Exploring The Nature Of Weight Bias
Abbey Martin
WGSS 223- Heart of Article Discussion Paper
“Starting in early adolescence, young women who are at the higher end of the weight spectrum report fewer opportunities to date and less involvement in romantic relationships, relative to their thinner peers. (Is Fat a Feminist Issue? Exploring the Gendered Nature of Weight Bias, Janna L. Fikkan and Esther D. Rothblum, pg. 237).”
This sentence is located in Is Fat a Feminist Issue? Exploring the Nature of Weight Bias. The article begins by talking about discrimination against heavier women in regards to employment and income, education, and then romantic relationships, which is where this piece is located. It then goes on to talk about the issue of weight and feminism in regards to media and race and ethnicity. In each section of the article, the issue of how discrimination in regards to weight is a gendered issue, and how overweight men don’t face the same social and economical struggles that overweight women do. The article discusses how the issue of weight should be a feminist issue, because it plays into body image and social and economical discrepancies between men and women as a result of weight. This particular sentence struck a chord with me because at first it only enhanced the insecurities that I already feel. Each day, I wake up and I feel the pressure and expectation to look and act a certain way because I am a woman. I tell myself I must be thin, I must be beautiful based on what society deems beautiful, I must dress nicely and have name brand clothing, I must have perfectly manicured nails and eyebrows, my skin must be clear and glowing… the list goes on and on. Although I feel all of these pressures and expectations deeply, the pressure of being skinny lays especially heavily in my heart and mind. There are days when I wake up and look at myself in the mirror and think “Well, I’m not fat, but I’m not thin, so that must mean that nobody will find me attractive.” I’ve developed a habit of
WGSS 223- Heart of Article Discussion Paper
“Starting in early adolescence, young women who are at the higher end of the weight spectrum report fewer opportunities to date and less involvement in romantic relationships, relative to their thinner peers. (Is Fat a Feminist Issue? Exploring the Gendered Nature of Weight Bias, Janna L. Fikkan and Esther D. Rothblum, pg. 237).”
This sentence is located in Is Fat a Feminist Issue? Exploring the Nature of Weight Bias. The article begins by talking about discrimination against heavier women in regards to employment and income, education, and then romantic relationships, which is where this piece is located. It then goes on to talk about the issue of weight and feminism in regards to media and race and ethnicity. In each section of the article, the issue of how discrimination in regards to weight is a gendered issue, and how overweight men don’t face the same social and economical struggles that overweight women do. The article discusses how the issue of weight should be a feminist issue, because it plays into body image and social and economical discrepancies between men and women as a result of weight. This particular sentence struck a chord with me because at first it only enhanced the insecurities that I already feel. Each day, I wake up and I feel the pressure and expectation to look and act a certain way because I am a woman. I tell myself I must be thin, I must be beautiful based on what society deems beautiful, I must dress nicely and have name brand clothing, I must have perfectly manicured nails and eyebrows, my skin must be clear and glowing… the list goes on and on. Although I feel all of these pressures and expectations deeply, the pressure of being skinny lays especially heavily in my heart and mind. There are days when I wake up and look at myself in the mirror and think “Well, I’m not fat, but I’m not thin, so that must mean that nobody will find me attractive.” I’ve developed a habit of