It fascinated me how media can also play a role in shaping what we think or what pops out in our heads when he hear of that word.
I guess almost all of you know my job. I teach English online to Japanese professionals. So everyday I get to teach them how words are "standardly" defined by google, by freedictionary.com or by webster.
On this particular day, I was to teach adjectives to my student. Adjectives used to describe a person's appearance. So naturally, I have to teach words like TALL, PRETTY, SLIM, OVERWEIGHT, FAT, PETITE, etc. Normally, after I teach them the meaning of the words, I will show them pictures and ask them to make up a story or make a sentence using the words they learned. So I typed in FAT in google and I saw this picture:
 |
| this picture was saved under photos-of-thin-and-fat-girls.jpg |
Anyways, I showed the image to my student and asked him what he can say about the picture. Here is what he said, "Tutor, I see three beautiful women. The one in the middle has fair complexion and the those to the left and right have tan complexion. They all have long black hair. I think they are models."
I asked him, "Do you think the one to the right is fat?"
"Huh?"
I repeated my question.
He said, "No, she is not fat. Not fat at all. They all look pretty gorgeous."
I said to myself, "Well, Google said otherwise."
I hope there will be more people like my student in the mass media, especially internet. The world needs more people like him.
The one on the right is not fat at all. She looks like a plus-size model to me.
ReplyDeleteExactly my point jo. The mass media has a twisted mind and now, by definition, even girls who have 28-inch waistlines are now called fat. It is no small wonder if by the time Cheska reaches puberty, the number of kids bullied in school for having a chubby cheek or for being slightly plumpier than the others, will increase. Because the definition of fat is now evolving. But I was trully touched by my student's reaction.
ReplyDeletePeople will always discriminate bigger size. I especially felt it in the Pinas, where there is a small percentage of fatties, and much of my family and cousins commented on my size. Glad you pointed this out, and the woman on the write is far from fat. All the women pictured are beautiful and you can be beautiful at any size.
ReplyDeleteI'm a new follower. If you wanna check out some thoughts on plus fashion and other things like the California life, check out my blog. :)
http://joy2thewerld.blogspot.com/
Media can say whatever they want on ideal body size but truth is body positivity is all we need.
ReplyDeletein Italy a plus size model is like the one in the middle... the one on the right would be labelled as 'fat', although there are many girls like that in the streets. They consider themselves 'fat'...
ReplyDelete