Hunger as ideology.
By: Kimberley Denise Zuurbier Communication and marketing 22 April 2009.
Summary of the text: In ‘Hunger as ideology’, the author talks about eating distortions and how in our society we are being surrounded by this idea of being perfect. Since the 1980’s, society has changed, women are more concerned with their weight and obsessed by the lose of control on their body. This radical change has been caused by the important pressure of perfection, mainly due to commercials and magazines such as Cosmo, People and so on. We see it with our mothers being obsessed with their weight, on television, everywhere we look, and we’re being surrounded by this idea of being skinny. The fact that the generation between 12 and 25 years old is being bombarded by advertisements and commercials about how to lose weight, has become common, being slim has become trendy. In 1890 women were admired for brings a whole new meaning of beauty which the hearty appetite and ample body. In this time there were often people who were slim, people who were slim were not the ordinary women of that time. Women were just eating, if they were hungry they would eat, if they were not hungry, they wouldn’t eat. It was not a trend for being slim; women had to had a bottom, boobs, hips and thighs. The women who does eat is ordinary, the just random women. America had in almost every magazine advertisement about being slim. They’re putting pictures from women before and after and really let you believe that it’s all-true and that you’re really get skinny of taking pills and all. But what we see is not real. For example an advertisements about models, they are not so slim in
real as on the photo, its all Photoshop and people see these models as the perfect body, the perfect picture where you can figure yourself in. They let us believe everything they show us. They know how to affect us in the pictures they are showing us and explaining the things we want to hear. They are actually just playing with our mind, body and soul. We cannot think clear when we see advertisement like they make. They throwing slogans at us like ‘decisions are easy. When I get to a fork in the road, I eat’ to let people get even more interested in there products. After 1980 men wanted to see skinny longs legs, flat stomach, a real female beauty. What we see now as a Barbie. They looked like they were eating nothing and people from the earlier ages asks them with they got enough to eat. In the beginning is weird for the older people, they were used by women with a big appetite and had some fat on there bodies. At this time women in America often take plastic surgery, they want to be perfect, women in the age of 25 complete change their bodies, bigger boobs, slim nose, slimmer thighs. A big example of this in Cher who did like a lot of plastic surgery. Food is a sexual object of desire; it makes us happy if were feeling sad. If a child is liking a lolly, people don’t see that as sexual but if a women are liking a lolly its like a sexual feeling and has a sexual attitude. It’s like Lolita, everything she puts in her mouth is sexual, her finger, her lolly, her toothbrush etc. People also prefer to spend more money on food with fewer calories, but people from for example the middle class who can’t afford buying food with fewer calories less have diseases than people who can afford it.
Critical comment: What is the main idea/hypothesis that the author defends? ‘Hunger as ideology’ is a well written text. The author writes in a comprehensive way, which makes the reading interesting. The way the author puts funny examples throughout the text, thus the insertion of pictures helps you to focus on the text. The text in the beginning about the two girls is really interesting and you want to know what is coming next in the text. They way the author writes about being skinny and advertisements about losing weight let you listen to the text and know that this is somebody who really know something about hunger as ideology. The author puts also examples inside of herself, like her father is asking if she eats’ enough because she is so skinny. At one point you see a little bit of herself because she tells about her students and all and that gives a personal change on the text. At some points she really let you think about what is she writing or thinking about how you will react on things like this. But the text is quiet on social because she is only talking about advertisements and how they react on people, and how the makers of advertisements thinks about making it and how other people will react on it. She writes more about what she see’s then what she thinks about it. That is kind of hard to read it if you need more information about what she is thinking. But I think the text is really intelligent and is really interesting to read. You learn a lot about hunger as ideology and get you thinking about being skinny, advertisements about being skinny or product for losing weight.
Do you think this text is related to concepts learnt in class? Explain which concepts and how they relate to this specific text. You should use at least three concepts learnt in class: In Session 2 we’re talking about culture, about real life problems and how people share their culture with each other. For everybody is the culture different. Nobody has the same norms and values. In every part of the world there are societies and everybody is in an other society. It all depends on age, colour, religion, place from born, friends, experience, interest, money and graduation. It has all a factor to be in different cultures. In the text of hunger as ideology they say actually the same as session 2 says. Every culture is different and everybody is different. Middle class for example has less people with eating diseases then upper class, upper class buys more food with fewer calories but they have more people with eating diseases. People of the middle class just eat when they’re hungry and because that the food with less calories is more expensive they often go for the cheapest and for them the best products. For example in Asia, the issue of being skinny is not so big as for example America because America has a lot of adverts for losing weight and diet programs and really pushes people to be skinny with adverts about skinny models and perfect bodies. So every culture, religion, age, friends etc has all influences of what your eating, thinking about being skinny and having the perfect body. In Session 5 we’re talking about Consumerism, the consumer has some measure of control but still the advertisements influences us
by just creating the best advertisements that interested us and let us believe in it. By everything we do they create something to control us. If we see a perfect body, our brains will react on it and say to ourselves, be skinny, lose weight because we all want to be perfect and we all want that people adore us. And that is actually where the advertisements makers are looking for. Keep showing us what they sell and finally we will believe in it. In hunger of ideology we’re talking about that advertisements pushes us to be skinny, we believe in the advertisements because we see them everywhere, in magazine, on TV, we hear friends talking about it. They let us believe that everything is true they show us. Because they are telling us what we want to see and hear we believe what they are saying. For example there showing us a model with size 34 but actually she is just size 38, its all Photoshop but we believe it. They’re playing with our mind, body and soul. In session 7 we’re talking about how trends as consumerism. Your expressing yourself by the way you dress, the way you eat and every season there are new trends on eating and dressing yourself. With fashion your showing actually who you are and that reflects on the way your eating. It’s a social thing eating, your going out of dinner with your friends, your having dinners, what your eating at school. In the text of hunger as ideology she says that eating food is like sexual, when a child is liking a lolly it’s seen as cute but when a lady is liking a lolly its seen like it’s horny, sexy/sexual. Everything what we eat is actually sexual like Lolita. In the text they are also using slogans like ‘Oho oh her she comes, watch out boys, she’ll chew you up. And that’s sexual for a man. And when were eating, were getting happy, for example if you have love pain because your boyfriend broke up with you, your going to eat chocolate because that’s makes you happy. And if this season it’s a
trend to drink starbucks coffee, you drink starbucks coffee but if it’s next season is going to be ice-tea, your drinking ice-tea because it’s a trends. And unaware you’re following those trends because everybody is doing it. And if your friends are going to starbucks and your going with them, offcourse you take also a coffee. You do it without thinking by doing it. It’s an automatism.
Is the author of this text referring to the work of some classical sociologist (Weber, Durkheim, Marx or Merton)? If yes, does he agrees or disagrees with that specific sociologist? Max Weber agrees with the text because the text says that culture shapes the society and let us do things were used to because of our own culture. Max Weber view was that cultural ideas and values help shape society and shape our individual actions. And that is what the text is also saying. The people around us, creates us. By culture, by age, by class, by school etc. The influence of social relationships on people’s attitude and behavior. If your friends all drinking beer, after a few months/years your going to drink also beer, because your friends creating you, even if you don’t see it. Of course it’s not with everybody but some people you can really influence him or her by doing things like taking drugs, alcohol etc. Because they want to be in a group. And that is what Max Weber is saying and the text: hunger as ideology also.
Do you agree with the author’s thesis? Can you think of some critics of the ideas exposed by the author? I agree with the author because she is saying things that really interest me and where am thinking the same about. The only things I would like to see more is that she is more talking about her own life and giving more examples. But the rest I like to read the paper and I think it’s an interesting subject.
Conclusion: I really like the text: hunger as ideology, and I really can see myself in it. I mean like you can relate it to your own life. And I don’t feel like that I want to get losing weight now or something because before I read this text I thought it would be a little bit like that. I Absolute agree with the author of hunger as ideology. Everything she says is like I see it too. Advertisements create us to be different, to be perfect and makes us believe we’re actually not pretty enough. And about that food as seen as a sexual object, I actually am thinking more about it because well if am eating a icecream, I don’t want that a man get hot of me or something but actually that is just ridiculous because if we not even can eat our ice-cream and boys already look at us like a Lolita. I feel quiet weird about it so it’s really capped me thinking about it. I think it an intelligent piece but it’s hard to understand if your English is not that good. Because it jumps from one piece to the other piece of paper. But the conclusion of this text: Hunger as ideology is that advertisements are throwing us products and commercials about losing weight and that we really believe in it because it’s works with our mind, body and soul.