A Generalization of a Generation

The rising obesity rates in America have become quite popular debates these days. With 30 percent of children being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes as apposed to 5 percent in 1994, the big question is who to blame? Susie Orbach and David Zinczenko take two similar yet different approaches with their essays. David writing, “Don’t Blame the Eater” and Susie’s “Fat is a Feminist Issue.”

Susie’s essay is about how society has sent standards for how women should look, eat, and behave. That is not a woman’s fault she’s over-weight or obese, but society for their judgmental standards. Susie claims “A feminist perspective to the problem of women’s compulsive eating is essential if we are to move on from the ineffective blame-the-victim approach” (Orbach 201) in this quote Orbach informs the reader that the blame the eater approach is the wrong one. Instead she provides a feminist approach. She says how being fat is sometimes a woman’s way of rebelling against societies standards. To break free of the sex stereotypes. Susie also says “Fat expresses experiences of women today in ways that are seldom examined and even more seldom treated…” here susies is saying that people over look the things that women have to deal with. Such as the magazines of twig-like women, how to be beautiful, how to behave, how to act, and all the stereotypes that society puts on women.

Unlike Zinczenko and blaming the food industries, Orbach turns towards the American people. Uncovering and discussing the pressures America puts on women. Such as size, clothes, sexuality all play roles in American women’s lives. Orbach claims that if you are a true feminist, being overweight symbolizes your disproval of society’s opinion on how women should be. Thus, she describes...

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...ates, and obesity in the second leading cause of heart disease. So do the women really want to take the chance of getting heart disease or dying from over weight just to protest the stereotypes of women that society has placed on them?

David telling how he lost weight in college by working out and eating clean. This is something that should be taught more to children and teenagers. They should learn how to workout as well as pay attention to what they eat. How to read the nutrition facts on food labels, and what vitamins and minerals they need and how much they need. The amount of protein and fiber they should eat and to watch for foods high in sodium and sugar. Teaching children how to eat like this and how to workout, as well as how often will bring down the obesity rate as well as heart disease, high blood pressure, and other health risks of being over-weight.