Eng4u-B Lesson 3 Key Questions

a)

When Catherine Pigott moved to Africa, she experienced a dramatically different culture than the western one she was used to. Catherine started to adopt the traits and social patterns of the Gambian women in many ways. She began to dress differently, she wore a head tie and the traditional lappa which was ankle-length fabric that wrapped around her. She learned how to eat like the Gambian women, with such relish and joy. She also slowly changed the way she looked, she ate more like the Gambian women and she slowly gained weight which was considered more beautiful in the eyes of that culture. Lastly, Catherine’s perception of beauty was altered as well. She began to believe the extra weight on her hips and thighs were beautiful, and that women she once envied appeared fragile, devoid of shape and substance, even ugly. Catherine had become a different person and she had adopted a new cultural identity.

b) Catherine Pigott’s “Chicken Hips” And Naheed Mustafa’s “My Body is My Own Business” are two great representations in writing that depict a common issue faced by individuals in our society. Where individuals are constantly dealing with the judgement and hostility that comes with the culture they live in especially if they choose to be different in any way than the cultural norms that exist. One’s identity can greatly influenced by the culture they are a part of or live in. This is shown by both “Chicken Hips” and “My Body is My Own Business.”

In Catherine Pigott’s “Chicken Hips” Catherine becomes a different person in many ways after moving to a country with different cultural ideals and beliefs. She slowly adopts the Gambian culture after living there for a year and her perception of beauty changes from battling the bulge, to celebrating it. Naheed Mustafa however does not conform to the beliefs and ideals of the culture she lives in. Instead, she wears the hijab and follows the Koran from her Muslim background, which in western civilization is not widely accepted. Both of these women describe how they are viewed or how they think they are viewed in the society they are a part of, sometimes positively and sometimes negatively.

Naheed explains in “My Body is My Own Business” how she believes she is viewed in the western world. She explains how the hijab come to symbolize either forced silence or radical, unconscionable militancy and how most people don’t understand her choices. Catherine Pigott also explains how she feels she is viewed in her society. She moves to Africa where her long-legged leanness is viewed negatively but would have been positive in the western civilization she came from. Both women make decisions based on the cultural perspectives of beauty. Neheed wears her hijab to give her freedom from the constant attention to her physical self and her beauty, or perhaps lack of it and therefore, beauty