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Sociological aspects of obesity
Sociological aspects of obesity
Obesity and its sociological perspectives
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In the article, “Too ‘Close to the Bone’: The Historical Context for Women’s Obsession with Slenderness,” Roberta Seid goes in depth on the emotionally straining and life altering trials women take on to try to portray society’s “ideal” body over time. She delves far into the past, exposing our culture’s ideal body image and the changes it has gone through over time. The article brings to light the struggles of striving to be the perfect woman with the model body. On the other hand, in the article “Rethinking Weight”, author Amanda Spake, details the many differing views of obesity. Spake voices her opinion on the idea that being overweight, and not losing weight, is caused by laziness. “Too Close to the Bone” and “Rethinking Weight” both deliberate about weight issues that are …show more content…
Roberta Seid is a lecturer at the University of Southern California. Seid took into account the findings and opinions of several doctors and professionals about this topic. These findings may have influenced her opinion. She goes into depth on her views by stating that exercise and other type of personal health care are turning into a religion of sorts. Seid details her disdain for the overvalue people have over the shape of the human body when he says people are “swept up in a web of peculiar and distorted beliefs about beauty, health, virtue, eating, and appetite” (Seid 168). Seid recalls the twelfth century, a time synonymous with the dawn of beauty. She states that in this time period, being thin was perceived as a negative thing. Society’s views on what is good and what is bad change over time. Seid is looking for a world where everyone is happy with their body, because the judgement of today is starting to destroy the confidence of
Cynara Geisslers’ essay “Fat Acceptance: A Basic Primer,” was published in Geez Magazine in 2010. The focus of the essay is to refute the pressure of society to be thin and promote self-acceptance regardless of size. While this essay touches on many agreeable points, it tends to blow many ideas out of context in an attempt to create a stronger argument. The article takes on a one-sided argument without any appropriate acknowledgement of the opposition, overlooks the risks of ignoring personal health, and has a strong feminist ideology associated towards the essay which tends to make the validity of her argument questionable.
It looks like looks are here to stay” (Akst 331). Akst’s degenerate remarks about beauty revolves around self-centered and arrogant values. He mentioned so many scientific statements about how humans should focus on maintaining an attractive appearance for society, and not for themselves. If Mairs and Walker read Akst’s essay, they would both disagree with his opinion about beauty. Both women would convey a message of accepting and embracing one’s beauty, despite the society’s view. Akst limits differences in a degrading way by mentioning “overweight” individuals are worthless and they send a negative message to society. The reader and the women can disagree with Akst’s statement because size, appearance, height, ethnicity, gender, and other abnormalities does not send a negative message, it is the comments made by a bias hypocrite who sees beauty as the aspiration to an individual’s
This country places great value on achieving the perfect body. Americans strive to achieve thinness, but is that really necessary? In his article written in 1986 entitled “Fat and Happy?,” Hillel Schwartz claims that people who are obese are considered failures in life by fellow Americans. More specifically, he contends that those individuals with a less than perfect physique suffer not only disrespect, but they are also marginalized as a group. Just putting people on a diet to solve a serious weight problem is simply not enough, as they are more than likely to fail. Schwartz wants to convey to his audience that people who are in shape are the ones who make obese people feel horrible about themselves. Schwartz was compelled to write this essay,
What comes to your mind when you hear someone is overweight. In most american’s eyes, it is someone who anyone who is not a model. This creates a huge predicadment counting that America is known to be fat. In the past few decades, lifestyle has changed our habits, but we did not think about the consequences. If we eat more then we must be doing some kind of exercise to counteract what we put inside of us. In the article “America’s War on the Overnight” by Kate Dailey and Abby Ellin, they successfully persuade the reader to tackle obesity, we need to focus more on the subject of obesity and not attack the obese using the rhetorical triangle.
The novel “Salvage the Bones” started with the bible verse “See now that I, even I am he, and there is no god with me; I will kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal, neither is there any can deliver out of my hand.” As the novel started with this verse, readers could expect to see a lot of painful experiences that involve life, death and painful events in the characters in the novel. The theme of loss and tragedy is one of the prominent themes that is being portrayed in this novel. The two characters that are affected badly by the theme of loss are Esch and Skeetah. Esch losing the love of her life: Manny, while Skeetah losing his precious dog, China. Through the loss and tragedy event, the readers could see how the characters develop and
The issue, as mentioned above, is largely due to the fact that the media, and its air brushed models, urge women to change their appearance to become more attractive or healthy while gaining popularity and confidence with their new looks. As absurd as it may seem Celia Milne, the author of Pressures to Conform, upholds this idea and states “90 percent of Canadian women are dissatisfied with some aspect of their body” and that “they will go to frightening lengths to achieve their body ideal” (Milne 4, 9). Where does this dissatisfaction arise, and why should people who already have a normal body mass index (BMI) be intent on loosing weight? The answer lays in the media as it presents young women with idealistic body images that, although they may appear achievable, are entirely unrealistic. Despite this glitch, most women will continue striving towards perfectionism due to peer pressure, or media influx, thus becoming trapped with a goal that they can never reach. Dieting, excessive exercising, and weight loss programs are several of the healthy options that thi...
Lauren Williams and John Germov (2004)”The Thin Ideal: Women, Food, and Dieting”, in Lauren Williams and John Germov (Editors) A Sociology of Food and Nutrition. The Social Appetite, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 342
Orbach, Susie. “Fat as a Feminist Issue.” They Say I Say. Ed. Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, Russel Durst. New York. W.W. Norton, 2009. 200-205. Print.
Sociocultural standards of feminine beauty are presented in almost all forms of popular media, revealing women with images that portray for what is considered to be the "ideal body." Such beauty standards for most women are completely unattainable; what is seen on TV Is another story, majority of models are considered to be well below what is known as a healthy weight. Media conveys a practical message using models that are not considered to be healthy and stating that in order for a woman to be considered beautiful, she must be unhealthy, or “thin.” The mindset in today’s society for many women is that you need to be thin, which is all too predominant and for females it makes it more difficult to achieve any level of serenity of their physical appearance. In the American culture, the “ideal body” for a female is represented very negatively, as it has dramatically changed. The number of people who are thin is starting to be the minority, while the people who are overweight/obese is going to other way and is the majority. Andre Dubus, the author of the short story "The Fat Girl," demonstrates each of these traditional behaviors towards the overweight main character, Louise.
Ichabod left the party earlier alone that evening, riding his horse down a long road where the night became dark. The next morning Ichabod was nowhere to be seen, Our team of investigators searched where the people at the party saw him leave.
One world up above where they can watch over the ones below. Susie in The Lovely Bones she has restricted use and effects on earth, because she is in heaven up above. Alice Sebold portrays these events through the view of Susie Salmon, Susie have the ability to know what everyone is thinking. Sebold shows that young love have many differences to those that are also in love, but mature. Susie the narrator, attitude toward the lover of young and old also is different. There is also a unique character in the novel, his name is George Harvey, and his view on love is extremely different.
Although thin people seem to dominate society, the average size for a woman today is a size twelve. That puts the number of models on a smaller scale, and boosts the number of ordinary girls that make up most of society today. It’s not just about ordinary girls outnumbering models; it’s about the way that the media portrays these models. Slowly, the image of the “thin and beautiful” being the best is going down the drain. Larger models and actresses are taking the places of the “thin.” Hopefully, this will decrease the increasing numbers of anorexics in the United States as well as all over the world.
One book I have read recently was Lovely Bones written by Alice Sebold which revolves around the murder of 14 year old Susie Salmon. On December 6th 1973 Susie was walking home from school, going her usual route home through the cornfields when she was brutally raped and murdered by her neighbour George Harvey. The novel is narrated by Susie who watches from heaven as her family attempts to move on, and her friends try and prove the guilt of Harvey.
Women are bombarded by images of a thin-ideal body form that is extremely hard, if not impossible, to emulate. Comparing themselves to these women can lead to feelings of inadequacy, depression, and an overall low self-esteem. (Expand on, need a good opening paragraph to grab the reader’s attention)
Physical beauty is constructed by the society that we live in. We are socialized from a very young age to aspire to become what our culture deems ideal. Living in the United States, as in many other Western cultures, we are expected to be well-educated, maintain middle-class or upper-class status, be employed as well as maintain a physical standard of beauty. Although beauty is relative to each culture, it is obvious that we as Americans, especially women, are expected to be maintain a youthful appearance, wear cosmetics and fashionable clothes, but most importantly: not to be overweight. Our society is socially constructed to expect certain physical features to be the norm, anything outside this is considered deviant. Obesity is defined as outside the norms of our culture's aesthetic norms (Gros). “People who do not match idealized or normative expectations of the body are subjected to stigmatization” (Heckert 32). Obesity is a physical deviance; it is one that is an overwhelming problem in our society as we are always judged daily, by our appearance. Those who do not conform to the standards of beauty, especially when it comes to weight, are stigmatized and suffer at the hands of a society that labels them as deviants.