IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v298y2022ics0277953622001678.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Under the ‘weight’ of norms: Social representations of overweight and obesity among Brazilian, French and Spanish dietitians and laywomen

Author

Listed:
  • Gaspar, Maria Clara de Moraes Prata
  • Sato, Priscila de Morais
  • Scagliusi, Fernanda Baeza

Abstract

Most contemporary Western cultures are characterized by fatphobia. The fat body is seen as morally incorrect, a sign of disease, loss of control and weakness. People with obesity and overweight, especially women, are discriminated against and stigmatized for their body size, including by health professionals like dietitians. This study sought to understand and compare social representations of obesity and overweight among dietitians and laywomen from three nationalities: Brazilian, French and Spanish. A qualitative and comparative methodology was established based on 131 semi-structured individual interviews. The analysis revealed that the categories of overweight and obesity were negatively perceived by laywomen and dietitians from all three nationalities. Moral discourses linking these conditions with lack of discipline and a lack of emotional control were frequently used. Fatness was associated with irrationality, putting individuals who were overweight and obese in a position of social and moral inferiority. In the case of obesity, these ideas were more discriminatory and stigmatizing. Although environmental, genetic, hereditary or metabolic causes were mentioned as factors causing obesity, behavioural aspects occupied a central place in the discourses. Differences were also observed among the three nationalities. Cultural factors related to the relationship with body and food seemed to influence the interviewees' social representations. Brazilian laywomen and dietitians put more emphasis on moral and individual aspects. Spanish, French and informants who were overweight were more likely to cite physiological and environmental determinants. French informants also mentioned the role of food education given by parents. In conclusion, the discourses of professionals and laywomen had more similarities than differences, were based on moral and normative judgements and influenced by sociocultural norms. Fatphobic attitudes may impact dietitians’ perception of patients with obesity and the eating education process.

Suggested Citation

  • Gaspar, Maria Clara de Moraes Prata & Sato, Priscila de Morais & Scagliusi, Fernanda Baeza, 2022. "Under the ‘weight’ of norms: Social representations of overweight and obesity among Brazilian, French and Spanish dietitians and laywomen," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 298(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:298:y:2022:i:c:s0277953622001678
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114861
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953622001678
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114861?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Frederick, David A. & Saguy, Abigail C. & Gruys, Kjerstin, 2016. "Culture, health, and bigotry: How exposure to cultural accounts of fatness shape attitudes about health risk, health policies, and weight-based prejudice," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 271-279.
    2. Lewis, Sophie & Thomas, Samantha L. & Blood, R. Warwick & Castle, David J. & Hyde, Jim & Komesaroff, Paul A., 2011. "How do obese individuals perceive and respond to the different types of obesity stigma that they encounter in their daily lives? A qualitative study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(9), pages 1349-1356.
    3. Thibodeau, Paul H. & Perko, Victoria L. & Flusberg, Stephen J., 2015. "The relationship between narrative classification of obesity and support for public policy interventions," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 27-35.
    4. Jutel, Annemarie, 2006. "The emergence of overweight as a disease entity: Measuring up normality," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(9), pages 2268-2276, November.
    5. Ringel, Megan M. & Ditto, Peter H., 2019. "The moralization of obesity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 237(C), pages 1-1.
    6. Joslyn, Mark R. & Haider-Markel, Donald P., 2019. "Perceived causes of obesity, emotions, and attitudes about Discrimination Policy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 223(C), pages 97-103.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Feng, Xiaoqi & Wilson, Andrew, 2022. "Association between community average body mass index and perception of overweight," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).
    2. Prakash, Kushneel & Munyanyi, Musharavati Ephraim, 2021. "Energy poverty and obesity," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    3. Pudney, Ellen V. & Himmelstein, Mary S. & Puhl, Rebecca M. & Foster, Gary D., 2020. "Distressed or not distressed? A mixed methods examination of reactions to weight stigma and implications for emotional wellbeing and internalized weight bias," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 249(C).
    4. Gutin, Iliya, 2022. "Not ‘putting a name to it’: Managing uncertainty in the diagnosis of childhood obesity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).
    5. Jutel, Annemarie, 2010. "Framing disease: The example of female hypoactive sexual desire disorder," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(7), pages 1084-1090, April.
    6. Thomas, Samantha L. & Olds, Timothy & Pettigrew, Simone & Randle, Melanie & Lewis, Sophie, 2014. "“Don't eat that, you'll get fat!” Exploring how parents and children conceptualise and frame messages about the causes and consequences of obesity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 114-122.
    7. Ringel, Megan M. & Ditto, Peter H., 2019. "The moralization of obesity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 237(C), pages 1-1.
    8. Christy Brady, 2016. "Decreasing Obesity and Obesity Stigma: Socio-Demographic Differences in Beliefs about Causes of and Responsibility for Obesity," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 5(1), pages 1-10, March.
    9. Greener, Joe & Douglas, Flora & van Teijlingen, Edwin, 2010. "More of the same? Conflicting perspectives of obesity causation and intervention amongst overweight people, health professionals and policy makers," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(7), pages 1042-1049, April.
    10. James P. Reynolds & Milica Vasiljevic & Mark Pilling & Marissa G. Hall & Kurt M. Ribisl & Theresa M. Marteau, 2020. "Communicating Evidence about the Causes of Obesity and Support for Obesity Policies: Two Population-Based Survey Experiments," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-19, September.
    11. Wu, Hania Fei, 2021. "Social determination, health selection or indirect selection? Examining the causal directions between socioeconomic status and obesity in the Chinese adult population," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    12. Hughes, Amanda M. & McArthur, Daniel, 2023. "Weight stigma, welfare stigma, and political values: Evidence from a representative British survey," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 334(C).
    13. Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Koomson, Isaac & Munyanyi, Musharavati Ephraim, 2023. "Transport poverty and obesity: The mediating roles of social capital and physical activity," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 155-166.
    14. Jovanovic, Maja, 2014. "Creating the ‘dis-ease’ of high cholesterol: A sociology of diagnosis reception analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 120-128.
    15. Hutson, David J., 2013. "“Your body is your business card”: Bodily capital and health authority in the fitness industry," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 63-71.
    16. Marker, Caroline & Gnambs, Timo & Appel, Markus, 2022. "Exploring the myth of the chubby gamer: A meta-analysis on sedentary video gaming and body mass," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).
    17. Payán, Denise D. & Lewis, LaVonna B. & Cousineau, Michael R. & Nichol, Michael B., 2017. "Advocacy coalitions involved in California's menu labeling policy debate: Exploring coalition structure, policy beliefs, resources, and strategies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 78-86.
    18. Mooney, Stephen J. & El-Sayed, Abdulrahman M., 2016. "Stigma and the etiology of depression among the obese: An agent-based exploration," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 1-7.
    19. Timmermans, Stefan & Tietbohl, Caroline, 2018. "Fifty years of sociological leadership at Social Science and Medicine," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 209-215.
    20. Barlösius, Eva & Philipps, Axel, 2015. "Felt stigma and obesity: Introducing the generalized other," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 9-15.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:298:y:2022:i:c:s0277953622001678. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.