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How stigma interferes with mental health care
Reasons for discrimination of physical.appearance
How stigma interferes with mental health care
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America was founded in 1776, however, throughout America's history discrimination issues have been problematic with standards that have been looked down upon. It has been hard for Americans to wrap their heads around the fact that there are plenty of different views on the actions that mainstream community members have. In today’s modern era, society is having to deal with discrimination. Discrimination is big in today’s world and is characterized as an action, person, or group being unjust towards different categories of people or things. Discrimination is powered by dominance, which is desired across many different societies; the public of today seeks power in the form of money, appearance, government, or leadership. Most of the acts that …show more content…
Weight discrimination is predicted when a person is significantly more obese than the popular trend of weight, resulting in unfair treatment of an overweight person. The drive to look “skinny” is the drive of many Americans in today's society. This results in being insecure and timid concluding in people not thinking they belong or perhaps aren’t equal because of their unnecessary weight. Weight discrimination is around more than the average American believes, even showing up at the Presidential Debate. Body shaming is the most popular way to discriminate by weight. In an article by CNN writer Jacquelline Howard explains how Americans are even heavier than before and gives facts that women are more likely to get fat shamed. “Trump publicly body-shamed former Miss Universe winner Alicia Machado, who gained weight after winning the title in 1996. Machado said Trump called her ‘Miss Piggy.’” Howard uses this as a prime example of how people perceive of citizens that are overweight, even though this model was very fit she still was discriminated against. Society sees weight discrimination more often among women, but not always. This type of discrimination is very unhealthy for the person getting discriminated against and for the one who is being hateful in the …show more content…
The belief of discrimination is hard to come by. It is hard to think of how someone can have such strong hatred towards a human being but in the end there are some people that don’t hold back. The belief is that people discriminate due to a social cue, a cue in the sorts of looking cool or to fit in also known as conforming. Conforming can be a reason to make fun of someone by their skin color, sexuality, or even weight due to fitting in with the crowd under peer pressure. With this being said, discrimination is heard of all over the nation. The people who discriminate could quite possibly hear about it at home and think that it’s alright to say such hateful things not knowing the damage that it causes the people that receive discrimination everyday. Discrimination could also be a way of coping, by making fun of someone else but when the person is the one who really is insecure and worried about themselves. In an article written in “American Psychological Association” , the author lists reasons on why people think that discrimination is the answer because “Humans are naturally motivated to categorize people and objects. This is normal cognitive behavior. But discrimination goes beyond that...Some of the most damaging forms of discrimination are the result of deep-seated, destructive generalizations
In “Cruelty, Civility, and Other Weighty Matters” by Ann Marie Paulin, she was trying to get across a very important message: skinny doesn’t mean happy. The main idea was about how our culture in America encourages obesity because of the food choices they offer, how expensive weight loss pills and exercise bikes is, and etc., yet the culture also is prejudice against these same fat people that they encourage. It’s a constant back and forth in America between what is convenient with the little time we have in between everything we have to do each day and working out to be skinny enough for everyone to not judge you. Ms. Paulin wrote this article for literally everyone, this article was for skinny people to show them like hey, you’re not all
Vivienne Ming once said, “Discrimination is not done by villains. It’s done by us.” Many do not recognize or acknowledge discrimination. Most of the time, individuals allow discrimination to be classified as bullying. However, true discrimination is real. It comes in various forms and it is the population’s job to be familiar with it and use that knowledge to destroy it. Racial, appearance-based, sexual, and religious discrimination all hugely affect friendships/relationships, the workplace, and society as a whole.
Among African American women, trusting in the health care and medical research has become to a lower level. Studies show that obesity rates in black raced women which are enhanced by risk factors, shows that approximately 40% moderately and severely overweight women considered their figures to be attractive or very attractive, which indicates a relatively positive body image (S, Kumanyika, 1987). Adding to this as Gay is a black raced woman who is obese, still feels proud of her own body image, no matter how big she may-be she is still proud of her body and appearance. Gay quotes, “When you’re overweight, your body becomes a matter of public record in many respects. Your body is constantly and prominently on display. People project assumed narratives onto your body and are not at all interested in the truth of your body, whatever that truth might be” (Gay, p.120). This shows that no matter what her body looks like people will always be judging you depending on your body image in
The central problem with fat oppression comes from the way in which we as Americans are taught to look at people. Everywhere we look - TV, movies, magazines and so on - thin people are portrayed as glamorous and cool. The encouragement of dieting is terribly prevalent and the dieting market takes in billions of dollars every year. Our society is obsessed with fat and the loss of it.
Everyone at some point in time or another experiences discrimination; no one lives a sheltered enough life not to. As a society we need to admit that discrimination is present at all times and stop being so sensitive to how we are labeled or perceived. Pretending discrimination does not exists does not solve a problem, it makes it stronger. Until it is no big deal in the eyes of all involved it will still be an issue that no one is truly prepared to tackle due to the amount of hate that will then be heaped upon them. Dr. King’s example is also a tragic one, a man who preached love for all, equality for all, and a sense of the brotherhood of man, was gunned down by one man who didn’t agree with his views. So perhaps the individual approach will be the best for now as this shows us one man’s view changed a world and one man’s view ended a life.
America has been the site of discrimination in race for years. The Black Codes were laws each state came up with on their own that limit certain rights, prevent them from voting, and keep the black slaves under white control. Even after the Black Codes ended, a new way to keep African-Americans unequal came up. The Jim Crow laws were a series of laws passed in order to keep African-Americans unequal from white Americans. Every state had their own form of the Jim Crow laws. African-Americans used to be treated very poorly by the rest of the United States. They were still treated as though they were slaves until the end of the Jim Crow laws. Even after that, southern states still attempted to keep African-Americans from being equal to the rest of Americans. Taxes were put up in order to vote, which kept African-Americans from doing so because most were very poor. They still did not have equal opportunity in the work force either. African-Americans were not the only ones being treated like this either. Native Americans and Hispanics were treated the same way that African-Americans were. The United States used to treat immigrants inadequately.
Interest in the social aspects of obesity is nothing new. Jeffrey Sobal has written extensively about the social and psychological consequences of obesity , including the stigmatisation and discrimination of obese and even overweight individuals (Sobal 2004).
Discriminating against a person because of one's weight can be a seriously hurtful and demeaning thing. Many people assume that the causes for being overweight are eating all day and rarely exercising. Some people call overweight people slobs or lazy, when in most instances this isn't the case. Some have health problems that lead to being overweight, like a kidney disease or malfunction, or the person may even be suffering from a birth defect.
Libal, Autumn. "The Poor Get Fat, The Rich Get Thin?" Social Discrimination & Body Size: Too Big to FIt? 2005. 40-55. Print. 10 Nov. 2013.
In the media there are people who view women a certain way, and if we don't hold to the standard that we are not as good as other women who are the size the media says we have to be. In an article it said that "Large women in America are to all intents and purposes invisible in today's thinness-obsessed culture. A big women is neither seen nor heard, and is defined purely in terms of her weight and other people's prejudice." (Goodman par 1) This is a hard thing for women that a heavier to understand because they want the person to think that they are heard. This plays into the way that they think and the way that women look at their bodies. You can see this happening with different types of televisions shows, which put on the show thinner women. "Practically the only television programming that addresses her directly consists of weight-loss ads, the message: lose weight. You're not real women unless you're thin (Goodman)". It is hard to think that this statement could be true, but
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.
America has gone through many important periods regarding freedom and equality to all people. It’s not anything new; it’s an old issue that Americans have not yet figured out. Many discriminative cases had gone by like the Trayvon Martin news. This news may seem old but this happened in our time period, about 5 years ago. If America moved past the tragedy of discrimination. Then, why is it reoccurring in the 21st century.
Prejudice and discrimination have both been prevalent throughout human history. Prejudice deals with the inflexible and irrational attitudes and opinions that are held by others of one group against those of another. Discrimination on the other hand refers to the behaviors directed against another group. Prejudiced individuals have preconceived beliefs about groups of people or cultural practices. There are both positive and negative forms of prejudice, however, the negative form of prejudice leads to discrimination. Individuals that practice discrimination do so to protect opportunities for themselves, by denying access to those whom they believe do not deserve the same treatment as everyone else. An example of discrimination based on prejudice involves the Jews. “Biased sentiments and negative stereotypes of Jews have been a part of Western tradition for centuries and, in fact, have been stronger and more vicious in Europe than in the United States. For nearly two millennia, European Jews have been chastised and persecuted as the “killers of Christ” and stereotyped as materialistic moneylenders and crafty business owners (Healey, p.65). The prejudice against these groups led to the discrimination against them.
“Why we can't stop body-Shaming.” CNN, Cable News Network, 15 Apr. 2016, www.cnn.com/2016/04/15/health/fat-shaming-feat/index.html. The article helps support Demetria’s story because it stresses the fact that women cannot be happy without someone commenting on their appearance. Weingarten spoke up, "As a culture and as a society, it will never go away fully, but ... we should try not to be judgmental." Body shaming seems to be more common towards female celebrities like Amy Schumer, Demi Levato, and Melissa McCarthy. It is important to "Remember, you are ALL beautiful. Please don't ever try and look like the people you see in magazines or posters because it's fake." This is exactly what Demetria spoke about in her video addressing her haters. Demetria, like most of the celebrities in the article, stood up against the body-shaming and took pride in her looks. In other words, best said my Jessica Simpson, Demetria didn’t "have anything to prove... What other people think of me is not my business." Demetria was more than happy to show her natural curly hair and curvy
A girl scans the sidewalk while walking home after a day of school, hoping no one notices as she hides her face, feeling like an alien in her own skin. Instead of feeling beautiful, she feels hideous because of the words said to her. Body shaming, a term that is becoming an increasingly popular issue because humans are obsessed with appearances. This generation creates these standards and puts pressure on people to live up to and then ridicule those same standards when realizing that the standards are unattainable. Everybody criticizes the way that others look but then began shaming when people began to shame that one's personal appearance. People have separated been into categories based on looks. It’s fat against fit and it is becoming unhealthy. In today's society, body shaming is an ongoing issue. Body Shaming, though active in both genders, is especially harmful to women. Body shaming is pushing women to be insecure, eating disorders, and giving men unrealistic expectations.