Arts & Social Sciences
Te Kura Kete Aronui

Abstract

Driver, R.P. (1997). Women's experiences of weight loss.

Women throughout history have been subjected to pressure to conform to an ideal body shape. The ideal female body in the last decades of the twentieth century is very thin which results in the majority of women feeling dissatisfied with their bodies because they do not fit this ideal. As a result of the significance placed on women's appearance in our society, attempting to fit this ideal body type by losing weight often comes to be viewed by women as a means of salvation. A woman who is fat in our thinness-obsessed society not only fails to fit the ideal of what is beautiful for women, she is also subjected to stigmatization and prejudice because of her size.

It is commonly assumed that weight loss, especially if one is fat, will result in positive outcomes for the individual concerned; this viewpoint is heavily promoted by the weight loss industry and the media. However, to date, this assumption has only been superficially addressed by social science research. Eight Pakeha women were interviewed about their lives as fat women, about their experiences of the weight loss process and about the outcomes of the weight loss, especially psychological and social outcomes.

It was found that while there were many positive outcomes of the weight loss, especially improvements in health and positive lifestyle changes, there were also a number of negative outcomes for some participants which had not been anticipated, such as a continuing dissatisfaction with their bodies and an unwanted increase in sexual attention. There were similarities in the means by which most of the participants lost weight, that is, they used a combination of a low-fat diet and exercise.

The research casts doubt on the popular assumption that weight loss can magically solve problems; this has implications for the many women who are currently trying to lose weight. In addition, these participants also indicate that it is not necessary to reduce one's intake of food in order to lose weight, which challenges another popularly held assumption.