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Weight Debate

We all have opinions and stereotypes on the Great Weight Debate. Some of us may feel that it is up to each individual to maintain his or her own weight while others believe that it is our healthcare system that is failing to do their part to stop obesity.
These are three essays that all lead to the same conclusive point that our society puts too much emphasis on being skinny. However, they make their points in very different ways. Additionally, their styles reflected the specific audience that they were trying to reach.
The author Mary Ray Worley in her essay "Fat and Happy: In Defense of Fat Acceptance" is descriptive, and emotionally looks for sympathy from the reader. The essay is very personal. "In August 2000 I attended the annual convention of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA) in San Francisco, and it was like visiting another planet altogether. I hadn't realized how deeply my body shame affected my life until I spent a glorious week without it. I'll never be the same again."   (492) Ray Worley is using very positive descriptive words to put a positive light on being over weight. "They were exquisitely beautiful and voluptuous and graceful and serene." (493) "I discovered to my delight that the more physically competent I became, the better I felt about my body." (495) I felt that the parts of the essay that lost my attention were not credible ideas. For example when she states, "On my own account there is no way I want to diet again, because it will just make me fatter in the long run. Help like that I don't need and I sure as spitfire don't need to pay through the nose for it." (494) In my own personal experience I have not seen a diet put weight on to a person. Also, she is using strong descriptions to support her own opinions in this statement such as, "I sure as spitfire don't need to pay through the nose for it." While these statements may not be credible to me I think her points are very comforting to the related reader,...