Synopsis
!TW!
The Diet exposes the vitality of diet culture whilst also emphasising beauty standards which isolate many woman and men today. Like much of the poetry within the feminine gospels the woman talked about in the book do not have a name this is because the woman symbolises everyone in society. The poem touches on many important mental illness's which effect predominately woman such as body dysmorphia and anorexia. The ideological significance of the Diet is too illustrate to society the dangers and harms of beauty standards.
''inside the fat woman now, trying to get out''
Analysis
The diet by Carol Ann Duffy is significant in modern society where women are isolated by unrealistic beauty standards. Eating disorders have the highest death rate of all mental illnesses, Duffy raises awareness of the dangers of them in the Diet.
The male gaze is a prominent theme throughout the poetry collection so it's not unexpected that it flows through the poem the Diet. ' floated into the barman's eye'. This line displays the idea of a woman being so light in weight she floats to a man's attention, conveying the ease of floating into a man's sexual desire when you are 'anorexias true daughter' intoxicated by the beauty standard of being thin.
One of the most significant lines in the poem for me was the ending of ' inside the fat woman now, trying to get out'. For me this line can be interpreted to display the toxic cycle of eating disorders. Duffy uses a cyclical structure to display this. At the start it mentions ' skin and bone' and At the end a ' fat woman' this dichotomy illustrates to the reader the fact that even if you starve yourself, from your perspective you will never be enough. The use of a skinny person being swallowed up by a fat woman displays this idea of fatphobia as well as body dysmorphia. Even after the woman has been starving herself throughout the poem ' no sugar' she still views herself as intoxicated by this fat woman. The poem also starts with this diet of ' skipping breakfast' and ' lunch, dinner' and ends with the woman ' gorging' this itself resembles another eating disorder of Bulimia where binge and purge cycles take place. Carol Ann Duffy explores the different eating disorders caused by the beauty standards which isolate us today. The diet is a wake-up call to remind us all that we do not need to ' shrink' to float to the barman in our lives as ultimately in the end we will be trapped in the toxic cycle of unattainable and unrealistic beauty standards.
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