The article “Fat and Happy: In Defense of Fat Acceptance” by Mary Ray Worley discusses the problems of obesity and self-image, perception of self-identity by obese people and their friends. The author underlines that negative stereotypes of fat people are nothing more but an influence of modern culture and beauty images popularized by mass media. The author depicts a unique experience with obese people and underlines that happiness and pleasure are internal factors influenced by a desire of a person to be happy.
The article discusses self-images and the perception of obese people by themselves. Mary Ray Worley describes her personal experience and feelings after visiting a party in the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance. The author portrays: “They were having so much fun it was infectious. I felt light-headed and giddy. I kept noticing how great everyone looked. They were confident and radiant and happy–and all sizes of fat. Definitely not my planet” (Worley). Worley finds that significant sociocultural influences in the person’s environments potentially include parents, family, peers (especially cohorts), schools, churches, media, and other institutions. Different influences matter at different times in a person’s life. Thus, parents are most important; during late childhood and adolescence, peers or cohorts and nonfamilial institutions (e.g., school, media) become increasingly more important. Therefore, if identity follows the same course of development as other aspects of identity, one would suspect that parents and adult authority figures are most influential early on, followed by peers or cohorts and social institutions in later years. Be that as it may, what possibly makes body identity development different from other aspects of identity development, with perhaps the exception of gender, is that most of the focus of cultural communications from the environment to the person are about group-related appearance rather than the individual’s own abilities, interests, and so on. In contrast to the traditional view, many obese people are really happy paying no attention to their body weight. “They wore the full belly-dancing regalia–that is, gauze and bangles and beads and not much else” (Worley). An individual develops a view of the body image of herself or himself (ascribed identity) primarily on the basis of how these sources react to that aspect of the person. To the extent that the person is socialized in environments in which significant role models consider body image to be a normal and desirable part of themselves.
The article is subjective describing only one side of the problem. Thus, it brings light to the problem of obesity and false ideals popularized by our society. On the other hand, to the extent that the person is raised in an environment in which he or she is taught to idealize or denigrate the value of her or his group or others’ group, it is likely that the person will develop a less-healthy body image. Because they usually are raised in an environment that is automatically structured so as to be friendly to Whites, it is easier for White persons to develop a positive (albeit inflated) view of their own group and themselves because they belong to the “favored” group (i.e., ascribed and reference-group identities). The article reflects the personal experience of the author, thus it is a unique interpretation of life and happiness typical for most obese people. The only limitation of the article is that it does not take into account health problems caused by obesity and unhealthy behavior patterns. The “truth” of the constructs; then, results from whether the products operate in a manner consistent with identity theory. Body image attitudes have generally been used to operationalize personal identity, though such attitudes are not direct measures of personal identity types or stages rather products thought to evolve from them. However, local or immediate socio-cultural influences might communicate messages about race to the individuals that are in contrast to the prevailing norm.
To some extent, the article idealizes the life of obese people and their relations with others. Many fat people suffer from negative stereotypes and images imposed by mass media. Consequently, for such individuals, body image world views become a more important part of the person’s personality structure and, therefore, govern a broader range of the person’s attitudes, cognitions, feelings, and behaviors. Thus, for Blacks in general, it follows that personal identity will obviously influence a wider range of personality and related behaviors than is the case for Whites who are less frequently subjected to contradictory information about themselves or others. Such communications are usually accompanied by the supposition that the (usually) visible physical characteristics mean something about the person’s internal psychological characteristics. Thus, the person’s level of commitment to a particular group (i.e., ascribed identity) results in large part from her or his transactions with powerful sociocultural communicators. The transactions may be direct as is the case when a child’s parents tell the child how to interact with other groups; they can be vicarious as is the case when the child sees how people of her or his group are treated and construes meaning from such treatments. Also, individuals may have views of the personal identity aspects of themselves that differ from the prevailing social norms.
Works Cited
Worley, M. B. Fat and Happy: In Defense of Fat Acceptance.. n..d. Web.