Obesity and How the Media and Society Play a Major Role - Research Paper Example

15th August Having too much body fat is obesity. It is different from being overweight, which means, weighing too much. There areseveral factors, which makes a person overweight. These include being overweight from an extra muscle, bone, water or by having too much of fat. Having weight more than what is thought to be healthy for ones height is what is known as being obese or over weight (Obesity, n.p n.d). There is a need for certain amount of body fat for storing energy, heat, insulation and for shock absorption. However, the excess amount body fat is than considered as a chronic condition. The best measure for defining obesity is using the body mass index. With the help of a person’s height and weight, BMI is calculated. Often people think that obesity is a cosmetic consideration. It is not just a cosmetic consideration, but there is more to it. It is a chronic disease which often leads to diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, gallstones and various other chronic diseases. It is not easy to treat because the relapse rate of obesity is very high. Within a span of five years, 95 percent of people who lose the weight regain it. The treatment of obesity is not short termed even though medications and diets can be helpful. It has to be a lifelong process with a commitment to proper diet habits, increased physical activity and regular exercise. One should always concentrate on living a healthier lifestyle, rather than focusing on having an ideal weight (Balentine 2012). In this paper we will extensively talk about obesity in the children how does media and society contributes to it. Increasing trends among obesity in children represents an unprecedented burden on their health. the medical complications which are commonly found in overweight children includes hypertension, type 2 diabetes, respiratory ailments, orthopedic problem, troubles in sleeping and depression. According to research, there is a variety of unrelated media factors, which contribute to obesity among children. These may include a reduction in physical education classes, after-school athletic programs have reduced, public schools have started supplying sodas and snacks. We can also see the increasing number of fast food restaurants, the concept of ‘super sizing’ of food portions and the increasing number of high calorie and high fat grocery products which are easily available. The potential costs that are associated with childhood obesity is considered to be as surprising by the American Academy of Pediatrics. The other potential contributor in the rising rates of childhood obesity is media. There has been an explosion in the media channels and shows which targets to children during the same period in which trends of increasing childhood obesity are observed. In addition to this, there has been an increase in videos, specialized cable networks, video games, internet websites and other computer activities. An average of five and a half hours are spent by children today on media. This time spent is equivalent to a full time job. This time spent is more than an average person spends on anything apart from sleeping. Same is the case with the pre-school children. They spend more time with screen media: which includes TV, video games and computer games, than playing outside. Much of the media that targets the children is laden with elaborate advertising campaigns, which mostly promotes candy, soda and snacks. Studies show that on an average, a child watches 40,000 ads a year on TV alone. According to the theory of experts, pediatricians and media researchers, media contributes largely to childhood obesity. Firstly, the time which a child spends using media displaces the time which they could spend on physical activities. Secondly, the advertisements, which are related to food, influences a child in making unhealthy food choices. Moreover, the food products are made more attractive when some famous TV character or a cartoon character is the ambassador of that product. This encourages children to buy and eat unhealthy high calorie food. While watching TV, children snack excessively. This is usually unhealthy junk food, and less of healthy food. The metabolism rate is reduced while watching TV, this lowers down to a rate below to which it would be even if they were sleeping. It was in 1985 that the first evidence that children’s media consumption is related to their weight was published as an article, and had a dramatic impact. William Dietz and Stephen Gortmaker published this in the journal Pediatrics. The data was collected from a large study of a sample of 13000 children. According to the National Health Examination Survey, significant associations were found between the amount of time children spent watching TV and the prevalence of obesity. The study showed that the prevalence of obesity increased by 2 percent for each additional hour, among children of ages 12-17. This happened even after other variables such as prior obesity, race and socio economic status were controlled. Prior obesity only was prevalent because of television, TV having a larger effect. In 1993, according to the studies done by the authors, 29 percent cases of obesity could be prevented, if the television viewing is reduced to 0-1 hour per week. According to another study which was conducted with children of 8-16 years, no correlation for boys was found, but it was observed that obesity in girls was positively associated among girls. This was observed even after controlling factors such as age, race, ethnicity, religion, family income, energy intake and weekly physical activity. Another survey concluded that boys and girls of ages 8-16 who watched TV for more than 2 hours a day had more body fat and greater BMI’s as compared to those who watched less of it. In 1999, a study based on Youth Risk Behavior sampled 12000 high school students concluded that watching TV for more than 2 hours a day was linked to being overweight. For the entire student population, these findings were consistent. The controlling factors were race, ethnicity and gender. There are a number of food companies that engage in a variety of marketing services and sales in schools and such education institutions. Studies have revealed that much of this food which is sold is high in calories and low in nutrition. However, after these studies, the companies make sure that the food which they sell are now high in nutrition and low in calories. Now proper nutritional standards are being set by the Institute of Medicine. These are set as a guidance for the food industry and other food districts. The food companies can see increasing trends of changing their practices regarding the rise in childhood obesity. This is practices through giving health related messages through public displays and other education campaigns. People have started promoting the children’s health through sending across the message via cartoon characters and other movie characters. However, critics show that these ambassadors are often found selling food such, that it is high in calorie and low in nutrition. It is recommended by the agencies to review and revise the licensing policy of these character and children’s television. The obesity issue in the society has opened up another target for today’s media to focus on. The fact of being obese is dealt in various ways with respect to health, productivity, fashion, self image, sex objectification and etc. Even if one is overweight, just by a few kilos, makes him or her feel like the main target for weight loss companies, and such companies market their products in such a way that all the running advertisement in the media seems to focus on you. It makes an individual very alert about his or her body weight and makes them self conscious. The structure that our society rests on has many preconceived notions about the term “ideal”. There is an ideal for every aspect likewise there is an ingrained notion about the ideal body weight and body types. Slim and curvy figures are considered desirable while being fat or obese is considered undesirable. It is how the society perceives its members! It is interesting how the society challenges the very members that join up to make a society. According to Heather Pollit, the intolerant behavior towards obesity develops at school level that is the further transferred into the adult society (BBC). Our society forgets the concept of heredity. Being big is just there in some people’s genes thus they are built bigger than others and they cannot do anything about it. They may lose a few kilos in the start, but the body will gain those lost pounds after sometime in order to maintain the weight which our body feels comfortable to function on. The intolerance towards the issue of being overweight or obese has led to the rapid increase of weightism in the society. The society is more aware of body weight and types than it was a decade ago. The concept of weightism lead to stigmatization of individuals who are obese and are just a bit rounder than what is considered to be normal or acceptable by the society or those who are very thin and are anorexic or bulimic. Thin people might get away but the society imposes major stereotypes against the obese or fat people. Such individuals are considered to be greedy, lazy, lack discipline, have less will power and are incompetent. The weight stigmatization can be practical that is small seats not able to occupy obese people at clinics or other waiting areas. It can also be verbal that is foul and derogatory language is used for obese people and they are ridiculed. Stigmatization can also be physical such as bullying and aggressive attitudes towards fat people. Such stigmatization might also lead to discrimination at various levels for example in employment. Obese people are merely not hired by many companies because of their outlook which is aesthetically not pleasing and their qualifications are just ignored. Weight stigmatization can also lead to seclusion, weak interpersonal relationships, and blaming of one’s own self by those who are targeted. Weight stigmatization has proven to have negative impact on physical and emotional health. Children who are fat and obese are more vulnerable to this menace. During the process of secondary socialization children learn to function as a part of the society and learn to identify with the norms and values set in the society they live in. As mentioned earlier, the society has ideals for everything thus the children not conforming to the ideal weight or body type experience discrimination at the hands of their peers. Negative responses against obese children develop as early as three years old and throughout their school life these children are credited with various negative characteristics by their class mates including being lazy, greedy, slow, unpopular and incompetent. Negative behavior perpetrated against obese children by their peers make them highly conscious of their body image, leads them to eating disorders, low self-esteem, higher risk of depression, lower physical activity and ingrains in them suicidal leanings. Sexual objectification is defined as the practice of considering another person just as an object that gratifies one's sexual pleasure. Objectification in simple words is a means to an end that is to achieve sexual gratification. The sex objectification is mainly focused on the different body types of both male and females. The relationship between sex and body type is much prevalent in society today and is unambiguously portrayed in the media in form of advertisements, television and movies. The use of sexual objectification by the media has enforced the concept of the “thin ideal”. When it comes to conforming to a specific body weight and type the females are more under societal pressure rather than males. The media portrays the women by keeping male gaze in mind, thus today’s models, actresses and even mere products are presented in such a way that they are sexually desirable. Objectification with reference to obesity has led to an increasing pressure especially among females to conform to the thin ideal which is ingrained in our society. The thin ideal is the notion of the perfectly slender female body. The common view of this concept is that of a slim feminine body shape with a tiny waist and very less body fat. The perceived shape of the thin ideal is decreasing while the rate of female obesity is increasing at the same time, making this idyllic body hard for women to achieve which in turns put such women under extreme pressure from the society as they always have to be appealing to the opposite sex. The level to which women are psychologically impacted by the concept of thin ideal depends to the degree the ideal is socialized in them. The Eating Disorders Journal states that the thin ideal internalization is the level to which an individual conforms the socially acceptable ideals of attractiveness and involves in attitudes intended to comply to these ideals (Ahern, Bennett and Hetherington). Women generally associate the preferably thin body to positive life results like confidence, great romance, happy marriage, happiness, desirability and intelligence consequently. Objectification theory’s main concept is that females in particular can be credited to internalize the perspective o the viewer as the main view of their own physical selves. The individuals who self objectify themselves come to see themselves as mere objects to be valued by others. Self objectification is the inclination of individuals to define the self in terms of how their body appears to others, rather than what their own bodies can do or how their bodies feel. Constant awareness of one’s appearance is necessary to conform to the socio-cultural body norms and to keep away from negative remarks (Aubrey). This could further lead to an increase in the events where many females might feel ashamed or guilty because of the way their body looks and the fact that they are not ideally slim. This also decreases the motivational level among them and leads to depression and other psychological and eating disorders. Works Cited "BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | The overweight on the overweight." BBC News - Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Aug. 2012. . Balentine, Jerry.R. "Obesity." Encyclopedia on Medicine. N.p., 18 July 2012. Web. 15 Aug. 2012. . Eysenck, Hj. "Personality and experimental psychology: The unification of psychology and the possibility of a paradigm." J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 73.6 (1997): 1224-1237. Print. Goffman, Erving. Stigma: notes on the management of spoiled identity. New York: Simon & Schuster, 19861963. Print. Kaiser, Henry.J. "Research on Media and Childhood Obesity." Role of Media in Childhood Obesity 1 (2004): 2-4. www.kff.org. Web. 15 Aug. 2012. "Obesity - PubMed Health." National Center for Biotechnology Information. N.p., 11 July 2011. Web. 14 Aug. 2012. . "The Pressures Fat People Experience in Today's Society." EzineArticles Submission - Submit Your Best Quality Original Articles For Massive Exposure, Ezine Publishers Get 25 Free Article Reprints. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Aug. 2012. . Read More