There are many things that are socially constructed in today’s society nation-wide because of the influence of the Western ideas. One of that being the idea of how an individual’s weight can define whether they are “fat” or “overweight”. Both of these correlating with the idea of not being healthy and that they may be obese. “Fat” and “overweight” is a scientific way to describe the mass weight of the individual, but has been commonly used negatively that now these terms are seen more as a stigmatized label. But the shift in the meaning of the terms has been birthed from the health institutions who have been trusted to give medical judgement that would determine whether we are “healthy” or “unhealthy” based on what they see as “normal”. The
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So when they compare an individual’s records on what’s their “average weight” based on the studies found on others with the same gender and age, the next thing that should be considered is the racial identity. As a Tongan, my weight at a certain age can be very different from another who’s the same age but different identifies as another racial group. Considering this part of determining the “average weight” is important because different racial groups hold different genes and has an influence on the weight. Looking at the spectrum of the diverse racial groups in America, we can match a general feature of somones physique based on their racial identity. For instance, when someone thinks of a young Tongan male the physique that immediately comes to mind is a 6 foot-tall, brown sunkissed skin with long black hair who is approximately 200lbs. Showing this illustration is an example of how it has been normalized for the Tongan people to be seen as “overweight” because it’s not within the average of what doctors claim to be on track to healthy. But since there is a big difference in the normal physique for Tongans versus the Caucasians, then what is determined to be average should be different when doctors begin to compare the weight and determine whether someone is “overweight” or “obese”. Therefore, a Tongan’s average weight should be determined off of a study that …show more content…
The traditions center food as a highly important component of any type of ceremony which can have an influence on the body image and whether their large body size should be considered to be overweight and obese. Through history, during the late discover that Captain Sam Hook was doing in Tonga was that he noticed the body figures of both the male and female in Tonga. He described them to be overwhelmingly large, where the females seem to have nearly the same physique with males in how broad their shoulders are and wide the legs are (Pollock 1992, p. 117). His observation may seem offensive to some in the sense that he is generalizing our body figures to be typically big, but is very much
So when they compare an individual’s records on what’s their “average weight” based on the studies found on others with the same gender and age, the next thing that should be considered is the racial identity. As a Tongan, my weight at a certain age can be very different from another who’s the same age but different identifies as another racial group. Considering this part of determining the “average weight” is important because different racial groups hold different genes and has an influence on the weight. Looking at the spectrum of the diverse racial groups in America, we can match a general feature of somones physique based on their racial identity. For instance, when someone thinks of a young Tongan male the physique that immediately comes to mind is a 6 foot-tall, brown sunkissed skin with long black hair who is approximately 200lbs. Showing this illustration is an example of how it has been normalized for the Tongan people to be seen as “overweight” because it’s not within the average of what doctors claim to be on track to healthy. But since there is a big difference in the normal physique for Tongans versus the Caucasians, then what is determined to be average should be different when doctors begin to compare the weight and determine whether someone is “overweight” or “obese”. Therefore, a Tongan’s average weight should be determined off of a study that …show more content…
The traditions center food as a highly important component of any type of ceremony which can have an influence on the body image and whether their large body size should be considered to be overweight and obese. Through history, during the late discover that Captain Sam Hook was doing in Tonga was that he noticed the body figures of both the male and female in Tonga. He described them to be overwhelmingly large, where the females seem to have nearly the same physique with males in how broad their shoulders are and wide the legs are (Pollock 1992, p. 117). His observation may seem offensive to some in the sense that he is generalizing our body figures to be typically big, but is very much