The Fat Journal Entry

       Beware I will be using the word 'fat' in this blog post. I read Lionel Shriver's "Warning: I will employ the word fat." I found myself agreeing with a lot of the things Shriver was saying  and telling myself that I've thought that way about someone before and even that I've felt that way. In response to Claire's question about fat prejudice I definitely have personal experience that I can relate to it.

In the article Shriver says "In literature, fat has persistently marked a character as disagreeable." Right when I read that line I thought of my neighbor. Shriver continues to gives examples of characters in several well-known books including Harry Potter. I agree that this prejudice of how fat people act does occur in books and in reality too. From personal experience I have a neighbor from my hometown who I have known for most of my life. I am very close with her and her family. She can be a very angry person though and I think it might have to do with how she has been treated because of her size. Shriver describes one of her characters in her book "The New Republic" named Edgar. He was ridiculed as a kid and now as an adult he takes his anger from that out onto his peers. My neighbor bullied kids in elementary school, but she was also made fun a lot. It seemed like the same scenario as Shriver's character Edgar. She is very defensive and can be set off easily. She's also a very caring person though which is part of the prejudice that fat people are jolly. She wants to become a special education teacher. I personally think she wants to do that because she knows what it's like to be made fun of and she doesn't want others to go through that. As I was reading the article everything that Shriver was saying seemed to be characteristic of my neighbor so that's why I thought of her as a personal experience to fat prejudice.

The next question Claire asked was to find a quote which shows the relationship between beauty and aging. I picked "Besides, as I get older, I grow less involved with feeling beautiful than with finding beauty." This quote is trying to say that with age you become less concerned with your physical look and more concerned with being who you are and finding true inner beauty. Basically it was saying to be who you are. I think this relationship is gendered becasue from my personal experience I have always told myself that I should find inner beauty and not focus so much the physical part of it. So yes I think this relationship between beauty standards and age is more gendered toward women.

Now I have to ask myself what did I get out of this article. I think most of what was said in the article is common sense, especially how you should look at everyone the same. Just remember to "Be in Piece not in pieces. "