Group Dieting, the Stigma of Obesity, and Overweight Adolescents

Natalie Allon was one of the pioneers in the sociological analysis of obesity and dieting, and a consistent voice on the topic in the 1970s. Her contributions to the study of the obese are reviewed in this paper. As an ethnographer who used participant observation and unstructured interviewing to examine organized dieting groups, she provided insight into the structure and function of these groups. She showed how group dieting was a form of religious ritual for the participants, as well as performing the latent function of providing social support. Her analysis of the stigma of obesity examined stigmatization of fatness in four areas: as sin, as disease, as crime, and as ugliness. Work on overweight adolescents showed that they had problems in social interaction. Because obesity often served as the exclusive focus of interaction, it overwhelmed others with mixed emotions, it clashed with positive attributes of a person, and it was an uncertain predictor of joint activity. Negative self image and a mixture of self responsibility for fatness and the negation of responsibility were related to actual weight loss. Allon's analyses provide us with a basis for further sociological analysis of obesity and dieting.