Meat & grease
Fast food provides a Faustian experience
r-ast rood often allures slim
pockets and tight schedules,
despite dietary drawbacks
Travis Willse
Copy Editor
Gluttony earned sinners a dreary
afterlife of “rain, eternal, cursed,
cold and falling heavy” in Dante’s
“Inferno.” Yet with a Big Mac and Su
per Size fries together pushing 1,100
calories and 59 grams of fat, fast food
outlets across America probably
won’t start pushing good culinary be
havior anytime soon.
Even if those numbers are bad,
America is asking for it. According to
Eric Schlosser’s Upton Sinclair-es
que exposg “Fast Food Nation: The
Dark Side of the All-American Meal,”
fast food sales in America topped
10107 billion in 2000. That’s 0384 per
person, up from 0133 in 1970, ad
justing for inflation. If America
needs a defining vice, fast food is a
better candidate than ever before.
Posters and leaflets at the restau
rants detail the usually sub-par and
often detrimental nutritive value of
everything from Grande Meals down
to ketchup packets. What about
their love affair with the Golden
Arches and the Home of the Whop
per, then, is compelling enough to
eclipse Americans’ sense of long
term self-preservation?
Answers vary, but sophomore
Taco Bell patron Roy Hobbs knows
a few.
“I know it’s not healthy, but it
tastes good,” Hobbs said. “You spend
a relatively low amount of money.”
Budget constraints and conven
ience can make fast food especially
appealing to the collegiate wallet.
“I’m just as poor as the next kid,”
Lane Community College fresh
man Devin Whitaker said. “It’s
mostly cost.”
It’s not all economics for Whitak
er, though. He said he’s “a sucker
for Whoppers,” and Burger King’s
reintroduction of the 99-cent
Whopper definitely improved his
fast food experience.
Harvey & Price Co. employee Ja
son Harvey, who visits the Franklin
Boulevard Burger King at least once
a day, said it’s about getting a quick,
convenient meal.
Fast food is probably most con
015922
Show us
your books
and well show you ours
We buy used (non-text) books
from 110 students
Tsunami
Books
2585 Willamette St.
345-8986
Open Mon - Sat: 10-7
Sunday: 12-5
venient for those who work in the in
dustry and can eat on-site, and often
apply employee discounts to already
cheap eats. LGG freshman Michelle
McCarthy, who works at the EMU
Subway, is one of America’s 3.5 mil
lion fast food workers. She eats at
Subway every day she works.
“I don’t really enjoy eating it on
my off days,” she said.
Fast food — even at Subway,
which advertises some healthier fare
than many other chains — can “def
initely be a vice” for some people,
McCarthy said.
Junior Nathan Roholt credits
culinary engineering for some of
the appeal.
“It’s designed to have that kind of
rich, fatty taste to it — the food
equivalent of nicotine,” Roholt
explained.
McCarthy said that fast food can
be “comfort food,” drawing on psy
chological associations forged
in childhood.
“McDonald’s was kind of like that
for me: ‘You were good, so we’re go
ing to McDonald’s,’ or ‘You weren’t
good, so we’re not going to McDon
ald’s,”’ she said.
Whatever the reasons, the dietary
value — or lack thereof—doesn’t di
minish fast food’s popularity. And if
the numbers are any indication, its
place in America’s patchwork of
vices will be secure for a long time,
no matter how bad it is.
“The ‘Stupid American’ philoso
phy is that we have to be addicted to
I
Adam Amato Emerald
Although many people realize the pitfalls of eating too much fast food, the risks often
do not outweigh the benefits of convienence and low cost.
something,” Whitaker said. “Some
people like the Backstreet Boys,
some people like to smoke cigarettes,
some prefer the crack cocaine —
other people prefer the Whopper.”
Contact the copy editor
attraviswillse@dailyemerald.com.
Strip
continued from page 3B
Warren said although he thinks
pornography is disgusting as well, it
doesn’t mean the sex industry is go
ing to go away.
“Some people will always have
lower standards of entertainment
and will see this kind of thing as en
tertaining,” he said. “It’s just not
high moral or ethical behavior.
These guys don’t respect the girls for
who they are — they’re just an ob
ject of lust and entertainment.”
That objectification often can
turn ugly. Twenty-year-old Sara,
who preferred to use only her first
name, said she’s seen her share of
shady scenes. Before moving to Eu
gene in December, she worked in a
club in Los Angeles, and before that
she was in Las Vegas, where her
friend was working.
“It’s a scary world out there,” she
said. “It does open women up sexu
ally, because it’s a very sexual job.”
But, she said, it’s the financial bene
fits that are most enticing.
“In one night, you could easily
make $500 or $600, as opposed to
working for weeks to make that
much,” Sara said. “But some women
take it too far, which isn’t OK.”
She said she has seen people do
things outside the bar for extra
money, where there’s “no security,
no protection.”
Many people say that while sexual
culture isn’t harmful, objectification
culture creates a haven for violence
against women as objects. Sophomore
Austin Shaw-Phillips said this is one of
the primary arguments for decrimi
nalizing some parts of the sex indus
try, namely prostitution and the adult
film business.
“If women’s sexuality weren’t so
taboo, the sex industry itself would
n’t be so taboo,” he said. “And if sex
workers had rights, they could pro
tect themselves legally.”
He added strip clubs are only a
problem insofar as they foster objec
tification culture — if the woman is
merely an outlet for sexual release,
she is not a subject or a person.
“I’m not against women working in
the sex industry,” he said. “I’m just
against the exploitation of women by
men in the sex industry.”
Senior Angelica, who also preferred
to use only her first name, agreed.
"If women's sexuality
weren't so taboo,
the sex industry itself
wouldn't be so taboo.
And if sex workers had
rights, they could
protect themselves
legally."
Austin Shaw-Phillips
sophomore
“Porn is positive in a lot of ways
— people need to be more open
with sexuality and not feel like it’s
a bad thing,” she said. “But if we
want all of it to be more positive,
we need to stop the objectification.
It’s about placing the same value on
women that we place on men in
this society.
“Sexuality is one of the few pow
ers women have over men,” she
said. “It’s sad to see women give up
their sexuality, to men, for money.”
Contact the managing editor
atjessicarichelderfer@dailyemerald.com.
See your face
at 120 mph:
,// - /;