Recently, a new policy of Samoa Air, pay-by-your-weight, caused wide public concern. Some passengers are able to understand this rule, because Samoa has a small island-hopping airline and the obesity rates get close to the peak in this region. The others, however, can’t accept this inappropriate idea to discuss people’s weight. In my opinion, I agree with the latter, because weighing the pounds greatly destroys the honor system and the privacy.
The honor system is an important tool to build a good relationship with each other and the whole society, but what Samoa Air did is without applying the honor system, questioning about the weight of passengers and rechecking whether they have to buy an extra ticket for their oversized body, which has a greatly negative impact on the expectation of people. As we know, children with disabilities need the strong honor system to feel a sense of security. Once losing trust of the environment around them, they will easily despair of life. Similarly, nobody wants to cooperate with who doesn’t trust him. If Samoa Air insists on operating
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As we know, all of citizens have rights to protect their personal information, such as height and weight. In our life, we can always hear lots of news about superstars to litigate that their portraiture right is infringed by unknown companies, taking advantage of their photos to be used for commercial profit. However, Samoa Air almost did the same thing as these companies to invade people’s privacy. Obviously, weighing passengers is impolite and illegal behavior. Also, I can’t imagine how people feel when their weight is laughed at by others. It will definitely ruin one’s self-esteem. However, fortunately, at the end of the article, I saw the latest revision to set individual weight averages, which is better for passengers to realize how much staff they can bring on the plain than to be checked over and over
This opinion has been challenged by both ethics campaigners and legal rights activists. Under the Human Rights Act, there are “protected” characteristics such as age, disability and race that offer legal protection against discrimination etc. There has been a campaign lately to include obesity as a protected characteristic for freedom from discrimination. 9 The European Court of Justice made a decision in FOA, acting on behalf of Karsten Kaltoft v
In this research paper we will be looking at the topic of obesity and the social ramifications that it holds. We will first look at obesity in a broad way. Then we will focus on obesity and its effects on children. And finally, obesity and adulthood will be covered. The topic of obesity is important to the field of sociology because obese people make up a significant portion of the world’s population. In addition, the manner in which obese people are treated has a significant effect on society as a whole.
Weight is a part of every human beings life. Every one weights something. In society, it is commonly found that people mistakenly judge their health based on their weight. America has thousands of health experts and nutritionist who claim themselves as protectors of health, “helping a nation stricken with heart disease, diabetes, and cancer” (Maxville 443). They believe that eating is simply for fueling the body and you should eat mostly plants, but not too much. Maxville uses the vast theory of health experts to tie in the point that, “each of these maladies is tied to our diet and essentially our weight. As a culture we no longer discuss healthy eating without also discussing unhealthy weights” (Maxville 444). While Maxville believes that the bigger issue is not weight, but linking nutrition and body type. While, Pollan warns readers of eating too much, he never mentions that it is equally as fatal to eat too little. Pollan states in his essay that overeating is the “greatest threat” to our survival. Maxville uses Pollan’s statements on the topic of weight to prove that being unhealthy should not be tied solely to being overweight, because being under weight is equally unhealthy. To further discredit the claims Pollan makes linking weight to health, Maxville states, “A growing group of academics who
Words were used to describe positive associations or negative associations. The test was based on how people view fat or thin people subconsciously or consciously. Compared to the more personal test regarding racial profiling, this test’s results were not as poignant or one-sided. The general populace in statistics did score that thin people gave a higher positive reaction. However, moderate positive reactions were nearly equal. The absolute neutral position where one feels equal toward either size was high and showed that being fat is becoming more acceptable. The lower end preference of fat over thin was low but it was prevalent enough to record. The test findings were about on par with how society views fat and thin people. With the advent of obesity, tolerance for the obese is becoming acceptable. It is unclear whether this is because this is an emerging social norm due to the rise in obesity or if it is an indication that mainstream media is promoting full-size and plus-size models and outfits that flatter fat people. Regardless, the tests show an increasing tolerance for fat
When it comes to the topic of obesity, most will readily agree that it is a growing dilemma. This argument has many writers bringing different responses. Two explanations are debated in What You Eat is Your Business by Radley Balko and Don’t Blame the Eater by David Zinczenko. Both pieces create a good stance on the topic of obesity. Balko’s piece, however, has a better all around flow, organization and consistency.
Despite that fact that obesity has begun to receive major attention in the past decade, there is a yawning gap between what is perceived and what is reality. In a North Carolina study, it was found that almost one-third of overweight Blue Cross Blue Shield members identified their weight as just right (Ward-Smith, 245). Clearly, people are unwilling to recognize that obesity has become a major problem in our country. Despite public service announcements and other methods of advertising the disease, the effects of this disease on overall health are continually underappreciated. As a result, obesity continues to be allowed to define our
Without a question, it is not fair that overweight people go through their entire lives being criticized and taunted for their weight. Worley explains how rude comments discourage fat people from exercising because they are embarrassed and “they don’t have the support they need to continue” (494). It is the stares and snide remarks that give overweight people low self-esteem. Worley justly states that “you’re entitled to the space you take up” (496). No person should feel like they need to hide away from the world.
“Obesity affects nearly 1 in 3 American adults” according to The National institute of Health. Obesity clearly is a common problem the U.S. and will permanently alter our family dynamic. It had changed our social behavior and our culture as a country. These changes stem from are weight discrimination, negatively influencing other family member’s lifestyles, and an over-eating culture.
The readings for this week’s response paper consist of the second half of the book Fat-Talk Nation: The Human Cost of America’s War on Fat by Susan Greenhalgh. Unlike the first half, the second half of the book gives a broader look at the American weight obsession. Skinny shamming, the obsession with “normality”, health risks and relationship issues caused by the American public’s obsession with weight are all addressed in the last chapters (Greenhalgh 2015). Overall, the book does a good job of addressing the aspect of weight through biocitizenship. As the author states throughout, individuals are pressured into achieving a certain weight in order to fit into the mainstream culture’s ideal of a “healthy body” (Greenhalgh 2015). This is achieved through media,
Furthermore, these individuals subside the average person due to their obesity; a disease that affects 70% of American adults. Consequently, this disease causes an increasing amount of heart diseases, strokes, high blood pressure, and diabetes in our current community. It is agreed upon our society that these individuals who suffer of obesity have been looked down upon and are put at risk of discrimination regardless of how hard we try to end it. To make the problem worse than it already
The pressure to lose weight in today’s society inhibits the personality and health of overweight people while essentially increasing the weight of the people who experience these pressures (Worley 163-167). So reasons Mary Ray Worley in her article, “Fat and Happy: In Defense of Fat Acceptance.” Worley uses her personal experience as well as a small number of facts to dispute why overweight people struggle as they attempt to contribute to society (163-167). In the beginning of her article she references an association of which she is a member, the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, to convey the possibilities to advance society when judgement based on size is abandoned (163-164). The association holds a conference every year, and Worley continually refers to the atmosphere at the convention as “another planet,” suggesting that the scarcity of judgment during the convention differed significantly from her everyday experiences (163-164, 167). Applying her encounters to all people of her weight category, she declares that even doctors blame the majority of sicknesses on weight (165). She also proclaims that people should not diet and exercise in order to lose weight, as this triggers loss of motivation without results, but to improve their attitude and mood (166). Referencing Dr. Diane Budd from the convention, she states that attempts to lose weight cause “lasting harmful effects on one’s appetite, metabolism, and self-esteem” (164). While Worley’s unjustifiable
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 has become a serious problem with more than one third of adults being obese in the United States. Obesity is seen as a self-destructive behavior accompanied with smoking and use of other drugs thus, government officials and other business bureaucrats expressed the need to impose higher health insurance premiums on the obese. Obesity is not always due to the personal behavior of people and can be linked with the environment and genetics; I personally feel that obese people should not pay a higher health insurance premium compared to those that aren’t. Government officials and other business bureaucrats
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.