The Sociological Aspect of Obesity Essay - 7419 Words

The Sociological Aspect of Obesity ABSTRACT Much has been written to explain the medical aspect of obesity but little attention has been paid to understanding the sociological aspect of the epidemic. This research attempts to understand the sociological aspect of obesity by examining the socio-cultural, gender, and psycho-social effects and includes the different perceptions of the epidemic as well as what is deemed acceptable in the society we live in. In the American culture, obesity is seen as a bodily abnormality and deviance that should be corrected. Obesity has indeed become one of the most stigmatizing bodily characteristics in our culture (Brink, 1994). In the Western culture, thinness does not just mean the size of the†¦show more content†¦Based on background information, a central hypothesis was developed that obesity is an ongoing, gendered and embodied cultural process that has harmful consequences for the obese individual (e.g. Harjunen, 20022003). The various social implications of obesity will be explored via interviews (with obese people or former obese people) conducted and the surveys taken of people in the Boston area. Introduction The purpose of this paper is to study the social aspect of obesity and an individuals personal experience of being fat. I understand obesity as a socially and politically meaningful divergence that is analogous to other significant differences based on the body, for example: disability, gender, and ethnicity (ef. Cooper, 19971998; Young, 1990). In my research, I approach obesity as a discursive category that is created, produced and reproduced through various social practices, such as: medicine and health care system, school, religion, and the media (e.g. Foucault, 1979). I claim that in American culture, a thin body is held as the original, normal body; whereas obesity is viewed as a `temporary disruption to the balance of the body. According to our cultural understanding, an obese body is viewed as being in the process of constant transformation. The idea of a permanently fat person is unacceptable and an obese body must be standardized and normalized. The goal is to transform andShow MoreRelatedThe term Sociological Imagination was coined by C. Wright Mills and refers to seeing sociological700 Words   |  3 PagesThe term Sociological Imagination was coined by C. Wright Mills and refers to seeing sociological situations from a broad point of view, going beyond one’s thoughts and feelings, and by seeing it how others would see it. In the textbook Introduction to Sociology by Giddens, et. al Mills argued that we needed to â€Å"overcome our limited perspective†¦[and have] a certain quality of mind that makes it possible to understand t he larger meaning of our experiences† (4). 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