Thanks to the COM352 students for contributing a bunch of new pages! I'll be moving these pages into the main area of the wiki soon.

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Living in an era that is continually bombarded with the notion of weight obsession, men and women unconsciously fall into traps of gender inequality and eating delusion. Why does society have diverse expectations on men and women’s diet? Should we feel less guilty if we consume weight-loss products and low calorie, bite-size snacks? The media is the fastest and most direct source which impacts how people act and look or how they “supposed” to behave and look. In “Hunger as Ideology” by Susan Bordo, the speaker makes a number of claims that support her argument of food in relation to gender dualities. She writes to “appeal to the sensibilities of “progressive” young men and women is the inescapable disparity in how much and how the man and woman are eating.” (Bordo, Susan.P.192) She tries to expose the deeper origin of distorted body image eating disorder. I agree with Bordo’s claims and would like to highlight them as I am a part of her audiences. I can relate to my experiences of my exposures to the media. Being a woman who is influenced by the media that emphasizes the obsession of weight, I would like to show my peers through Bordo’s article how our society theorizes a permanent, baneful ideology that has held woman embraced of their own desire.

"The two main subjects of the article are gender equality and attitudes in relation to food. According to Bordo, men and women are not able to have equal amount of desire in eating. “While masculinity demands a celebratory, even voracious appetite, women are encouraged to indulge only in small amounts to demonstrate a lack of all desire even about the basic need to eat.”(Bordo, Susan. P.192) Advertisements are the most immediate and effective influence in affecting gender inequality. Bordo resents weight-loss product commercials because they encourage young girls to control their weight at an early age and give them “a romantic mystification of diet pills as part of the obscure, eternal arsenal of feminine arts to be passed from generation to generation.” (Bordo, Susan. P.193) She brings up the example of Twiggy and Kate Moss being role models of “cool” women who do not eat much, thus have no desire to eat. In my opinion, the new archetype would be Hollywood celebrity Nicole Richie. A news report says“ She was looking through a rack of clothes when she suddenly fainted and hit the floor,” an “eyewitness” told the mag. “The staff helped her to a chair and offered her something to eat. She shot back, ‘No!’ and mumbled something about it being ‘so hot.’” Although Riche turned away food, she did accept a glass of water.” (Walls, Jeannette. “Is Nicole Richie too skinny to shop? 1 August 2006http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13639838/#storyContinued) Why does she have to torture herself and be hostile to food? She has fallen into the trap which society sets up. She is taught with the idea that women celebrities ought to be very skinny. What makes the society’s “thin culture” so credible and powerful that we all have to follow? Is being skinny a bigger deal than being healthy and happy?

The author talks about jealousy of other women’s weight or appetites. It can also be found in popular fictions. In one of a New York Times Bestsellers, the book “Something Borrowed” by Emily Giffin, contains many interesting dialogues and interactions between the two friends Darcy and Rachel. Giffin appeals to modern women who can relate the story to their everyday lives. The main character Rachel narrates, “She e-mails me as she eats a bag of chips: “Make me stop! Help! Call me ASAP!” If I call her back, she’ll ask, “Is fifteen fat grams a lot?” Or “How many fat grams equal a pound?” The thing irritates me, though, is that she is three inches taller than I am but five pounds lighter.” “I can tell she’s irritated that I am getting a salad and she’s ordering a pizza. She likes to be the dainty eater. So I appeased her and say, “Caesar salads are substantial, and actually very fattening.”(Giffin, Emily. Something borrowed. P.192 St Martin’s Griffin. New York.2004) Thus, we are unconsciously receiving the message from the media such as novels and the internet that we have to be weight conscious and weight competing, even among our closest friends.

Another gender inequality is that eating is a metaphor of sexual appetite. “Men, of course, are supposed to have hearty, even voracious, appetites.”(Bordo, Susan. P.195) Bordo criticizes how society depicts eating spontaneously and expansively equals manliness, while women who eat much reflect their strong sexual appetites. Bordo argues that “Food is supposed to supply sensual delight and succor—not as metaphorically standing for something else, but as an erotic experience in itself.” (Bordo, Susan. P.195) The claim reminds me about a scene in the novel Something Borrowed: Darcy tries to flirt with a waiter at the restaurant. After ordering an individual pizza that may seem too much, she says, “Well, you’ll have to eat some of my pizza. I can’t eat the whole thing by myself.” Women care when men see how much they’re eating, especially when it comes to men who they are interested in. At the end, Rachel comments, “She is talking to me, but it is for the waiter’s benefit.”

In our culture, the role of cooking and serving food is always given to women whereas men are supposed to be fed. A woman who is able to cook would be an excellent and nurturing wife. Bordo claims, “My analysis, I want to emphasize, is not meant to disparage caring for the physical and emotional well-being of others, ‘maternal’ work that has been scandalously socially undervalued even as it has been idealized and sanctified.” Bordo relates herself to being a mother and a daughter. She agrees with the culture that it is pleasurable to cook and fed by mothers, but she does not think that cooking is a natural role for women. “Despite the pleasure I take in cooking, in relationships where it has been expected of me, I have resented it deeply. Women appear only in the background, encouraging and supporting “feeding” the development of others.” Bordo mentions culinary skills resemble femininity. However; if men happen to be good chiefs, they would not seem sissy at all. What is the logic behind? Is it fair for women to work hard and men getting bonus credit for doing what women do?

The attitude toward food is another main aspect that Bordo claims. She appreciates those who “present herself as utterly ‘easy’ in her relationship with food.” (Bordo, Susan. P.194) In the Virginia Slims Menthol commercial, the African American woman model is “Undominated by unsatisfied, internal need, she eats not only freely but without deep desire and without apparent consequence.” (Bordo, Susan. P.194) She bolds the idea that society illustrates women can only satisfy their hunger and indulge in food in private. Only indulge a little. Fattening food and women cannot be seen together in public. We can find a historical trait when Victorian young girls were admonished to “be frugal and plain in your taste.” Being skinny is equivalent to being aristocratic. She agrees that food is a comfort of self-feeding that gives you a state of pleasure and independence. As a chocolate slogan goes,” Snickers satisfy you.”

Susan Bordo, the speaker of this article, has identities of a woman writer and a teacher. She talks about her female students, “women students of mine complain tortures of the cafeteria- the embarrassment of eating ice cream in front of male students, the pressure to take just a salad, or better yet, refuse food altogether.” As a writer and a teacher, she wants her audiences to acknowledge that it is unfair to have society’s bias and unequal expectations on the amount of food men and women consume. The media is deforming the basic ideology of eating. She expects people; women in particular, to have a healthy relationship with food.

Lqi 00:23, 7 November 2006 (EST)