Team members: Sophia Fan, Eunice Choe, Margot Gersing, Elena Deng, Jenna Kim
Our group worked together to analyze the concept of health, working with an image from the website of the World Health Organization under the page for what defines a healthy diet. The image features a young, smiling family consisting of a father and son eating vegetables at the dinner table, gathered in a nicely-furnished room and wearing typical athletic clothing. We felt like this image showed a very conventional, appearance-based definition of health.
We chose to change the focus of the image by reflecting the mental and emotional aspects of health, which do not correspond to a single body type or image. The purpose of the picture can be interpreted as a model of healthy and nurturing relationships. As a group we felt like an important part of health is not just physical health, but mental health–which is not the focus of the original image. Additionally, we wanted to examine the implicit wealth needed to partake in this depiction of a healthy lifestyle, which could exclude people who don’t have the access or resources to eat fresh produce.
It most closely resembles an index in its subjective representations of health, as opposed to a more straightforward symbol. It models a way of life more so than specific products. When analyzing the rhetorical strategies employed in the image, we aligned the image with pathos and ethos. It emulates a desirable way of life with its happy subjects, inviting the viewer to pursue similar habits to achieve the same results. The image gains credibility from its greater context, where it is displayed on the World Health Organization’s website.