Discrimination And Prejudice Due To Weight â€Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Discrimination And Prejudice Due To Weight? Answer: Introduction Weight related stigma has been deeply rooted in the society for quite a long time. Obese people are often highly stigmatized and they have to experience different kinds of discrimination and prejudice due to their weight (Trainer, Brewis, Wutich, Hans, 2017). Pearl Lebowitz (2014) show that, the recent data from all over the world has indicated that the discrimination for weight has increased with the course of time, especially among the women. The weight bias also has a huge impact on the inequalities within the work places, educational institutions and other health care facilities because of the extensive negative stereotypes such as the obese persons are unmotivated, lazy, less competent and sloppy (Trainer et al., 2017). These stereotypes have been prevalent within the Australian society and have been hardly challenged. This social attitude has kept the obese and overweight people in a vulnerable state to the unfair judgment and social injustice (OBrien, Latner, Puhl, Vartanian , Giles, Griva Carter, 2016). This discriminatory attitude and stigma towards the obese people are entirely pervasive and it has posed a number of consequences for their physical and psychological health (Monaghan, 2017). Several researchers have reported that the stereotype has mostly been reported from their coworkers, family members, employers or friends to the obese people, even to the young children aged not more than three years (Pryor, Reeder, Wesselmann, Williams, Wirth, 2013). Therefore this essay triggers this issue of stereotyping the obese people with the help of literary journals and will evaluate how harmful this issue is. Review of Research Into the Consequences of Weight Related Stigma Current research on the impact of weight related stigma reports it has negative effects on social behaviours and health of the obese individual (Lewis, Tomas, Blood, Castle, Hyde Komesaroff, 2011). Several social settings where weight related stigma has been most commonly researched shows unpleasant effects on the obese individual. Obese employees report discriminatory attitudes within the workplace 37 times more than employees not classified as obese (Phelan et al. 2015). Co-workers have attitudes that obese individuals are lacking discipline, less competent and lazy (Trainer et al., 2017). The instances of such stereotyping include being targeted of insulting humor or any other derogatory comments from the supervisors and co-workers. Obese workers furthermore experience differentiated treatment including lower wages, less chance of being hired or chance of being promoted (Monaghan, 2017). Even studies have also reported particular kinds of employment discrimination which may lead to the unlawful termination from the job. Cavico, Muffler, Mujtaba (2012) has reported that there are several legal cases which include the obese employees being fired due to her or his weight regardless of their positive performances or even if the weight related issues are irrelevant to the job roles. It should also be noted that the women tend to face more discrimination regarding their weight than men sixteen times more. O'Hara, Tahboub-Schulte Thomas (2016) has found employment discrimination on the basis of obesity remained almost similar and common as previous studies. In addition to that, more evidences indicate that the obese and overweight workers tend to face the stigmatized behavior from their employers which lead to inconvenience with wages, hiring, promotions, even terminations of job due to their overweight. Not only within the work environment, has the weight stigma occurred but also within different settings such as within the educational institutes or within the medical facilities. Obese students tend to experience ridicule or harassment from their peers; and experience negative attitudes from their educators and teachers*. Obese primary and secondary students who report bullying on the basis of their weight, are less likely to participate in health promoting behaviours( eg playing sports) and are more likely to develop a mood or anxiety disorder(Setchell et al., 2017). Within the college environment, it has been reported that the qualified yet overweight students tend to be rejected from the colleges than the other students who weight normally, those who arent subject to weight related stigma (Cash Green, 1986). However, it should be noted that this tendency is more prevalent within the female students*. Even in health care facilities, obese patients report having experienced biased attitudes from their physicians, psychologists, nurses and dieticians (Brochu et al., 2014). This can lead to a disturbing consequence that the obese patients may not consult the medical practitioners due to such negative experiences in the past. Furthermore this prevents treatment, and allows for exacerbation, of psychological and health issues (Ratcliffe and Ellison, 2015). The weight stigma is also capable of invoking psychological stress on recipient which may lead to poor physical health, social exclusion and isolation due to low self-esteem, depression. Review of Research into the Nature of Weight Related Stigma Through different agencies such as social or print media, family, friends and other people from surroundings construct the idea of being thin in the society. Social ideals are developed through portraying thinness as being beautiful and healthy (Vartanian, Pinkus and Smyth, 2014), and to be obese means being the opposite of that, negatively attributed. Obese characters on Television are represented in less serious roles, less intimate relationships and interestingly obese men are shown more on television then females (Frederick, Saguy, Sandhu and Mann, 2016). Making suggestions that its more normal, acceptable to be obese if you are a male. Furthermore, it is argued that this type of stigma is seen as social acceptable from the notion that obesity is a controllable condition, and makes the obese person accept this bias and discrimination as well (O'Hara, Tahboub-Schulte Thomas, 2016). As sited by Puhl and Bronwell (2003) this supports Crandall and Colleagues proposal that obesity stigma results from social ideology/beliefs that uses negative attributions to explain negative health outcomes. In terms of obesity, people search for the cause of the weight and form reactions to the obese persons. The primary evidence from investigating the informal links between the hiring decisions of the organizations and discriminations based on weight, supports this idea too. The outcome of such studies have indicated that the potential candidates who are overweight are most commonly viewed in a negative way and more pessimistic outcomes in comparison to the other employees and candidates (Monaghan, 2017). Gradually the weight stigma gets attached with the direct, indirect and environmental stigma. The Attribution theory indicates that human beings tend to be motivated in assigning the caused to their behaviors and actions. Therefore people tend to search for the causes and and re actions to the overweight people. This is also utilized in forming the expectations and impression of the individuals. This stigma is so hard to escape because the nature of the condition is visible, weight is a visible thing, and sight is transformed into meaning so quickly. This shows how much stigmatization condition like obesity is also utilized in forming the expectations and impression of the individuals (Lewis et al., 2011). Review of Research into Possible Ways to Counteract Weight Related Stigma Not using the stigma as a useful tool to motivate obese persons to adopt healthy life style behaviours is important. Facing weight stigma was thought to predict an increased level of motivation for avoiding such stigma, although weight related stigma is more likely to give rise to avoiding behaviours when the individual starts avoiding the social interaction as they fear being stereotyped (O'Hara, Tahboub-Schulte Thomas, 2016). Most researchers conclude that there are lesser instances which indicate that stigmatizing experiences turn into weight loss, rather it is mostly seen that such experiences tend to promote more weight gain over the course of time (Puhl and Brownell, 2003). It is very important to promote health over the physical appearance. However, weight stigma cannot be utilized as a motivational tool for this purpose; rather the obese people need to understand that they have to adapt healthy behavior not for changing their appearance, but mostly for their own health. If t he consensus comes from their in-group source than the out-group source, it tends to be more effective. Social consensus shows potential as a method for reducing weight stigma (Lewis et al., 2011). The theory explains stigma as a formation of social agreement on the expression and confirmation of bias, therefore stigma is built from how one perceives the stigmatizing beliefs are agreed upon by others. This is because when people share beliefs it provides a means to affiliate with others and to achieve membership, acceptance and security in social groups*. These positive results of sharing negative beliefs can be the driving motivation to stereotype formation. Multiple studies exploring social consensus show reduced stigmatization of the obesity condition*. Following those who receive positive Consensus feedback report less negative attitudes and more positive attitudes towards obese persons compared to their reported attitudes prior to feedback (Lewis et al., 2011). There are two constructs of source; in-group being not obese populations and outgroup being obese populations. Social con sensus information is found to be more influential in changing stereotypes if it comes from an in group sources, versus an outgroup source, and is also more resistant to change (Puhl and Brownell, 2003) Conclusion It is very unfortunate that still weight related stigma is still a common occurrence in the society. It is most likely that the overweight or obese people tend to experience jokes on their weight and their identity from their own family and friends. However they can avoid the weight stigma in several ways in order to protect their self esteem. However, not only the overweight people, everyone in this society should keep other people safe from any kind of weight related stigma by promoting a sheer acceptance for all the sizes within the community (Lewis et al., 2011). After reflecting on all the literatures regarding the weight related stigma, it can be found out that this stigma not only harms the individuals psychologically, it is also harmful physically. There can be specific strategies that can help the individuals to get rid of such stigma that triggers their social identity. The following recommendations can be helpful for the individuals to cope up in a discriminatory situation : Other than that, changing of the life style should be acknowledged and create an environment which is supportive towards them. The social consensus have previously shown more possibility as a method for reducing the weight stigma, however it has not been sufficiently tested yet (Puhl Brownell, 2003) so further research into social consensus as a tool reducing stigma is required. References Brochu, P. M., Pearl, R. L., Puhl, R. M., Brownell, K. D. (2014). Do media portrayals of obesity influence support for weight-related medical policy?.Health Psychology,33(2), 197. Cash, T. F., Green, G. K. (1986). Body weight and body image among college women: Perception, cognition, and affect.Journal of personality assessment,50(2), 290-301. Cavico, F. J., Muffler, S. 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