In Defense Of Fatness Essay

Americans believe fatness is a disease because it has been ingrained into their minds over the past few decades. Roberta Seid and Mary Ray Worley are two women who have either experienced or extensively researched America’s problem with fat and further recorded their findings in their literary works, “Too ‘Close to the Bone’; The Historical Context for Women’s Obsession with Slenderness” and “Fat and Happy: In Defense of Fat Acceptance,” respectively. Apparently, according to Worley, the American society has condemned fat people as worthless and treated them like lesser beings. Seid believes our entire culture has the wrong attitude toward fatness as a whole. Although Roberta Seid and Mary Ray Worley, both lacking ethos to a degree, have similar views on overweight Americans and the newfound obsession with thinness, they would most likely argue over the most effective way to accomplish change.
America has become “fatphobic” (Seid 167) according to Roberta Seid, a lecturer at the University of Southern California, and Mary Ray Worley, a …show more content…
The authors realize that fat people are treated unfairly; however, Seid sees it as a cultural problem that needs to start with an attitude adjustment and Worley, while also seeing a societal issue, believes it should be approached from an individual standpoint. However, after reading and analyzing both pieces, the reader must decide for himself if America really does have a problem with how they treat their overweight population. Is Worley justified in saying that “we hate fat” (Worley 165) and therefore discriminate because of it? Should Americans continue to view fatness as an epidemic and trending diets as the cure? Ultimately, to ignite a movement this massive, authors like Seid and Worley need to join forces to kindle the flame and turn this into a raging