On Thin Ice

Humor is perhaps the least appropriate method of argumentation I can think of in regard to our current topics.  Needless to say I didn’t exactly feel giddy after watching Thin, nor did I feel the need to crack a joke while reading various posts on pro-ana sites.  Humor is missing in this topic for good reason though.  It can play an important role in breaking the ice while making a presentation or a speech, but it is definitely a type of argumentation best reserved for certain situations.  A lame or offensive joke can immediately ruin a person’s credibility, as the use of humor in the arena of eating disorders would certainly mare the ethos of any source.  Humor is best, and most effectively used in arguments involving less serious subject matter.  One won’t necessarily fail using a funny line or two while addressing an audience on a meaningful issue, but when doing so a person puts him or herself on thin ice.  On false step could cost a person the respect or attention of the listener.  Offensive material puts a person’s focus on those one or two lines, and he or she will often hear little else the presenter, whether an author or speaker, has to say.  One of the areas humor is best left to in my opinion is television, and specifically commercials.  Within 15-30 seconds a commercial has to memorably persuade a person he or she absolutely cannot survive without the said product or service.  Humor can sometimes overshadow the product, but it is an essential tool nonetheless.  It is a type of argumentation that can swiftly make an impact and stick in a person’s mind forever, so it is perfect for the small amount of time given.  One commercial I saw recently about digital cable made great use of this technique.  It combined star power and name recognition with humor to create an unforgettable argument–for some reason I need to switch to digital cable…

Too Thin

I must admit, it’s been a little difficult to relate on a personal level to our latest topics of dieting and eating disorders.  What can I say?  I’m a skinny, active kid with a fast metabolism, and more importantly I’m male.  Now, I realize some men go on diets and can face eating disorders as well, but in my experience women are far more commonly involved in these issues.  I have witnessed the effects of such things on the people around me, and all of them have been female.  It is an unfortunate social stigma that women feel they have to be “Hollywood” thin, which is only exacerbated by the prevalence of diet fads in the media.  Skinny Bitch is one such example of a fad diet guide that infiltrated the media and managed to become a best-seller.  As the title loudly proclaims, it is clearly another diet guide aimed solely at women.  The documentary Thin, which is about the gruesome realities of eating disorders, is again focused on recovering women.  I’m not saying some men don’t struggle with these horrible diseases, but one doesn’t often hear of these clinics catering to men.  However, I have been close with some of the girls fighting these diseases around me, so I can sympathize, even though empathy is out of the question.Though I’ve seen friends combat eating disorders, I’d never seen anything like what the documentary brought to light.  I watched them talk cattily behind other girls’ backs, discuss how they need to eat less, and attempt to reject food in all ways possible, and couldn’t help but wonder how on earth people fall into these patterns of behavior.  Are all the fad diets we’ve been discussing partially to blame?  Is it caused primarily through “Hollywood” expectations?  In any case, one can truly see that society needs to make a lot of changes in this regard. It’s difficult to see a specific proposal made, as discussed in Chapter 11 of Everything’s an Argument, in either the book or the documentary, but one can draw ideas of what they might be.  One deceptive proposal that can be drawn from Skinny Bitch is that women should stop eating meat, because the animals are treated poorly and it will help them lose weight.  What is disguised as a diet book is basically a guide for turning someone into a vegan.  The documentary Thin is primarily meant to be informative, but in a larger sense it is arguing that society should pay closer attention to the seriousness of eating disorders, and the role popular culture has played in its development, as many women suffer from these diseases.  One of the main ways it makes this proposal is “painting a picture [...] in memorable ways”, as described on page 335.  The film forces the problem into your mind through disturbing visual imagery, like that of the hole in the girl’s stomach, or the appearance of the girls’ backs during weigh-ins.  The problem’s significance is made perfectly clear through the bleakness in every one of the girls’ eyes.

Obesity, an Epidemic?

It might be a stretch to refer to the issue with obesity in the United States as an epidemic, as this term suggests suggests something contagious and uncontainable, but perhaps using language this strong is the only way to grab Americans’ attention.  As I talked about in my paper dealing with the documentary Super Size Me, Americans have become somewhat immune to information presented in normal fashion, and thus a more and more radical way of doing so has become necessary.  This is why I feel the amount of criticism MeMe Roth receives from certain groups is undeserved; she is simply seeking to open peoples’ eyes to a serious issue that is being seemingly ignored by the majority of Americans.  She relies heaviest on causal arguments to communicate her point, as is the nature of this subject (Chapter 10 of Everything’s an Argument, which deals directly with causal arguments, has a segment on this exact issue).  MeMe seeks to point out the many causes of the single effect–a majority of Americans are overweight, a large number are obese and the percentage is increasing every year.  It is a complex argument by the fact that it is extremely difficult to determine all the causes of obesity.  There are known factors such as fat and calorie intake, but one also has to take into account more complicated possible factors such as parenting, friends, exercise, etc.  In all the interviews I have watched with MeMe she presents many of the possible causes of growing obesity, and then supports them with statistical evidence in a clear and eloquent manner.  Obviously many of the causes can be debated, such as overweight parents producing overweight children, but always makes sure to provide some persuasive backing for her causal arguments.  What is truly disturbing are not all the numbers she provides, but the number of people who blatantly refuse to even acknowledge at them.  Looking at the youtube.com comments about her interviews truly discloses the amount of Americans in denial.  It is the people who fire back offensive comments without any real backing, not MeMe.  Yes, she can come across as harsh and rather unrelenting, but this should not detract from most of her valid arguments.  Many Americans need to drop their defensive stances and realize that their health is in jeopardy.