“My Body is My Own Business” and “Chicken-Hips” discloses western cultures fallacies on what is beautiful. Naheed states that, “WOMEN are taught from early childhood that their worth is proportional to their attractiveness”. Catherine states, “I come from a culture in which it is almost unseemly for a woman to eat too heartily. It’s considered unattractive”. Both authors succeed in pointing out western cultures values on what is beautiful. Pigott’s write in a manner which is easier to digest for public reading. If it were to be placed in a national newspaper it would printed on liberal and conservative papers. You feel you’re discovering what she is has learnt through her experiences in Africa. She does this my making her ironic state (being overweight but still under sized) delightfully humorous. Naheed’s essay if you were to place hers in a national newspaper it would only be print in a liberal paper. Her tone would be considered too brash for other racial groups. It was written not for the average person to understand. Her essay is more of a statement of, “who I am and I don’t care what you think of me”.
She speaks in great detail how the hijab is a lightning rod for ridicule by others who are less enlighten. “I get the whole gamut of strange looks, stares, and covert glances”. However, it is her source of freedom to disengage from the physical values press upon women within western society. “My appearance is not subjected to public scrutiny, my beauty, or perhaps lack of it, has been removed from the realm of what can legitimately be discussed”. How I personally view this, she chose to carry a different cross of objectification for another. I see her hijab as a bunker from western values she bombarded with.
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