What perceptions and prejudices do overweight and obese people face?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Many people assume that every obese person can achieve slenderness and should pursue that goal. First consider that most obese people do not—for whatever reason—successfully lose weight and maintain their losses. Then consider the prejudice involved in that assumption. People come with varying weight tendencies, just as they come with varying potentials for height and physical talents.
Large segments of our society place such enormous value on thinness that obese people face prejudice and discrimination on the job, at school, and in social situations: they are judged on their appearance more than on their character. Socially, obese people are negatively stereotyped as lazy and lacking in self-control. Such a critical view of overweight is not prevalent in many other cultures, including segments of our own society. Instead, overweight is simply accepted or even embraced as a sign of robust health and beauty. To free society of its obsession with body weight and prejudice against obesity, people must first learn to judge others—and themselves—for who they are and not for what they weigh.
Psychologically, obese people may suffer embarrassment when others treat them with hostility and contempt, and many have come to view their own bodies as flawed. Feelings of rejection, shame, and depression are common among obese people. Anxiety and depression, in turn, may contribute to the development of obesity, which perpetuates the problem.
Most weight-loss programs assume that the problem can be solved simply by applying willpower and hard work. If determination were the only factor involved, though, the success rate would be far greater than it is. Overweight people may readily assume blame for failure to lose weight and maintain the losses when, in fact, it is the programs that have failed. Ineffective treatment and its associated sense of failure add to a person’s psychological burden.