In her article entitled “Ode to a Four Letter Word” Kathryn Schulz says, “Writers don’t use expletives out of laziness or the puerile desire to shock or because we mislaid the thesaurus. We use them because, sometimes, the four-letter word is the better word—indeed, the best one.” Her grounds behind this claim are that all profanity is contextual. Writing is an expression, which like all forms of art, approximates reality or the author’s take on reality. That being said, profanity has an appropriate role in writing, insofar as it accurately represents how humans truly interact. That standpoint does not approach the argument that “bad” words are sometimes “good,” but rather that sometimes “bad” words are real. With that in mind, Ramifications …show more content…
Prejudice is a poison because it is insidious. Individuals hold beliefs or biases, often simply because that belief was handed down to them, not because of any concrete rationale. Conversations serve to prune beliefs, by placing them under the scrutiny of cross examination; something about presenting ideas to another person spawns more careful thought than presenting the same ideas internally. In this instance the prejudice accosted is that against the obese. Mistreatment of the obese is typically rooted in a very shallow, appearance based prejudice, which when confronted, is not logically sustainable. This poem presents a very tangible and graphic display of both the victim and perpetrator within this bigotry. Therefore, this piece garners value, because it prompts readers to discuss and contemplate a very simplistic degrading mindset, which can be altered by the perspective which this poem provides. In particular, this poem forces readers to acknowledge the position or perspective of both a bully and a victim. These perspectives supply both empathy for the obese and engagement with one’s own biases. While no work of art or even pronounced argument will produce a uniform response from its audience, this poem, for its careful readers, will provide insight into the pandemic of prejudice toward the …show more content…
You must be beaten in order to silence our guilt. Toward the end of the stanza the perspective shifts to a first person view when the author’s (my) pride steps over shame. The last line in the stanza ends by contrast with the purpose statement, “so that we may be filled with ourselves.” This stanza continues to rend the reader between the position of persecuted and perpetrator. Throughout the piece, the author employs pronouns in a way which creates a tension within the reader. In one line, the reader sees from the perspective of the bully, shamelessly berating the fat kid. But, in the next line, the reader is forced to see from the perspective of the fat kid, abused and disregarded. Thus, the author enables conversations between readers by displaying varying perspectives throughout the
However, with this transition, some questions come up: What is the difference between being ridiculed and being pitied for? Is it really that much better to be pitied for? Answers to these questions would have made the transformation process of the term “fat” clearer. Though there is no doubt that Carver is making a statement here with the waitress’s pity, it is more than just pity for the fat man and more than just the presence of “the grotesque” (Kurkjian 2). It is seeing the fat man beyond his fat, someone who is mannerly and also shameful of his weight. When the waitress interacts with him, he thanks her for the food, forgives her for spilling his water, and frequently says that “they” (himself) do not eat so much all the time (Carver 67). The waitress realizes the kind-hearted and self-critical man he truly is and stands up for him when her fellow employees mock him. Carver does not change the term “fat.” In reality, he emphasizes the perception of what is beyond being fat, that there is more under the surface of what he or she looks like. Here, Carver is, in fact, using the Freudian idea of superego, which “concentrates on the mind of morals and ethics” (Abrams
In “Cruelty, Civility, and Other Weighty Matters” by Ann Marie Paulin, she was trying to get across a very important message: skinny doesn’t mean happy. The main idea was about how our culture in America encourages obesity because of the food choices they offer, how expensive weight loss pills and exercise bikes is, and etc., yet the culture also is prejudice against these same fat people that they encourage. It’s a constant back and forth in America between what is convenient with the little time we have in between everything we have to do each day and working out to be skinny enough for everyone to not judge you. Ms. Paulin wrote this article for literally everyone, this article was for skinny people to show them like hey, you’re not all
In the modern society, millions of people realize that several offensive words with insulting taboo meanings heavily disturb their daily lives and break some special groups of people’s respect to push them to feel like outsiders of the whole society. As a result, more and more people join some underway movements to eliminate the use of these offensive words in people’s everyday speech and writing. However, these offensive words themselves are not the culprit, the bad meanings people attach are the problems and some other functions of the words are useful in the society. Christopher M. Fairman the author of “ Saying It Is Hurtful, Banning It Is Worse” also argues that although
Obesity and opposition are the two main issues of this film. The issue of obesity, treated lightly in the beginning of the film and then severely by the end, reflects society’s approach to weight loss. To ...
Arizona State University (2005), stated humans have learned to be prejudiced “through evolution as an adaptive response to protect ourselves from danger”. However, this instinct goes wrong because a majority of people are unable to see past prejudices and develop better understandings of their environments. This often results in harmful acts between different groups and would suggest that it must be controlled if not eliminated. Based on Rauch's thinking however, prejudice and its developments should not be removed from public environments like the university campus because it is necessary to have true intellectual pluralism based on unfiltered human thoughts. The question remains of whether the benefits of intellectual pluralism have to come at the cost of allowing harmful acts of prejudice to exist. In the university setting, the answer is no. So long as universities work to channel prejudice as a means of advancing knowledge the way Rauch believes it should, the negative developments of prejudice that people attempt to eradicate would be kept to a
Prejudice can be defined as any preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience, 2. Harm or injury that results or may result from some action or judgment, and due in part to the first Amendment, which gave all Americans the right of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition, many Americans believe they have the right to verbally judge whomever and whatever they seem fit, to no extent. However these same American underestimate the impact prejudice can have on a person’s body and mind because as we all know prejudice grows. Prejudice can also affect all phases of life: the past, the present, and the future. Maya Angelou said, “ Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.
Fumento uses humor to open the article by stating “the Land of the Fat, Home of the Broad” is how America should be defined. However, this statement might offend people who are obese or anyone in general. Fumento shows that he is unhappy with those people who have been carelessly giving out information on the low-fat diet and claims that much of the obesity epidemic can be laid at the feet of the food industry, diet-book authors, and government health officials. Throughout the piece, Fumento expresses his concern about the rising obesity epidemic and claims that health officials must stick to science if they want to help defeat the epidemic, but “first, do no harm.” The impact of the increasing obesity statistics have concerned Fumento so much that he has also written his own book, “The Fat of the Land,” to discuss this controversy. In the book he discusses the misinformation given out to the public on loosing weight and how they reap billions in profit. Intrinsic ethos takes a positive toll on Fumento’s argument which creates a better chance of getting his point across to the
Prejudice is the attitude of conveying negative stereotypes to a particular group, usually known as the out-groups. Usually the stereotypes are generalizations based on superficial opinions, so they have an invalid connotation behind it. Stereotypes in some cases evoke prejudice mindsets, leading to discriminate a certain ethnic group, age group, religion, seuxal orienntation, or body size. Stereotypes are usually socially learned from one’s environment and latched onto the mind of a young child. This could possibly later influence their opinion about something they are not fully educated on. One cannot control what they are taught, but one can control what they do with that information. They can either not believe a word of it or take it into
In “The Fat Girl,” Louise is overweight/obese in which she experiences indirect rejection, from her friends and family. Everywhere Louise was, she saw someone who was either skinny or skinny models pictured on magazine covers. Her father demonstrates his support and love towards Louise a lot more than any of her family members and friends; however, he still does not solely accept her and her body (Dubus, 159). In the story, Louise describes her father’s eyes filled with pity, but he does not display disapproval of her, while Louise’s mother portrays disappointm...
This country places great value on achieving the perfect body. Americans strive to achieve thinness, but is that really necessary? In his article written in 1986 entitled “Fat and Happy?,” Hillel Schwartz claims that people who are obese are considered failures in life by fellow Americans. More specifically, he contends that those individuals with a less than perfect physique suffer not only disrespect, but they are also marginalized as a group. Just putting people on a diet to solve a serious weight problem is simply not enough, as they are more than likely to fail. Schwartz wants to convey to his audience that people who are in shape are the ones who make obese people feel horrible about themselves. Schwartz was compelled to write this essay,
The basis for this concept, begins with the causes of prejudice. While there are many causes that relate to prejudice, the context ...
Prejudice, there is more than one type: intellectually, morally, racial, religious, sexist, and/or social. The definition of prejudice is a preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. If ‘preconceived opinion’ is broken down, preconceived means formed before finding evidence of its truth or usefulness. Opinion means a view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, prejudice is described as the “simple hell people give other people without even thinking” (pg. 269: ch. 20) and the novel powerfully portrays examples of racial, social, and sexist prejudice.
In our global economy requiring functional and respectful relationships between nations, prejudice and stereotypes can be a destructive force both in the world and in individual societies, especially in diverse ones.
Prejudice meaning pre-judging someone and having an unwarranted bias occurs often in today’s society and has been around since the beginning of time. Prejudice can effect people’s decisions and have an unfair impact on society. The text ‘To kill a mocking-bird’ written by Harper Lee and the movie ‘Philadelphia’ directed by Jonathon Demme explore this idea thoroughly.
Ever since our ancestors first began to diverge on the evolutionary tree there has been prejudice along with fear or hatred of those who are different, both of the aforementioned feelings are the flu of beliefs, as both hatred of dissimilar and the prejudice that comes with it can greatly harm people when it goes unchecked for too long. It’s one of humankind’s greatest accomplishments, considering that it never leaves, and that it is always seeming to ruin everything. Many works have tried to encapsulate what prejudice is or what it feels like, be it fact or fiction, though few really get the sensation across in the way that actually experiencing it does. Despite the fact that some select groups get it easier than others, namely white straight