To What Extent Does the Media Affect Body Image in Teens and Their Perception of Beauty Essay Example for Free

To What Extent Does the Media Affect Body Image in Teens and Their Perception of Beauty Essay There is no question that the Media has a massive impact on how we perceive ourselves, particularly when it comes to our beauty. From my own experience, I have questioned my own body due to articles in magazines promoting a slimmer body type to various audiences. We shape our opinions through what the Media tells us is right and wrong. For instance, women and young girls are judged highly on their weight and appearance where as men are judged more on their masculinity and muscularity. As the Media is a massive topic, I will focus on looking at magazines, in particular adverts, and how they portray beauty and how we then observe the Medias idea of ‘perfection’. I will also be looking at the effects of exposure to these magazines and adverts to teenagers; one particular focus will be the influences of the Media on Anorexia. â€Å"Low self-esteem contributes to a distorted body image, and the distorted body image cant be fully corrected until self-esteem issues are reconciled. If we don’t address the problem (the problem being the Media labelling a certain body type as perfect) then the issue of low self-esteem in women is never going to stop. Over 90% of people diagnosed with eating disorders are adolescent or young women, so why do young women and adolescents feel the need to go to these drastic measures to stay skinny? While the Media is not the only factor that can be contributed to the rise in Anorexia, it is a significant aspect. It’s no surprise that teenagers are obsessed with thinness and weight loss because of the way Media promotes a skinny figure to women through the constant images of celebrities’ bodies and also articles that talk about bettering our lives through our appearance. The Media promotes a skinny figure through constant articles in magazines on celebrities’ figures, for example, Star magazine has shown the same front cover advertising â€Å"45 best worst beach bodies† seven times. I believe that this is going to contribute to women having a negative body image as they constantly compare themselves to the celebrities in these magazines and deciding whether they have an â€Å"acceptable figure† due to the ones advertised as the â€Å"best†. Personally, I think it’s the mix of women’s obsession with celebrities and a low self-esteem that creates a negative body image. Approximately one in every one hundred teenage girls may develop an Eating Disorder. Body dissatisfaction is a reoccurring motif especially in women as they are constantly exposed to celebrities and advertisements from such a young age. I had to create a presentation to my peers based on my topic question earlier this year. I decided that I wanted to get real opinions on whether the content of these magazines were suitable for the magazines target audience. I gave them four popular girl magazines (Bliss, Mizz, Shout and Look), which girls ranging from 10-17+ were reading. I asked them to order the magazines from the lowest target audience to the highest, basing the order solely on the content of the magazines. Surprisingly, my peers put the magazines in the right order. However, they were still shocked by the audiences that these magazines were targeted at because the content of these magazines was not appropriate for children of that age. Bliss magazine, is initially targeted at girls aged 13-17; the class all said that â€Å"It was targeted at 16+ because of the ‘Stone’s style solutions’ that promote platform heels which aren’t appropriate for girls of 13 years. † Furthermore, Bliss magazine shows an article on ‘Pamper perfect’ showing young girls how to get the A-list look ‘without the A-list price tag. My peers decided that Bliss magazine is subtlety influencing young girls on how they can better themselves where as Look magazine, which is targeted at girls from 16-34; manipulate girls into changing their body to better themselves. This shows the diversity between magazines that are targeted at girls below 16 and those targeted at girls above 16. In both Bliss and Look magazine, they use a very slim model to advertise their clothes. Even though Bliss uses a teenage model and Look uses an adult, they both use a particular frame of woman. Mizz magazines’ target audience is from 10-14 years. Mizz’ articles, in my opinion, are suitable for the target audience because they don’t focus on celebrity lifestyle and focusing on a negative body image. Shout magazines’ seems to focus on females between 10-15 years. However, Shout magazine, targeted at females between the ages of 11-14, shows little articles involving models and looks more at celebrities and real life stories. As we live in a society, which is more obsessed with how we look, rather than what we do, it’s no wonder that women are both mentally and physically abused by the Media. This is a gut feeling of mine based on the content of agazines. From my own opinion, I see more articles congratulating celebrities on losing weight rather than their success in their career. How the Media advertises products and articles in magazines have a bigger affect on us than we initially think. On average whilst watching television, women come across around 400 to 600 adverts a day. In light of this, if in only 50% of the adverts we see thin models, then even this could have a negative affect on how we perceive our own body and also how we compare it to what the Media label as â€Å"perfect† which is usually undernourished models. By repetitively using the same figure of model, this will also stay in the sub-conscious mind of the audience. This technique of advertising is called subliminal messaging. When subliminal messages are first seen or heard, we are unable to identify what it is. In fact they may be ignored by the conscious brain and be beyond the level of conscious perception. A new study by Prof. Naomi Mandel, as sited in CBS News, has shown companies that feature normal size women, better known, as â€Å"plus-size† are less effective than those that use thin models. It also found out that overweight and normal-weight females have a lower self-esteem after seeing â€Å"plus-size† models in advertisements. I found these results quite interesting as I presumed that women who saw â€Å"plus-size† models would make them have a higher self-esteem because they have a similar body to the models in the advertisement. Additionally Jeremy Kees, a professor at Villanova University, believes that women expect to see beautiful women in advertisements, even if it makes them feel worse about themselves. In one of his studies, Kees found that even though the women felt bad about themselves after looking at the adverts, they evaluated that the brands were selling higher, and those ads which used average size models, their brands sales has decreased. Although, another source reported that women have lower levels of weight concerns after exposure to average and overweight models than after the exposure to ultra thin and even no models. This could be because women would feel accepted by society for their body size because the Media believes its okay. In my eyes, the Media always promote a very slim figure. Furthermore, a social psychologist’s research has suggested that average sized models are just as effective as thin models. But what do the public really want to see? Karl Langerfield, Head Designer of the Fashion house Chanel, said that: â€Å"the world of fashion was all to do ‘with dreams and illusions, and no one wants to see round women. † After reading both these studies, I decided to create an experiment that was heavily influenced by the experiments that the University of Sussex had conducted on self-discrepancy. One of these experiments was to see if advertisements that use models are more effective than those that don’t use any model. Also, I wanted to see if Prof. Naomi Mandel has the correct theory that advertisements are less effective with ones that use â€Å"plus-size† models or ultra-thin models. Additionally, the experiment that claims women have lower levels of weight concern after exposure to average models wasn’t conducted on teenagers and I wanted to see if teenagers find adverts with â€Å"plus-size† models more or less effective than ultra-thin models. The other experiment that was conducted on children between 5 and 6 years was to see if a specific body image does have an affect on how we perceive ourselves. They had three separate groups of girls who were all told the same story however, one group had images of Barbie, the ultra-thin doll; one group had images of Emme, the average-size doll and one group had no dolls included. Each girl was then told to fill out a self-discrepancy chart and highlighted the body they thought they had compared to the body they would like to have. The results from this showed that the discrepancy was higher in those that saw Barbie compared to the other doll. This shows a link to what heavily influences girls between what they see and their sub-conscious mind. The main objective for my experiment was to see whether adverts that use skinny models are more effective on us as a public, than those that don’t use any type of model and also to explore into the world of subliminal messaging and how it plays on the sub-conscious mind. I wanted to see if this type of advertising really does work. I carried out this experiment twice because I wanted to make sure I had clear and thorough results. I used a group of twenty students between the ages of 14 and 16 of which ten boys and ten were girls. The boys were given adverts targeted at males and the girls were given adverts targeted at females. Half of each gender was given adverts that feature models of the same sex and the other half were given adverts that featured only the products and no models. Each person that had the same booklet was all sat on a table and they would discuss the adverts. As I was walking around, I was listening to what they were asking each other about the adverts shown to them: â€Å"What is your opinion of the advert? What is the focal point for the advert? Whom is this advert targeted at? † I was surprised by the results I got from also the comments I got from both genders. All the girls that had models advertising the perfume in their adverts wanted to lose weight, and out of the 20 girls that took part, 90% overall wanted to lose weight. A lot of the girls described the models as â€Å"plain† and that â€Å"the majority of the models were skinny and blonde. This was a popular opinion with all the girls and I wondered why even though they thought the models looked plain and they weren’t envious of the models, why did all the girls want to lose weight? One girl gave an interesting point that even though Emporio Armani used Beyonce Knowles, who is African-American, to advertise their products; they thought that it was unclear of her skin colour and that they might have used a black and white image so that it would open up to a wider audience. This links back to a previous point that companies always advertise a certain frame of a model to women because this is what they believe as â€Å"perfect. Even though all the girls who didn’t have the models in their adverts had a lower discrepancy, this could be because they might have recognized the adverts from seeing them before or they could genuinely have a low self-esteem. However, what the University of Sussex had discovered was that average size models had no negative affect on body image with women. Even though I had done this experiment on boys too, I decided not to use their results as I felt they didn’t contribute to any of my product. Also, I wanted to focus on teenage girls and their perception of beauty. I was please with how the experiment was carried out and found it was a success with all the participants and the results I received were clear and reliable. However, if I was to carry this experiment out again, then I would do it with adults and also primary school children so then I could compare each set of results with one another and also I would to show how our opinions differ as we mature and also, to show who is more affected by the Medias constant advertise of celebrities and particularly the â€Å"size-0† figure. Also, I wish that I had shown them adverts that used â€Å"plus-size† models to see which one gave them a lower self-discrepancy as this would have been more relevant to the objective of my product. When I first started this topic, I began to realise how much pressure young girls are under to look good through the articles in magazines and the constant need to look at celebrities. After this, I decided that I wanted to find out if young girls and boys are actually affected by this pressure or if it is just my opinion. I created a questionnaire and gave it to secondary pupils between the ages of 11-16. I wanted to keep the questionnaires anonymous because I know these people and it could have influenced the way I interpret their answers. I don’t regret making these questionnaires however I was hoping for more detailed answers. I printed out 100 questionnaires and gave 10 to 10 tutors in my college. I wanted to give them out in tutor because they would have at least half an hour to fill out my questionnaires so they would be able to go into great detail and really think about their answers. However, I had difficulty with my questionnaires and the public doing them. Firstly, I had to print them in black and white to save ink at school; however the images I used were not clear enough in black and white so this could have affected my results. Secondly, when I received the questionnaires, there was minimal detail and also the majority of the participants were pretending to be funny in their questionnaires and didn’t provide the evidence I needed so they were invalid. On the other hand, there were questionnaires that I could use that gave detailed answers. 1% of all the results think the Media are the main cause of having a certain figure however 27% thought their friends pressured them to fit in with everyone else. However, their friends must get this idea of what is acceptable from somewhere. Could this be from the Media? In my appendix, I have included some tables, which include the results from the questionnaires I made. I found the graphs difficult to make, as I wasn’t sure how to break down the categories. Did I do it by year or by gender? The graphs were done on a trial and error basis however I felt like they were done in a correctly in the end. Another study found that 27% of the girls that they carried an experiment out on that felt the Media pressure them to have a perfect body. Even though this shows that other girls in other studies are affected by the Media, it’s not so reliable in my essay as I’m not sure of how many girls were asked, how old they were or where in the world this experiment was carried out. Eating disorders like Anorexia are caused by a physiological disorder within a person and how they view their own body. The sufferer believes that they are overweight so they take extreme actions like dieting, fasting and even starving themselves just so they feel what they believe to be ‘beautiful. ’ There are many reports; mostly around the time of London Fashion Week that fashion models have used this technique. However, it’s not only women in the fashion world who suffer with this disorder, other professions like ballet dancers and athletes show a high number of people who have/had Anorexia. Personality plays a big part in eating disorders. People who suffer with Anorexia Nervosa usually are perfectionists and overachievers’. People who suffer from Anorexia work relentlessly towards a thinner body because they feel that this will promise them beauty, success and happiness. The victims usually want to feel accepted by society however they do not feel valued by others. Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa are most common in white people in western societies. This shows a direct link to how our society looks at behaviours and expectations of the public compared to eating disorders. Not only in the Western hemisphere is there a link towards the ethnicity of people with eating disorders, a study in Fiji showed a sudden increase in eating disorders among young women since the arrival of television in 1995, (Fearn, 1999). This also shows a strong link between the social and cultural factors. I have seen that there is a number of ways that that the Media can alter teenage girls’ perception of beauty. As I have found, magazines use the same frame of model to promote clothing and will openly slate people’s bodies if they feel they are not â€Å"good enough. Also, magazines will always show articles on how girls and women can change or correct themselves so that they are up to a standard that the Media thinks is acceptable. As humans, it has been known that we always want what we can’ have but is this just apart of our human nature? of this will make girls doubt their own body, even though I found from my own research that girls are not envious of the models in advertisements, they still wanted to lose weight and illustrated they were unhappy with themselves. This was proven through my questionnaires as 79% of the girls admitted to not being happy with their body. Although we as a public may claim to want to see women of a normal size modelling products aimed at us, fashion designers that are in charge decide what we are shown, and this could be where the problem is. Referring back to a point that Karl Langerfield, he claims that â€Å"the world of fashion was all to do ‘with dreams and illusions, and no one wants to see round women†. Even though we may openly say that we want to see designers use curvier bodies to promote their range of clothing or do we as a public secretly see want to see a skinnier frame of model? This links in with a point made earlier about my experiments. Even though all the girls admitted they weren’t jealous of the girls frame, they still wanted a lower discrepancy. So are fashion designers after all giving the public what they can’t admit to wanting? Also, Diane Von Furstenberg claimed that â€Å"To be a model, you have to be skinny. In conclusion, I have found that it’s clear that there are so many different opinions and that it’s hard to identify the general overview to this question without finding exceptions. I feel positive that I have found that the Media can affect teenagers and their perception of beauty but that it varies between person to person as my questionnaires have shown. However, if we are aware of the potential effects, then in theory, we ca n find solutions to these issues; surely that is the most important lesson we can take away from this?

The House Of The Seven Gables Essay examples -- essays research papers

THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES The story begins as Nathaniel Hawthorne lays down the setting and describes the house of the seven-gables and the story of its creation. The house is old and overrun by moss weeds and bushes, but the greatest aspect is the gigantic tree in the front of the house that seems to grow in size as it feeds off the misery of the inhabitants and the decay of the house. The very land that the house was built on was stolen from Matthew Moule. Since Colonel Pyncheon liked the location he helped accuse Matthew Moule of witchcraft and had him hung from the gallows pole. At his death, Matthew Moule curses Colonel Pyncheon saying, 'God will give him blood to drink!" One hundred and sixty years ago, when Colonel Pyncheon opened the new seven-gabled mansion, the guests found him lying dead in his study with his face covered in blood. Now, 160 years later, the curse still haunts the household as unfortunate circumstances fall upon the Pyncheons. The claim to the vast acres in Maine still remains lost. Clifford Pyncheon was convicted for killing his uncle and is sent to prison for 30 years. The only Pyncheon left living in the house is Hepzibah, who is forced to put aside her pride and open a 1-cent shop on the first floor. The 1-cent shop in itself is a symbol if irony due to the fact that Hepzibah was once rich and now, though she is living in a mansion, she sells penny goods on the bottom floor. Townspeople come in usually just to see her work an...

Organizational Structure for Hershey Company Essay

Milton Hershey believed that, â€Å"workers who were treated fairly and who lived in a comfortable, pleasant environment†, would be better workers. He not only built a town for his employees but also a school for orphans. Corporate Social Responsibility is an integral part of the Hershey Company’s global business strategy; which includes goals and priorities focused on fair and ethical business dealings. Hershey’s is the leading producer of chocolate and non-chocolate confectionary and other grocery products in North America and also carries a significant international presence with operations in over 90 countries. Canada, Mexico, Brazil, China, Korea, Japan, and India to name a few. In 2010 Hershey entered into a deal with Walmart (known as ASDA in the United Kingdom,) to sell Hershey products in Europe. Hershey’s will have to modify their products in order, to do so. Hershey uses genetically modified ingredients in the United States and ASDA does not sell genetically modified ingredients. The hospital, I worked, had employees use their index finger to clock in and out. I would always clock in approximately ten minutes before my scheduled shift. This is so I had enough time to walk to my department put my coat and purse away and log into my computer to be ready for the first patient to register. HR decided it would be better to have all employee’s clock in no earlier than two minutes before their shift. This created chaos, there were approximately fifteen employees standing around the time clock. I feel this was not a good solution, because employees were getting  to their departments late. Furthermore, patients were seeing the employee’s standing around when they were waiting for their appointment. It saved the hospital from paying their employees overtime. But it made wait time longer for the patient. Furthermore implementing change is always hard at the beginning. In the long run it is for the best of the company and its employee’s. The Hershey Company is all about making their employees enjoy coming to work. The happier the employee, the higher quality of work from that employee. REFERENCES www.thehersheycompany.com

Victor Frankenstein’s

As I walked through the huge cold rusty door of Frankenstein's workshop, my nostrils suddenly burned with the disgustingly smell of decaying flesh and dried blood, but still I carried on my journey threw the cold workshop. I looked up and there were broken electrical cables running right to the center of the workshop. Every couple of seconds they gave out a sudden spark of electricity. Whilst I was wondering what they were being used for, I walked further in to the workshop and I tripped over a blood covered sheet I panicked and kicked the sheet of me, and jumped back to my feet. I couldn't figure out what the electrical cables were being used for so I decided to follow them deeper in to the workshop. Along my path, I walked across broken bottles and tubes all with their contents covering the floor, and their were more of undamaged ones stacked up high on shelves, filled with their own custom colors and distinctive smells. I finally came to be the cables were linked up to, it seemed to be a giant copper tank filled with discolored water, and chunks of bone and flesh, which smelled like rotten egg. It had steam slowly escaping from the poorly welded seems of the tank, I looked behind the tank to discover another one, This one had dark green water in it and was glass, completely opposite to the copper tank, I decided to take a look. The tank was filled with dead electric ells, which had been obviously there for a while, as they were decaying. I heard loud scratching noise coming from a door in the workshop, I slowly wondered towards it,and give it a small push open, when suddenly two or three rats came scurrying out of it, they ran off somewhere behind the tank, I mainly focused what was in the room, their was a window in the corner letting rain threw its hole in the glass, it hadn't been cleaned by the looks of things since it had been installed as it was covered in years of dust and grime. I walked into the room to see what lied on the table that laid in the middle of room, the table was covered with books, one book laid open reading â€Å"Life after death†. At the other side of the table were two dissected frogs, one of them laid lifelessly with a big gash running down its back, and the other one had small wires attached to its hands and feet, I knocked a book to the floor I bent down to pick it up, and I saw a key I picked both the key and book up, I read the book cover which read â€Å"bringing back the dead† and I put it back on the table, I saw another door next to an old bookshelf, I tried to open it but it was locked. I looked at the key and tried it in the lock it worked, and I opened the door. I jumped back in fear as the door lead to a closet containing human body parts and organs I quickly slammed the door shut and ran to the other side of the room. I vomited, I panicked and ran out the room back to the main part of the workshop, to again smell decaying flesh, I ignored the smell this time and I continued running back to the entrance following the electrical cables which lead me into the workshop, I reached the rusty door and pushed it open to let me free in to the rain outside and to take a much needed fresh breath of air.

Rubber and Alternatives essays

Rubber and Alternatives essays A forebearer to the rubber industry has been in existence since 1876 when an Englishman, Henry Wickham, returned to England from Brazil with rubber tree seeds he had gathered for germination. However, societys use of rubber predates that existence by almost 3500 years. The MesoAmericans were known to have used the latex produced by the rubber tree for a variety of purposes, including the making of rubber balls that they would use for games and entertainment. Currently, of course, the rubber industry creates a wide variety of products for which rubber is incorporated. The rubber industry not only continues to employ the latex produced by the rubber plant to produce such products, but it has also been able to add polymer blends to enhance that production. The use of polymer blends is an effective method for altering the performance of polymer materials and is widely employed in engineering plastics, rubber and fiber materials (Chiu, Tsai, 2006, p. 89). Adding polymers to the rubber provides an even more durable product and enhances the usability of natural rubber (NR) as compared to the polybutadiene classification of rubber (BR). Natural rubber is classified as rubber that is derived from natural ingredients, while polybutadiene rubber is classified as containing additives to enhance certain qualities. Chius study of the differences between the two classifications of rubber provides evidence that Natural rubber...has certain advantages, such as flexibility but the same study shows that some of its properties fall short in certain applications, such as oil resistance, air permeability, ozone resistance, compression set and thermal aging resistance (Chiu, p. 89). BR can be classified as one of a number of synthetic rubbers. There are a number of reasons why the rubber industry has found it necessary to develop these alternatives to using natural rubber. Those re...

Adverb(ial) Phrases in English

Adverb(ial) Phrases in English An adverb phrase (or adverbial phrase) is a word group with an adverb as its head. This adverb may be accompanied by modifiers or qualifiers. An adverb phrase can modify a verb, an adjective, another adverb, or even an entire sentence or main clause. As shown in the examples below, it can appear in a number of different positions in a sentence. Examples of Adverbial Phrases The Cheshire Cat vanished quite slowly, beginning with the end of its tail.The players responded surprisingly well to all the pressures of the playoffs.The best way to preserve the flavor and texture of fresh vegetables is to cook them as quickly as possible.As quickly as possible, we cleaned the fish and placed them in coolers.The air was warm, stirred only occasionally by a breeze.Only occasionally is there a rumble in the sky or a hint of rain.Snow fell much earlier than usual.My daughters choice of driving music is,  surprisingly enough, classic rock. Quotes With Adverb Phrases James Russell Lowell If youth be a defect, it is one that we outgrow only too soon. Beverly Barton, Close Enough to Kill Bernie watched Jims face for a reaction.  Surprisingly enough, he grinned. Adverbial Phrases Without Adverbs Theyre called adverbial phrases because they can occur in the same range of positions as single adverbs. Many such adverbial phrases, paradoxically, do not contain an adverb. Such adverb-less adverbial phrases are typically prepositional phrases, as italicized in the examples below from James R. Hurford in Grammar: A Students Guide. On Friday night, Im playing squash.Their marriage broke up in the most painful way.May I, on behalf of the shareholders, congratulate you? Positioning Adverb Phrases Jame R. Hurford, Grammar: A Students Guide Like adverbs, adverb phrases can cause confusion because there is some flexibility in where they occur within sentences, and even in modifying the sentence structure. As well, adverb phrases are sometimes embedded in other phrases. Examples are: Laura, a better, gentler, more beautiful Laura, whom everybody, everybody loved dearly and tenderly.He had taken her hand sympathizingly, forgivingly, but his silence made me curious.David, on the lowest step, was very evidently not hearing a word of what was being said. Our first example identifies an adverb phrase following the verb loved; the next example shows an adverb phrase following the noun hand and removed from the verb it modifies; the third example has an adverb phrase embedded into a verb phrase was...hearing. Such flexibility makes it more difficult to identify these phrases; therefore, noting the head adverb can be of help. Sources Barton, Beverly. Close Enough to Kill. Hardcover, Zebra Books/Kensington Publish, 2006. Hurford, James R. Grammar: A Students Guide. Cambridge University Press, January 27, 1995. ODwyer, Bernard. Modern English Structures: Form, Function, and Position. 2nd Edition, Broadview Press, June 16, 2006.

Toni Morrison Sula and Mahasweta Devi Breast Giver Essay

Toni Morrison Sula and Mahasweta Devi Breast Giver - Essay Example For a book of this stature, most readers wanted a heroine they could identify with- someone who was basically good despite her minor flaws and few blunders- someone like Nel. But that is not to be. Sula is the protagonist of the novel and she is by no means a traditional heroine. In fact for many, she is an evil woman who refuses to conform to societal expectations of her and does some truly inexcusable things such as sleeping with her best friend's husband. Sula presents a different, unique but definitely negative image of a woman. But it was not done to highlight the evil side of women instead it was done more with the purpose of asserting women rights and independence. Women rights and their position in the society is also the topic of controversial story Breast Giver by Indian author Mahasweta Devi. The story revolves around a woman Joshuda who considers her breasts her chief possession since they bring food for her family. She is hired as a professional mother for several children in a high class Brahmin family referred to as the big house in the story. The story deals with the subject of unpaid labor and a woman's reproductive capabilities going unwaged. Joshuda's low caste body that goes from being the most fruitful to decayed and diseased is used as an allegory and thus the entire plot can be considered allegorical. For many in the west, this story may appear too fictitious to ever be true but we must not forget that this is about an Indian woman in a small town of India where breast feeding children of wealthy families had been a custom for a very long time. The author chooses to highlight the social divide as well the collapse of Mother Ind ia myth. She uses Joshuda's body as a representation of third world countries while the big house represents the capitalist bourgeois in the developed world. While the capitalist powers have always been a source of contention in India, the author explains that by creating such vast social divisions, we are actually fostering the very capitalist forces that we otherwise vehemently oppose. Spivak in her analysis of the story thus asserts that the fictional character Jashoda 'calls into question that aspect of Western Marxist feminism which, from the point of view of work, trivializes the theory of value and, from the point of view of mothering as work, ignores the mother as subject' (Spivak 1987:258). 'Breast Giver', further argues that in this story 'we see cancer rather than the clitoral orgasm as the excess of the woman's body' (Spivak 1993:90). Breast giver highlights in almost dramatic fashion the exploitation of a woman's body in much the same way as colonies of imperial powers had once been exploited. The gruesome death of Jashoda from breast cancer is another important highlight of this work as Spivak notices the importance of the phrase, 'The sores on her breast kept mocking her with a hundred mouths, a hundred eyes' (Spivak 1987:260). Sula is the story of two black women coming of age in Ohio sometime during the two world wars. Sula is wild and aggressive woman with an individualistic streak and a strong desire to break free of tradition and rules. Nel on the other hand is the compassionate gentle figure that can best be described as a 'nice' person. But Sula is not interested in being the conformist. She is an independent woman whose personality is largely shaped by the place she lived in- Bottom. Bottom was not even half as good as it was made out