In a NY Times article, “Is Fat Stigma Making Us Miserable?”, Emilie Lucchesi talks about the causes of psychological health problems arising not necessarily from the physical characteristic but from the overbearing stigmatization of being overweight in our society. Contrary to popular belief, there exists almost no direct relationship between how much a person weighs and their psychological health welfare; the problem lies, instead, within how people are being treated. She explains that it’s rather “the teasing, judgment and unsolicited advice directed at overweight people that can cause the greatest psychological harm.”
The article goes on to introduce Courtney Bailey, a media scholar in popular culture, as she explains that the fat stigma …show more content…
He compared everyday, face-to-face interactions to that of a ‘staged act.’ Individuals, he believed, acted as not only social actors, who have specific roles or parts on various stages, but also as audience members, who constantly responds to someone else’s role performance. He notes that an individual’s “performance will tend to incorporate and exemplify the officially accredited values of the society [and] acknowledges that performers can disrupt social roles by not playing the part their audience expects” (Dillon, 2014, p. 283). What is important to note here, is that there already exists a pre-determined social role of a ‘normal’ person in general, whether we like it or not. The “expected behavior” of people at its most basic foundation, exist free of any physical or mental dysfunction or defect; This is why those who deviate from the norm, like the overweight people in the abovementioned article or those infected with herpes in the, “Protecting Oneself from a Stigmatized Disease,” article, are prone to garner more cruel and judgmental attention from those who are ‘normal,’ and not stigmatized or …show more content…
It comes natural to us to always want to put on a “good” performance. This engagement in impression management can be split up into two different regions—the front and back stages. The front stage is where the performance is given and the back stage is where actors can prep for their performance. In this way, they can ensure a successful ‘presentation.’ The overweight people, being the target of weight discrimination, refused to go to the gym and doctor’s offices to avoid further stigmatization. In this way, they are able to manage their audiences to just those in their immediate surroundings, like their family members who already know what they look like, in order to minimize the possible damage. This is an example of something called passing, a technique used by those wanting to present “an uncontaminated or ‘unspoiled’ identity when in the co-presence of others from whom they must hide their stigma [from]” (Dillon, 2014, p. 292).
People can say we advanced as a society with our increases in social tolerance and legal equality, but that doesn’t stop the audience from “staring,” embarrassing or ostracizing stigmatized people in a public setting. Staring has been associated with the “mechanisms of social control; we stare in disapproval, and when someone else stares at us, we tend to alter or cover up our behavior, and
The article goes on to introduce Courtney Bailey, a media scholar in popular culture, as she explains that the fat stigma …show more content…
He compared everyday, face-to-face interactions to that of a ‘staged act.’ Individuals, he believed, acted as not only social actors, who have specific roles or parts on various stages, but also as audience members, who constantly responds to someone else’s role performance. He notes that an individual’s “performance will tend to incorporate and exemplify the officially accredited values of the society [and] acknowledges that performers can disrupt social roles by not playing the part their audience expects” (Dillon, 2014, p. 283). What is important to note here, is that there already exists a pre-determined social role of a ‘normal’ person in general, whether we like it or not. The “expected behavior” of people at its most basic foundation, exist free of any physical or mental dysfunction or defect; This is why those who deviate from the norm, like the overweight people in the abovementioned article or those infected with herpes in the, “Protecting Oneself from a Stigmatized Disease,” article, are prone to garner more cruel and judgmental attention from those who are ‘normal,’ and not stigmatized or …show more content…
It comes natural to us to always want to put on a “good” performance. This engagement in impression management can be split up into two different regions—the front and back stages. The front stage is where the performance is given and the back stage is where actors can prep for their performance. In this way, they can ensure a successful ‘presentation.’ The overweight people, being the target of weight discrimination, refused to go to the gym and doctor’s offices to avoid further stigmatization. In this way, they are able to manage their audiences to just those in their immediate surroundings, like their family members who already know what they look like, in order to minimize the possible damage. This is an example of something called passing, a technique used by those wanting to present “an uncontaminated or ‘unspoiled’ identity when in the co-presence of others from whom they must hide their stigma [from]” (Dillon, 2014, p. 292).
People can say we advanced as a society with our increases in social tolerance and legal equality, but that doesn’t stop the audience from “staring,” embarrassing or ostracizing stigmatized people in a public setting. Staring has been associated with the “mechanisms of social control; we stare in disapproval, and when someone else stares at us, we tend to alter or cover up our behavior, and