In the span of the past decade, the film that has arguably provided the most compelling social commentary did not feature environmental activists or decorated healthcare professionals, but instead a measly, trash-compacting robot with a cockroach for a companion. The movie Wall-E, released in theaters summer of 2008, depicts a distant yet not entirely implausible future where mankind has abandoned a forlorn, stripped earth and where couch-dwelling human blobs sip liquid cupcakes from super-sized cups. The film astutely compares obesity with environmental collapse by playing off the straightforward correlation between the increase in girth of the average American and the diminution of our environment’s vitality. Thus pushing the idea that Western …show more content…
Brandon Stanton, creator of and photographer for Humans of New York, featured Stella’s story in one particular post that depicted her in only her underwear, which received unrelenting positive and negative feedback. Stella’s story is not an anomaly. Trailing closely behind Tobacco smoking, obesity is the second leading cause of preventable death in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over a third of adults living in the U.S. struggle with being obese. The modern diet and sedentary lifestyle is argued to be the cause for current levels of obesity, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and diabetes in …show more content…
Instead of vilifying fat and impoverished people, this country needs to consider the roots of our obesity epidemic. Although obesity is largely biological, and some people are more susceptible to weight gain, there are other ways in which we can tackle the obesity issue without needing to change someone’s genetic makeup. Work can be done to reform the institutional disparities that make maintaining a healthy weight difficult for people with lower incomes. A healthy lifestyle is not cheap. More nutritious, higher quality foods are often more expensive and harder to come by in poorer areas. A step in the right direction would be to encourage supermarkets to open up in poverty-stricken neighborhoods through creating tax-incentive programs and adjusting zoning laws. The unfortunate truth is that obesity is affecting our nation’s youth as well as adults. One way to aid this problem is to increase funding for public schools in low-income areas, which might translate into better quality food in the cafeterias and more nutrition and physical
Everyday Americans die from the diseases they carry from obesity. Many Americans overeat because of their social problems or because they are hereditary. Many plans have been discussed, but finding the solution is the problem. Junk foods and unhealthy beverages have corrupted children’s minds all over the nation, and putting a stop to it could lead to other benefits. Unhealthy foods and drinks should be taxed and healthy foods should be advertised to help prevent American obesity.
The documentary, titled Killer at Large: Why Obesity is America’s Greatest Threat, is a documentary shedding some light on the growing trend of America and its expanding waistlines. The documentary is geared to unmask the epidemic of obesity in our country. The film sheds some light on how our society is fixated with living and unhealthy lifestyle. The film goes on to inform you on how bad the situation really is, where two-thirds of the American population qualifies as obese or overweight. The documentary tries to uncover the root and causes of how this epidemic came to be and how it can be reversed.
Obesity is a rising problem in the United States. With obesity rates on the rise something must be done to prevent this massive issue. There are ways to help including educating at young ages, improving nutrition facts at restaurants, and providing more space for citizens to get physically active.
In the documentary Killer at Large, former Surgeon General Richard Carmona remarked that “Obesity is a terror within. It’s destroying our society from within and unless we do something about it, the magnitude of the dilemma will dwarf 9/11 or any other terrorist event that you can point out…” Carmona is indeed right, with the rapid increase of obese children, America is on the fast track to producing a generation with a life expectancy shorter than their peers. One of the main factor is the media representation of obesity (Greenstreet 2008). In today’s society parents are not only worrying about televisions influence on their kid’s behavior but their weight and health, too. According to study conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, that researched the role of media in childhood obesity, stated the obesity increased by 2% for every hours of television in adolescent’s ages 12 to 17. The advertisement of food and beverages present a very strong influence on the children. Most of the products being advert...
Over 60 million people are obese in the world today. The socioeconomic statuses of the Americans play a major part in the obesity rates across the country. People with higher incomes are less likely to be obese than people with lower incomes. One in every seven preschool-aged children living in lower income areas are obese (Center for Disease Control and Prevention). A 2008 study showed that obesity is highest among American Indian and Alaska Native (21.2 percent) and Hispanic Americans (18.5 percent) children, and it is lowest among white (12.6 percent), Asian or Pacific Islander (12.3 percent), and black (11.8 percent) children (Get America Fit).
The obesity epidemic is one of the most pressing issues at this point in both American society and U.S. public policy initiatives. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention 35.9% of U.S. adults over the age of twenty are obese (CDC, 2013). The CDC further notes that 69.2% of U.S. adults twenty years of age and over are overweight (this percentage includes those who are obese). The obesity problem is not exclusive to the adults in the U.S. The CDC notes that 18.4% of adolescents between the ages of 12 and 19 are currently obese (CDC, 2013). These statistics illustrate the severity of the obesity epidemic in this country, but what can be done to address or even correct this problem? Many people have proposed solutions, but few are as radical as the proposal from Michael Bloomberg (the New York City Mayor) in 2012.
...nd nature and the consequence of humankind overindulging in the superfluous luxuries that are beyond the necessities of food, shelter, clothing and fuel. Perhaps Wall-e is a message that the transcendentalist beliefs of Emerson and Thoreau should still be uplifted today, or maybe it was unintentional that the modern popularity of environmentally friendly movements encloses the fossil messages.
Since 1970, the obesity rates in America have more than doubled. Currently two-thirds of (roughly 150 million) adults in the United States are either overweight, or obese (Food Research and Action Center). According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, “overweight is defined as a body mass index (BMI) greater than 25 whereas obesity is defined as a BMI greater than 30.” There are numerous factors that contribute to obesity such as: biological, behavioral and cultural influences (Food Research and Action Center). While these factors all have a large role in obesity, there is no factor with as great of an influence as poverty.
Gattaca and Wall-E fall into unit three, which includes technology, dystopia, and ideology. These films take place in the future where technology has become extremely relevant to the characters everyday lives and it majorly effects society. Over the course of the films, the different aspects of technology, both positive and negative, are portrayed very clearly. While Gattaca and Wall-E have some differences, they both exude the themes of technology and social ethics in a relatively similar manner and conclude that while technology can be helpful, it can also have monstrous social ramifications.
One of the films that deal greatly with the effects of overconsumption on the environment is the animated motion picture WALL-E (2008). The movie is set on Earth in the year 2805 where the Earth is a barren wasteland, void of any signs of life (save for cockroaches).
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), obesity now ranks as the 10th most important health problem in the world (“Obesity Seen as a Global Problem”). Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years. Centers for Disease Control and Protection estimates that obesity contributed to the deaths of 112,000 Americans in 2000 (“Obesity in the U.S. Fast”). It is estimated that annual medical care cost of obesity are as high as $147 billion (“Obesity in the U.S. Fast”). Government-provided food stamps are often expended on junk or fast food, because it tends to be less expensive than fresh or cook food. Governments fund producers of meat and dairy products to keep prices low. For now, governments are taking a smarter and more productive approach through regulation, and by working with manufacturers.
Obesity and overweight remain the two major social problems in the United States. Apart from the fact that obesity and overweight are dangerous by themselves, they also cause a variety of negative health consequences. Our lives our overloaded with tasks and obligations, and we often choose to eat something fast. “Fast”, however, does not necessarily imply “useful”, and more and more people face the risks of becoming obese even at young age. Because obesity has already become a national i...
In the big city of New York there always exist those who push the envelope a bit, and stretch the law. One such man played by Michael Douglas makes money buying and selling others' dreams. He is a stock speculator; but one that succeeds based on illegal inside information. As he puts it "I make nothing, I own" Released in 1987, Oliver Stone's Wall Street is a representation of bad morals and poor business ethics in the business world. It also shows the negative effects, bad morals and poor business ethics can have on society. The film revolves around the actions of two main characters, Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) and Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas). Bud is a young stockbroker who comes from a working-class family and Gekko is a millionaire who Bud admires and wants to be associated with. Wall Street points out how wrong it is to exchange morality for money. Gordon Gekko reflects this message, and yet receives a standing ovation at a stockholders meeting after delivering his "greed is good" speech. The underlying theme of the movie is that greed is not only not ethical but it lacks moral substance in today?s society.
Wall Street is a movie that exposes corruption and disguises all values, beliefs, and other ethical philosophy. Throughout the movie, Wall Street shows how ethics adapts to a person’s personality by power and wealth alongside honesty and truth. Bud Fox, a young stockbroker is looking for a way to make a name for himself. He is determined to get as many clients as he can to become successful. He later meets a ruthless man named Mr. Gekko where learns how to reach to the top by illegal actions such as insider trading. Bud Fox was an honest living man who had good ethics but was later showed what true power is became money hungry. The power of greed is fascinating the code that everyone lives by is inevitable once money comes into play. There are five types of interpersonal power; reward power, coercive power, legitimate power, referent power, and expert power. These types of power will be used to correspond relationships throughout the movie. In Wall Street we realize how Gordon Gekko uses Bud Fox for his benefit. In this paper I will show the types of powers that are used by Gordon Gekko and how they are used. One clear type of power that Gordon Gekko uses in his relationship with Bud Fox is the Referent power base. This power stands out because it is clear that Bud wants to become a top notch in the industry. Bud is striving to be successful when he exposes what he’s able to do at the meeting with Gordon Gekko he instantly become closer to his goals. There were scenes where Gordon had legitimate power. His knowledge and information was what made him rich. Bud Fox had to listen to what Gordon was telling him in order to become successful. This was an example of Gekko having legitimate power over Bud Fox. Expert power which is an ...
Modern poverty is so closely related with obesity for many reasons. First of all, poor people are ignorant and uneducated about their health and nutrition. Obviously, because of that they don’t really know what they are doing or even how they are taking the risk of eating some kinds of food. Poor people go for good tasting food without paying attention to the food’s freshness and safety. Moreover, children grow up without a proper understanding of good nutrition, so it is time to reintroduce nutrition to families and even in schools to kids. Second of all, poor people cannot afford buying healthy food. A person who is poor and hungry is going to buy the cheapest calories that he or she could find. In fact in today’s world, the cheapest calories come from junk food. It is cheaper and ...