Body Diversity in the Media, Body Types, Obesity in the Media - Essay Example

vanelli and Ostertag, this is the concept of panopticism taking effect in which people alter their behavior due the feeling that other people are constantly observing and judging them (p.1). In fact, these changed attitudes have been incorporated in almost all sectors of contemporary societies such as media hence gaining greater acceptance as time advances. In relation to body diversities such as obesity, people tend to take the one sided view seeking to lay all blame on the victims. Obesity is heavily associated with lack of discipline and self-control with the basic believe that it is the victims’ fault.

As such there seems to be no much harm in discriminating against obese people. In fact, having negative attitudes towards obese people is in most instances regarded different from other discriminations such as against race or gender among others. Additionally, unlike lines of discrimination, there are no federal laws or significant measures to defend the rights of fat people except in Michigan where there is ban on discrimination on basis of weight (Brown 2010, para. 2). This explains the shared negative attitude towards fat people that allows people to blatantly comment about them oblivious of the personal harm that may be caused to the victims.

Social settings have seemingly no platform for fat people to express themselves and the amount of judgment is unmeasurable. Although in general all fat people receive a significant amount discrimination, there seems to be focus on women. A comparison between obese men and women shows that women are more harshly treated than men. This can be attributed to the definitions of femininity that have become so deeply rooted in people’s minds over time. Women in most societies are expected to be keen about their physical appearances in which body size is at the top of the list.

Taking greater focus on Western cultures, there is a general notion that dissociates beauty from fat bodies. To some extent this explains the