Research Essay – Jace Digital Portfolio

The Problem With Glorifying Obesity in Social Media

COVER LETTER

My audience is every influencer spreading the message that being morbidly obese isn’t a problem. I tailored my language to them by being as straight forward as possible.

The most meaningful insights I gained were how many people actually do this. I didn’t realize how large the fat pride movement actually is.

Someone that impacted my learning and writing was Orangepeanut. He seems like a pretty genuine guy, he’s funny. However he is quite harsh, and I try to stay away from using statements like his.

This phase helped me understand how it feels to be in the mindset of a morbidly obese person looking to just love themselves. Quite sad. I was able to see the point of view of the influencers I talk about. I just see things differently as they do. For example, in “Fat acceptance tiktok” by Toshimo, there are people saying how they are trying to learn to love themselves, and that truly hit home.

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Jace Easley

Professor Demasi

English 11000

11-11-22

I’ll start by saying something that needs to be said, but not a lot of people want to hear. Being obese is not ok. Plain and simple. Obesity, as in one’s BMI being far above 30, is harmful for numerous reasons. The Health risks that come with it are deadly and life altering. This may seem like common knowledge. However nowadays, there are influencers on social media telling impressionable and desperate people that it is ok, even good, to be morbidly obese. Now, I assume their intentions are to uplift many people. That’s all well and good. No one should live their life feeling like crap. But the messages they’re conveying to the public are going to do a lot more harm than good.

Let us first understand the risks of morbid obesity. Morbid obesity has lifelong consequences on the body. High blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, sleep apnea, heart attack and/or stroke. All conditions that can either make living unbearable or cause a premature death. According to a MedicalNewsToday article, “Having severe obesity can make it difficult to do everyday activities, such as walking, breathing, and sleeping. It can also increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and various other health conditions.” All this and more from credible medical sources. These risks on life are definitely not worth taking. Not only would this cause someone to feel dreadful

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physically, but their mental state will surely suffer as well. If all this is the case, then why are there people on social media, encouraging this lifestyle. Glorifying it even. Saying there’s nothing wrong with it. That it’s ok. Truly baffling. Allow me to share my two cents.

I can understand the motive of the influencers. Individuals who are morbidly obese receive much hate. It would seem as though it is acceptable to shame someone for being obese. I agree with the influencers in the sense that it’s messed up for that to be the case. However, for there to be a video of someone saying “If you’re fat, and you’re not trying to lose weight, I’m so proud of you! Keep it up you got this!” is still harmful to them. It’s encouraging a complete dismissal of self-improvement and self-care, and is pushing the false narrative that someone actively trying to NOT lose weight when they should, is something to be proud of. Obesity (as I said before) can lead to type two diabetes, which can lead to the amputation of limbs. It can cause heart attacks, increase the risk of stroke, raise blood pressure, the list goes on. Promoting that to an impressionable audience is just as bad as bullying.

There’s a video on YouTube called “fat acceptance tiktok compilation”. In this video, a woman is addressing a video in which someone shows a before and after. In the “before” image, the person was much larger, and in the “after” image, they were their current size. The woman addressing that video saw it as fatphobic. She explains how the person showed “her size” and was like “thank god I don’t look like that!”. To her,

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the person’s video is showing fat hate and is offensive. What I saw this to be, was a classic case of insecurities. The person in the video wasn’t showing a picture of anyone in particular and completely roasting them. They were using THEMSELVES as the “before” image. I understand how someone saying your size is something they’d never wanna be can be insulting, but it’s not fatphobic to just not want to be fat. I’ve noticed that the ones who are encouraging obesity are people who are obese themselves. I’m certain that they’ve experienced it all before. Bullying, humiliation, public shame. The content they make is most likely a coping mechanism for them to feel better about their past trauma surrounding their size. But rather than focusing on improving their health, they decide to tell others online how being morbidly obese is great, and to not change anything about themselves. They talk about how every body is perfect, no matter the size. Me personally, I’m not obese. I work out regularly and try to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Is my body perfect? HELL NO. There is sooooo much improvement to be made. That’s the case with everyone. Except Chris Hemsworth of course. Anyway, the

way these influencers are saying that morbidly obese bodies are perfect bodies is quite harmful. I understand how it makes people feel better about themselves, and that’s fine, but feeling bad about yourself is unavoidable. Every one of these influencers I’ve seen has a video of them crying and expressing how they feel bad about their body. Which brings me to my next point.

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Nowadays, people are so scared to hurt one another’s feelings, they will hide the ugly truth and tell each other exactly what they want to hear. Imagine a beloved family member is in a critical state. Something terrible will happen if they don’t make a change. Will you sit there, enable them, and tell them they’re fine. Or will you tell them to get up, and for love of god, make the change because you don’t want to see them go. Now, the former seems ideal because it makes them feel good for the moment and is a lot easier. No one wants to see their family member in poor spirits. Then again, no one wants to see their family member in poor health. The same goes for these social media influencers. They will “you’re beautiful” someone into their grave.

I’m trying to keep this as respectful as possible while giving the facts. However, comedian and influencer, Orangepeanut does not. He is quite harsh. A video of his titled “Mary Fran Needs to be Stopped…”, published on May 7, 2022, addresses the topic of

a woman being upset that her doctor blamed her for her poor health, and argues that her doctor is correct. He supports this claim by saying, AND I QUOTE, “Stop eating! Stop shoving the twinkies in your mouth!”. (Not even kidding. Time stamp 5:11. Here’s the video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMHPAMDrJic&t=264s). Orangepeanut’s purpose is to use “brutal honesty” and shock factor in order to change people’s views on the video he’s commenting on. He’s an example of what I

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try not to do. He’s a bit too harsh. So much to a point where it’s just destructive and his point is lost through his excessive roasting. He doesn’t even consider the argument that there are individuals who have medical conditions that make it so that they don’t lose weight, no matter how healthy their lifestyle may be. I like to keep things respectful and make it so that what I’m saying is retained and not immediately dismissed because I’m being “disrespectful”.

Being overweight and being obese are two different things in certain context. Although someone who is morbidly obese is obviously overweight, someone who is overweight isn’t necessarily obese. Allow me to explain how this correlates with my cause. It is continuously said on social media, how plus sized individuals are not adequately represented. Whether it be for a magazine, a television show, or just on some billboard ad, some obese people claim that they want to see themselves represented in the media. According to a video titled, “Where Is the Fat Representation in Media?”, a woman states “loads and loads of people who are watching these TV shows are fat themselves, and want to see their body types represented”. Now, I don’t know what shows SHE’S watching, but I see plenty of overweight people in practically every show I watch. But it’s not good enough. There is another video (I can’t possibly find it it’s been months since I’ve seen it. I tried looking) where a different overweight woman complains that the fat representation is horrible. How the people being shown aren’t even obese, they’re just slightly overweight. She says how she wants to see rolls,

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cellulite, even some lymphedema. We already have overweight people being represented in a positive manner throughout social media and television, but people are complaining that the actors aren’t fat enough? How preposterous. Certain people want morbid obesity to be portrayed more because they want it to be viewed as normal. It is not. Although it is unfortunately common, Morbid obesity is a medical abnormality and should not be glorified.

It’s also quite tough to have a morbidly obese person hired to play an important movie or television role, given their vast array of medical needs. That is yet another complaint that the social media morbid obesity positivity community has expressed. They have numerous videos explaining that morbidly obese people aren’t given as many job opportunities and are hired way less than their fit counterparts. I did some thinking and at first, I didn’t see the logic in that. But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Morbidly obese people aren’t as capable of working as someone who is not, therefore they’re hired less. Think about it like this. An individual who is illiterate wouldn’t be hired, due to the fact that they lack a necessary skill that is required

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to be functional in society. It’s not really discrimination, they just can’t perform as well as someone who is able to read. Same situation with someone who is morbidly obese.

They can’t move as well, they can’t be on their feet for long periods of time, they can’t really find any jobs that accommodate their many needs. An article by the name of “Obesity Discrimination in the Recruitment Process: You’re Not Hired!” it is said that “obese people are less likely to be assessed positively on personnel suitability than normal weight people”. This, to them, is discrimination, I see this as fairly logical on the person hiring’s end. Keep in mind, it isn’t that every overweight person isn’t being hired. It’s more strict on the people who are morbidly obese. I can begin to understand why.

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Losing weight is hard. It takes time and discipline. I’m not disputing that. I just think that today’s generation lacks that discipline. Putting in the work is repulsive. They just want what’s easy. Trust me, I’m speaking from experience here. However, as far as health goes, it’s completely worth the time and effort to lose weight, and that’s what these social media influencers need to understand. Sure, a quick “you’re beautiful” will make you feel great for a couple hours. Maybe even days. But for long term results, physically and mentally, it’s better to promote proper diet and exercise rather than morbid obesity pride. The gym does wonders for mental health. At the end of the day, I just want everyone to be as healthy as possible and make the right choices in their life. I don’t think that’s fatphobic.

Works cited

May 3, 2016, National Library of Medicine – Obesity Discrimination in the Recruitment Process: “You’re Not Hired!