Roberta Seid Too Close To The Bone Analysis

In the modern US, the topic of women’s beauty standards is an ever-evolving one that has left many with questions. What effect do these standards have on women? Is the “ideal woman” healthy? How does a truly healthy weight compare with society’s ideal? In her article “Too ‘Close to the Bone’: The Historical Context for Women’s Obsession with Slenderness,” University of Southern California lecturer Roberta Seid explored some of these questions. In the first two sections of this article, she explains that the American standard for beauty has become impossibly and dangerously thin. While Seid’s argument argument about America’s standards may appear compelling, the oversimplification of that argument becomes clear when one strips away her loaded diction and realizes how one-sided her beliefs really are. Seid begins her argument by discussing the evolutions of beauty

She describes the problems with the ideals by saying that they have caused a national “obsession with exercise” and dieting (Seid 299). She feels that they have caused all weight loss techniques to be viewed as “life-prolonging in and of themselves” among the general population (Seid 299). Her decision to use words with strong emotional connotations such as “obsession” and “life-prolonging” contributes to the perceived severity and concern surrounding the issue. Additionally, this word choice implies that society’s beauty standard is creating a health problem more severe than the one it is trying to solve because an obsession with exercise and dieting is a sign of anorexia. However when one looks at this section without the use of loaded diction, it becomes clear that Seid’s argument has little substance other than the emotional appeals created by her word choice. One might argue that the lack of sources other than historical context reveals that her views on the subject are extreme and