Introduction
Fatness may be a hereditarily situation where people cannot control being obese due to biological succession from their parents. However, fatness may also be as a result of poor dietary and inappropriate lifestyle choices. The modern society’s perception towards obesity is something of a great concern. It could be impossible to handle and bear with an obesity body. This is because its consequences and are undesirable and one could be miserable in their entire life. This essay provides an analysis of fatness in reflection to the popular film entitled, “To Be Fat like Me” starring Kaley Cuoco. The essay will identify specific features associated with obesity and discuss its consequences based on the film and real life experiences as explained by Samantha Murray.
Aly, the major character in the film “To Be Fat like Me” is an active young woman from an obese family history. Aly’s mother and young brother are much obsessed with overweight living. Her mother becomes ill on regular basis due to overweight. However, Aly takes the advantage of the situation to funding her education. She participates in a documentary film contest hoping that to acquire prize money so that she could comfortably realize her objectives. At some point Aly dresses an oversized suit to suggest the struggles with weight as excuse for their family’s misfortunes. The behavior became consistent but its reception to the society and friends was that Aly does so in order to outshine her physical appearance. By this time Aly was overweight and realized the consequences of it by experience. She was regularly shunned by colleagues despite being humble as always. Ramona, a close obese friend to Aly tells her experiences after which aly betrays her when she exposed all details and materials in the documentary.
Overweight people undergo various challenges. The society is always unfriendly to them. Some individuals such as Aly in this case use the condition to benefit themselves. Samantha Murray on the other hand shares her life experiences of obesity living. The two individuals’ challenges are similar. This suggests that all overweight people face common issues regardless of their social statuses and their economical positions. So, what are the common challenges of living with an overweight body? How can someone escape such a situation? To answer these questions, one must first understand the causes of obesity. Then, finding a solution is easily built from there.
In the article “doing politics or selling out: living the fat body”, Samantha explains her experiences. She accepts her obesity status in which society and friends associate the condition with laziness, slothful, weak-willed, unclean and unreliable. Others even think that Samantha is deviant, defiant and unhealthy (Murray, 2005, p. 269). At the shopping mall, Samantha receives negative comments about her size when the shop assistant suggested that people like her could not get help from the shop. There were no clothes that Samantha could purchase from the shop is it was fashion outfit shop. Samantha is not only discouraged by the unfortunate treatment but also began to realize how the society is abusive to her due to obesity. A woman whispers to her daughter telling her that she could prefer taking a meal with lemon when her body is like Samantha’s. When Samantha goes for swimming at the beach, she becomes the center of attention. People shout to suggest to their friends that they could not want to end up looking like Samantha. The situation is similar even at the hospital. The doctor angrily noted down the word ‘OBESE’ and underlined it three times on Samantha’s file. Everybody concludes that Samantha’s body is a site of undisciplined flesh as a result of unmanaged desires (Murray, 2005, p. 277). Probably, these are the features and consequences of obesity.
One is left to wonder on how overweight individual will start getting a fair treatment from the society. Talking about obese people being unclean is unfortunate. It is a baseless perception. This applies to the other assumption that such people are unhealthy, lazy and unreliable. Nobody chooses what they what to be like. Even if it seems people rejoice when they are skinny and slim, the actual situation is never the way people perceive it (Thomson and Bruggemann, 2002, p. 62). Such individuals are exposed to other weight challenges and at some point, they may even think of gaining much weight. It is time the society realizes that everyone has their own weaknesses on which they have little to do about. It is beyond their reach although some measures can be put on place to controls such situations. To be obese does not mean one is weak or disabled. It is true obese people maneuver and flourishes in life like the normal sized human beings. They acquire equal chances of life and compete effectively in overall life aspects in the society. To some extent, overweight persons even go further beyond the normal sized individuals in terms self actualization.
Although obesity is never a weakness of anybody’s fault as discussed earlier, individuals are often exposed to life time personal healthy challenges. This includes the inability to perform certain tasks in life. For example, it could be more difficult for a person weighing 100kgs to keep healthy fitness routines. This normally leads to the state being stressed up hence leading to a low self esteem personality. Such individual endure a rough time and people could take that opportunity to oppress for their own benefits. Therefore, it is always good to find possible solutions to overweight. This is however an individual effort rather than a collective or a community effort. For instance, being conscious to what food you take can be the first step to control your weight. However, people must accept their overweight status and view it as challenge rather than one fate. This will keep them in the right frame of mind to raise their general perception and take about their lives. Avoiding fat and sugary foods such as refined grains and soft drinks is also essential to reducing the amount of sugar in the body. Long term weight management entails increasing the amount of vegetables and adopting appropriate lifestyle necessary as prescribed as per normal life living standards. Other techniques are: adopting a good plan response to hunger, taking ample amounts of protein and limit fructose levels in your body. This would suppress the functioning of hormones that are biologically the main contributors of more pounds leading to obesity. Integrating these measures with regular body exercises involving move body movements, say at least one body exercise everyday will never disappoint (Thomson and Bruggemann, 2002, p. 68). It is everybody’s responsibility to make sure that human life and experiences is enjoyable. This entails giving everybody a chance in to showcase their abilities in the society regardless of their body sizes.
References
Murray, S. 2005. Doing politics or selling out? Living the fat body. Women's Studies, 34 (3-4), pp. 265--277.
Thomson, R. and Bruggemann, S. 2002. The politics of starring: visual rhetorics of disability in popular photography: Disability Studies: Enabling the Humanities,. 2nd ed. New York:: MLAA. pp. 56-75
YouTube. 2013. To Be Fat Like Me Part 1. [online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gbpjccv3Qg [Accessed: 16 Nov 2013].
