Change in Fiji (Assertion Journal)

Ellen Goodman, in “Culture of Thin Bites Fiji Teens,” asserts that the culture in the Western world has created a world where everyone believes that if a female is not thin they are not beautiful. Goodman claims that the spread of television facilitated the spread of the stereotype of thin women being beautiful. Goodman continues the article by discussing the deleterious effects of this perception on beauty. Women, especially teenage girls, in the modern world are risking their health in order to be thin. Teenagers starve themselves to meet society’s expectations of beauty; women go through malnutrition just so they can look pretty and are not made fun of by their peers. Goodman provides the island of Fiji as an example of a place which has been victimized by this new concept on beauty. Goodman places majority of the blame on the television for making this trend catch on to the general public.

In my opinion, Goodman assertion is a strong and a claim that I personally support. Being thin is the new beautiful. Girls who look like bamboos are praised for losing weight, but on the other hand impeccably fit girls are considered outsiders for not following the trend. The concept of beauty being defined by how thin a woman is hurting the mindset of women and their health and their bodies everywhere. Women all over the world are now feeling unsecured about their weight and their figure because seeing other thin and slim females around then, but if this insecurity in not dealt with, it can translate into serious disorders such as bulimia or anorexia. Goodman is also correct when she says that the concept of being thin should be stopped. If it is accomplished it can take the pressure off of girls to be thin.  The last line the Goodman throws in is a very powerful quote, “Maybe we ought to worry a little more about what girls learn: To hate and harm themselves.”  This quote is powerful because it sums her whole argument in this one sentence. She sums up her argument because she acknowledges that the new concept of beauty is harming millions of girls. There are not of loopholes and weaknesses in the assertion made by Goodman. The actresses seen on television and movie screens are simply not the reality we want our females to live in. Their skinniness gives regular females false hope and it also puts them in grave danger. The danger is seen in the transformation of the Fijian culture. Fijian women started feeling more and more insecure and had a large sum of eating disorders among them because they wanted to be skinny.

There have been stories about many ballerinas and gymnasts who have starved themselves to be thin and be able to compete in their sport. That has also resulted in teenagers trying to look like picture perfect, flawless thin women who are misleading the real females. Television has also added a lot to this behavior. The entertainment industry has to make changes and stop misleading women into a fantasy of being thin leading them to being beautiful. People’s personality and their heart should define their beauty not their figure or how thin they look.

 

“Indian” Logos (Assertion Journal)

Barbara Munson, in Common Themes and Questions about the Use of “Indian” Logos, asserts that “Indian” logos and nicknames should be excluded from the world of sports and mascots because they are depreciative the Native American culture. I am in complete agreement with this assertion by Munson. The reason these logos should be banned because they have misrepresented the intricate nature of the Native American society and have led the American people to misinterpret and misunderstand the role of the Native American culture as whole in setting up the American culture. “Indian” logos also have given Americans another reason to further ignore the Native American society that was the first to settle on this soil.

Native Americans were once rulers of North America, hence the name Native Americans. Millions of tribesmen and women inhabited this land centuries before the Europeans arrived. But by propagating the “Indian” logos and nicknamed, Americans today and forever have underappreciated the Native American culture and their race as a whole. There are and have been many misportrayals of Native Americans throughout history. Many sources of media and sports teams have generalized the whole Native American culture, which includes all tribes depicted as fierce fighters who are filled with belligerence. And sports like to make use of this aggression as a part of their teams by naming their mascots “Redskins” or “Seminoles.” But this interpretation of the Native American culture is only partly correct. No doubt there were some tribes that were fierce hunters and violent but there were many other Native America tribes which were calm and peaceful gathers, roaming nomads that made a living be planting and growing crops necessary for their survival. By generalizing all of these different groups under one broad category of coldblooded horsemen and barbarians, the American people are being just with Native Americans as a whole. Rather they are distancing themselves from the very rich history of the lives of different Native American tribes.

The bigger problem that faces the Native American people and the “Indian” logo and nickname controversy is that these misconceptions created by the media and sports teams are causing harm to an already misjudged image of the Native American. The misjudgment is shown by the American people when they speak of Native Americans as “Indians.” “Indians” are people like me who were born in the country of India not what Columbus called the Native Americans. This dilemma also shows how ignorant Americans are about the facts, especially relating to the Native Americans and their culture. Some experts have said that having sports teams with “Indian” logos and nick names is a way of honoring the Native American culture. But again Americans knowing nothing about the culture they are “honoring” do not know that naming teams with “Indian” nicknames is not considered honor in the Native American culture. The right way to honor the Native American culture is by awarding unique gifts to different tribes.