Stigma and identity of obese people in the semantics of public discourse

Abstract

Obesity has been a major topic of public discussion in recent years. Obese people have been characterized by a diversity of negative stereotypes and arguments based on the social legitimacy of medical and fashion discourses. Obesity can also be considered from a social stigma perspective, and focus on this stigma as a case for social discrimination. Analyzing some syntactic elements in a sample of opinions posted in the public forum of a digital newspaper, this paper discusses how this image of obese people positions them socially. The relative value of the terms we use to identify them, impersonal treatment, the small number of relevant actions related to them, and the vague direction of such actions, are the main questions in our final discussion. They contribute to creating a totalitarian critical position that inevitably forces the debate to remain within the stigmatizing terms of the dominant antiobesity discourse.