Fat is a feminist issue because women are valued on their appearance above any other aspect of their character and being a fat woman in society is viewed as one of the worst things you can be. Fat bodies are extremely stigmatized in our culture. Society is obsessed with the idea of controlling the appearance of women’s bodies- and this includes size. Fat is seen as lazy, unbearable and something we should never be okay with being. Society communicates to fat women that they should not exist in the body they do. This is communicated through the oppression of fat bodies through diet-culture and fat-shaming. These methods of oppression come with troubling costs.
The societal ideals and pressures surrounding women’s beauty standards are damaging …show more content…
Being fat in society can essentially discredit the person as whole and is looked at as a marker of failure and inadequacy. The way our culture views fat women plays out in actions and behaviors of employers, dating interests, health care professionals and fashion retailers. There are multiple areas of the employment category where fat women are discriminated against including the hiring process, promotion, performance evaluation and compensation .(Fikkan, Rothblum, 2011, pg.576) The stigmatization of fat bodies is very real and perpetuated in the health care system. A common theme that occurs when a fat person seeks medical treatment is when health care professionals see their weight as the only contributing factor to their experienced health concerns. I’ve experienced this since I was young and it has definitely affected my relationship with seeking out the health care system when I am sick. This attitude toward fat people can act as a barrier for fat individuals to seek out medical interventions when they are feeling ill. In a The societal attitudes towards fat individuals influence the way medical professionals view their patients who are fat. The Implicit Attitudes Test was handed out to researchers and clinicians who attended an international obesity conference. The results uncovered a notable anti-fat bias on variables including …show more content…
Society is constantly communicating that women’s worth comes from their appearance, they begin to internalize these expectations of them and their bodies and it can affect the self-concept, body image and mental-health of women. The unrealistic pressure to be thin affects a woman’s relationship to food and their body, and this is illustrated in the prevalence of eating disorders and food obsessions in females. The causes of eating disorders are complex, but they emerge from a combination of sociocultural, psychological and biological factors. (Lee, Pause, 2016) According to Joan Jacobs Brumnerg, 5 to 10 percent of American girls and women live with anorexia nervosa. ( Wolf,182) Eating disorders have devastating effects on the psychological and physical well-being. It was reported by women’s magazines that 60 percent of American women have serious trouble eating. During an average day, 25 percent of women are on diets and 78 percent of women eighteen and over were dissatisfied with their bodies according to studies. (Woolf, 185) If fat bodies were not criticized and negatively viewed in our culture, most women would not be eating restrictively or eating disorderedly in attempts to lose weight, and the majority of people would not develop eating disorders. (Lee, Pause,
The societal ideals and pressures surrounding women’s beauty standards are damaging …show more content…
Being fat in society can essentially discredit the person as whole and is looked at as a marker of failure and inadequacy. The way our culture views fat women plays out in actions and behaviors of employers, dating interests, health care professionals and fashion retailers. There are multiple areas of the employment category where fat women are discriminated against including the hiring process, promotion, performance evaluation and compensation .(Fikkan, Rothblum, 2011, pg.576) The stigmatization of fat bodies is very real and perpetuated in the health care system. A common theme that occurs when a fat person seeks medical treatment is when health care professionals see their weight as the only contributing factor to their experienced health concerns. I’ve experienced this since I was young and it has definitely affected my relationship with seeking out the health care system when I am sick. This attitude toward fat people can act as a barrier for fat individuals to seek out medical interventions when they are feeling ill. In a The societal attitudes towards fat individuals influence the way medical professionals view their patients who are fat. The Implicit Attitudes Test was handed out to researchers and clinicians who attended an international obesity conference. The results uncovered a notable anti-fat bias on variables including …show more content…
Society is constantly communicating that women’s worth comes from their appearance, they begin to internalize these expectations of them and their bodies and it can affect the self-concept, body image and mental-health of women. The unrealistic pressure to be thin affects a woman’s relationship to food and their body, and this is illustrated in the prevalence of eating disorders and food obsessions in females. The causes of eating disorders are complex, but they emerge from a combination of sociocultural, psychological and biological factors. (Lee, Pause, 2016) According to Joan Jacobs Brumnerg, 5 to 10 percent of American girls and women live with anorexia nervosa. ( Wolf,182) Eating disorders have devastating effects on the psychological and physical well-being. It was reported by women’s magazines that 60 percent of American women have serious trouble eating. During an average day, 25 percent of women are on diets and 78 percent of women eighteen and over were dissatisfied with their bodies according to studies. (Woolf, 185) If fat bodies were not criticized and negatively viewed in our culture, most women would not be eating restrictively or eating disorderedly in attempts to lose weight, and the majority of people would not develop eating disorders. (Lee, Pause,