Obesity and Fatness in America Body Image

The purpose of this historiography is to use secondary sources that will make for a greater understanding of my topic and how it relates to American body culture. In the last six decades obese people have faced discrimination in American society because of their physical appearance. Typically, society has categorized obese people as unhealthy individuals; their appearance causes discomfort; they are viewed pessimistically by employers and their career opportunities as a result have been limited. While more than 27% of the American population is obese, the federal government does nothing to prevent employment discrimination against obese or overweight people. The focus of this paper will be to analyze the issue of cultural discrimination against obese and overweight individuals and provide recommendations for changes with regard to the treatment of obese people in society so that they might be more accepted socially and enabled to fit more seamlessly into mainstream American culture, society, and economy.

The history of fat is not an isolated story. As Rice notes, fat shaming and the social and cultural perspective of obesity in the West has ties to other cultural cues.[footnoteRef:1] Rice states that the cultural message regarding fitness and fatness contribute to perceptions of that "fat" people are unfit for society, do not have good social values, and are somehow morally inferior to others.[footnoteRef:2] Stearns moreover provides a timeline of how the history of fat really took shape throughout the 20th century in the West, beginning with the turn-of-the-century medical "phase" followed by the middle-century misogynist "phase" from the 1920s to the 1960s, whereupon a new "health" phase took over coupled with marketing of health products and fitness gear/apparel.[footnoteRef:3] [1: Carla Rice, "Becoming "the Fat Girl": Acquisition of an Unfit Identity." Women's Studies International Forum 30, no. 2 (2007): 158.] [2: Rice, "Becoming the 'Fat Girl',"159.] [3: Peter Stearns, Fat History: Bodies and Beauty in the Modern West (NY: New York University Press, 2002), 4.]

Thus, it is not surprising to find that Anna Kirkland in "Representations of Fatness and Personhood: Pro-Fat Advocacy and the Limits and Uses of Law" argues that size acceptance or pro-fat rights movements have existed in the United States for decades where it has been established successfully as a political identity for a set group of fat people.[footnoteRef:4] Typically, fat advocates continue to rely on legal strategies and self-understanding by increasing number of successful identity groups. However, they are being confronted by many different kinds of disputes based on lack of an overall definition of the fatness identity. The author further believes that pro-fat advocacy in the United States seeks to take the advantages of the law to reconfigure the status of fat people towards a recognition of political identity. Kirkland identifies the "National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA)" as the prominent social organization devoted to personal, social, legal, health and political concerns of fat people.[footnoteRef:5] NAAFA also uses the legal topics to explain the legal cases that include employment discrimination. Finally, the organization urges the lawmakers to include weight and height categories in the law to protect fat people under the civil rights laws, and improving social acceptance of the obese people. [4: Anna Kirkland, "Representations of Fatness and Personhood: Pro-Fat Advocacy and the Limits and Uses of Law." Representations 82, no. 1 (2003), 24.] [5: Anna Kirkland, "Representations of Fatness and Personhood: Pro-Fat Advocacy and the Limits and Uses of Law," 25.]

Steven Greenhouse in his research article titled "Overweight, but Ready to Fight" focuses on the discrimination issue against obese.[footnoteRef:6] The author cited the example of how Mcdonald discriminated Joseph Connor because he was an obese provoking Connor to sue Mcdonald for not employing him because of his weight. Typically, increasing number overweight people in the United States are facing similar discrimination and law are offering little protection to address the problem. The author maintained that 27% of American are overweight or obese and the data is climbing daily coupled with the criticism against Mcdonald. Despite a surge in the number of overweight population in the United States, the law offers little or no protection for the obese people. Although, employment law condemns discrimination based on race, sex, color and age, nevertheless, the law does not prohibit "employers from discriminating based on physical appearance" making some people to believe that employers are focusing hiring mainly the good looking people.[footnoteRef:7] Thus, the advocates for the overweight are lobbying to prevent employment discrimination based on the physical appearance. Steven further reveals that many obese people are unable to win the court case because there is no clause in the Disability Act that cites a discrimination based on physical appearance.[footnoteRef:8] Thus, when obese people argues that they are being discriminated against based on their disability, the court normally rejects their arguments on the ground that obesity is not a disability, and the employer has the right to discriminate against the overweight people. [6: Steven Greenhouse, "Overweight, but Ready to Fight; Obese People Are Taking Their Bias Claims to Court." New York Times, August 4, 2003.] [7: Greenhouse, "Overweight, but Ready to Fight; Obese People Are Taking Their Bias Claims to Court," 1.] [8: Greenhouse, "Overweight, but Ready to Fight; Obese People Are Taking Their Bias Claims to Court," 1.]

However, the court needs to change the ruling against overweight people to assist them gaining full employment in the United States. In 2002, the Supreme Court in New Jersey reached a different conclusion by pointing out that obese people of 5-foot-9 with 400 pounds were disabled in the New Jersey Discrimination law because this category of people may suffer a metabolic disorder. Despite the assertion of this rule, the Federal code has not yet categorized the obese people as people with disability. So with laws not going in to effect these people are still discriminated against.

Jones in her research article titled "The Framing of Fat: Narratives of Health and Disability in Fat Discrimination Litigation" observes that change needs to be implemented with regard to the protection of obese people against discrimination.[footnoteRef:9] The author points out that fat discrimination is common in the American educational institution, business and healthcare organizations making obese people facing employment discrimination in the society. However, the anti-obesity activists are claiming that this sort of discrimination is unacceptable because stigmatization of fat bodies often prevent obese people to live a healthier life. Thus, the acceptance movement used the scientifical notation to argue that fat bodies can live the healthier life. Similarly, the legislative advocacy has pointed out that fat discrimination is unacceptable because fat people can be healthy. Jones supports her argument from the cases filed by obese people where they are able to demonstrate that they are healthy compared to disable and unhealthy people. Theoretically, they are able to challenge the discrimination using the claim of good health. While some plaintiffs have been successful in claiming that fat bodies are health, some plaintiff is unable to win the cases based on the believe that fatness is a disability. The author suggests that fat people who use disability as a claim should work with disability right movements that demand access and respect for disabled people. They can create stereotypes for disabled people if they are not careful because these people aren't actually disabled. [9: Lauren E. Jones, "The Framing of Fat: Narratives of Health and Disability in Fat Discrimination Litigation." New York University Law Review 87 (2012): 1996-2039. ]

But, as Carl Cederstrom and Andre Spicer note, "such is the logic of binormality: it gives a sense of smug righteousness, making you think you're on the right side of the moral law."[footnoteRef:10] In their work The Wellness Syndrome, the authors examine the health trend that attempts to define what is normal, good, healthy and "moral" in terms of diet and lifestyle. Being good in other words is akin to feeling good and looking good, the authors find in the so-called "cult of wellness." The reality is, of course, that health trends can be taken to unhealthy extremes, especially when it comes to creating a culture and society opposed to the principles upon which the society was ultimately founded. [10: Carl Cederstrom, Andre Spicer, The Wellness Syndrome (MA: Polity Pres, 2015), 61.]

Tavel's article titled "Stigma and the Fat Body in American Culture" provides the history and meaning of fatness in the American culture.[footnoteRef:11] The author points that fatness is being categorized as unhealthy since the 1800s despite that there is no supporting evidence during this period. The same belief continued in the 19th century where some people attributed fatness as laziness, lack of self-control, greed, gluttony, primitiveness and ugliness. In the 21st century, there is a growing relationship between fatness, discrimination, and racial discourse where fat African-Americans have been identified as the most obese ethnic groups in the United States. Based on series of problems that obese people face in the American society, movements have organized to advocate for those problems. For example, "Michelle Obama's nutrition campaign and Oprah Winfrey's diets" have tried to educate people about the important of diet in fixing the problem of fatness.[footnoteRef:12] Despite the effort of these groups, fatness continues to be linked with people of lower status. Moreover, women face additional discrimination because they are more obese than the men counterpart. [11: Clarke Michael Tavel, "Fat Shame: Stigma and the Fat Body in American Culture." Journal of Social History. Summer 46, no. 4 (2013), 1077.] [12: Tavel, "Fat Shame: Stigma and the Fat Body in American Culture," 1078.]

Sabrina Strings' article titled "Obese Black Women as "Social Dead Weight": Reinventing the "Diseased Black Woman" discusses the stereotypes facing the African-American women because of their obesity.[footnoteRef:13] The author points out that many African-American women engage in behavior that put them and their families at risks. However, Strings still argues that African-American women can live healthier contrary to the belief of some people that white women can live a healthier life than African-American women: "African-American women have the highest rates of "obesity" measured as a BMI of 30 or greater of any subpopulation of the United States, their parallel death rates appeared to signal a population-wide health crisis."[footnoteRef:14] [13: Sabrina Strings, "Obese Black Women as "Social Dead Weight": Reinventing the "Diseased Black Woman"." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 41, no. 1 (2015): 107.] [14: Strings, "Obese Black Women as "Social Dead Weight": Reinventing the "Diseased Black Woman," 107.]

Parr explores the factors that lead to a sudden emergence of the mutual aid group with reference to obesity and rise of weight loss. Typically, a weight loss has been attributed to different variables at the United States post-war. The author further points out that American medical authorities affirmed in the 1950s that obesity was the leading health problems in the United States prompting a recommendation for a rigorous weight control, and educating people to be diet conscious. The issues manifest a self-movement and groups that include Fatties Anonymous and Take Off Pounds Sensibly leading to the proliferation of weight loss. Thus, the weight loss movement can assist in providing a new insight into the current obesity management policies.

Likewise, Seng investigates the effects of weight and height in a sample of young adult workers drawn from the data between 1981 and 1982. The findings reveal that weight and height are statistically impacted on wage growth and wage levels of both male and female workers. The author concludes that the attractive people receive more cooperation and assistance from others. Moreover, employers' hiring preferences, promotion decisions and occupation success favor attractive people than non-attractive people.

Walden, moreover, argues that a weight consciousness started when the bourgeoisie was in power and maintaining class distinction leading many youths to embrace the ideas of sliminess. In the 19th century, body control was able to impose order on chaos brought about by the technological revolution which assisted in increasing growth weight consciousness. The author points out that some people have been able to prevent obesity by avoiding foods that contain sugar and starch as well as rigorously following the advice of physicians.

Meanwhile, Bailey discusses the impact of fast food on the health of Americans focusing on the documentary film "Super-Size Me" that accuses Mcdonald as the major contributor of health effects of American people. According to the author, the obesity is threatening the health of the American society because there is likely to be an increase in the childhood obesity in the nearest future. Thus, the author suggests that Americans should inculcate a diet culture to get thin.

These concepts can be juxtaposed with John Kasson's examination of the concept of the "Perfect Man" and how that plays into the American conscious regarding body image and obesity. Throughout the early 20th century, themes of magic, escape and body image were intersected and interwoven to create an illusion of perfection that was then exploited by the advertising agencies in the West.[footnoteRef:15] [15: John Kasson, Houdini, Tarzan and the Perfect Man (NY: Hill and Wang, 2001), 10.]

This exploitation served the fitness culture well, as shown by Shelly Mckenzie in her book Getting Physical. That work examines the rise of the fitness culture in America and the role that celebrity endorsements and advertising played in the acceptance of this culture: essentially, attractive stars and starlets like Jane Fonda promoted a lifestyle culture of being "fit" and physical, which gave millions of Americans a reason to want to get "in shape" -- they too could be like Jane -- rich, powerful, attractive and happy.[footnoteRef:16] [16: Shelly Mckenzie, Getting Physical (KS: University Press of Kansas, 2013), 8.]

I believe these secondary sources and court cases yielded in my research provide a strong platform and show how the research relates with American body culture. Some of the core points that I found to be important are that many employers still discriminate against obese people based on their physical appearance. This issue has led to the series of court cases where the plaintiffs file suits against the employers. For example, "EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)" was a suit on behalf of Stephen Grindle against his employer for terminating his employment based on employee morbid obesity resulting in a violation of The American Disabilities Act. The court supports that the obese morbidity is a disorder, however the court affirmed that there is no medical evidence to support the conclusion. All this research shows the years of oppression and discrimination against obese people based on their physical appearance. This is a key element of body culture because I believe one of the main purposes of body culture is to progress our cultural values. History shows that we struggle with culturally accepting obese and fat people.

Bibliography

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