The first piece, "Her Chee-to Heart" was very entertaining to read but I didn't really understand the purpose of it past to of entertain the reader. I think the authors target audience was very large, being anyone who had eaten junk foods as a kid (or as an adult). The authors knowledge of her target audience is used as a form of rhetoric, because it lets the reader connect through experience with what the author is saying. For example, the author writes, "Yodels, Twinkies, Hostess Snowballs. They make people nostalgic for elementary school, those wonderful years when we were advised to eat beef and pork." (McCorkle, 32) Overall I enjoyed this piece. I thought it was pretty entertaining, but since I had just eaten a large meal before reading it, all the talk about fatty foods made me feel a little gross.
The second article on the other hand, was a polar opposite of the first one. This second article, "Not Just a White Girl Thing" was meant to inform the reader of the popular misconception that only rich, perfectionist white girls have eating disorders. The article explains in detail how women, and men of all different ethnicities have eating disorders and how an eating disorder does not only mean bulimia.
What I really appreciated about this article is how Susan Bordo talked about culture and media being the ones to blame for many young women's eating disorders instead of unhealthy food and big chain restaurants. One of the reasons I don't usually like to read about eating disorders is that so many people blame America's problem with eating on big companies and chain restaurants. While I think chain restaurants and big companies have a bad influence on American's eating habits, I heavily believe in moderation, much like Bordo and I don't think big food companies should hold so much control over us. Bordo brings up great points about the media, such as the story of the women in Fiji who were introduced to American television and developed eating disorders. Bordo also has statistics that heavily support her points, such as, "57% of girls have fasted, used food substitutes or smoked cigarettes to lose weight" (Bordo, 274).
Another thing I appreciated about this piece was her recognition of men with eating disorders. Coming from the ballet community, I know a lot of people with eating disorders, many of which are male ballet dancers. While it's a fact that there are more women than men who have eating disorders, I think some people forget that men are targeted by the media to be skinny and fit as well.
I think Susan Bordo did a great job with her article "Not Just a White Girl Thing". She used statistics about eating disorders as rhetoric, which I think was very effective and she talked about the media, which is not always given the blame for eating disorders.
I also liked that the author of "Not just a white girls thing" focused on men also. I thought that was pretty nice of her to be aware of. Your point on how the author didn't blame restuarants is very true, I didn't think about it that way. It's a lot more of a societal problem than just the food industry.
ReplyDeleteI, too appreciated the fact that Bordo took such a diverse perspective in explaining the issue as a whole crossing gender stereotypes and really tackling the issue of "media vs junk food" as being responsible for eating disorders. I think the real difference is the experience as the first author was very entertaining but not that informative, but Bordo should rightly have a more worldly perspective as she was an expert.
ReplyDeleteNice discussion, Alejandro. I, too, come from a ballet background. All through high school I danced with the Asheville Civic Ballet Company (sadly, no longer in existence). You're right about eating disorders being prevalent not only among female but also male dancers.
ReplyDeleteMcCorkle definitely hits her readers with a barrage of junk food, and I wonder if that's part of her purpose--to show just how prevalent unhealthy foods are in our society and why we crave them so much.