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.