Your Weight Is Just Right
Feeling like you don’t fit into the social norms for weight (meaning that you feel too fat or too skinny) can cause stress and depression, according to a new study discussed here. If I’m reading this correctly, it’s not based on whether you are, in fact, too fat or too thin, but whether you perceive that you are.
“If unhealthy weight perceptions are subsequently found to cause psychological distress or worse, depression, then we’ll need to determine whether social stigma, discrimination, and slim body image marketing trigger feelings of depression amongst those whom recognize that their weight status does not conform to a societal ideal…
Clearly both obesity and underweight are hazardous to health, increasing the risk of premature death, for example, but our findings suggest that public health initiatives...may need to promote healthy attitudes towards body weight and self-acceptance, regardless of weight status.”
Oh my god, someone’s finally on the right track. Self-acceptance is good! Social stigma is bad! Slim body image marketing is damaging! It seems like this one hasn’t quite hit the airwaves yet, but I wonder what sort of spin is going to be put on it for the general public. Will “Accepting people for who they are is awesome” be the next “Obesity is contagious“? We’ll see.
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: International, Science
The airwaves today are too busy screaming “being fat gives you CANCER!!!”
This is a good direction and I hope it’ll continue in the media. However, I find it annoying that they have to say “clearly both obesity and underweight” are bad for your health. Being underweight is actually more the polar opposite of the very highest fatness, not “regular obesity”. But maybe expecting them to see that is asking a bit too much.
I doubt you will find a lot of attention given to “everyone should just accept their weight” when there is such a financial incentive to the “ZOMG, fat is attacking!!!” crowd.
It is fascinating how people lose the ability to track how messages get translated. For instance, I bet that any defense from the obesity researchers will be “well, we just want everyone to be healthy.” But they forget the fact that their message gets twisted into the awful financial calculations which adds resentment towards teh fatties and starts people complaining about how lazy and stupid we are.
You see that ‘may’ you highlighted at the end?
That’s a big fat NO.
If they even report it at all, they’ll probably apply it to either only ‘underweight’ people, or people who actually who actually do fit into societal norms but are those insane ‘people who panic over those last 5 pounds (into underweight).’
Five bucks it’ll be phrased either of those two ways, with no mention of people who are actually *fat*. Fat people can continue to worry themselves into early graves.
I don’t think they do forget Spins, it’s more what difference does it make to them if our health goes down the drain? It proves their point that obesity is unhealthy and means that they will be more likely to raise the profile of their chosen field. We have to realise that anti-fats are in a win-win situation, it’s not that they are evil, it’s just that they are having a good time and we are the ones that will pay, just like the old music hall song, ‘It’s the rich that has the fun and the poor what takes the blame’ we are the ‘poor’ taking the blame whilst everyone else gets what they need or want out of it.
Yes! That’s wild that they did a study. I did a study in my own personal life, but hey, it wasn’t on purpose! I’ve not felt bad about myself in years because, for one, I’m way to busy having a great life to worry about my freaking weight, and for two, my husband has always been so sexy and loving towards me. BUT. I found out a while back that a male co-worker that I really liked said some very ugly things about my weight. You’d think as an adult I could blow it off but it really hit me hard. I lost a lot of my confidence for months, not because one person out of everyone in my life said something nasty but because suddenly I saw myself differently. It’s been a long stuggle back up the hill to seeing myself like I did before.
I’d like to see them focus more on acceptance but I think it’s going to take a HUGE shift because there are so many people who think it’s okay to use social stigma to combat any number of dangerous or unacceptable behaviors. Let’s publicly humiliate people or make them feel guilty because that means they will conform to the standard, right? right?!
Wrong.