Analyzing Frankenstein's 'Fear Of Fatness'

In “Fear of Fatness” by Peggy Orenstein, she claims that the beauty standards set by society are degrading women’s appearances causing them to constantly stress over how they are perceived. She explains this through the use of satire and the personal experience of a friend, Holly, whose five-year-old daughter, Ava, is overweight. Holly is so concerned about Ava’s weight that she contacts her daughter’s pediatrician to help control Ava’s portion sizes. Orenstein goes on to describe that “the standards of female beauty are so punishing that even should a girl miraculously fit them, she may still believe she falls short” (Orenstein 66). She explains that women are stressing over their appearances at an early age by stating that almost half of third grade girls wish they were thinner and 81% of 10-year-old girls are afraid of getting fat. She claims
that this “fatphobia” is even showing in her own daughter (Orenstein 66). She questions where this ideology of the “perfect girl” comes from; she stated that she never mentioned body image to her daughter. She claims society is forcing a look onto girls at a young age, basically forcing them to want to look a certain way. By explaining these issues by connecting them to her own personal experiences and observations, she is able to demonstrate how it is affecting society. She is able to provide facts that beauty standards are being fed to girls from the beginning of their lives, which helps support her claim that society is degrading women’s appearances. Towards the middle of her paper, she switches into a satirical tone stating,
For the record, here is what you are Officially Supposed To Do: Stress what your daughter’s body can do over how it is decorated. Praise her accomplishments over her looks. Make sure Dad is on board – a father’s loving regard and interest in a girl, as the first man in her life, is crucial. Involve her in team sports: A flotilla of research shows that participation lowers teen pregnancy rates, raises self-esteem, improves grades, probably cures the common cold. Volunteerism can give girls greater perspective and purpose, reducing body obsession. Media literacy can raise consciousness about marketers’ manipulations (Orenstein 66).
By using satire, she is able to show just how ridiculous pressuring girls are. By over exaggerating, readers are to understand just how these girls think from an outside perspective; this is how they see themselves, to do everything and be everything to be absolutely perfect. It also shows just how society throws these expectations on girls without thinking twice about it. For instance, when she says, “praise her accomplishments over her looks,” she is basically saying that in society this is how women are treated; women are treated as though they only exist to look pretty (Orenstein 66). However, when she starts talking about how enrolling girls into sports helps reduce teen pregnancy, she is really talking about how people not only judge girls over their appearance, but their lives as well. She chose to use satire to emphasize just how prominent to girls on how they are perceived. By saying this, she emphasizes how “perfect” a girl needs to be in order to live in society. Orenstein sufficiently uses these tactics of satire and personal experience to get her point across; however, she does not include enough facts and statistics in her paper.
Of course she does put a few in the middle when she is talking about the third grade girls, but she does not use anymore to back up any of her claims. The little statistics she does use emphasizes just how prominent the idea of a perfect body is in these girls’ minds. The reason for adding more facts is because sometimes having just observation is not enough. One needs to use facts in order to back up their claim statistically to further prove their point. Even though her paper is titled “Fear of Fatness,” she does not really talk about the concept of being fat. She does talk about it at the beginning of her paper, but she does not go into being fat as much as body image as a whole. She does talk about girls being scared of getting fat, but she does not talk about how unhealthy being fat is. A reason for this may be because heath is not the main focus of her article. She really wants to hammer in the idea of body image and beauty
standards. In conclusion, Orenstein successfully uses her personal experiences to convey her message that women are being pressured by society to look perfect. She uses satire to emphases on how things are in society and how girls are treated. Although she does all of this well, she fails to incorporate more facts and statistics to back up her claim. She also does not talk about being fat as an unhealthy choice, but instead only talks about it as a viewpoint of society.