American society has a compulsive obsession with weight, and crowd culture perpetuates the problem. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 43% of adults are obese in the U.S. and nearly 1 in 3 adults are overweight, including our president. The existence of nutrients and whole foods is not a reality for the majority of Americans, but where does the obsession with body size come into frame? Obesity prevalence has garnered a new meaning in popular society with the rise in marketability of the body positivity movement, shows sponsored by TLC like “Family by the Ton” and popular GLP-1 drugs (Ozempic, Wegovy, Semaglutide, etc). All these micro-causes lead to macro-effects that have seemed to shift society’s not only obsession with weight, but also their expectations of health and happiness at any size.
An episode highlight from the show, “Family by the Ton,” where morbidly obese family members undergo gastric bypass surgery to cut the weight, showed up on my “for you” page. It was an old episode, and the language used to describe, analyze and pick apart the contestants on the show had turned an evaluation of health into a question of morality. America’s obsession and integration of thinness had never translated the same way. Suddenly there is a “good” vs. “lazy” body type that is portrayed, and when weight is utilized as a moral indicator, there is an uptick in what society deems as a “correct” way to look.
Another show that turns weight into a storyline is “The Biggest Loser,” which recently gained traction again after Jillian Michaels, the host, appeared on a Jubilee episode debating with body activists about the correlation between health and weight. There seems to be a strict formula: by losing weight, the contestant gains confidence, self love and ultimately earns a higher quality of life.
How obesity is perceived and taught through media and TV is drastically different from how health functions throughout the United States. With food deserts (excess of fast-food, lack of fresh farms and groceries), and the recent integration of GLP-1 drugs, weight loss has shifted again. Drugs like Ozempic, originally made for serious medical conditions, have altered how weight-centered sows function. Now we don’t need “trainers” like Jillian Michaels utilizing intense methods on NBC to help people lose weight, they just take a drug. Shows that exploit people’s weight for money, popularity and traction promotes diet culture and the abuse of GLP-1 drugs. The obsession of weight is not getting better in the U.S., it is simply finding a new audience to exploit.
Leave a Reply