On this week’s 51%, a writer from the Midwest pens a memoir of hunger and disordered eating with a message about ageism. And we learn about women in the earlier days of Greenpeace. I’m Allison Dunne and this is 51%.
From adolescence to deep into middle age, Lisa Knopp has struggled with an eating disorder. Severe food restricting left her sick at ages 15, 25 and 54. It was her most recent battle that left her wondering if eating disorders and disordered eating are caused by the same factors as those in younger women or are they caused, in part, by aging in a culture that views midlife and beyond as a time marked by deterioration, powerlessness and irrelevance? Knopp, an English professor at the University of Nebraska-Omaha and author of five collections of essays, also wanted to know how she could ever heal from a condition that is caused by a tangle of genetic, biological, familial, psychological, economic, spiritual and cultural forces. The result of her inquiry and exploration is Bread: A Memoir of Hunger. I asked her why she wrote book and why now.
Two brands that represent women in, well, a different sort of light are Playboy and Hooters and both have announced some changes.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — First, naked women are back in Playboy magazine, ending a year-old ban on the nudity that made the magazine famous. Playboy celebrated the reversal on Twitter and Facebook with the hashtag #NakedIsNormal.The about-face has come with the release of Playboy's March-April issue. The magazine had banished naked women from its print edition because it felt the content had become passé in the era of easily accessible online porn. But Cooper Hefner, Playboy's chief creative officer and the son of magazine founder Hugh Hefner, recently called the nudity ban a mistake in a Twitter post. Cooper Hefner said the magazine is reclaiming its identity. Playboy declined further comment.
I depart from delivering this news and offer the following: Yes, nudity is normal. But, in this case, it also is well choreographed, often depicted in submissive fashion and manipulated, think airbrush and oh what photo applications can do, as is the case with many magazines.
NEW YORK (AP) — Then, headed in a somewhat different direction is Hooters, which is hoping people really do like it for its food. Hooters Management Corp., a licensee of Hooters of America, says it just opened a restaurant that does not feature waitresses in tight tops. The "Hoots" restaurant outside Chicago has people ordering at the counter rather than at tables, from female and male employees. CEO of Hooters Management Corp. Neil Kiefer says the restaurant in Cicero, Illinois, is a test and it will serve only about a dozen menu items, including chicken wings. The move comes as the restaurant industry faces flat customer traffic, though fast-food places are expected to steal business from sit-down chains, according to The NPD Group.
These days, global environmental group Greenpeace is defending the forest against palm oil companies and standing up against the Dakota Access Pipeline, to name a very few of the activist group’s causes around the world. During women’s history month, it’s time to take a look at a few of the women of Greenpeace and bring their accomplishments to the fore.
This Women in Greenpeace History story was produced by Mary Ambrose for a Greenpeace Podcast Segment Series.
And that's our show this week. Thanks to Patrick Garrett for production assistance. Our executive producer is Dr. Alan Chartock. Our theme music is Glow in the Dark by Kevin Bartlett. This show is a national production of Northeast Public Radio. If you’d like to hear this show again, sign up for our podcast, or visit the 51% archives on our web site at wamc.org. And follow us on Twitter @51PercentRadio
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