In her article
"Why We Diet," Abigail Saguy tells us that a group of women were interviewed and asked
whether they would take a pill to reduce their weight even if such pill also reduces their life
expectancy by 5 years. Over 90 percent of these women responded "yes," which was a
testament to the way society perceives obesity. Essentially, these people were saying that they
would rather be dead than fat.
In the article by Alice Randall, "My Soul
to Keep, My Weight to Lose," she also talks about the shame of being overweight. While she
does not directly ask women how they feel, she talks about the way she feels herself: ashamed,
insecure, unworthy, and ugly. She feels that her weight gain is a remnant of her slavery past.
Imagine how badly she feels to bring up slavery and connect it to weight gain, when, in reality,
weight gain is just an innately human bodily response to an excess of calories.
The fact that both articles say that obesity is seen as a "bad" thing by
society is where both articles agree.
The part in which the articles disagree
is that Randall talks about weight gain with a racialand under the parameters of race. She also
keeps it as a negative thing.
I'd always thought that
weight was a White girl problem, or a "less serious-woman-than me problem."
Saguy, who has written about obesity in other articles, approaches
the topic from a more universal perspective. She says that people should stop seeing obesity or
weight gain as a bad thing. She even asks society to stand up against the issues with obesity,
and she also invites us all to defend those who are overweight and obese.
But if you are trying to change your body to shield against
discrimination and stigma, consider making a different kind of New Years resolution: to stand up
to intolerance and bigotry in all its various forms, whether racism, sexism or
fatphobia.
In conclusion, Randall sees obesity as a
problem that she needs to fix because it may be linked to her racial and social past. She sees
it as a negative aspect of who she is. Saguy, on the other hand, wants to break the stigma with
obesity and wants people to see it from another perspective that is not
negative.
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