David Helmricks

Obesity: Structural-Functionalism, Consequences, Stigma


How do sociologists look at obesity and what can cause it and some different consequences of obesity. The research below covers three different areas that sociologists looked at: structural-functionalism approach, consequences of obesity, and some prevention methods of obesity. The first three summaries cover the structural-functionalism approach. The forth summary covers some consequences of childhood obesity and some treatments of childhood obesity. The fifth summary covers how stigma affects obesity and responsibility of obesity.


Such a Pretty Face: Being Fat in America, by Marcia Millman. New York: Norton, 1980.

This article was a review of a book. This book was the first book written by a sociologist on obesity. The book covers two different topics during the book. One topic examines a fat person’s life and the second covers the identity struggles of overweight people. They use three different social settings to portray the overall adaptations of the overweight people. In these social settings, they are using the idea of social construction of reality but they are using it as social construction of obesity. They also look at the sex roles; sexuality and obesity have on both men and women and how it can contribute to obesity.

http://library.cocc.edu:2087/view/00943061/di973951/97p0972u/0?currentResult=00943061%2bdi973951%2b97p0972u%2b0%2c06&searchUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fsearch%2FAdvancedResults%3Fhp%3D25%26si%3D1%26All%3DObesity%2B-Consequences%26Exact%3D%26One%3D%26None%3D%26sd%3D%26ed%3D%26jt%3D%26dc%3DSociology


Obesity and the Family: Marriage & Family Review, Vol. 7. Mos. ¼, edited by David J.
Kallen and Marvin B. Sussman. New York: Haworth Press, 1984

This review is a collection of a total of nine different articles that are dealing with the phenomena of obesity and dieting. This article takes a more structural-functionalism approach and how society can affect obesity. It was in tribute to the work of a distinguished scholar in sociological analysis of dieting and obesity. Some of the articles take a look at how other family members or other close relatives can effect on other people by how obese they are and also on their dieting. Another article also looks at how social class, gender and obesity are related together. The other articles examine different parts of society and how they affect obesity and how obesity can be controlled.

http://library.cocc.edu:2087/view/00943061/di973975/97p0157n/0?currentResult=00943061%2bdi973975%2b97p0157n%2b0%2c03&searchUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fsearch%2FAdvancedResults%3Fhp%3D25%26si%3D1%26All%3DObesity%2B-Structural-Functionalism%26Exact%3D%26One%3D%26None%3D%26sd%3D%26ed%3D%26jt%3D%26dc%3DSociology


Interpreting Weight: The Social Management of Fatness and Thinness, edited by Jeffery Sobal and Donna Maurer. New York: Aldine De Gruyter, 1999.
Weighty Issues: Fatness and Thinness as Social Problems, edited by Jeffery Sobal and Donna Maurer. New York: Aldine De Gruyter, 1999.

This review consists of two similar volumes of work. Both volumes are grouped under the social constructionist umbrella. They also cover how children and socialization to overeating can be a possible cause to obesity. They also see that obesity and overeating is considered bad and against morals. The two volumes also cover how gender and sex may be a cause of obesity between men and women. These volumes are a collaboration of several other authors’ research and interviews.

http://library.cocc.edu:2087/view/00943061/di014999/01p0188p/0?currentResult=00943061%2bdi014999%2b01p0188p%2b0%2c06&searchUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fsearch%2FAdvancedResults%3Fhp%3D25%26si%3D1%26All%3DObesity%2B-Consequences%26Exact%3D%26One%3D%26None%3D%26sd%3D%26ed%3D%26jt%3D%26dc%3DSociology


Childhood Obesity, ed. Collipp, Platon J. Acton, Massachusetts: Publishing Sciences
Group, Inc., 1975.

This book looks at childhood obesity and what can be done to prevent or treat it. Each chapter in the book is different. It covers from identifying what is obesity in children to several prevention methods of obesity. This book is looking at the treatments of obesity that was caused by society and what society can do to change the way our children are eating even in public schools. It also covers what obesity can cause as in diseases and pictures of some of the different diseases connected to obese children.

http://library.cocc.edu:2087/view/00147214/ap020040/02a00170/0?currentResult=00147214%2bap020040%2b02a00170%2b0%2c07&searchUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fsearch%2FAdvancedResults%3Fhp%3D25%26si%3D1%26All%3DObesity%26Exact%3D%26One%3D%26None%3D%26sd%3D%26ed%3D%26jt%3D%26dc%3DSociology


The Stigma of Obesity: The Consequences of Naïve Assumptions Concerning the Causes of Physical Deviance, DeJong, William. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 1980.

In this article, it talks about Goffman’s view of stigma. It also looks at his three different types of stigma. Then it takes the stigma of obesity. It sees how stigma is used in reference to elementary school age children and sees what they think of different pictures of people and where they would place them. They used pictures of a normal kid, disabled kids and a picture of an obese kid. They wanted to see where the children would place the pictures in order as in socially correct order. Also this article looked at stigma and responsibility and how they were related to obesity. Then in the article there was two similar experiments done to see if adolescent girls would have any affect on an obese peer.

http://library.cocc.edu:2087/view/00221465/di976067/97p0189n/0?currentResult=00221465%2bdi976067%2b97p0189n%2b0%2cEB3E&searchUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fsearch%2FAdvancedResults%3Fhp%3D25%26si%3D1%26All%3DObesity%2B-Prevention%26Exact%3D%26One%3D%26None%3D%26sd%3D%26ed%3D%26jt%3D%26dc%3DSociology


In conclusion, these articles cover a little of everything. The main focus of these summaries is to look at how structural-functionalism, consequences and stigma affects obesity. Even though most of the articles are summaries of other books, these summaries are summaries of them and how they are related to the three different subtopics that I looked at in the main topic of the group obesity.