Is it even possible that there could be more to say about how different groups of people have either suffered under, or dealt out to others, the crushing pain of stigma? Relax, there is plenty more malice in the pot, without even needing to scrape the sides yet.
How people cope
Erving Goffman made a distinction between normalization and normification. The difference is real, and sometimes crucial to the point of threatening the person’s survival. To normalize is to actually change, which an obese person can do by losing weight. A gay individual, however, can’t voluntarily change their nature.
To normify, however, denotes “the effort on the part of a stigmatized individual to present himself as an ordinary person, although not necessarily making a secret of his failing.” In the midst of society, gay people can pretend to be straight by adopting the appearance and behavior that is not natural to them.
It is a move that in some eras and places can be a life-saving deception. However, obese people, if they are actually present on the scene, cannot really pretend to be otherwise. These points have a lot to do with what kind of stigmatization a person is expected to put up with, how they deal with it, and a great deal more besides.
Another reason for not wanting our children to become obese
Back when Goffman studied the effects of obesity within society, science held that “obesity is rarely reversed,” and it seemed unlikely that a young obese person would become any less so over time. Today, however, a new phenomenon has arisen, to form a world in which dealing with the consequences of constant and ongoing dependence on weight-loss medications could turn out to be as much a burden as the obesity those substances were designed to prevent.
Yes, the new meds might slow aging and extend the lifespan, but what will take place within those extra years? It will be a long time before our science can really grasp the full implications of such a dependent lifestyle, and financial expense is of course a major factor in that prediction. To continue affording their meds, men might prefer not to marry, and women might choose to forego motherhood.
The new normal?
Maybe a best-of-both-worlds lifestyle will evolve, in which the eventual agreement to marry will imply that both participants have decided to “let themselves go,” and to accept whatever that implies in their partner. But isn’t this pretty much what most of the population have been going with all along, and the premise of 1,001 banal sitcom jokes? The standards might stay higher, for a longer period, but eventually just about everybody gives up. It becomes a case of “Love me? Love my thinning hair, my wrinkles and my 50-inch waistline.”
And if someone decides to stick with the meds until the bitter end? She or he would be a true “anti-hero,” refusing to give up the skinny pills far beyond some arbitrary and generally agreed-upon time limit.
In the slightly younger age bracket, among those who had caved to the inevitable and let obesity take over, some of its members would rant against the refuseniks, although, perhaps, while secretly envying their courage and determination. Contention over the appropriate time to abandon all subterfuge, and surrender to a corpulent old age, could become just one more major divisive issue in a society that already suffers from so much dissension.
Another literary genre is heard from
Among the Slim Forever crowd, some would have worked hard for years to make sure they could continue to afford their prescriptions. What a noble life goal — not! A screenwriter could easily imagine a criminal mastermind who must continuously steal in order to stay with the anti-obesity meds. Even at age One Hundred and Slimmity-five, even on crutches, Howard is slim. Yellowtart isn’t giving up her Lululemons any time soon.
They must constantly generate new ideas about how to get their hands on plenty of money and, ta-da! There is a whole series of cinematic comedies starring geriatric drug dependents who refuse to give up.
Your responses and feedback are welcome!
Source: “Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity,” WordPress.com, 1963
Image by Hellio42/Pixabay
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