Obesity in Today’s Society

Obesity and Transgender Individuals in Society

Obesity and transgender people in society are in most cases the targets of bias and stigma. Aside from struggling with the health troubles associated with overweight, they have to deal with the social consequences of being overweight. Persons who also come out as transgender additionally experience stereotyping and are vulnerable to negative attitudes in more than one places of living such as workplaces, educational centers, and clinical facilities. The essay will discuss issues of depression, anxiety, social isolation, and low self-esteem as the damaging effects of stereotyping to the overweight and transgender individuals.

The Impact of Stereotyping on Overweight Individuals

Overweight is often related with bad habits of eating and laziness to exercise frequently. Some refer to chubby persons as slobs and lazy because of the beliefs learned from parents or friends. Individuals who are obese are already conscious of themselves and what people think about them. Stereotyping these people hence affects them leading to isolation the often results in loneliness and depression. Overweight is not always the case of bad eating but could be as a result of health conditions. Labeling transgender persons as freaks or crazy does not improve their self-esteem but instead lowers their morale often resulting in depression (Norton and Herek, 746).

The Social Isolation Experienced by Transgender Individuals

The total number of transgender individuals in society is more than what is always known to the public. Many of them fear coming out as transgender because of the negativity towards them. Social isolation is likely to occur as many people isolate them because of the myth that they are crazy and not normal people. Social isolation is also visible to the overweight individuals as many people will tend to discriminate them in public places (Phelan et al, 322). Obese people and transgender people are often anxious as they do not know what will happen to them on that day.

Conclusion

Stereotyping to the overweight and transgender individuals go beyond physical attacks and abuses. As discussed, discrimination results in depression, low self-esteem, social isolation, and anxiety. All these effects have a tormenting effect on the emotional, physiological and mental state of the individuals. It is important that we all appreciate the individual uniqueness that makes us different to avoid the issues of stereotyping.

Works Cited

Norton, Aaron T. and Gregory M. Herek. “Heterosexuals’ Attitudes toward Transgender People:

Findings from a National Probability Sample of US Adults.” Sex roles 68.11-12 (2013):

738-753.

Phelan, Sean M., et al. “Impact of Weight Bias and Stigma on Quality of Care and Outcomes for

Patients with Obesity.” obesity reviews 16.4 (2015): 319-326.