Essay On Body Weight Stereotyping

It is not an unknown fact that in today’s society many adolescents are dissatisfied and ashamed of their own body size. Bombarded with social media’s ideal body type and lofty, unattainable standards on a daily bases young adults are always fighting an uphill battle for self-worth. They are expected to constantly jump through pop culture’s skintight size two hoops in an attempt to avoid the growing stigma of an “unsatisfactory body size”. With the constant negative stereotyping of heavier set individuals, society has instilled in young people an inherit dislike for larger body types causing prejudice solely based on the size of an individual’s clothes. It seems the harmful trend of low self-esteem and weight based prejudice is an unavoidable issue for our current society as a whole transcending the gap of both the genders, the races, and, as a study so recently showed, the ages.

Published in the The Open Education Journal the article “Fat Kids Can’t Do Maths: Negative Body Weight Stereotyping and Associations with Academic Competence and Participation in School Activities Among Primary School Children” provides a detailed description about the process and findings of a study designed to investigate if children’s body image of others and themselves had an effect on the student’s academic confidence and/or participation in classroom

activities. Chalker and O’Dea’s study included 15 children of varying genders and body types who completed the Children’s Body Image Scale and then were interviewed one on one to investigate the children’s preconceptions of certain body types in academic achievement, athletic ability, and social acceptance. The children were asked questions to help assess their presumptions of a range of body types such as if: they had ever participated in a school performance; they liked making speeches at school; they liked school PE and school sport; they liked helping their teacher at the front of the classroom and how they perceived their performance at school work. (Chalker)
When prompted with questions in the one on one interview children tended to assume fatter children to be lazy, unproductive, as well as unfriendly. While on the other side of the spectrum the skinniest figure was assumed to be sick from lack of food. Children right in the middle were the ideal described by the children as being fun, friendly, smart, etc. The results of the study found that while negative body stereotyping is prevalent in groups of young children, the children themselves tend to not view themselves as being inhibited by their own body image, performing and participating in activities just as much and with the same quality as children with differing body types.
Chalker and O’Dae’s study presents and brings awareness to a very real issue that plagues our society as a whole. While it is a common fact that negative weight stereotyping is a common occurrence in the adult population the shocking amount of negative preconceptions thrown at heavier set children is a slap in the face intended to wake up educators and parents to this very real issue that is well ingrained into our minds and worse perhaps into our children’s. While there is no blaring bias in the essay and all the evidence provided was collected in a way to avoid as much interference from bias as possible the goal of the study was clear. Well backed by the hefty amounts of logos and ethos the study is successful in raises eyebrows and bring attention to their cause.
Despite the amount of the depth and attempts to keep the research as unbiased as possible there are always going to be errors. The most concerning one is the amount of participants in the study. With only a sample size of only 15 children it is difficult to confidently say that the results from the study can accurately depict the mindset and attitude of all the children around the world toward the differing body types. Further studies should be conducted in a similar manner with different sets of children coming from different locations and different backgrounds to help determine if this mindset is solely prevalent in this group of children or if a similar trend appears in other groups of children as well.
Even with this minor limitation Chalker and O’Dea do present a strong and well backed issue to the public.

Then later urge the readers, such as teachers and health educators, to “promote children’s participation in academic activities and encourage wellbeing by implementing programs that increase acceptance of a wide range of healthy, and active body shapes.” (Chalker) With the well presented evidence and solid proof that negative stereotyping is a common trend in this group of children it is hard to not agree with their suggestion and support the need for more acceptance towards a wider range of body types; both fat and

skinny.
Overall, Chalker’s and O’Dae’s study is well constructed and free from most bias able to present the issue of negative body stereotyping in a very definitive way. While the issue of body image ideals and fat stereotyping seems to be deeply rooted in our society, it is not completely impossible to throw off this endless cycle. It is promising to see that while the children’s preconceptions may tend to lean towards the negative their own body types do not hinder their academic confidence or their performance in school activities. With encouragement from educators and other figures of authority children may gain a more accepting and open view of a wide range of different body types finally breaking the vicious cycle of shame and prejudice.