Insecurity in "The Body's Defenses Against Itself"
“Maybe it had to do with being in that specific body, a body so different from everyone else’s at school, one that wouldn’t do the things that other people did, or that did too much of them.” “It was worse than all those things because it said something about my inherent inability to be something normal, to be a girl, to be perfect all or even some of the time.” In the first quote, Fatima talks about her experience at the doctor for her extreme sweating problem, and her doctor comes to the conclusion that it’s because of anxiety. On the other hand Fatima thinks that it’s because of what she says in the quote, she is insecure about her body, and how it compares to everyone else. The second quote comes later in the story after everyone starts making fun of her for the way she smells. Although these quotes derive from two very different instances in Fatima’s life they still go back to the same overarching problem: her negative perspective of herself. It’s clear that she has noticed that