The stigmas of being overweight

The Stigma of Being Overweight

Overweight people have been judged andridiculed by the society for ages. However, the peak of this negativeattitude has been reached in the modern times, where we have anorexicmodels who stand for the pinnacle of fitness, making most of us fat.This places obese and overweight people at the bottom of theaesthetic ladder, making them unwanted in society, considering themto be in a state of being disgusting and negative in every sense.Moreover, Hollywood and other media industries do little to fix this,since funny characters in movies are usually fat, being ridiculed,estranged and considered a laughing stock.

All in all, being overweight isconsidered to be equal to being sick, incapable of achievinganything, being alone and, sometimes even being stupid. This, ofcourse, is a bad thing since stigmas, being negative connotationswhich are rightfully or wrongfully placed upon a certain category insociety, can be destructive for some people, pushing them onto themargins of the society. Perhaps, initially, this stigma was meant tomotivate overweight people into losing weight and living a healthierlife. However, the effects now are quite different since many obese,fat and overweight people are bullied by the world around them, beingforced into solitude and, in many cases, suicide due to lack ofunderstanding from the rest of the society.

The Effects of Obesity Stigmatization

It all starts at school. Children,knowing little about human emotions, tend to be cruel to other, obeseor overweight children, bullying them and teasing them constantly.This creates marks in the personality of the affected children and,quite often, leaves scars which will be present for many years tocome, regardless if the person becomes fit or remains overweight.

Moreover, bullies remain bullies. So,almost no one will open the door to an overweight lady while peoplewill be overwhelmingly polite towards the previously mentionedanorexic divas. In the same way, other people constantly interferewith the nutrition of the obese, or their lifestyles, sharing theirunnecessary words of wisdom, only to gloat over their own sociallyaccepted body weight.

Naturally, all these factors demotivateobese people, and they either stay secluded from the society ordevelop serious personality issues due to the lack of self-esteem.

So, commercials and the media should doless to demotivate overweight people. Rather, they should stop andthink about the things they write and express, considering theeffects all this can have on people who are fighting their weightproblems the best way they can.

Finally, being overweight is not acurse, just a solvable problem. These people are not different in anyway, nor has their weight influenced their intelligence, personalityor what not. Doctors, employers, journalists and all other people inthe world need to take this into consideration and provide supportand help for the overweight instead of a heavily counter-productivecriticism.