Fat Woman Research Paper

737 Words2 Pages

The media does indeed present great pressures upon people concerning bodily image. It seems as though all types of media in some form or another, especially toward women in particular. As seen in television, cinema, magazines, the internet and the advertisements thereof, women are covered in makeup and Photoshopped into a form that is unattainable and certainly entirely unhealthy to achieve. The benchmark of beauty is now completely categorized by slim waists, perfect white skin and thigh gaps, a standard that is taught from a young age to be upheld no matter the cost. The Barbie dolls and the Disney princesses teach young girls that men will only want someone with a perfect complexion and an hourglass figure. Men are also somewhat victimized …show more content…

This woman is the ideal woman in the eyes of those in America. Many other cultures in the East and in Africa and various other places see beauty differently though. To them a beautiful woman is a fat woman. In their culture obesity is a sign of wealthiness, as she is obviously well-fed. In Mauritania in western Africa, marriageable girls are taken and force-fed to fatten them up and make them more desirable to potential husbands. This practice has been outlawed by their government and is seen as taboo by any of the more “modern” citizens. The force-feeding of Mauritania is in stark contrast to the self-starvation of …show more content…

These corporations are businesses such as makeup companies or food industries. They make their profits off marketing their products to women and girls who think the product will make them look better somehow. Due to the unbreakable hand of the businesses, the process of ending body hatred will be a nearly impossible task. Another less spoken-of reason behind this issue is pornography. Porn completely warps the brain of the people viewing it into thinking that the perfect woman is one with long blonde hair, white skin, big breasts, a slim waist and a large rear end. Porn hyper-sexualizes women to a point that men can barely look at a woman without viewing her in a sexual light, causing women to view themselves as only a body. Women are forced to notice first their appearance and adjust it to what they have been told is desirable. A possible solution to the problem presented by all this is to force companies to use plus-sized models and people of color in their advertisements; people who don’t look like the standard of perfect. However, this solution is somewhat improbable, because these companies are just plain stubborn. They know that selling “perfect” bodies is profitable, so they continue to do

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