Keyword: Obesity

Obesity, a word that is frequently used in the media and everyday life, is becoming an epidemic problem worldwide. The US is one of the fattest countries in the world, trailing close to Mexico, the fattest country in the world. In the old days, being fat or obese is a status symbol; a symbol of the superior, of loyalty, of power. Nowadays, people see obese individuals as diseased, weak, sick individuals who need medical help or guidance. The social meaning of obesity has changed over time. Moreover, in today's society, obesity is not simply fat; it is associated with words such as undesirable, hatred, isolated, weird, etc.

For the past four to five decades, Americans have not been eating healthily. With the increasing amount of fast-food restaurants such as McDonald's and Burger King, and processed food products containing high-fructose corn syrup, Americans have been gaining much more weight than other nations. At the same time, the media has been redefining the "normal image". The image of beauty does not mean women who have healthy weight or decent size, but they have to be stick-skinny, weighing less than 100 pounds. In the medical world, that is not healthy for women of any size, but in the media, that is the definition of beauty. That definition has not been changed since. Yet, more and more Americans are being classified as obese.

In our generation, we are in the age of technological devices, where most people living in modernized societies have at least one product which relieves their stresses from everyday life. However, with the increasing rate of innovative technological devices being sold to consumers, more and more individuals are not getting the exercise they need in order to maintain a healthy weight. For example, (with of the Truman's post about) a new technological device, segway, provides an environmental friendly method of getting away towns/ metropolitan cities. Although walking is another environmental friendly way to get to different destinations, people neglect the importance of walking and rely on such expensive devices. In addition, the Internet and gaming consoles also help aggrandize this obesity crisis. With an increasing amount of kids and adults of both genders using the Internet everyday, people no longer need to walk to places to meet friends, families and even dates, nor do they need to shop for their necessities on foot; everything is within reach with the worldwide web. Sure, technological devices help mankind in many different ways; however, they eliminate burdens at the expense of health.

"In the United States, one in three kids is obese. Hey, that one fat kid is indeed three kids!" -Jay Leno. In a society where skinny, underweight individuals represent the population in the media, obese individuals are incarcerated in a world of cruel jokes and humiliation. This image problem also triggers hate crimes. Although is not commonly presented in the media, hate crimes against the obese definitely exists. A study done by Yale University found that 12% of the subjects feel they have been discriminated against due to their body sizes. As a result, they feel isolated, detached from the society. With such mental abuse on a day-to-day basis, some eat away their pain, some begin living a healthier routine, some would do nothing, and furthermore, some take drastic measures such as committing suicide. However, the government has already proposed plans to reduce the severity of this epidemic problem; in New York, fast food restaurants must display the nutrient facts on their menus. California has also proposed a law to ban trans-fats in foods. Furthermore, some businesses such as Dove are promoting real beauty. However, are these businesses taking advantage of the obesity problem to make more profit? Or are they trying to help save obese individuals to feel more accept in the societies?

Perhaps that helped you understand this "real beauty" businesses are advocating.


So are businesses sincerely helping the "disadvantaged"? The Dove campaign is not only an campaign to help others, but another to attract more consumers to buy their products. Whenever a consumer wants a beauty product, s/he would think of Dove because of its active campaign against false advertisements. Aside from the companies that are actively trying to promote healthy advertisement, there is a new industry dealing with "healthy products" that are targeted at the obese consumers. For example, there is an increasing amount of diets pills in pharmacies, more and more 24 Hours Fitness in different parts of the country, as well as a entirely new industry of free-fat products. This new industry of "helping the obese" damages the image of beauty. As this industry becomes more popular, the obese may be humiliated further more because they are being advertised as "bad individuals" and that skinny is beautiful. The new meaning of beauty has helped create new industries that take advantage of the obese.

Centuries ago, being obese or simply fat was a good thing; however, obesity is now seen as a bad thing. The meaning of the word has not changed, but the social meaning of image has changed; skinny is in, obese is out. Obese individuals suddenly become isolated as the meaning of image change in the 19th century. These people are victims, victims of our new, redefined society. In this new society, industries take advantage, consumers loose money, and, more importantly, tears are being shed. The damage obesity creates is much more than anyone could imagine.

6.1 Hmm...

It's the last week of summer session. Throughout the last few weeks, I have noticed that the class talked about race, technology, and media related subjects. Whenever a topic related to those subjects always reminded me how we are being shaped.

For race related subjects, I remember the heated debate that Whites are becoming more disadvantage than before. During that discussion, some students argued for the minorities while others argued for the opposite side. I thought that that debate was enlightening because of the different perspectives mentioned by students. This is how we are shaped by- race. I am Asian, you are White, she is Latina, he is Black. This is how we identify ourselves as well as other people. When race is mentioned, we choose our sides and fight for what we really deserve. While equality is important in the US, our colors separate most of us. I know some have became colorblind, many of us are not. So when a race is being mentioned, just like our class discussion, we take our sides and fight for our ideologies. This class somewhat represent what different Americans think.

On the technological topic, it seems like we all agree that all moving with technological progress. Rather than writing snail mail to each other, we would send instant messages, emails, and leave wall posts on Facebook. As an writing class, I am quite amazed that we have the chance to discuss the pros and cons of technological process because it is quite rare to discuss such topic in other English classes.

Media has shaped us in many different ways, it has helped develop and support our ideologies. In class, when we tried to decipher the meaning of different satirical cartoons, many of us had different interpretation. By listening to other people's interpretation, I have noticed that many people's perspective about our societies.

As part of an English writing class, it not only has helped me to produce better quality writing, it also helped me to notice other people's perspective on different topics which we face almost everyday. Overall, I have taken more from this class than all the other English classes combined.

5.2 The Audience and The Media, Friend or Foe?

After reading Paris' blog on truth and media, it made me wonder, who's at fault? the audience? the media? To illustrate my point, some people would not want to believe the "truth" because it hurts; instead, people turn to different sources to listen to the things they want to hear. For example, when 9/11 happened, everyone in the US was shocked and in a state of disbelief. When footage of Iraqis celebrating aired, most Americans immediately agreed that Iraqis are crazy idiots who are destroying peace and democracy. However, when a reporter tried to convince Americans that that footage was actually a video clip of Iraqis celebrating New Years, very few believed them because it countered their believe. Most Americans watch the news not only to know the things happening around the world, but also to pick out stories which would support their ideologies.

When Americans watch the news, most of them do not just turn to any news report; they turn to the newscast which would satisfy their desire- the desire to hear what they want to hear. For example, most Republicans would turn to Fox news to get their daily dose of stories while college students would probably turn to the Daily Show, the Colbert Report or CNN to get their information. I, as college student and a Democrat, refuse to watch Fox news because their stories do not fit my taste nor does it fit my desire to hear to the "real, unbiased stories". I remember I watched Fox news for five minutes and I had to immediately grab the remote and switch to the CNN channel. Why? Because their polls and statistics are retarded. As a statistics student, let me tell you that no one should rely on polls, period. It's just something you should not believe, like Scientology. (Sorry if I offended any Scientologists.) Why? Because you can manipulate the data whichever way that fits your belief, the larger group of people = the better it fits your theory. Second, they never tell you how the data is extrapolated other than telling you that it's from a group of _____ (number) of people. These two things automatically make the data unreliable. So when Fox news asked a group of 350 people, "Who won last Friday's debate?" or "Do you think Black voters play a decisive role in Obama's candidacy?" one shouldn't even bother to look at the results because it does not reflect what people think, only what Fox news thinks because Fox probably manipulated the data to influence their audience. However, when the audience sees the results of the poll, the audience will believe that is the truth and probably jump onto the bandwagon and follow the "what others believe in". Sure, intellectuals like us would think this is biased and would never jump the bandwagon immediately and condemn its biased reports/ polls. But then again, if we do not believe in the polls to begin with, why would people do it? why would people even want to see the result? The answer is that people believe that the polls produce "unbiased" results and therefore more news channels have these ridiculous surveys - only to satisfy our hunger, our hunger for the things we want to hear. Indeed, the media is biased, however, the viewers only want to hear the things they want to hear and media is just adjusting itself to serve the need of the audience.

I agree with Paris' idea that as audience, we should be exposed to the same stories from multiple sources, however, the question is, do we want to hear them from multiple sources?

And... here are the pictures of my failed attempts in the intersection of Covell and Sycamore:
first attempt:

second attempt:

third attempt:
fourth attempt:

and because of the strong wind blowing against my face, I gave up.

And for the previous blog regarding my trip back to Davis from the Bay... Here's the picture I took with my phone:

5.1 What a Scene!

Okay, okay, I know did not take this picture this week, as the date on the photo shows. However, I did attempt to take a similar photo on the corner of Sycamore and Covell, but I failed horribly. As soon as I find my cable to transfer my photos to the computer, then I will show you my failed attempt at that intersection. As for now, I will have to stick with this one.

This is a picture taken on the intersection of Park Avenue and E57th St. It was not easy to take this picture. I, wearing a t-shirt, jeans and a pair of flip-flops, waited at the intersection with dozens of New Yorkers dressed in business attire. As soon as the light turned green, with a strong cold wind blowing against me, I ran half way through the intersection and aimed toward the Metlife building. In the process, people just simply walked through between my camera and the scenery even though they knew I was trying to take a picture of the street. Despite the fact that people were blocking my view, I took the picture anyway. I ran back and checked my picture. It came out blurry. The process restarted again. After about seven failed attempts and angry drivers yelling at me with heavy New Yorker accent, I finally succeeded. I remember I was on that same intersection for about 20 minutes before heading to my next destination. I walked a few blocks and entered a Subway station, I waited for the train to take me to Little Italy. When I double checked my pictures while riding the Subway, I was very amazed what a great picture I took. I captured the heart of Manhattan- streets filled with cars, limos, buses, businessmen, tourists, tall buildings, etc. Even though it is a scene of the modern world, there were trees and bushes in the center divider. It truly is a blend of nature and modernization.

4.1 Discrimination versus Sterotypes

I was quite intrigued by the topic of discrimination after reading this post. I think discrimination is a huge problem within societies that cannot be fixed by censoring people speaking against other races. We all discriminate or stereotype at some point in our lives because of others' skin colors, personalities, hobbies, habits, etc. Eddy is right that viewpoints have been shaped by our surroundings and our families. However, we make the choice to continue our "ignorance" even though we are given the choice to become more accepting. As children, they cannot differentiate the difference between Whites and Blacks, so they use the terms good and bad to describe them. However, now that we know more about other cultures as we live in a multicultural state (or country), we should not generalize a group of people because of their skin colors. However, sad to say, we still discriminate.

I remember when I was an adolescent, my grandmother would generalize blacks. Whenever my uncle drives through Oakland, he rolls up the windows and locks the doors. Now that I have a car and the opportunity to choose my very own destinations, I would avoid driving through Oakland as much as possible. Even if I have to drive through Oakland, I would find myself doing the exact same thing that my uncle has been doing. Because of my family, I stereotype. But I could have taken the time to understand Blacks and not isolate myself from them. However, I made a different choice; I follow the path that most people have taken, I have taken the path of discrimination. Why? Because I want to be "normal" and have the same mentality that most people have. I know I should not do this, but I am doing it anyway because I want to be socially accepted. And I believe most people discriminate because of this ideology of social acceptance.

Many people censor others from talking against minorities. Those who do say degrading things against a certain race would be publicly criticized, like the Don Imus incident. However, censoring individuals speaking against a race does not eliminate discrimination, rather, it only makes it more invisible. What America needs is to make this issue more transparent; people need to speak their dislikes aloud, not hide them. If people actually know the reasons behind racism, maybe we can do more about this issue. Perhaps we can make this country a better place by sharing our ideas, sharing our hate. Hopefully, we can turn that hatred into love just by speaking out loud.

Discrimination is a choice. Most of us have made the choice to discriminate and I believe we should make another choice - speak aloud and solve this issue rather than hiding it.

3.3 Away from normality

“Beep, beep. Beep, beep.” I opened my eyes, and I saw “6:00 A.M.” in bright red print with a black background on a clock. There I was, getting myself out of my bed. I looked out into the streets, and I saw a few elderly sitting on the benches and listening to an old-fashioned radio. There was my uncle, standing next to me impatiently, and said, “You young people and your sleeping habits, do you know that you’ll be healthier if you wake up early?” I asked, “Can we do this some other time?” He shook his head and said, “I thought it would be a great idea that we should spend some time together in the wild, you know, away from those busy streets and dirty air in the metro. Plus, it’s been a while since you came back to Hong Kong to visit me. I guarantee you that this trip will be fun.”

I wore my pair of sweats and t-shirt. I realized I was embarrassed about my mismatched outfit. But my uncle told me that no one was going to notice me anyway. So I left the apartment with my uncle.

We went to a café to get some breakfast before we began our trip. I ordered a cup of coffee and a sandwich; he ordered a cup of tea and a bowl of noodles. “You Americans always do that cliché thing that you guys just have coffee and then have sex. I know it from movie your movies.” That, I believe is a total misconception.

When we finally finished our meals, my uncle and I climbed onto the second story of the double-decker bus when it arrived. I sat next to the window. I looked outside when my uncle fell asleep, and I saw working men and women, students, elderly all walking together on the same sidewalk. I, then, thought, America is so much different from here. Looking down into my clothes and comparing to the styles locales wear, I felt different; I felt like an outsider. After spending the first half of my life in Hong Kong, I would call Hong Kong my hometown. But why do I look different from others?

After riding on the bus for two hours, we finally got to the foothill of the trail. I looked at the green leaves on the oak trees, dried, yellow leaves on the dirty trail, birds flying around the sky. I felt energized and excited. “Don’t you love that scenery?” My uncle asked. I nodded.

My uncle handed me his walking stick and said, “I need that back when I sixty.” He laughed. And then, we started walking uphill, even though the trail was dirty and uneven. But as my uncle and I started sharing our interesting stories about our lives in different places, I completely forgot about the unpleasantness of this trail. There, we walked to the top of the hill, and it was already four p.m. I looked down and saw the busy streets filled with tall buildings, planes flew across the city as my feet were standing on a trail filled with dirt. The chirpings suddenly became my iPod, the wind became my air-conditioning system, the trees became my new temporary home. I took a couple pictures of the scenery. I, again, looked into my hometown one last time, and I thought maybe I should stop being an American and enjoy my visit in Hong Kong and act like a locale.

“Hey, I gave you the stick. How could you be tired? By the way, where it is?” I remember I left it on the hilltop next to a tree. “You owe me one,” he said. Yes, I owe him one. Not the walking stick, but that scenery he brought me to see. That scenery made me realize that sometimes, it is better to look things from another perspective: life is much prettier that way.

3.2 Everywhere You Go, You Need...

In search of an interesting ad, I found this website. It contains many different ads from different parts of the world. On the site, I found this ad of a handheld camera which convinced the audience that they need this camera when they travel around the world during anytime of the year.

The art of this ad is quite creative, in several ways. First, it is in only black and white, which is quite unusual because it advertises an innovative technological product that highly depends on colors. The second thing I am quite amazed about is the fact that this entire ad is done in one line; all the scenes of "your memory" are all connected. In a way, it makes the audience feel that they can have adventurous trips throughout the year, nonstop. The third thing I like about this ad is that all these pictures are between the USB cord and the camera. It illustrates the point that the only thing between the camera and the computer is memories, your memories. It also points out the convenience of putting your memories into your computer; all you need to do is to plug that USB into an USB port, and you can share your memories with others. The art of this ad is definitely breathtaking.

Aside from the art form of this ad, this ad has many meanings which mesmerize the audience so that they must have this handheld camera wherever they go. The ad contains many famous landmarks of the world, such as the Effiel Tower, the Prymaids of Egypt and the windmills of Holland. Other than these famous landmarks, the ad includes images of Christmas, the beach and the zoo to convince the audience that this camera can handle anything - from small, simple day trips to big, extravagant trips. It sends a message that this handheld camera is a must-have item which would make your unforgettable memories last forever.

In conclusion, this ad is innovative, original, and imaginative. Moreover, it successfully sends a clear message that this camera can capture all unforgettable moments, your unforgettable moments.