Size 6: The Western Women's Harem
In the story, Size 6: The Western Women’s Harem written by Fatema Menissi, Mernissi explores the mystery of the women’s harem. Mernissi was born in Fez, Morocco and was raised in a harem. She received an Erasmus Prize in 2004 and while travelling to the Middle East, she hears Western misconceptions of a harem. This inspires her to write this story. After an unfortunate experience at the department store with the saleswoman, Mernissi notices the beauty standards there are around the world. She finds her answer to her harem enigma and compares the difference between the Western and Eastern harem. Both harems make women feel unwelcome and uncomfortable in their own skin. This story talks about beauty ideals for women especially how in the fashion industry. It also discusses how men in the Western and Eastern harem treat women.
Some connections that Size 6 has are text-to-text and text-to-life. For text-to-text, my story relates to one of the characters in the Pretty Little Liars Series. In Pretty Little Liars, Hannah was over weight so she feels very insecure about herself. She wants to become like Alison, who is this beautiful, skinny popular girl. Hannah goes on diets and exercise to try to become skinnier, so she can feel more confident about her weight. My story and PLL both lacked self-confidence and were insecure.
The second text-to-text connection is this relates to the saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” This saying is very important because it tells people to not judge people by there outside but on what’s inside their heart. Just like Size 6, many people judged Mernissi just because she was overweight.
For text-to-life, one example that this relates to is when one of us got made fun of because of their weight when he/she was younger. This relates to Size 6, because many people teased Mernissi of her weight and she felt sad and embarrassed just like how one of us felt.
Another text-to-life connection is during Mernissi's time at the American department store, she was looking for a cotton skirt to wear but was unsuccessful to find one in her size. One of us can connect this to many past experiences in my life. When he/she is at a store, he/she would find a shirt that he/she likes but it would never be in one of our size and he/she would lose her/his confidence.
Metaphor- "The violence emodied in the Western harem is less visible than in the Eastern harem because aging is not attacked directly, but rather maske as an aesthetic choice." - Sentence #1, Paragraph 16.
Simile- "Framing youth as beauty and condermning maturity is the weapon used against women in the West just as limiting access to public space is the weapon used in the East." - Sentence #2, Pararaph 17.
Hyperbole- '"You are too big!" she said." -Sentence #1, Paragraph 2.
Our group believes that Size 6 taught us an important message about beauty standards around the world. It made us think that we should not worry about our appearance and we shouldn't care what other people think of ourselves. We should believe in ourselves and be optimistic.