Close your eyes and picture an individual who looks skinny. What does the individual look like? Is the individual a man or a woman? Similarly, picture an obese individual. Is this individual from an affluent household or a poor household? Is this individual a resident of a country in North America or a country in Africa? Is this individual educated?
Most of you likely had images of the two individuals similar to those below. Most of you likely pictured the anorexic individual as a woman and obese individual as a resident of an affluent country.
Now think about all the stereotypes that these two individuals will be associated with. If a skinny individual is living in an affluent place, North America for example, then that individual will be viewed as being deviant from the norm. Their social connections might view them as having an eating disorder and may be labelled as “emaciated”, “fragile”, and “unassertive”. If the individual is living in a poor, malnourished place such as Africa then they will not be viewed as being deviant from the norm. Instead, they will be viewed as malnourished due to poor financial status and will be looked upon with sympathy by opulent individuals. So what is true: is the skinny appearance due to an eating disorder or due to societal factors such as poverty? Does the physical environment and genetics also play roles in determining its etiology?
There will be many stereotypes associated with an obese individual living anywhere in the world by the average “healthy weight” population in the world. The individual will likely be viewed as “lazy”, “careless”, and “lousy”. They will likely be perceived by the dominant discourse as someone who regularly eats fast food. They will be viewed as someone who can “fix” their condition if they put an effort to do so. Could poor financial status explain obesity? Would a poor neighbourhood resident or a resident from an affluent community be more likely to become obese? The availability of healthy food items may be low in poor neighbourhoods. There might be environmental injustice with more infrastructure such as bike trails that encourages a healthy lifestyle in an affluent neighbourhood. If this is true then it is certain that a higher proportion of individuals living in poor neighbourhoods will be obese compared to individuals in affluent neighbourhoods. So what is true: is obesity due to personal attributes, genetics, or environmental factors?
Both obesity and underweight are associated with stereotypes and in most cases, individuals with these conditions are perceived negatively. Their lifestyle, genetics, or environmental factors could underlie their condition. Maybe it is a combination of all these factors that leads to variable expressivity of the conditions among different individuals. The reality is that viewing our society in black and white and hastily jumping to conclusions would be foolish.
*Disclaimer: The content presented in this article is based on my thoughts and does not in any form reflect expert advice or ideas of organizations that I am affiliated with.
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