Representation of obese people and obesity in the media

Q1. How is your group of people represented typically in the media? Explore specifically how the representations are constructed.

Within the media, obese people seem to be victimised, as signified in TV documentaries, as they are trying to overcome their weight problems and admit their abuse at being 'fat'. Though much of the blame is on the media, due to the fact that "the proliferation of television channels are causing obesity, particularly in children". Therefore, advertising is mostly to blame, as adverts for fast food are shown during prime time television.

Generally, "obese people are ostracized or expelled from fictional formats/ platforms such as magazine advertising"." Obese and overweight characters tended to be unattractive , unpopular and unsuccessful" As a result, magazine companies seem to airbrush models to make them look thin and refrain from using people that look fat or unattractive.

Interestingly, an experiment was carried out at Yale University , where students were asked to rank pictures of hypothetical sexual partners that included an obese partner or partners with various disabilities - including missing an arm or described as having history of sexually transmitted diseases. They ranked the obese person as the least desirable sexual partner compared to the others. This shows how obese people are unattractive and the fact that they are marginalised in society as being undesirable.

To some extent, "... the only place on television where they see bodies similar to their own is on shows where the entire cast is trying to be thin", this therefore suggests that shows such as The Biggest Loser seem promote the perception that "obesity is caused by individual failure rather than a mixture of the individual, the environment and genetic sources..."

In regards to Cohen and moral panic, "obese people are treated as 'folk devils' who violate societal values of self control". This idea supports the idea of people as being unattractive and selfish, as they are ignorant .

Though, the media seems to have a "focus on the individual rather more than structural obesity causes and solutions, especially when discussing African Americans, the poor, which suggests that the issue of obesity and inequality is based on race , ethnicity and class, as it reinforces prejudice based on body size".