The Stigma of Obesity, Essay Example

An interesting question that this conversation raises is the extent to which society contributes to the stigma of obesity. It appears that obesity is viewed as a fault of the “bearer”, which would indicate that we blame obese individuals for their disease state. This is an interesting phenomenon because society promotes unhealthy eating habits and other behaviors that contribute to the development of this disorder. At the same time, people are being punished for choosing to follow these aspects of societal beliefs. This is an interesting paradox because it requires people to filter out which societal normality’s should or shouldn’t be followed. As such, society does contribute to the stigma of obesity in a contradictory fashion. It is important to avoid placing fault on such a widespread issue and instead focus on shifting society towards building structures that promote health instead of shaming individuals that engage in widely promoted behaviors.

I agree that if “a stigma is seen as controllable, the person that bears this negative label may be looked upon with less sympathy”. Obesity is a challenging disorder to discuss because there are certain aspects of this illness state that are within the control of the patient, while there are other factors that are not under this same level of control. It is plausible for some aspects of obesity to be attributed to the responsibility of the obese individual, which appears to explain why society stigmatizes this group. However, it is also important to consider that medical interventions could be applied in many cases as well. In spite of this, obesity and its associated lifestyle is a choice for some, so it is important to respect their decisions even if we may not always agree with them.