Gender inequality
The impact of food on not just hunger
In all areas of the world people eat food, but also in all areas of the world food is used differently. In ways we would not always imagine it would be used, or the impact its use would have on the people of the world. From the desolate land in Niger where it is beautiful for women to be as fat as possible, and the moms making the most important school lunch on the planet in Japan, to the women stuck in the social norm of not leaving the house in Tuscany. Food plays its own individual role in the gender inequality of each society as we do in the obvious role of being sustenance.
In the country of Niger, located in the middle of the northern half of Africa above the equator people believe that all girls should be plump with their fair share of stretch marks in order to be considered beautiful. They are force fed from the moment they start to lose their teeth in order to be plump enough for marriage.
“Under the close watch of a relative, girls begin ingesting large quantities of milk and porridge every day, starting when they loose their first teeth and continuing until the reach adolescence. The pudginess they develop is thought to (and, according to biologists, probably does) hasten the onset of puberty and the possibility of childbearing. Ideally, girls in this society are married in early adolescence.”( Popenoe12)
Although these practices are used by most even the mothers who don’t have the means to do so strive to fatten their daughters. But where as in America we are always talking about our weight as we struggle to have the perfect body shape it is a risk to talk about fattening in Niger; it casts an evil eye on the young girls who are striving to achieve their goals with their developing bodies. Even if someone does not mean to cause harm by commenting on ones fat or fattening process it can be perceived as envious and can cause a girl to lose
In all areas of the world people eat food, but also in all areas of the world food is used differently. In ways we would not always imagine it would be used, or the impact its use would have on the people of the world. From the desolate land in Niger where it is beautiful for women to be as fat as possible, and the moms making the most important school lunch on the planet in Japan, to the women stuck in the social norm of not leaving the house in Tuscany. Food plays its own individual role in the gender inequality of each society as we do in the obvious role of being sustenance.
In the country of Niger, located in the middle of the northern half of Africa above the equator people believe that all girls should be plump with their fair share of stretch marks in order to be considered beautiful. They are force fed from the moment they start to lose their teeth in order to be plump enough for marriage.
“Under the close watch of a relative, girls begin ingesting large quantities of milk and porridge every day, starting when they loose their first teeth and continuing until the reach adolescence. The pudginess they develop is thought to (and, according to biologists, probably does) hasten the onset of puberty and the possibility of childbearing. Ideally, girls in this society are married in early adolescence.”( Popenoe12)
Although these practices are used by most even the mothers who don’t have the means to do so strive to fatten their daughters. But where as in America we are always talking about our weight as we struggle to have the perfect body shape it is a risk to talk about fattening in Niger; it casts an evil eye on the young girls who are striving to achieve their goals with their developing bodies. Even if someone does not mean to cause harm by commenting on ones fat or fattening process it can be perceived as envious and can cause a girl to lose