Review: "Size 6: The Western Women's Harem" by Fatema Mernissi

About The Author (Fatema Mernissi) On 1940, Fatema Mernissi was born into a middle class- family in Fez, Marocco. She was educated in many different places such as the University of Rabat in Marocco, the Sorbonne in Paris, and Brandeis University in Massachsettes. As she grew older she became a teacher, a writer , and an activist. In 1975 she published "Beyond the Veil" which was her first monograph. In 1987 her most famous book was published which was called, The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Islam. In 2004 Mernissi received the Eramus Prize for having made an "exceptionally important contribution to European culture, society, or social science."

Summary

"Beauty is not defined by the size of your skirt"

In this interesting story called, "Size 6: The Western Women's Harem," by Fatema Mernissi. Protagonist Fatema Mernissi tells us her experience in attempting to buy a cotton skirt in an American department store. During her attempt in buying the cotton skirt she becomes insulted by what the saleslady says about her size. Mernissi comes from a culture where the size of a woman is not judge, but it is worshiped, not everyone has to be a size 6 (which is the "norm" in America) to fit in. Women should be excepted as they are, not what they are not.

Our Opinions

She was being harsh on men because she was blaming them for the beauty standards around the world. However, it informed us on all the standards and how it makes women feel. -AJ

The story was well thought out and was written how she sees the world. I like the story because it talks about her experiences in life. She was talking about her time in New York when she went shopping and how she learned about the different standards. It also talked about how she felt during that experience. -Prunella

Connections

1. In the story Fatema's self-confidence dropped in the department store, sometimes when people are in clothing stores they judge themselves and their self-confidence drops.

2. When Fatema was at college and people would call her names and she wouldn't care, when people call me things i don't care i often ignore or comment back.

3. Size 6 is all about the different beauty standards around the world, and in the article where Esther Honig had her face photoshopped in over 25 countries to examine the global beauty standards. Esther Honig was comparing the beauty differnces between many countries, showing how each country has a different standard.

Link to article: http://www.buzzfeed.com/ashleyperez/global-beauty-standards

4. Size 6 is also about how the standards of the world are set by men, and how men control the way women dress or eat just to be considered pretty. Well in "8 Ideals of Beauty from Around the World" it's talking about how women did various things just to attract a mate, for example in China there was the Foot-Binding tradition that all Chinese women did in order to be considered pretty.

Link to article: http://www.tripbase.com/blog/8-ideals-of-beauty-from-around-the-world/

Figurative Language

Hyperbole: "You're too big!"

Metaphor: "Here I am transformed into a dinosaur."

Hyperbole: "I often had to defend myself against remarks such as zirafa (giraffe) because of my long neck."

Essay by AJ

Size 6: Beauty Standards of Both Genders

There are different standards of beauty for men and women. That is very obvious. But what is not is how strict these standards are. Women have much stricter beauty standards compared to men, which they need to follow, if they do not? They will certainly be frowned upon.

In class we read many different articles along with the Size 6 story. These stories and articles really showed me how strict the standards are for women. I did not even know about these things, since I am a man. But since reading them, I have looked around and noticed how much time and effort women must have to do in order to meet the standard. If they do not do these things, then they will be weird.

But compared to here it is far stricter in other countries. In some stories women had to elongate their necks, bind their feet, pierce there noses, or even perform plastic surgery, just to feel excepted. Men however don’t even have to try hard to fit in and meet the beauty standards. In fact, men usually make these standards for women. Men want attractive women so they make them do all these crazy things just because they say so. Women should not have to drastically make changes to themselves just so they can fit in and look well for opposite genders.

All in all Beauty standards vary from place to place, but also from male to female. Although both genders to have a standard of beauty, women have it much harder than men do. Men made these standards for women. Women shouldn’t have to listen to men to feel confident about themselves. We should not make standards, especially for women, that people have to follow.

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