Take a Bite Out of This

In both articles aimed at American individuals, the relationship between food and sexual image is depicted. Through their examples of things an individual may encounter on a daily basis, TV commercials, and magazine adds, they speak their mutual purpose. Susie Orbach, Carrie Packwood Freeman, and Debra Merskin all argue in their own ways that the media portrays food and sexuality to go hand in hand. For the male aspect, meat equals manliness. For the female aspect, current feminine body standards equals the ability to be a woman. Susie Orbach's greater purpose is a response to today's growing weight concern/issue among women. She extends her ideas in a more finite way to argue that a more feministic approach to fat needs to be explored. She continues on in her article to highlight all the ways in which women view their weight and "beauty" to be their only redeeming qualities to their name. To Orbach, feminism means viewing fat in a way to accentuate a woman. Her body tells her story, and fat says that she rebels against stereotypical women's body image views defined by society. Her purpose and own opinion can be summarized into a call for action to change the way women view their bodies in the eyes of society. Carrie Packwood Freeman and Debra Merskin approach the same argument from the other side of the fence. In their article they depict how men are portrayed as completely carnivorous human beings. Though it can be argued as to their target audience (could speak to men and women), their purpose remains the same. Society, namely the advertising world, bases a sexual call on men to eat meat. They begin their article with a scenario of two men buying food at a supermarket, they quickly distinguish which man is more "masculine" by the fact that he is buying a "half pig's worth of ribs." They highlight in each scenario analyzed how women are "put down" and men, violence, and meat go hand in hand. These unreal standards are both unhealthy and sexist, yet are pushed harder and harder every year by American marketing techniques. Freeman and Merskin highlight their point by giving possible background information as to why men articulate more with meat, and end with real examples of TV advertisements for different fast food companies. With every analyzation of these advertisements their purpose becomes more clear. They call attention to why individuals still allow these standards to stay in place through their sexist and unhealthy ways. The purpose in calling attention to these commercials, brings forth attention to a problem which needs to be fixed, for health reasons (too much meat isn't good in any way) and to stop the attempt of reclaimed empowerment of a traditionally dominant group.