Blaming and shaming take many forms and have many faces. Back when Twitter existed, plenty of pseudonymous Americans exercised their right of free speech by stating that, because most pandemic fatalities occurred among folks with pre-existing medical conditions, the rest of us need not worry about dying of COVID.
Often, obesity was named as a liability, as well as other conditions associated with obesity. In many cases, it seemed that the opinionated citizens really wanted to say, “If they died from a little virus that a lot of people don’t even catch, it’s their own darn fault for being fat.”
“Othering” people, or presenting alleged evidence that sickness and death are the others’ own fault, apparently helps some folks nurture the fiction that they themselves could never possibly become a pandemic statistic.
A writer went so far as to proclaim that, in 90% of COVID fatalities, the actual cause of death was “selfish lifestyle choices,” which would, of course, include the choice to be overweight. Others retaliated by accusing the blamers of kidding themselves about that, just to preserve the comfortable fiction that it could never happen to them.
Righteous rhetoric is not universal
Of course, there are always other voices to offer other views. One example is an article titled “Harms of Framing Obesity as a Disease of Individuals,” which appeared last month in JAMA Health Forum:
[T]he currently dominant “obesity is a disease requiring individual treatment” framing undermines public and political support for tackling the epidemic’s root causes. First, we contend that the media-saturated debate centering medical treatments such as expensive glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists reinforces food, pharmaceutical, and wellness industry communication strategies emphasizing obesity as a problem requiring medical treatment, rather than prevention.
The authors said a mouthful, all right! But there is more:
Second, this framing focuses on individuals rather than the food environments individuals find themselves in, which are shaped by government-set laws and financial incentives for the food industry.
And, they offer a solution: Follow the example of the war on smoking, which has achieved at least partial success by simply pricing a lot of would-be tobacco fiends right out of the market. A skeptic could retort that we would then face the ludicrous sight of cars with tinted windows pulling up next to schools to peddle candy and cupcakes to innocent children.
But as it has done in so many similar cases, the government could probably arrange to discourage any sugar black market. Before our readers go on to read that very interesting article, let us contemplate just one more quotation from it:
Narratives describing an identified individual’s struggle with obesity […] generate less support for obesity prevention policies than depersonalized narratives” and “personalized stories make people less likely to […] support governmental actions.
Among the small percentage of adult Americans who could be considered healthy, a devout belief in the virtues of diet and exercise apparently helped to allay their fears. Of course, some of the same zealots had previously devoted their energy to dissing First Lady Michelle Obama, who did her best to encourage everyone to be as healthy as possible. Some critics are just never satisfied.
And, of course, there exists the possibility that both public and private action can coexist and support each other!
Your responses and feedback are welcome!
Source: “Harms of Framing Obesity as a Disease of Individuals,” JAMA Health Forum, 05/01/26
Image by truthseeker08/Pixabay
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