The Fat Girl Analysis

The Fat Girl” and “Chunky in Heat” deliver messages about the female body, body image, and empowerment in similar yet differing manners. “The Fat Girl” tells the story of Louise, a young woman with a background in weight struggles. Growing up overweight, Louise would sneak food in response to the shame her mother created around Louise’s eating. Because she ate in secret, Louise often felt as though she were truly dieting. In college Louise has a roommate named Carrie who works to help Louise lose the weight. Once she loses the weight she eventually meets and marries Richard. After giving birth, Louise continued to gain the weight back while simultaneously angering her husband. At the end she is completely okay with Richard’s distaste for …show more content…
“A Real Doll” presents a troubling story of a young boy discovering his sexuality with his sister’s Barbie and Ken dolls. This story makes the reader look beyond the sexual taboo and ask what the real message is. Being as he eventually finds Ken to be more sexually appeasing than Barbie for his hole to release in when the head was removed, there is a question as to how genuine he was with his “relationship” with Barbie. In the beginning he would take Barbie on what he would refer to as dates and drug her before they would have sex. There are many bothersome elements to this tale of a young boy’s sexual experimentation with his sister’s …show more content…
Without a class dedicated to gender’s portrayal in literature, the subject is often neglected. We rarely pay attention to the treatment of gender in literature if we were not making a conscious effort to do so. “The Last Diet” begins as though you are reading an obituary. JeanAnne is killed in an ironic accident as she crashes into a donut shop. Teddy finds her journal and decides to read her diary. The diary depicts her disheartening weight struggles and diet trials. The focus JeanAnne has on her goal weight of 125 pounds demonstrates the intense concentration placed on a woman’s weight and body image. It is difficult to read the unhealthy symptoms she journals about such as numbness. At one point, Teddy looks up at a heavier young girl and thinks about how he hopes she never thinks she is fat. This is powerful in that while reading JeanAnne’s words Teddy somehow understands the pressures placed on women. This piece gives light to the dangerous pressures of the dieting culture that targets women, a subject not typically addressed in