The dominant ideological belief of the North American beauty standard is predominantly associated with being light-skinned, thin, and young (Johnston, 304). The hegemonic norms of the body present in society have created a diet culture. To me, diet culture is a society that places too much importance on thinness and equates it with health and moral virtue. This means that an individual can go through their entire life believing that they are irremediably broken because they do not fit the incredibly thin “ideal.” Diet culture also promotes weight loss, which pushes people to spend a lot of time, energy and money trying to make their bodies smaller. I argue that food culture in North America is inherently flawed and harmful to women. I suggest that the valorization of subtle bodies is a socially constructed mass that is not “natural” or universal (Johnston, 305). The sociological theory I will use to frame my essay is symbolic interactionism as, for me, it captures the essence of the social impact of weight loss products. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay My goal of this essay will be to describe and illustrate the ways in which society has created the stigma surrounding obesity and, exploiting the characteristics for monetary gain. Capitalists use the weight loss industry and diet culture to exploit and profit from obesity. To understand the social meaning of weight loss products, we must first explore how body ideals were created by society and the effects these standards have specifically on women's social sense of self. Finally, I will conclude by highlighting how capitalism is the main beneficiary of the weight loss industry through the concept of body work. Symbolic interactionism is a theoretical microsociological perspective that emphasizes how our social world is created by relationships and interactions in our daily lives, these interactions then build meaning and personal identity (Johnston, 278). The concept of the mirror self proposed by Charles Cooley insinuates that the self-concept is an imaginary sense of ourselves based on how we believe others perceive us. This theory suggests that the actions and expressions of how others interact with us are an indicator or reflection of how we see ourselves (Johnston, 278). There is plenty of evidence in everyday interactions that shows the effects of fat shaming go far beyond the rude comments, stares and glares fat people hear, offensive comments strangers make about their bodies, and “funny” memes and jokes. with overweight people. It turns out that fat prejudice differs from other forms in ways that make it particularly difficult to overcome (Kolata, 2016). These interactions that overweight people face have a huge impact on how they see themselves. This stigmatization causes fat people to look down on, blame, and feel ashamed, as well as harbor the same feelings towards other obese people (Kolata, 2016). Body work is a concept in sociology that refers to the work that people do on themselves or pay for their work. in order to manipulate their bodies to improve their physical appearance (Johnston, 306). Obese people therefore constantly find themselves in a situation where they feel that being overweight is a fundamental defect to which they must find a solution, but they do not have to search for options for a long time. This is because there are a huge number of products for.
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