So, Americans are fatter because we have the means to obtain food, and there is an abundance. But black women are fatter because they are poorer.
“Poorer” is such a relative term. Poor people in this country suffer with excess calories. Rich people in this country enjoy excess calories.
How about “lifestyle”. There is a certain lifestyle that is much more relevant than the ability to secure extra calories. We have quite a little conundrum in the the USA: Poorer people have access to more food than their body requires. The also have access to cable, and to theme parks.
So, while they (this sampling of black, obese women) might be ‘poorer’ than other Americans, and there might be some sort of class divide, I’d say we should consider that their access to extra food, cable, and theme parks says something about how far up the lowest/lower classes are versus the rest of the poor people in the world.
“There are clearly race/ethnic differences in the propensity to be overweight (Ogden, Flegan, Carroll & Johnson, 2002). Two groups of children, in particular, stand out for their higher proportion overweight: black girls and Hispanic boys (Table 1). For example, the prevalence of overweight among African American girls 6-11 years old is much higher than for non-Hispanic white girls (23% vs 13%). Among 6-11 year old Mexican boys, rates of obesity are 27% versus 14% for white non-Hispanics. Rates are similar for adolescents (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2003). Research has shown differences in both diet and activity patterns among racial/ethnic groups. African American children consume more daily fast food than their white counterparts (Bowman, Gortmaker, Ebbeling, Pereira & Ludwig, 2004) and are less likely to participate in organized physical activities in a given week (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2003).”
“The causes are believed to be environmental and social because large increases in obesity have occurred over a very short 40 years.”
I hope quotes that large are okay- I know some people can’t open PDF files.
Yep, shiftless, that’s why I called it "southern style food in my first post. I forgot about the iced tea so sweet that there are sugar crystals at the bottom. It’s a little too cold right now for that here though.
Well, Oprah became a bazillionaire while she was sporting more than just a little junk in her trunk. Surely she wasn’t proud of it (she has lost and gained a few times, but doesn’t really ever get back to her highest weight) but she was confident enough to make it on television while being quite portly. How many women have done that in serious, non-comedy roles?
Rapper Missy Elliot is not just curvaceous, she’s been pretty huge at times too. She raps in several songs about how she IS proud to be a big girl…
Although she did slim down some a few years back…I think she has gained it back, not sure. Queen Latifah is another example of a prominent large black woman, although she seems to appear more large due to the size of her breasts and backside.
As a fat (white) woman myself, I haven’t really found such positive body-image role models amongst famous white women. There’s Roseanne Barr - who’s neither serious nor positive -, Cameron Manheim - who’s cool but not usually serious -, and Rosie O’Donnell who is very cool but also a clown.
Generally when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist and a round thing in your face, black men tend to get sprung, they wanna pull out their tough and they notice that butt was stuffed.
I’ve also heard a statistic that said that black children spent more hours/week watching television. That could definitely be a factor.
In addition a woman who has gestational diabetes is more likely to have an overweight child.
One thing that is unfortunate is that the black population already has higher than average rates of high blood pressure and diabetes- obesity doesn’t help either (or is it simply the obesity causing the first two? hmm… :dubious: )
Actually, while there may be statistically a somrewhat higher proportion of heavyset black women than heavyset white women (for reasons suggested by others upthread), I suspect that what’s happening is observation bias. In a country that is largelly white in population, a fat white woman is seen as a fat woman, while a fat black woman is seen as a fat black woman. Much the same as a white teenage gang member is seen as a teenage gang member, but a black teenage gang member – well, he’s part of one of those black gangs that make black neighborhoods dangerous places to be.
Take a test: picture in your mind a Japanese person.
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Okay, I’ll lay odds your mental picture was petite and slender, whether you picked male or female. You did not visualize a Sumo wrestler, you did not visualize a 6’2" man, you did not picture a buxom geisha – you visualized a stereotype. While there may be some validity to that stereotype as a broad generalization about many Japanese, it’s nonetheles a stereotype that does not describe all Japanese people.
For an even better example, consider the gay stereotype. Yes, there are flamboyant effeminate promiscuous party-going gay men, there are Lesbians who love mannish appearances and pursuits. But they are a minority within the gay community. What they are that turns them into a stereotype is that they stand out, they are outliers from the norm of ‘typical’ human behavior. And that is an example where the differences (sexual orientation in this case) are not evident, giving a sort of confirmation bias.
Seeing ten rotund and ten svelte white women would not lead you to a generalization about white women, because they’re in the majority. But seeing ten rotund and ten svelte black women would make you take notice how many black women are heavy, because they’re a minority whose difference is evident – skin color, hair texture, etc.
I suspect Cubsfan is a victim of his own confirmation bias – what was obvious about these women was that they were black and fat – where seeing as many white women would not have triggered “white and fat” to hum, but just “fat”.
Absolutely, I live in upstate New York where non-whites are maybe 5% of the local population. So the over-whelming majority of obese women are white, that’s just how the numbers play out.
When my relatives from downstate visit, the first thing they say is,“Why is everyone so fat, up here?”
There is a genetic component, but it only expresses itself when mass quantities of cheap food are available. As a foreign service brat I grew up in the the Ivory Coast and in the Sudan and Kenya in the early 60’s . Black African women were not particularly fat in those cultures.
Now, go to any Wal-Mart below the Mason Dixon line and a number both black and white women customers will be obese, some massively so. More black than white on average but the amount of raw obesity across both black and white groups will astound you.
The women I saw around my neighborhood made Oprah look thin by comparison. We’re talking about women that are literally the punchlines to “yo mama so fat” jokes. Is that a look that is really embraced by black women? Do black men really, as a whole, find themselves attracted to supersized women?
And many people will say that women who shop at Walmart are fat regardless of their skin color.
As noted in my experience, in my town; the majority of obese women are white.
If i posted an OP stating, **Why are so many white females obese?, **using Walmart as my control group, as you did with Universal Studios; how valid would my statement be?
There is no denying that I see what I see when I visit Walmart, but that doesn’t give me license to make such a blanket statement, even though other people may share the same opinions.
Probably because the majority of the people in your town are white. The relevant statistic is the rate of obesity in white women compared to black women.
The same stats for 1971-1974 with the incomes ‘backward adjusted’ for inflation (i.e. the 1971 equivalent of $25,000 in 2001 USD):
Obesity rates have increased tremendously for all income groups since 1971 but most especially for higher incomes. Of course a part of that is due to Oprah’s income and weight fluctuations skewering both statistics, but she’s not that rich or big.
What I’d be interested to see is a comparison groups of men/women of different races but same income/education levels (i.e. how similar or dissimilar are obesity stats of black women with an income of $40k-$60k and 2 or more years of college to white/Asian/etc. women of same income and education). I’m sure it exists but I haven’t found it.
True. Do we know what percentage of black women vs white women were in Universal Studios, Fl when the OP was there?
What statistic do we use to determine that rate?
Region? Education? Dark skin versus light skin? Do you think the rate will change if say we compared black people in the cities with white people in rural areas? Will it change depending on how close supermarkets are versus fast food joints?
What if I hadn’t mentioned the what the majority was in my town, and just asked, based on my visit to Walmart, “Why are so many white females obese?”
I believe that the OP thinks he saw, what he saw; but it is such a subjective view, that the question as aksed is unanswerable; despite the various attempts to do so.
Honestly it’s not that subjective. Black women tend to run fatter than white women in roughly equivalent socio-economic cohorts. Whether the reason is cultural, genetic or a combo this is a hard fact. Asking “did he really see this?” is kind of silly as you can confirm it empirically in practically any lower-middle class mass shopping environment.
There’s a difference between having a discussion based on empiricial data and spending a weekend in an amusment park and then based on that experience, questioning why black females are obese.
How much fatter does it take to reach that threshold? What does tend to run fatter mean? 10, 20, 30 pounds? Is BMI or just body weight?
I don’t want to turn this into a big ol’ debate here, but there’s difference between tend to run fatter and being obese.
I agree with people who said it’s a cultural thing.
As a white woman whose weight has fluctuated from skinny to overweight, I have observed that when I have been overweight, I get an EXTREMELY INORDINATE amount of positive attention from black men, and close to ZERO attention from white men. I should add that my figure is the classic “Baby Got Back” figure - a round butt, big hips and smaller waist. Over the past 15 years, as my weight has fluctuated up and down several times, this has been a stark observation for me every time.
That leads me to believe that black men are more likely to be attracted to “curvy” (i.e. overweight) figures than white men. Which leads me to believe being overweight is not as stigmatized within black culture as it is within white culture.
Also I have noticed over my 33 years that my black female friends and acquaintances have always seemed much more comfortable with their bodies overall, and those who were overweight have always had a “big and beautiful” attitude rather than “I’m fat and I hate myself” attitude like my white friends.
But which is cause and which is the effect? Did black men develop a preference for an overweight body type because black women tended to that body type? Or did black women develop that body type in response to the preference of black men? My money is on the former.
Yes I would probably agree with you. I think mostly it’s a cultural and economical thing, although I can’t fully dismiss the possibility that there is a genetic component.
Perhaps we should look at the fact that many/most African American’s ancestors were slaves. Does this play a role?
I would imagine that when they were enslaved, there were not a lot of overweight blacks - because they didn’t have free access to food and did a lot of manual labor.
So perhaps when the slaves were freed, there was established a deeply ingrained… something… that plays a role in black obesity today.
Perhaps after hundreds of years as slaves, they embraced rich food as emblematic of their freedom? Perhaps this feeling influenced black cuisine - “soul food?” Perhaps being overweight was prized as a symbol of affluence or freedom? As in, being overweight symbolized that you were well-off enough to afford plentiful food?
It could go back even further than that. In much of Africa, large women (and men) are considered beautiful.
In Cameroon, you saw this all the time. A common compliment when meeting a friend is “You look like you put on some pounds!” The models on pagne posters (the equivalent of fashion models) were all huge- in the 250 lb. range. A big butt was considered especially beautiful, and clothes were designed to emphasize the butt. I realized I’d been there too long when I bought some new clothes and thought “This makes my butt look huge- awesome!”
I think there are a couple of things. The first is that in a poor society, being large is a sign of wealth and power. Someone who is big is clearly living the good life. The other is more complex, and is tied up how a culture views sex, self-denial, the body-soul connection, women’s roles, etc. Basically we view a big woman as a lusty women, and we consider it better for a woman to deny herself her appetites on all levels.