Critical Analysis of“The Body Politic” by Abra Fortune Chernik
...s of anger and fury in the reader. When a confused, sick girl stands withering away in front of society and society responds with “Fantastic! You’re this weeks blue ribbon winner” one definitely has to realize that ignorance really is bliss in our world. Personally, I was disgusted by the way society reacted to such an illness with encouragement and I felt something needed to be done. I think this was the reaction the author was hoping to evoke. She wanted others to identify the real problem behind women mutilating themselves for the sake of being “beautiful” so they too could be part of the solution. Another way in which the author tries to empower women is by diminishing the illusion that anorexia is about control and power over one’s life. The author speaks of all the things she was not able to do because of her preoccupation with being thin. She wrote, “I had almost given my life in order to achieve the sickly impotence that this culture aggressively links with female happiness, love, and success.” Where is the power in that? I think the author does a good job of showing that there is indeed none. While many women falsely think that they are gaining power over themselves by being deathly thin, the author makes them see that in reality it does the opposite. The authors point here is that starvation does nothing but put women’s health at risk and strip their power away even more. I think she makes this point with hope that women will realize that if they ever want to end this crazy charade, they must regain some power. The author also tries to empower women by exemplifying the need for change. The article clearly shows that the current system is not working to the benefit of women. We do not need a system that strips power away from women when the lack of power is one of the main reasons behind the existence of problems such as anorexia in the first place. The article presents anorexia as a viscous cycle all beginning with impossible ideals set up by the current patriarchal system. These ideals work for the current system by supporting starvation, which in return strip women of their power and work to keep the system in tact. The author makes it clear that we need to break out of this viscous cycle and “create a world in our image.” I think that she said it very well in the following quote: “As long as society resists female power, fashion will call healt...