After reading both of the
stories, I have come to the conclusion that having to prove your femininity and
masculinity has become a problem in America, and most of it has to do with
food. In “Fat Is s Feminist Issue” by Susie Orbach, she explains exactly what
the term compulsive eating is and how some people naturally can’t control their
eating disorders. With this, Orbach states that being fat for some women is
them making a statement of rebellion since they are only seen as sex objects
and commodities to men. Orbach goes into detail how the female body and trends
have changed over generations, explaining how it’s physically impossible for
women to keep up over time and be content with their body. Overall, the message
I got from this story is Orbach embraces the boldness of women who choose not
to conform to what media wants women to be. By doing so, plus size women
challenge men to love them for the person they truly are and not just by
physical appearance. In “Having It His Way: The Construction of Masculinity in
Fast- Food TV Advertising”, Carrie Freeman and Debra Merskin make a correlation
to men and meat, and how mass consumption of meat can somehow prove a man’s
manliness. The two authors go back to the beginning of time stating humans were
not always meat crazed beings, but were vegetarians. “Organized hunting of
large animals…did not begin until approximately 20,000 years ago.” With this
being said, it was women who provided most of the food with agriculture. Over
time things changed and men became the primary hunter and provider of meat,
which is why a man’s masculinity is seen very clearly through his consumption
of meat. At the beginning of the story the authors explain how one man felt
like his masculinity was being tested as he was seen buying healthy food over a
stack of ribs. In the end, the man chose a more masculine route by buying a
SUV. The message in this story is that media connects meat eating and fast-food
to masculinity and your choses of food can reflect what kind of man you are.
I strongly agree with you when you stated that having to prove your femininity and masculinity has become a problem in America and that most of this has to do with food. I thought that “fat is a feminist issue” by Susie Orbach was a very well written essay with many good points. I thought she was mainly directing her arguments towards women and I feel like she did a good job of making sure that people who read her article know who she wants her audience to be. I especially liked when you said, “Plus sized women challenge men to love them for the person they truly are and not just by physical appearance” because I think that that basically summarized somewhat of the argument this article is trying to make. In the essay “Having it his way: the construction of masculinity in fast food TV advertising” I agree with what you mean by saying that the media connects meat eating and fast food to masculinity and that your choice of food can reflect what kind of man you really are. I think the authors Carrie Freeman and Debra Merskin did a good job on the format part of their essay, or in other words picking what types of messages and techniques to use in their writings. By giving all the examples of the different television ads you can really see just how much meat is related to manliness or masculinity in our society today and how women are mostly in the background doing nothing but looking good.
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