Talk:Social stigma of obesity

Wiki Education assignment: Medicine, Race, and Gender

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 12 January 2022 and 3 May 2022. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): C7MP, Rac150, SarahLalevee (article contribs). Peer reviewers: Kgt11, Mirandawesley, Ad1549.

Globalize tag

I removed the globalize tag, which has been at the top since at least 2018. If anyone has any input on what kind of material needs to be added, then put in a request, but I don't agree with the use of permanent tags at the top of a page. Viriditas (talk) 21:33, 24 September 2024 (UTC)

The tag is the request, to give also weight about the social views on obesity in Africa, Asia, ... and not e.g. discuss a "national survey" as if it is obvious which country enwiki preferentially writes about. From the lead: "Studies also indicate overweight and obese individuals experience higher levels of stigma compared to other people." In a US study, yes, and it probably is true for quite a few other countries, but globally? No idea. Of course, we can also remove the tag, move the article to "Social stigma of obesity in the US" and remove the few bits about other countries. Fram (talk) 07:13, 25 September 2024 (UTC)

Permanent maintenance tags are often added in error or persist for years after the problem is solved. Before removing them, I always check the talk page to see if the problem has been highlighted or discussed in some way over the years. Half of the time it has not, and best practice is to only add a tag after mentioning the problem. Likewise, I removed the tag and discussed my removal on talk as well. See also WP:WTRMT. To summarize, User:Richardw added the tag in November 2018.[1] Nothing was discussed on the talk page. At the time this tag was added, the article was already globalized. Looking at Richardw's previous edit, makes me think his reading of a specific section of the article, rather than taking the entire article into account, influenced his decision to add the tag, as he was editing a sentence that used a source titled "Is Obesity Stigmatizing? Body Weight, Perceived Discrimination, and Psychological Well-Being in the United States".[2] Although that's simply outright speculation, it does explain one possible reason why Richardw added the tag. Meanwhile, when we look closely at that 2018 version, we find evidence of globalized perspectives already in place, but one would have to dig deep into the sources to see this as it isn't explicit in the supporting text. However, one must also admit that the article has a predominant bias towards the western, developed world, and is US-centric in particular, given that country's status as fifth on the list of countries by obesity rate. For this reason alone, a good argument can be made that the social stigma of obesity has been studied primarily in America, hence the focus. Looking closely at the article however, tells me that the research findings apply to all people all over the world, from children to adults. With this said, it appears that recent research indicates that as of 2024, "while weight stigma research has been well conducted in Europe, North America, and Australasia, there is currently no broad understanding of the extent of weight stigma research in other parts of the world".[3] Notably, that same paper makes the point that it was only after 2018 that newer research began to accumulate in Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The authors also note that this is the result of "Western body size ideals" expanding throughout the world. Most interestingly, the authors also note that existing data in Western countries still informs most of the research in this area. The authors conclude, noting that "only 1% of weight stigma research worldwide includes international studies". For this reason, I still think the globalize tag should be removed. Viriditas (talk) 20:55, 25 September 2024 (UTC)

The article not only has very little attention to the stigma (or lack thereof!) in other parts of the world, it is written from a pure US-first position. The very first sentence after the lead: "Research indicates that self-reported incidents of weight-based discrimination increased from 1995 to 2006." Yes, in the US. Similarly, "Fat television characters are more commonly seen eating and are less likely to be involved in romantic relationships compared to average weight television characters." Yes, according to a study of US TV shows only. The whole "politics" section is about the US only. "Medical professionals may be more likely to view obese individuals in negative terms (such as annoying or undisciplined), have less patience with obese individuals, and assume non-compliance with their treatments." In a study in one city in, you guessed it, the US. "Primary care physicians overstate the effects of being overweight on all-cause mortality," in a US only study. And when it isn't a US study, it still is misrepresented as if it is worldwide: "A survey of 7,266 children aged 11 to 16 conducted by the World Health Organization reported higher rates of physical victimization (e.g., being shoved) with increasing body mass index (BMI) among girls. " Wow, the WHO, I wonder how many countries were involved? Oh, one, Canada... It just goes on and on. At the very least, the article needs to be rewritten to make it very clear which claims relate to which countries, instead of presenting them as global truths. Fram (talk) 08:00, 26 September 2024 (UTC)