Talk:GRSJ224/Medicalization of Obesity and Fitness

Hello Alex, I enjoyed reading through your contribution. Your topic was extremely relevant to current issues as media has scaled body image to another level. It is interesting to she have different parts of the world faces different problems when it comes to body image and health in general. For example, in Asia, many people struggle with extreme weight loss where as in Western countries many people face health issues such as obesity. Your post was very informative overall but I think it would benefit when including possible suggestions when it comes to the unhealthy levels of medicalisation of obesity and fitness and its ties. Thank you for your contribution!

Hi, thank you for your page.

I found your page very informative and I personally could relate as growing up, (according to the BMI scale) I was considered obese. However, I think the use of the BMI scale is not a very effective way of gaging obesity because it does not take into account certain varying factors such as bone density, muscle mass etc. In addition, I strongly agree the increased attention put on obesity is needed and beneficial as the overweight population in countries such as the United States is alarming.

Overall I think you did a good job on your post, some feedback I would provide is possibly an increase analysis on the risk/benefits of medical solutions to weight lost such as surgery. While I personally do not believe surgery is necessary for all individuals categorised as obese, I think the option of surgery is dependent on individual cases where there is heart failure and a threat of a heart attack

Hi, I enjoyed reading about this topic. Your points about the ideal body image and health issues has brought up a good start. However, I would like to know more about the connection between obesity and fitness as well. For example, are households able to get proper access to fitness and if that is affecting obesity? Similar to food security of how food is being accessed in different parts of the world which would be influenced by class and race as well. I really enjoyed reading your post and I hope to see the final product of it!

Thinking about the medicalization of obesity as a SJ issue is very interesting and seems strange. Your points however, make it a very compelling arguement. You bring up many points of false marketing, the ideal body shape, and the increase in other health issues. Be sure to seperate these catagories under differnt headings in your final submission (and remember citations ;) ). You touch upon the idea of women trying to achieve the ideal body; I was wondering if any other areas pertained to an intersectional approach. For example, in my GEO class I had taken last year, we learned about food insecurity in Latin America that results in low-income household have an increasing number of obese children due to an unbalanced diet. This would pertain to a class and race lens, such as the intersectional analysis we are encouraged to persue in this course! I hope you take this into consideration as an intersectional analysis of this topic would be even more interesting to learn about.

Hello!

Thank you for sharing. Your page provoked me to think that a lot of "fitness" related content we consume on a daily basis are surrounding the topic of "obesity" instead of "healthy lifestyle". As you have pointed out, even when one isn't obese according to the WHO standards, the photoshopped photographs from influencers and advertisements about easy weight loss methods (e.g. diet gummies) encourage individuals to strive for the "ideal body type". Your contribution is related to our class content, and the language used can be understood fairly easily. However, I would suggest to include your sources to strengthen your arguments and to make sure of subtitles to organize the content accordingly. Also, it would also be interesting if you can explore how an individual's cultural, political, economic, societal and/or situational context might affect their perception of obesity and fitness, and related medicalization.

Hi! Thank you for choosing this topic since I think obesity is often misrepresented in the media. I definitely learned a lot from your wiki! Our society has definitely become consumed by "diet culture" and the idea that certain foods are inherently better for you than others, prompting a demonization of obesity. When discussing this topic, I think it also may be helpful to include some of the social factors that may influence weight. For example, obesity is often more prevalent in lower income neighbourhoods due to a lack of grocery stores or other outlets that sell whole food options. Fast food is often more affordable and more convenient for people who work multiple jobs. I think this may help add an intersectional dimension to your wiki and allow you to expand on why obesity is more than just a medical issue. Great job overall!

Hi Alex,

I really enjoyed reading your article on obesity and how society has been able to take obesity and turn it into a phenomenon for businesses. While you provide a good overview on how obesity is treated and what is considered obese, it would be beneficial for you to show the difference in 'levels of obesity'. For instance, men and women have different thresholds, so you could compare the two and see how one may be more biased than the other. As your are discussing ideal body types, it may be helpful to explain the difference in ideal body types between genders, or even other ethnicities. Adding some more examples and comparisons can help make this article more fruitful.

Hi there,

I think that you chose a very interesting topic that is becoming increasingly relevant in our society today. In the beginning, you mentioned how being overweight or obese can have significant adverse effects on physical health. It would be helpful if you started off by defining what obesity is (e.g. how much is considered overweight) so that your audience can have a clearer concept. Also, I think it would be beneficial for you to expand your topic by talking about specific points. For example, you could talk about the causes of obesity (what factors contribute to people becoming obese?) and how obesity plays a role in the context of mental illness (could people’s excessive eating be a result of depression or other illnesses?) In general, you are off to a great start - I like how you explained that the “easy solutions” many medical companies offer are problematic. Lastly, and most importantly, please include references!

Hi! I really enjoyed reading your Wiki Page, I also really liked your topic you chose, which I think is one of the important and popular factor that people in our society is interested in. I think your contents are relevant to your topic but one thing I noticed was that if you could organize the contents that you wrote in a division into different sections would help the readers to follow along your page more smoothly! :)