Reading Reflection #6

"Its not how you feel, its how you look" p 202

I found parts of this chapter astonishing. It is obvious that there are many Americans who are highly concerned about their appearance, but I was blown away by how common drastic measures are taken to achieve a high self esteem or at least a desired look. Women are altaring their physical appearances more than I had begun to realize with 8.3 million Americans in only one year having cosmetic surgeries. I would probably be offended if I was an African American woman and had a friend undergo surgery to make herself look "less black." First of all, it is a matter of being proud of who you are and where you came from. I would find it offensive even because in taking those actions, my friend would be saying that I am not beautiful because of my "black" features my friend chooses to change. It is too bad that the American society has taught people that the typical white person is most attractive. I also think that diversity is crucial in determining beauty. I think that there are many beautiful Asian women with very small, slanted eyes who are very petite; and there are so many black women with large, wide noses. These features do not, to me, decide whether or not a person is attractive because those are just differences, not faults.

Another part of this chapter that I found startling was the fact that we have a surplus of food in the world and that we really just lack proper distribution of the food. I do believe in hierarchies being a crucial part of a society, however I feel that statuses play too significant of a role in matters of health or sickness (and life or death). All along I have bought into the idea of ending world hunger and things of that nature. Newman showed me, however, that world hunger is as he puts it decided by "social institutions and human policies," and that hunger is a "human, not natural phenomenon."(p.196) Learning this has confused me a bit, and left me wondering what there is for me to do. As a humanitarian, I feel that it is important to help poor and starving people. With the knowledge that there is, in fact, enough food to go around, I have realized that the battle to end world hunger would be more of a battle against corporations and agencies who possess financial power, not a battle with mother nature to produce more fruits and vegetables.

I have often heard the generalization that "poor people are fat" but I had always dismissed that information as false. As I read about obesity in America I was surprised to learn that I have been wrong all along. As I saw it, people could not afford to eat plentiful meals, therefor they could not be more obese than those executives eating out three meals a day. However the more I read about the "obesity epidemic" the better I understood how and why there are so many underprivileged obese people in our nation. It is odd to me how different foods have changed in status as well. For instance fish and vegetables, which are a nice meal nowadays, used to be poor man's food. Maybe one day the quarter of our country who are overweight (I use that term loosely...what IS overweight??) will be back on the fish and veggies diet and the wealthy and often cosmetically skinny will be back to sitting on their butts all day stuffing their faces until they are obese and dying of heart disease, diabetes and atherosclerosis.