I selected an article from Wetpaint.com (an entertainment news site) that a friend of mine posted to Facebook through the Washington Post Social Reader. It is centered on the recent weight loss of Nicole Polizzi (Snooki) from Jersey Shore. Snooki is known on the Jersey Shore as being the heaviest girl and was frequently lambasted in online and television entertainment media and by her castmates for her weight. Now that she has reached her goal of 98 pounds, she is being criticized for losing too much weight. This article implies that the praise she has been receiving for her weight loss has encouraged her to go to unhealthy extremes.
Read the article linked below and use one of the Blog Project approaches from the assignment sheet to rhetorically analyze this short article.
Facilitators will not be responding to their own post, but since this is to serve as an example, I will respond to mine.
ReplyDeleteDo remember, however, that facilitators should be responding to other people’s responses to their post and pushing the analysis forward, sometimes in new and different directions by commenting or asking questions.
There's something suspicious about her rapid weight loss. Just seems like she lost too much, too fast. She always had bad habits, both before the weight loss and now, so I'm gonna go ahead and guess that she went on the "Hollywood diet."
ReplyDeleteI do remember on a recent season of Jersey Shore she mentioned that she has had eating disorders in the past. This along with her recent weight loss serves as a warning that she may not be as healthy as she claims to be. I would guess that she lost it in an unhealthy way and is at risk to gain it all back as quickly as she lost it. I hope that she indeed did lose the weight in a healthful way, by eating right and exercising and changing her bad habits for good.
ReplyDeleteOk, so let's steer away from guessing whether Snooki is unhealthy. Let's analyze what the article does.
ReplyDeleteFor example, using Prompt 6:
What I find interesting is that when Snooki was overweight, I never saw an article that expressed concern for her health in the way that this article does. The last sentence of the article asks, “is all the attention Snooki is getting really a good thing for her?” To me this question represents a social practice that we frequently see in our everyday lives.
When celebrities are put on the cover of a magazine for having cellulite, no one expresses concern for how this shaming affects their mental or physical health. But when they are on the cover for being skinny, how this attention on their body affects them becomes a major public concern. I would suggest that this may be because it is culturally acceptable to shame people for being overweight, but perhaps not acceptable for people to show how that shaming has affected them (as when they seek extremely low body weights).
After reviewing the article and taking note on the visual aspects, it's clear to me that this article is mainly focused on the pictures. The first thing you see when opening the link is the blown-up "before-after" pictures. The article highlights Snooki's weight loss and uses the pictures to help their audience connect with their point of view. However, in class today, we pointed out that pictures are not always what they appear to be, and can be deceiving. No one can say for sure if Snooki lost that weight healthfully or not. And we definitely can't say whether or not those pictures are an accurate representation of her actual weight loss.
ReplyDeleteGood, Ian. There are so many factors to health besides weight that are never mentioned in the article!
ReplyDeleteJudging by the author's attitude and words used in the article, it is pretty clear who his audience is. The audience is fans or followers of snooki and jersey shore who have no concern for her actual physical health and eating disorders. It appears the author is just focused on the amount of entertainment "Jersey Shore's meatball" will provide her followers with her twitter updates and her new body. The author does ask a few questions throughout the article and leave a few opinions open ended, but overall I found this to be a very shallow and poorly written article.
ReplyDeleteOne has to wonder whether Snooki lost weight due to public pressure, or if she genuinely wanted to improve her physical health. Regarding the article, it has an "Entertainment Tonight" feel to it given the wording used, such as calling the celebrity a "meatball". The author seems to glorify certain things, such as the type of bikinis she's wearing and her "hungry" Twitter audience. The article seems to come off as flashy just trying to get reads. The question at the end should have been expanded upon by the author instead of simply ending the article. Too much attention was given to how it's affecting her physically, given the pictures, when we should know more about how it's affecting her mentally.
ReplyDeleteI am not much of a Jersey Shore fan myself, but I do remember watching a couple of episodes from season 1 and from what I remember she has been very bi-polar"ish". One moment she is happy and the other she is angry. This may not correlate, but I feel like her weight loss style, and her personality are similar: both are extreme. Maybe her extreme weightloss is a true sign of her actual personality?
ReplyDeleteShe also may be very insecure and thats why she is always posting new pictures of herself in twitter in bikini's all day. This comes with an attempt to satisfy the public.
The title of the article is, Snooki Finally Reaches Goal Weight of 98 Pounds – But Has She Gone Too Far? The title suggests that Snooki has lost too much weight and then is followed by before and after pictures of her in a swimsuit. The beginning question of has she gone to far, is no! After entering in her height in WeightWatchers.com, a healthy weight for someone of the height of 4 ft. 9 in. is 92 -116 pounds. Snooki’s new and improved weight falls right into that category.
ReplyDeleteSnooki posting this picture is out of contentment of her weight loss. As to whether or not she accomplished this in a healthy way is unknown through the article. But, with the article claiming that Snooki has “went too far,” I would have to disagree with that claim because she is in her correct weight class.
After analyzing the interface of the featured article, I believe it is implicitly suggesting that Snooki has lost too much weight over the recent years. By placing the two pictures sided by side, it is easy to compare her weight from season one to her current weight. The increase in media attention towards her weight is the central cause to her rapid weight lost. This article shows that Snooki values her appearance and making sure that she looks thin. Continually posting pictures on twitter of her new look, demonstrates that she is obsessed with the way she looks and wants to draw attention to it. Isn’t that what Facebook and Twitter are for? To draw the attention of people by posting new pictures and statuses.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I believe that this article and visual is highlighting the pressures from media and the public to look thin, and how this pressure might be damaging for people. I wonder is the media to blame with the increase in the number of anorexia and bulimia cases, and the increase in extreme dieting
After reading the article I don't necessarily think that Snooki's weight loss is unhealthy for her. Like Mariah said, Snooki's weight is actually healthy for her height. I don't think she's as obsessed with her losing weight as she is as using twitter itself. Plus, she's not at an unhealthy or anorexic weight. Snooki is a tv icon and loves the attention she gets from twitter. I don't think this unhealthy for her especially since she's been living her life on tv for years now. Clearly this article believes that her recent weight lose is a negative thing by how much she tweets about it; however, I just think she's finally achieved a goal of hers and since twitter is so accessible to her, she abuses it a little bit.
ReplyDeleteThe article was focused more on the difference in the before and after pictures that were posted to Twitter and the author seems to stress the huge weight loss that occurred in such a short time. As previously stated, she is at a healthy weight for her height and that's all well and good but I think the author is trying to emphasize the measures that she took to reach that weight and how the rapid weight loss that she underwent is indeed very unhealthy. There's a process that the body has to undergo in order to adjust to the resources that it has and the author is just bringing attention to how quickly the change occurred. The article is more of a calling to attention that this might affect the way Snooki acts or some other aspect. The author, to me, seems to be more interested how her weight loss will affect her public attitude and the success of her tv show.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading through this article, I find it extremely hard to believe Snooki actually reached her goal wait of 98 pounds.The picture of Snooki in her blue "monokini" comes off as if it has been edited in photoshop. It is just very hard for me to believe that Snooki is now 98 pounds based on the picture of her being plus sized. The article questions whether or not Snooki is healthy and if she is suffering from bulimia or anorexia. I do not think she is suffering from an eating disorder and I feel that as long as Snooki is comfortable with her current weight, then she is healthy.
ReplyDeleteLooking through the comments, many people are against the Jersey Shore. They write hateful posts how the show makes the United States look bad. This accusation draws more attention to the fact that our society is obsessed with how people look and appear to others. Just as Snooki is being analyzed and critiqued on her image, the United States is being judged too. Citizens want their country to “look good.” For similar reasons, this is probably why Snooki tried to appear to society’s standards by losing weight.
ReplyDeleteThis article keeps claiming Snooki's weight loss as shocking or dramatic, when in reality it is quite normal. She was living a very unhealthy lifestyle and needed to make a big change to stop the dangerous path she was headed down. Like Mariah said and a couple others, she is in a weight range that is healthy for her height. She cut out all the alcohol and fatty foods from her life. This article is making these points seem irrelevant which isn't fair. Instead of accusing her, they should look at how she actually lost the weight. The article was only looking at the negatives of how to lose weight and not the positive ways of how it could have possibly happened.
ReplyDeleteI do not think all this attention is good for Snooki. I think attention and focus on how she looked plays the main role in why she tried to lose all this weight so fast in the first place. Although it is good for Snooki that she is now at a healthy weight for her body, it is not necessarily the healthiest thing to lose a large amount of weight in a short time. It is also not healthy to drop below a certain weight. If all this attention is the reason she lost the weight in the first place, all this attention on how she lost weight could pressure her to lose even more weight, which could be potentially dangerous for her of she drops below a certain weight.
ReplyDeleteIn the article, Molly Friedman, criticizes Snooki's rapid weight loss. Her claim, however, is strange. She is insinuating that all this attention she is getting might make a turn for the worse. Let's be realistic though, Snooki is famous. She is a pop culture icon and the attention she is getting has maximized months ago. She was at an unhealthy place in her life, she changed, and now she is at a healthy weight. Who is one to judge just because she lost a lot of weight. From reading the article, one can not assume she lost weight in a unhealthy way; therefore, it's irrelevant. Friendman uses the photos to appeal to the readers sense of judgement. From just looking at the photos, ones reaction might be that there is a substantial difference. However, one must look at the overall situation she is in. She was at an unhealthy place in her life , so she changed. Simple and healthy.
ReplyDeleteI think Snooki is not unhealthy. Molly Friedman, the author, belief that she has lost too much weight is incorrect. I think she looks great and healthy. I think many people believe that she lost too much weight because of how fast the transformation happened. However, with a change of diet and a good workout routine people will lose weight. If the change of lifestyle is dramatic, the weight lose will be too. "Jersey Shore" even shows how hard she worked to get the body she has now, especially in the season where they were in Italy. Molly mentions Snooki's previous eating disorder issues, but I believe that Snooki's weight lose is not from eating disorders. If Snooki's weight lose was from eating disorders, she would not look tone and instead look like the images that we saw in class today. Jennifer Hudson lost weight quick, and no one thinks she has eating disorders. Just because someone had a history of eating disorders does not mean they will do it again.
ReplyDeleteWhen we open the article on the blog, the first thing we notice is the drastic change in Snooki’s appearance. The meaning of the entire article is summarized in this single picture implicitly suggesting that the Jersey Shore star has taken things too far. It reveals the idea that she has taken her weight loss to an unhealthy level. The image and article title also suggests that her dieting is out of control. It makes it seem as if there is something mentally wrong with Snooki’s self-image. For those people who also struggle with their own self-image, maybe this image serves as an inspiration that weight loss is possible. The image might have a different meaning for several different people.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading through the comments on the article and what everyone here has to say, I've come to the conclusion that this article does have an effect on people, whether that be positive or negative. This article gives people a reason to express their hatred towards Jersey Shore, its cast, and how obsessed with it society is. What people fail to realize is that whether you like jersey shore, is Snooki's weight loss was healthy or not. I used to wrestle in high school, and clearly I wasn't losing weight correctly, but I was able to achieve the weight I wanted. No questions asked. Its the same thing here, Snooki is at a weight which is healthy for her height and the means by which it happened is irrelevant. Everyones comments on the article point towards how much people hate Snooki. Its sad that people have to question every little thing that a celebrity does, and blame them for how people act. Most comments were negative because they don't agree by the means she lost her weight. The problem is compacted by her status as a celebrity on a controversial show. People who tell her to kill herself clearly have nothing better to do than sit here and bash for losing weight. Sorry bout chu.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the article, I have come to the realization that all Snooki wants is attention. It seems to me that articles like this are what she is striving for and the attention she receives fuels her ill-advised actions. I believe that her decision to lose weight is a healthy choice but it could lead to unhealthy ones. Due to the publicity she has received from this photo she may be "inspired" lose more so she could get more undeserved attention. Altogether I feel that this article could cause some unhealthy decisions to be made by Snooki resulting in more publicity.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read the first sentence, I was stunned to see the author use such a demeaning term to describe Snooki's physique. Anyway, it seems that almost everyone has commented that Snooki went from one extreme to the other, and I definitely agree with that. However, I can see why she would do such a thing. After being called out for her weight by the public and her fellow cast, I'm sure she had a huge build up of frustration in her mind and wanted to go all out on her weight loss routine.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading Molly Friedman's article, I believe it is strongly implied that the author sees Snooki's rapid weight loss as detrimental to her health. The fact that the article presents blown-up "before" and "after" pictures at the top of the page especially emphasizes a negative view of the transition. Snooki's decision to post pictures of her progress on Twitter should not be labeled as a call for attention or public approval; seeing as weight loss has been a desired goal in her life for a long period of time, the more relevant explanation would simply be a pride in achieving her goal. 98 pounds is a healthy weight for someone of Snooki's stature, and if the "after" picture represents an accurate update of her new figure, she appears to be in good shape and does not show muscle deterioration present in those with anorexia. The public has accustomed to judging celebrities' every move; as a result, many articles, such as this, are written to act upon the reader's judgment and to persuade questioning of the situation's negative standing.
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