Obesity, a word that is frequently used in the media and everyday life, is becoming an epidemic problem worldwide. The US is one of the fattest countries in the world, trailing close to Mexico, the fattest country in the world. In the old days, being fat or obese is a status symbol; a symbol of the superior, of loyalty, of power. Nowadays, people see obese individuals as diseased, weak, sick individuals who need medical help or guidance. The social meaning of obesity has changed over time. Moreover, in today's society, obesity is not simply fat; it is associated with words such as undesirable, hatred, isolated, weird, etc.
For the past four to five decades, Americans have not been eating healthily. With the increasing amount of fast-food restaurants such as McDonald's and Burger King, and processed food products containing high-fructose corn syrup, Americans have been gaining much more weight than other nations. At the same time, the media has been redefining the "normal image". The image of beauty does not mean women who have healthy weight or decent size, but they have to be stick-skinny, weighing less than 100 pounds. In the medical world, that is not healthy for women of any size, but in the media, that is the definition of beauty. That definition has not been changed since. Yet, more and more Americans are being classified as obese.
In our generation, we are in the age of technological devices, where most people living in modernized societies have at least one product which relieves their stresses from everyday life. However, with the increasing rate of innovative technological devices being sold to consumers, more and more individuals are not getting the exercise they need in order to maintain a healthy weight. For example, (with of the Truman's post about) a new technological device, segway, provides an environmental friendly method of getting away towns/ metropolitan cities. Although walking is another environmental friendly way to get to different destinations, people neglect the importance of walking and rely on such expensive devices. In addition, the Internet and gaming consoles also help aggrandize this obesity crisis. With an increasing amount of kids and adults of both genders using the Internet everyday, people no longer need to walk to places to meet friends, families and even dates, nor do they need to shop for their necessities on foot; everything is within reach with the worldwide web. Sure, technological devices help mankind in many different ways; however, they eliminate burdens at the expense of health.
"In the United States, one in three kids is obese. Hey, that one fat kid is indeed three kids!" -Jay Leno. In a society where skinny, underweight individuals represent the population in the media, obese individuals are incarcerated in a world of cruel jokes and humiliation. This image problem also triggers hate crimes. Although is not commonly presented in the media, hate crimes against the obese definitely exists. A study done by Yale University found that 12% of the subjects feel they have been discriminated against due to their body sizes. As a result, they feel isolated, detached from the society. With such mental abuse on a day-to-day basis, some eat away their pain, some begin living a healthier routine, some would do nothing, and furthermore, some take drastic measures such as committing suicide. However, the government has already proposed plans to reduce the severity of this epidemic problem; in New York, fast food restaurants must display the nutrient facts on their menus. California has also proposed a law to ban trans-fats in foods. Furthermore, some businesses such as Dove are promoting real beauty. However, are these businesses taking advantage of the obesity problem to make more profit? Or are they trying to help save obese individuals to feel more accept in the societies?
Perhaps that helped you understand this "real beauty" businesses are advocating.
So are businesses sincerely helping the "disadvantaged"? The Dove campaign is not only an campaign to help others, but another to attract more consumers to buy their products. Whenever a consumer wants a beauty product, s/he would think of Dove because of its active campaign against false advertisements. Aside from the companies that are actively trying to promote healthy advertisement, there is a new industry dealing with "healthy products" that are targeted at the obese consumers. For example, there is an increasing amount of diets pills in pharmacies, more and more 24 Hours Fitness in different parts of the country, as well as a entirely new industry of free-fat products. This new industry of "helping the obese" damages the image of beauty. As this industry becomes more popular, the obese may be humiliated further more because they are being advertised as "bad individuals" and that skinny is beautiful. The new meaning of beauty has helped create new industries that take advantage of the obese.
Centuries ago, being obese or simply fat was a good thing; however, obesity is now seen as a bad thing. The meaning of the word has not changed, but the social meaning of image has changed; skinny is in, obese is out. Obese individuals suddenly become isolated as the meaning of image change in the 19th century. These people are victims, victims of our new, redefined society. In this new society, industries take advantage, consumers loose money, and, more importantly, tears are being shed. The damage obesity creates is much more than anyone could imagine.
3 comments:
There are quite a few sentences in this post that don't make sense, like this one: "The US is the fattest country in the world, trailing close to Mexico, the fattest country in the world." Wait—which is the fattest?
Are 'obese' and 'fat' synonymous?
I like how you shed light on the potentially damaging aspects of highlighting obesity and using it as a comedic subject. You are right: there are real people's lives at stake, and we definitely have not developed a way to talk about obesity without objectifying or biologizing people. What would it mean to take this issue seriously in a way that would neither make fun of, victimize, nor condescend to people who might self-identify as 'obese'? Is this word reaching a crisis point, or a point of banality? These are some questions for you to think of as you finalize your post.
It's kind of like what we saw in the movie Wall-E right? Taking place so far into the future with all of the advances in technology that all of the inhabitants were obese and it was considered the norm. And also on the point about "fat free", "diet" and all that, it's usually food that's aren't too healthy in the first place with this label. I like how you related part of your post to other student's writing. And maybe you could link up Truman's, or whoever's blog/post. And there are those who are proud to be fat maybe obese. Also a thing to look at is the social acceptance of body image over time. As you said, obesity has been seen as a good thing, but today it's not. And I find that this is the case because it seems like being healthy is a new trend being set by a lot of mainstream media.
There are still some loose parts of this post, such as this sentence: "Moreover, in today's society, obesity is not simply fat; it is associated with words such as undesirable, hatred, isolated, weird, etc." Where are you getting these 'associations'? "Weird" seems like a rather imprecise association to consider here. And this sentence seems off track from your obesity analysis: "The image of beauty does not mean women who have healthy weight or decent size, but they have to be stick-skinny, weighing less than 100 pounds."
While you raise a lot of issues around obesity, it seems like you are more interested (if obliquely here) in ideas of *health*, as Warren suggests. Is 'obesity' supposed to stand as the opposite of health, or the reason that we talk so much about the importance of being 'healthy'? This would be an interesting question to consider.
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