How Society Affects Obese People

An estimated 97 million adults in the United States are overweight or obese (Klein 2000). “"Affecting one in five Americans – or more than 22 percent of the U.S. population – obesity is one of the most pervasive health problems in our nation right now," said George L. Blackburn, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of surgery and associate director of the Division of Nutrition at Harvard Medical School/Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts. "We need to implement steps to slow the progression of this national epidemic” (NAASO 1999). But the problem of obesity does not only affect the United States. "We now know that the growing prevalence of obesity is creating major health problems worldwide," said Dr. James O. Hill, president of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity (NAASO) and Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. Obesity was once regarded as unique to Americans, but it is now seen as a global health risk affecting developing and underdeveloped countries (AOA 2000). Obesity is increasing at an epidemic rate in the United States - 1.3% a year for women over 20. Rates of obesity among minority populations, including African-Americans and Hispanic Americans are especially high (AOA 2000). There is also a marked increase in obesity among children.

Prejudice against fat people is a common thing today because the media tend to advocate incorrect ideas about them. Fat people are seen as losers throughout movies and tv shows. As stated by Ann Marie Paulin, “Fat people are assumed to be lazy, stupid, ugly, lacking in self esteem and pride, devoid of self control...” (245). These assumptions are cultivated by the media to make fat people feel ashamed of themselves. Some people might argue that this is

Society today has distorted what a healthy physique actually looks like. It tells you, if you don’t have muscles bulging from under your skin then you are out of shape. And that if you are overweight you are just ugly. Another false concept is that if you are overweight you’re lazy or not self disciplined (Bordo 2). There are so many factors that have to be accounted for when evaluating someone’s weight. To assume that someone is lazy or weak because they are overweight, is ignorant. Many people are deceived into thinking that obesity is terrible like a sin. In her article Susan Bordo gives an example of a study taken where children chose obesity to be more uncomfortable or embarrassing than dismembered hands or facial deformities when shown

In American culture, the obese body is represented very negatively. One factor that contributes to this negative representation is the abundance of negative reactions that people display towards overweight people. It is a stigma that often taints and belittles the person, leading others to judge the individual negatively, rejecting, hating, or ridiculing him or her. That can often lead the obese person to develop sever psychological problems.

Whether it be in media or only in people’s perceptions, Obese individuals are portrayed as gluttonous, dangerously overeating or otherwise always thinking of food.Commonly because of all the food they eat, obese people also must be well off, living stable enough incomes to support their “food-addiction” and probably sit around all day. But if they don’t understand the basics of how food works, they must be stupid too, right? Basically the American view on obesity is anyone that appears or is obese must be dumb, sloth like with enough money to support the expense of gallons of ice cream a week.

Stereotypes and negative attitudes concerning obese people have been found at both the implicit and explicit levels (Schwartz et al.,2005). Implicit attitudes are the attitudes that people unconsciously hold towards something. They are said to reflect thoughts and feelings that people are either unwilling or unable to report due to self presentation concerns or because they are unaware of the biases they have in the first place (Schwartz et al., 2005). Explicit attitudes are the attitudes that people consciously hold towards something and are obtained using self-report measures.

The unequal treatment for the obese along with the comments consisting of insults and mockery combined together to form a state of mental instability in the obese person. This results in a higher rate of anxiety and depression in the obese. The severity of depression is sometimes so high that it results in suicide attempts. Obese people are generally viewed by the others as the annoyed people. The reason for that is the fact that due to the alienated treatment from the normal people, they are likely to have emotional instability which results in severe mood

Obesity can lead to diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, even some cancers and potentially death. These are all very serious medical issues that need to be addressed. The psychological change would be effects on self-esteem, depression and even face professional and social discrimination. Overweight people may not be hired just based on their weight. If an employer has another candidate for the position that isn’t overweight, that person is more likely to be chosen over an obese person. Obese people can meet the requirements, but due to weight, the individual may not be chosen because the potential employer may think if they can’t control their eating, then they can’t control other behaviors. Society may judge an obese person as messy or not organized but anyone could be messy and disorganized. There are many stereotypes of obese individuals which is part of why depression is common among obese people. Depression is much more than just sadness. A depressed individual may feel tired, worthless, hopeless, and unimportant. Obese people may suffer from insomnia or excessive sleep, and can have recurrent thoughts of suicide or death. Depression greatly affects the individual’s self-esteem and stress levels. Fortunately depression is treatable with antidepressants and therapy. Children may have bullies at school, or even at home, that pick on

Weight loss surgery, also known as bariatric surgery is recommended by many physicians to people who are unable to benefit from traditional weight loss methods. However, choosing to undergo weight loss surgery isn’t an easy decision. It is an important decision that will drastically and permanently impact a person’s life. Therefore, before making such a significant decision, an individual should be aware of both the risks and benefits associated with weight loss surgery (McGowan & Chopra ix).

In the American culture, obesity is seen as a bodily abnormality and deviance that should be corrected. Obesity has indeed become one of the most stigmatizing bodily characteristics in our culture (Brink, 1994). In the Western culture, thinness does not just mean the size of the

Obesity does not discriminate against social status, sex, or race; it can take a person’s life and turn it upside down in the blink of an eye if they are not careful. Some people think of obesity as a worldwide killer because there is no outrunning it if it overtakes a person’s body. Every 1 in 3 adults are obese right here in America, that should give each and every individual some type of hint that there is a major problem occurring. The obesity epidemic is not something that has just caught the attention of people recently; it has been going on since the 1950’s! This epidemic is a major problem; over 2.8 million people die each year as a result of being obese or extremely overweight and over 40 million children were said to be obese in

This essay discusses how social constructions have an effect on obesity and what combination of causes and contributing factors it includes can lead to obesity. `Obesity is the term used to describe someone who is overweight and unhealthy. Obesity shortens life by an average of 10 years. It is very common in the UK and results from a study back in 2014 showed that a whopping 65.3% of men and 58.1% of women are obese here. (UniversityOfBirmingham,2016) Being over weight is generally associated with being lazy and unpleasant. There are a lot of media groups that have influenced our society’s perception on obesity and many factors that lead to the disease. Obesity can be life threatening and can be the start of lethal conditions such as diabetes,

Weight discrimination feels as bad as racial or religious persecution, but is not considered a protected class under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Rebecca Puhl, research scientist and lead author at Yale University states, “These results show the need to treat weight discrimination as a legitimate form of prejudice, comparable to other characteristics like race or gender that already receive legal protection”. Puhl’s co-author, Tatiana Andreyava , also of Yale, indicates that weight bias is more widespread than other well known types of discrimination. “However, despite its high prevalence, it continues to remain socially acceptable” (Obesity 2009).

Weight discrimination “generally refers to negative weight-related attitudes toward an overweight or obese individual” (Puhl 1). Obesity numbers started to skyrocket in the 1990s and weight discrimination started to become a problem about five years later. Obese individuals are susceptible to weight discrimination at health care facilities, school, work, and even in personal relationships. Studies have found that the chances of experiencing weight discrimination increase the more an individual weighs. “In our study, 10 percent of overweight women reported weight discrimination, 20 percent of obese women reported weight discrimination and 45 percent of very obese women reported weight discrimination. men were lower, with 3 percent of overweight, 6 percent of obese and 28 percent of very obese men reporting weight discrimination. This finding also tells us that women begin experiencing weight discrimination at lower levels of body weight than men” (Puhl 2). For women weight discrimination is more common than race discrimination.

Obesity is a massive problem all around the world. It is predominantly an issue in the United Kingdom, but it also a difficulty in other countries, for instance, in the United States, Denmark, Germany, etc. Being obese may seem like an individual problem, but it can, in fact, be a social problem. In general, you can ask yourself: Who is to blame? Perhaps it is society, maybe it is the subjective experts, or conceivably it is you.