Introduction
In the article “Leave Fat Kids Alone,” Gordon argues that the anti-obesity campaigns aimed at tackling childhood obesity were ineffective and caused only shame instead of decreasing the number of overweight children. The article’s publication is not tied to any particular campaign, but its subject is relevant and important regardless of the time. The author argues that childhood anti-obesity programs scared children and made them feel ashamed. The kairos of this argument makes the readers believe that anti-obesity campaigns should change their strategies and stop blaming children for being fat. However, although Gordon’s appeals to logos and ethos may seem successful and strong, the article lacks emotional empathy, which makes it sound unconvincing.
Article Summary
Gordon’s article is well-structured, and the author uses an appropriate tone and order to appeal to the audience. The author begins the article with her personal story of being an obese fourth-grade child. The author conveys the words of her pediatrician to the readers: “And once you grow, you’ll be thin and beautiful. Won’t that be great?” (Gordon para. 4). In such a way, from the very beginning, Gordon makes her audience comprehend what her main point is: for the entire society, a fat body is wrong and ugly. The author continues, narrating her personal experience of being overweight. She tells about the products that were considered sinful and tempting and then suddenly became healthy, for example, “eggs, nuts, avocados” (Gordon para. 8). She describes her feelings about the need to change her “unacceptable body” and become thin and beautiful (para. 9). After the depiction of her depression due to being fat, Gordon smoothly moves on to the topic of the war on obesity.
In the second part of the article, Gordon provides statistical information about overweight and the emergence of the war on childhood obesity. She mentions the 2010 “Let’s Move!” campaign and the 2012 Strong4Life campaign, aimed at fighting against childhood obesity (Gordon para. 13-14). The author claims that all these campaigns were fat-shaming and did not offer any solutions to the problem of being overweight. Gordon ends her article, telling about the long-term effects of “experiencing weight stigma,” emphasizing such issues as discrimination and isolation (para. 18). The author concludes that all previous attempts to fight against childhood obesity were ineffective, urging readers to end this war and stop telling their children that they are ugly.
Rhetorical Analysis
Gordon’s use of logos to support her arguments is successful. She provides enough evidence and examples of the anti-obese campaigns and their effects on people with overweight. For instance, while describing the 2012 Strong4Life campaign, the author mentions the place where the campaign was run and the name of the organization that initiated it: “the pediatric hospital Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta” (Gordon para. 14). In such a way, readers can check the information and review the advertising campaign archives to understand whether they agree with the author or not. Gordon writes, “As of 2017, fully half of the states required that schools track students’ body mass index” (para. 17). This statement demonstrates the strong impact of the anti-fatness campaigns on the citizens of the United States of America.
The strongest appeal to logic can be seen in the passage where Gordon describes the long-term effects of different weight-stigmatizing events. For instance, she writes, “seventy-four percent of women and 70 percent of men […] reported others’ making negative assumptions” about their weight (Gordon para. 18). The readers can see that anti-obese campaigns did not motivate fat people to lose weight but increased isolation and discrimination instead. This and other appeals to logic are strong enough to convince the audience of the author’s argument.
Besides, Gordon appeals to ethos to persuade the readers that the information provided in the article is credible. For example, the statistical information is taken from reliable and relevant sources, such as SAGE, the research journal Obesity, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, the author’s appeal to credibility is not strong enough because she does not provide sufficient data about the sources she uses. A reader can check the resource only if they click the link highlighted in the article. If Gordon introduced the researches properly, her article would become more credible and valid.
An appeal to pathos is weak because the author focuses on her personal story and does not mention stories of other people. Beginning the article with her childhood story is an effective way to attract the audience and motivate them to think about the topic. For example, the words “I felt my face sear with shame” emphasize the narrator’s emotions and make readers sympathize with her (Gordon para. 3). Moreover, Gordon ends her article with the heartbreaking message of the weight stigma: “The world would be a better place without you in it” (para. 20). These words are aimed to call readers for action but they hardly do it. The author gives no evidence that all those anti-obesity campaigns meant it when they appealed to fat children and their parents. Thus, her argument can be only her subjective interpretation of the campaigns’ messages that sounds unconvincing without proper emotional and logical support.
Nevertheless, Gordon attempts to influence the readers’ emotions by using descriptive language in her article. She writes, “Somber black-and-white photographs of fat children stared at viewers, emblazoned with bold text. ‘WARNING: My fat may be funny to you but it’s killing me’” (Gordon para. 14). These words make readers see the advertisement and feel what the children in those photographs felt. However, the use of descriptive language is not enough to convince the audience of the existence of the problem. If Gordon added some qualitative data about the responses of children and adults to these campaigns, the argument would be more appealing. For instance, the participants of the 2012 study described the fat boy, whose image appeared in anti-obesity campaigns, as “a bad person” and “what you don’t wanna be” (Catling and Malson 7). In such a way, people felt that fatness was socially unacceptable, which led to discrimination and abuse of obese individuals. One can see that this and other people’s stories and reactions to the campaigns would make Gordon’s article more emotionally appealing and convincing.
Conclusion
The article “Leave Fat Kids Alone” is trying to appeal to the readers, making them believe that anti-obese programs do not solve the problem of obesity but shame obese people instead. Gordon masterfully appeals to logos and supports her arguments with credible sources. However, the lack of information about her sources and a weak emotional appeal make the article unconvincing. The topic of obesity is sensitive, and it requires an emotional response from the audience to be addressed properly. If the author added several personal reactions of other people to the campaign, her article would become more convincing. In general, the article is important because the problem of obesity is becoming a serious issue, and society should find the right way to deal with it without shaming and scaring overweight people.
Works Cited
Catling, Lisa, and Malson, Helen. “Feeding a Fear of Fatness? A Preliminary Investigation of How Women with a History of Eating Disorders View Anti-Obesity Health Promotion Campaigns.” Psychology of Women Section Review, vol. 14, no. 1, 2012, pp. 1-19.
Gordon, Aubrey. “Leave Fat Kids Alone.”The New York Times, 2020.