lead me to wonder if society, if we, are just bringing this “problem” upon ourselves…

Our second seminar discussion was even more riveting than the first. Our conversation started off based around the article “The Mortality of Fat”, but as the discussion went on the “bigger picture” of what both of these articles represented was brought up. One of the more bigger ideals that were discussed was the connection between health and beauty. To me there is an undeniable connection between our perceptions of what health and beauty are, and our “quest” for those things. When we discussed of what “healthy” is we found that it meant taking care of your body through activity and the food you eat. In turn being “healthy” could lead one to their natural body type which could be considered to be “beautiful”. The process to gain the balance between aesthetics and healthiness is what leads someone to attain that beauty. However the way in which many of us approach this is what has then led to the problems we face today. As a class, we agreed that in order, our priorities are: health, then inner beauty, and lastly outer beauty. But people tend to mix up these priorities and would eventually become stuck, because before you strive for aesthetics, one must strive to be healthy. Our conversation was then swayed towards wondering, WHO would be responsible for teaching our children which priorities come where. There were many thoughts as to WHO, from parents → media → your own, to even no one. However I personally believe that the responsibility lies in everyone and no one, people should just set examples that could show an eight year old girl the difference between being “beautiful” through means that are unhealthy and unethical, as opposed to being beautiful by prioritizing ones health and state of mind.