The topic I am going to be writing on is about eating disorders in young adult women, specially in the memoir Elena Vanishing by Elena and Clare Dunkle, and the societal impact of gender expectations on those with eating disorders. I’m going to be focusing on how eating disorders are one of the results of the patriarchy’s response to the gains of Second Wave Feminism where instead of women being trapped in the home, they are trapped inside of their own bodies. I chose the Journal of Undergraduate Research in the Humanities as the journal I want to write for. It appealed to me because the guidelines were not overly complex and the requirements were not overly specific. Since the main requirements is to submit work of 4000-10000 words that is original and adheres to the latest MLA guidelines, I feel that this gives me the opportunity to write on a wide range of topics without having strict guidelines to follow. I also really liked the types of works that have been accepted into this journal. There are works in this journal that range from science related topics to the arts and humanities. I really feel that this journal would give me the opportunity to write freely.
The part of Elena Vanishing that I am assigning to the class is from pages 123-141. This except occurs between Chapters 10 and 11. These two chapters take place within the middle of the text where Elena has entered college while battling her eating disorder. I chose this section of the text because I feel that it commentates on the perfectionism aspect of eating disorders and the societal expectations for women to be perfect. This portion of the text also shows how because women have been given more opportunities for their future outside of the home as a result of Second Wave Feminist gains, patriarchal society now expects that they use those opportunities to the best of their ability and be perfect at all of them to show that they deserve to have that independence. The voice of Elena’s eating disorder in this section also shows how the patriarchy dictates how women are supposed to have and use their independence and how if a woman is not perfect according to societal standards–both in action and looks–then the patriarchy determines that they do not deserve to have free independence.
I’m also assigning Courtney Markle’s “The Famine Mystique”. This secondary source explores how dieting and eating disorders have become a new form of entrapment by the patriarchy following Second Wave Feminism. I’m assigning this text to go with my primary text because I feel that it gives necessary background to how the entrapment of women in their bodies is inherently connected to the patriarchy. It also shows how the growth in opportunity outside of the home following the gains of Second Wave has been met with resistance by the patriarchy where men seek to trap women in their bodies if they unable to trap them inside the home
I already know a pretty good amount about this topic. I have done a decent amount of research on Second Wave Feminism gains and drawbacks, along with eating disorders during womanhood. However, because there is very little literary works on eating disorders in women, most of my understanding about this topic is through medical sources. I have read many texts and articles from past research projects that focused on the physiological and medical aspects of eating disorders and I feel that that background knowledge will be useful when working with this topic for my paper.
What I want to learn about my topic is more on how an outside voice plays a role in texts and how it changes the interpretation of a narration. Because the voice that overshadows Elena’s narrative is the eating disorder itself, this voice is not even from a person, but rather from a thing/concept. I think it will be interesting to learn more about these voices and how they function in other texts so that I can use that information and apply it to my topic and research paper.
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