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.

From UMassWiki

This article talks about eating habits of men and women. I find it interesting, the subject that the writer is trying to tell the audience. She says that women are afraid to eat unhealthily in public, and that men are the opposite and brag about how much they eat. I think that the writer has something against other women and she tries to make them look bad. The audience that she is trying to catch attention to is young people and possibly warns them to not follow in many other women’s paths.(I think this idea needs to be fleshed out more. If you really think she is trying to make women look bad, you need to better explain it, and in more detail.) The subject that the writer is telling the audience is that many women have eating disorders and that it is bad how women have to change their lifestyle to eat rarely in order to fulfill their needs to be thin. She also says how men eat voraciously and brag about how much they eat, while women are ashamed of eating unhealthily or in larger amounts. A quote from the writer says “Men, of course, are supposed to have hearty, even voracious, appetites…even when men advertise diet products, they brag about their appetites.” The writer suggests that men are expected to be eating in large amounts and she says that they brag about doing so. She says it’s considered normal for men to be eating in huge amounts. This quote is ethos because she is saying that the character of men should be to be big and manly. Another quote says, “When women are positively depicted as sensuously voracious about food, their hunger for food is employed solely as a metaphor for their sexual appetite.” This quote is pathos because it’s saying the only time that women become voracious about food is when they are starving, or if it is a sexual metaphor. Meaning that women believe in eating in small, light quantities. This also shows how the writer may believe in traditional values between men and women. It seems like she believes women should focus on staying thin and cooking for the man, while he comes home from work to a large meal.(Good quotes, but try to figure out if they really are pathos and ethos or perhaps a different qualification.) The writer, Susan Bordo, seems as if she is trying to “attack” other women who may in fact look better than her. She seems bitter towards them and possibly is jealous deep down. The author writes “To eat it (Haagen-Dazs ice cream, for a woman) in a business suit is like having “quickie” sex in the office, irregular and naughty.” This quote is pathos because it shows how women believe that it is naughty to eat fattening ice cream, and they are guilty for doing so. They are ashamed to be eating it, and do it very quickly and when no one can see them. Another quote from the author is “She (Kate Moss) assures us in interviews that she eats anytime and anything she wants…for they know that the only way to eat whatever you like and look like Kate is either to remain in perpetual motion, or not to want to eat much of anything at all. And that, above all, is the state they aspire to—a state beyond appetite, beyond desire.” This quote is logos because once you reach the point where you have no desire to eat, you logically just don’t eat. The author seems like she is “attacking” Kate Moss by indirectly saying that she is anorexic. She talks about how Kate says that she likes to eat whenever she wants, but the author also says that reasoning for this is that Kate never wants to eat. The author makes Kate look shallow and only caring about looks.(I disagree with your assertion that Bordo resents prettier women. You need to assert this point much better if you truly believe this.) The audience that Susan Bordo is writing towards seems to be primarily young women. These readers are probably a bunch of people that are confused about what kind of eating habits they should have. The may just be starting to develop eating disorders. She tells them how many other women are and that they feel ashamed when they eat since they want to look perfectly thin. She doesn’t want other women, the readers, to be like them so she warns them by making the women in her article look bad. The author writes “‘your mother, she is so slim, so beautiful! Does she eat?’…’Silly, just not so much.’….’Aren’t you jealous?’ the friend asks…the daughter answers, ‘Not if I know her secrets.’” This quote is pathos because the little girl believes that what her mom is doing is right. She thinks since her mom eats rarely in order to stay trim, she should do so as well. The author’s message to the audience is that this is a growing trend, and she doesn’t want the women of tomorrow to follow this path. Another quote states “As a little girl, I loved watching her roll each piece, enclosing just the right amount of filling…I never felt so safe and secure at those moments.” This quote is pathos because the writer as a little girl felt safe when her mother would make her food. She felt loved from her mothers cooking. She also says how good her mother felt when she let her know she was interested in cooking as well. This message encourages the audience that young girls should learn to cook from their mothers, and promotes that idea. This was an interesting article because the author seemed to have many strong thoughts on several things. Based on these thoughts that the author showed, I have made several claims on the subject matter, the writer herself, as well as her audience.

--ndias 14:29, 24 October 2006 (EDT)

I enjoyed your style of writing, and there were very little grammatical mistakes. However, in terms of ideas and actual thought processes represented here in the paper, I think you need to refine a little and perhaps review what it is you want to say about the article. Over all, well written, and it just needs some fine tuning.