Unbalanced Act

Abstract

Because eating is under conscious control—one can always decide not to put fork to mouth—weight has always been seen as a very individual, very personal thing. And being overweight, in turn, a matter of an individual's decisions—or, rather, of a failure to make decisions.1 That is perhaps why most people believe that every overweight person can achieve slenderness and should pursue that goal, why obese people are stereotyped as lacking in self-control, and why being obese elicits scorn as often as sympathy.2