Article: “Size Six: The Western Women’s Harem”

“Size Six: The Western Women’s Harem”Fatema Mernissi uses anecdotes in her article “Size six: The Western Women’s Harem” (2003) where she Recalls the experience she had in an American department store full of different fashionable brands such as: Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Gianni Versace, Giorgio Armani, Mario Valentino, Salvatore Ferragamo, Christian Dior, Yves Saint-Laurent, Christian Lacroix, and Jean-Paul Gaultier. As she walked in to look for a cotton size six skirt she was surprised when told that there wasn’t a skirt size six for her. Mernissi asked in disbelieved “In this entire store there is no skirt for me?” and the sales lady replied “You are too big!” “I am too big compared to what” Mernissi asked, but the sales lady made a cruel judgment “Compared to size six.” At this point Mernissi noticed that women here, in the west, have their own harem where women have to be portrayed as what men want them to be and how men want them to look. They are portrayed such way by gender roles along with the cooperation of the multi-billion dollar fashion industry which provides the materials that women will eventually be forced to use in order to satisfy “the look” man want at home. Mernissi never knew her self confidence would be lost after walking in triumphantly to the New York department store. The usage of satire is seen throughout the whole article various times, Mernissi states “How can you stage a credible political demonstration and shout in the streets that your human rights have been violated when you cannot find the right skirt?” This phrase itself defines many things such as the fact that America is “Land of the free” and everyone here has rights regardless of race, gender, or age so why should appearance matter? It states that we are all equal however women are still seen or at least still portrayed by men that they are inferior to what men think is “beautiful”, outer beauty. She ridicules the fact that America is define as the country who gives equal right to everyone, but she noticed at first hand that she meant nothing because she was “too big” and because of her race when asked, “Where on earth do you come from? I am sorry I can’t help you. Really I am.” The article itself indeed defines what the modern women is expected to look like and how we all have to be thin and beautiful and “…in order to be beautiful, a woman must look 14 years old”. It also states that “to be beautiful, women have to appear childish and brainless.” The Harem isn’t only in the Muslim world where women are inferior and belong only to one women, but it also exist in with the Western women where they aren’t only inferior to one men but are indeed inferior to the fashion industry and society. Menissi concludes that there really isn’t much of a difference between seas that separate the western harem from the east harem and probably the Western “harem” have it harder, “Imagine the fundamentalists switching from the veil to forcing women to fit in size six!”

Questions:
1.)How is wearing a veil less unfortunate than having to fit into a size six?
2.)How does role gender apply to the fashion industry?
3.) How does Mernissi’s tone of disturbance and pity make women and the audience feel?

Precis Article 3/17/09

Elena Rover states in her article, Stressed out? Snuggle up! that with all the problems that have been going on now days we all have been feeling the consequences now. We feel more miserable, pressured, and most important stressed. However according to a recent study made my Psychosomatic medicine which states that a really easy and fun way to actually release from the stress is my actually cuddleling or having some kind of contact with someone else such as : hugging, kissing, holding hands or even having sex. “Intimacy reduced cortisol levels by improving mood: state Dr. Ditzen who made a test on 51 couples and noticed that actually these “in touch” activities really released the persons from stress. It is now why they've realize why happy marry couples live a longer and healthier life because of their intimacy and scientist explain why intimacy is relaxing. They concluded that a love hormone, oxytocin, is released which floods the body and make the person feel great also intimacy in couple actually reduced blood pressure. Releasing stress however doesn’t only have to be with your mate but it can also be with friends and family by exchanging a couple of friendly warm hugs. Friendships have actually been linked with good healthy, longevity and less stress in a person. We can actually find different ways and easy too in order to release our stress we can reach to our partners or our family and friends. So now we know that d snuggling up to anyone who feels yummy might reduce stress levels.

Rhetorical Terms:
Emotional Appeal: “…easy and fun way to actually release from the stress is my actually cuddleling or having some kind of contact with someone.”
Logical Appeal: “We feel more miserable, pressured, and most important stressed.”
Discussion Questions:
Clarification: Can intimacy actually apply to all genders and of different ages?
Application: Does stress really affects us in our daily lives? Style: Do you agree with what Elena Rover stated regarding different ways to relieve from stress?

Quotations: “So now we know that d snuggling up to anyone who feels yummy might reduce stress levels.”

Do you really thin intimacy can actually help take stress off?
Do you think everyone will agree to this or that this will actually increase more pregnancy in young women and will “take stress off” justify anything?

question for evalution (CH 4)

1. Do you feel that everything she did was actually worth trying?How do you feel after reading this book?
2. Does it make you appreciate what you have or makes no difference? If you have a job does it make you feel as if you have to conserve it or does it make no difference?

Nickeld and Dime Evaluation

Chapter 4: Evaluation
In the last chapter, the evaluation, she begins to analyze everything she did and went through at each of her jobs. She gets to a conclusion that she did the best she could in every position she had at every job she tried her best to make the best of it. However, she does feel a little bit bad at the fact that she didn’t have full encouragement and all of her jobs from her coworkers.
She noticed that in her jobs she found skills that she never thought she’ll need and she actually did.
Furthermore she recognizes the mistakes she made. She described the unskilled jobs where she was challenged both physically as well as mentally and not only that but where she saw the maltreatment that many coworkers had to go through. As a result to what she had to go through she was able to notice how difficult it is to find a job that pays well and not only that but she noticed that many are paid really little which makes it hard for them to find an apartment that they can afford and when they can’t they find one they are forced to live farther away from their job.
She believes that the reason why the wages are so low is because they reinforce the low self-esteem that she saw in each job. Like the drug test, the maltreatment by the bosses, being accused of infractions and being treated in many ways the she felts was more like child than a women.

Ehrenreich is in Minneapolis, Minnesota now and she spends more time in this city looking for a place to live than she has in any other city. The vacancy rate in Minneapolis is less than 1% and she has been having difficulty finding an apartment the hotels where also hard to get since some need to be paid every week or month. As time goes on she decides to just get anything she can find and then as time goes by she’ll keep on looking for more. However the only place that she was able to afford wasn’t what she really want it was a rundown hotel that has no bolts on the doors and not only that but it also has no screen on the window. As a result to this she has a lot of difficult sleeping at night she doesn’t feel secure and she doesn’t think her things are secure either so she places her laptop in her car’s trunk instead of leaving it in the hotel.
Ehrenreich finally finds a job at a local Wal-Mart. Her job is to pick up the clothes that have been dropped in the women section and also to take the clothes from the dressing room and put them back on the racks. Unfortunately the job hat she had is really low pay and she isn’t able to afford anything else but to pay rent and she can’t even buy things for her kitchen to cook and she finds herself in the necessity to buy fast food and live out of that. Eventually she also finds a new room to stay at and she sleeps well which makes her feel more relaxed in the morning and during day work.
During the time that she works in Wal-Mart she notices that many of the employees are working too hard for the money that they get. Since she notices this maltreatment she decides to convey the union in to the employee’s minds. SO she starts talking to them about the unions and how it can help them and what not. Her assistant manager Howards is a person who she finds it really hard to work with and the enemy of most employees’. The meetings that they have seem pointless to her. During the time that Ehrenreich works there she meets Melissa, who works with her in the ladies department too. The both think of new jobs in where they can work to make the work easier, but when Ehrenreich leaves Melissa decides to leave too than to stay here and work without her.

Questions:

1. Do you think it was right for her to leave after trying to unite the people at Wal-Mart to see that there probably is a way out of the treatment they are receiving?
   
2. If you where in Ehrenreich’s shoes and you had to go through all that agony in not being able to afford an apartment or a better hotel and live under wage, do you think you will adapt quickly or not?

Part 2 of Nickel and Dimed

In part two of Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed, she emphasizes how hard it is to work as a maid. Her second choice was Portland, Maine when she worked as a maid. Having the thought that since there was many Caucasian she would probably be able to mix in with other low-income workers. She finds two jobs one as a maid for a housekeeping service during the week and another as a dietary aid in a nursing home on the weekends. The nursing home was pretty much cleaning food items and feeding the residents on the nursing home. However, she is really concerned and scared of that job because many of the patients are diabetic and if they are given the wrong food their health is at risk and it could worsen their health. During the week, her housekeeping job gets really hard having to go through mentally as well as physically challenges which leads to her struggle in working completing her duties as maid. Her boss, Ted, is very strict with the women who work for him he pretty much keeps them on check and many of the women don’t even have time to actually have a lunch break even though some don’t even have enough money to actually bring and eat since they are paid very little. During the time that she worked as a maid she met two other workers- Marge and Holly. Marge was the older women who had to struggle physically because she had arthritis and she needed to keep up with the work she had many back pains as a result to the kind of vacuumed that they used. Holly was much younger who late on finds out she is pregnant one day during her work day she twist her ankle which causes her to have problems in achieving her daily work. Ehrenreich notices how scared Holly is in missing a day since she doesn’t want to lose her job and rejects going to see a doctor. Ehrenreich protests for Holly and Ted gives her a day off furthermore, Ehrenreich reveals her true reasons in why she has each job she had however she doesn’t receive the surprise she expected to.

Key Points:

1. She was able to see with her own eyes the maltreatment that many women have to go through because of their status or just for the simple fact that they are women.
   
2. Ehrenreich witness for herself how hard it is to find a job and to actually keep up with 2 jobs. She witnesses for herself also how it is to live under a couple of dollars and many times not eating or taking a lunch break.
   
3. Even though she spoke out for someone else’s rights no one else backed her up, she noticed that since she has a career she had the courage to speak up since this life isn’t really hers while other women cant because unfortunately this life it theirs.