Fat and Happy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Fat and Happy - Essay Example The essay begins by exaggerating common mistaken notions of how and why being fat is a personal, social, and medical liability, then provides evidence and examples for each to show why society developed the perception that the body defines and reflects who a person is. Facts expose and dispel the underlying viewpoint, proving fat people can be beautiful, gracious, elegant, strong, and healthy, just like you and me. The influence of these perspectives can pose a more serious health risk than fatness itself, insults and dieting "must certainly contribute to the shortening of many fat people's lives." (Worley, par. 8) The added stress and effort caused by worrying about your body's set point, means that some would be "happier and healthier not concentrating energies on weight change." (Curtis, ed., A1) Ignorance, inaccurate knowledge, and personal biases being the roots of these mistakes, the essay enhances our knowledge of "fatness" by sharing touching, personal experiences. In additio n to correcting the reader, she gives alternative solutions that cost less and are comfortable and enjoyable: to know and understand the body, to know why some are predisposed to being fat, and how to gain a deeper appreciation and acceptance of our bodies and who we really are. The essay is serious but entertaining, lighthearted but credible, full of evidence familiar to both sides in the issue: fat people who feel miserable and the not-fat who cause the misery. The essay is written to provoke a reaction from any reader with personal issues on the topic. She uses a large variety of argumentative techniques, filling the essay with analogies, assumptions, metaphors, and similes, using authority and common ground, appealing to emotions (pathos) and ethos (the author after all is fat), as well as stimulating the imagination with vivid descriptions of the inhabitants of the "planet" where fat is good and beautiful, as they socialize in swimsuits and show their talents like belly-dancing. Personally, I don't have issues against fat people, although I have friends who do. I also have fat friends whom I have observed to be suffering the miserable consequences of non-acceptance. I have, to be sure, been on the giving end of this lack of acceptance, if only unintentionally. Now that I am seven months pregnant, I feel I am on the receiving end of these biases, and can add my own personal experiences to Worleys list. The alternative to accepting the status quo is to help others see that being fat is as good and beautiful as any other body type, that fat people can be healthy and strong, and that being fat is neither a sign of weakness nor a disease. Understanding that these mistaken notions are the effect of faulty reasoning, I can avoid the same mistakes in the future and help others avoid them. These specious arguments appear, at first, to be logical, but are not. The essay shows that associating "fat" with "bad" is merely a prejudice, so people who think that way are gui lty of non sequitur. A product of careless thinking, the idea of fatness equating negatively is as incorrect as associating "slim" with "bad."