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. The writer seems to have something against some other women that obsess over the need to seek perfection in looks, and she tries to make those women look bad and attempts to persuade the female audience to not become one of "these" women. The audience that she is trying to catch attention to is mainly young women and she warns them not to follow in the paths of "these" women. The subject that the writer is telling the audience is that many women have eating disorders and that it is horrible how women have to change their lifestyle and eat rarely in order to fulfill their needs to be thin and have the "perfect" body. She also says how men eat voraciously and brag about how much they eat, while women are ashamed of eating unhealthily or in large amounts. A quote from the writer states “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. In today's society, she says it’s considered normal for men to be eating in huge amounts. This quote is ethos because these days, she is saying that the character of a man is defined as being 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 and rarely will you see a voraciously hungry woman. (Good quotes, but try to figure out if they really are pathos and ethos or perhaps a different qualification.) The writer, Susan Bordo, seems very against these types of women, who only care about looks. She seems bitter towards them and is possibly jealous deep down. Perhaps she has lost a man to one of these types of women and that could be why she has wrote this article in the first place, to express her hatred towards these women and stop young girls from becoming "these" women. 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 as if she only cares about looks. The audience that Susan Bordo is writing towards seems to be primarily young women. These readers are probably a bunch of young women that are in a society that judges based upon looks and they may just be starting to develop eating disorders. She tells them how many other women obsess over looks and that they feel ashamed when they eat since they want to look perfectly thin. Bordo doesn’t want other women, the readers, to obsess over looks so she warns them by making the women who do obsess, to look bad in her article. The author quotes from a TV commercial, “‘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 several strong thoughts. She believes that today's society puts too much emphasis on looks, and I agree with her. She is right, people care too much about looks and will do anything to look a certain way. Society as a whole has become very shallow, and even dangerous in terms of eating habits.

--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.