The Dieting Experience
Changing the conversation about weight loss and dieting
Dr. Laurie Patlin Suttenberg, DSW, LCSW-QS, DCSW
The Stigma of Willpower
Let's think about our assumptions about willpower and recognize that these assumptions, when they are collective and shared, become ingrained into the culture as stigmas.
Perhaps it all started with Adam and Eve. Things were perfect until Eve could not contain herself and ate that apple. It was her willpower failure that drove her and Adam (and the rest of us humans) out of Paradise forever.
Way back in 340 BC, Aristotle wrote about willpower in his Nicomachean Ethics. He used the terms “good and praiseworthy” to describe “continence,” his word for willpower. Notably, he framed the absence of willpower as “bad and blameworthy”.
Social attitudes which reflect the willpower stigma persist in the modern era. Helen Zoe Veit (2013) states that in the early 1900’s, “…once a body was coated with excess fat, it was widely believed, the fat itself physically affected the body and the mind, sapping energy and dulling intelligence and self-discipline” (p. 169). Veit hones her point when she says, “Thin was beautiful precisely because it was a physical manifestation of self-control” (p. 172).
In more recent times, Roy Baumeister, a social psychologist and researcher, describes willpower in his TED Talk, Willpower and How to Make it Work for You, as a “muscle” that can be strengthened just like any other muscle in the body. The problem with Baumeister’s contention is that muscles in the body are recognizable through imaging or dissection. There is no muscle that when imaged or dissected is identifiable as the willpower muscle.
Perhaps Baumeister, though, is only speaking metaphorically. Let’s give him that. He still envisions willpower as a something that can be strengthened purposefully. And, as he makes very clear at the beginning of his talk, the powerful payoff in strengthening willpower is that it “builds character”. He further contends that self-control is the “master virtue”, the “real deal that makes life better.” Indeed, Baumeister claims willpower leads to all of the following: making more money; having happier, better relationships; people having fewer drinking and drug problems; good behavior (vs. crime, abuse and prejudice); low stress; good physical and mental health; and longevity. Wow. So, let’s follow the Baumeister logic. Willpower is good, highly desirable, and it is the magic something (be it a muscle or whatever it is) that makes life wonderful, perhaps even close to the life Adam and Eve left in that garden. If all this was true, wouldn’t it be willpower that people are most in pursuit of during their lives? And, most relevant to this discussion, what then does Baumeister believe when people struggle with willpower? He says that lack of willpower represents “ego depletion.” What does this mean? Is there a subtle suggestion that people who struggle with willpower do so because they are depleted (read that weak), and thereby doom themselves to an anti-Garden of Eden existence? Can we be worthy human beings if we fall short of attaining the “master virtue?” And what does it say about us if we do not choose or actively pursue “the real deal that makes life better?” It seems to me that this is stigma in the modern era.
Both Aristotle and Baumeister discuss character traits through the lens of willpower. The humorous cartoon video below tells a simple story that entails both character and willpower. A pig just wants to reach a cookie jar that is beyond his grasp. When a person is referred to as a “pig," the not-so-subtle message is that he or she is overeating, overindulging, and, in this moment, exhibiting food gorging behaviors. “I pigged out” is a colloquialism that translates to, "I ate way too much." Because the video character is an actual pig - and a chubby one at that - we attribute all his strategies to get to that cookie jar as a demonstration of his lack of willpower. But does he have no willpower? And what about his character? As you watch the video, be aware of your reactions about our cookie obsessed pig.
We can debate about whether the pig does or does not have willpower. Perhaps he only wants one cookie and is willing to expend all his resources in pursuit of that single goal. Maybe he wants to eat every cookie in that jar. Regardless of how many cookies our pig intends to consume, what is most significant is how focused, determined, ingenious, and energized he is in his efforts in reaching the cookie jar. These are all indisputably positive character traits.
The pig is cute, and the cartoon tests our assumptions about willpower and character. However, what happens when a real person is substituted for a cartoon pig? Social perceptions related to self control and self-discipline, both code words for willpower, are still entrenched in American culture today and individuals internalize these as idealized norms.
In 2012, Jennifer Livingston, an overweight television news anchor on WKBT in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, received a hate email from a viewer criticizing her weight. Watch her response in the video below.
We applaud Jennifer’s bravery and her articulate response to the fat shaming bully. However, the comments from the YouTube posting demonstrate that the offensive viewer was not a lone voice in expressing the nasty bullying and shaming that comprise the stigma against fat people. Here is a sampling of the comments:
“Someone give this fat lady a piece of cake.”
“Ewww, why is she so fat? Can’t afford a gym membership?”
“Eat a salad fatty”
“lol shes soooooo faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat. absolutely disgusting”
“Well if cigarette smokers are supposed to feel ashamed then fat people should feel just as ashamed.”
“Hundreds of people took the time to lift her spirits, but where were those hundreds of people when she needed help to get to the gym and to make better eating choices. She needs to take responsibility for her unhealthy actions. Fat people need to stop playing the victim. No one forced you to cram that tub of ice-cream down your throat.”
Sadly, fat shaming is a serious and potent contributory source of the stigma related to willpower that exists to this day.
How does the Pig video connect with our thinking about the jennifer livingston video and the responses to her?
How does fat shaming contribute to the stigma of willpower?
How do we change attitudes and perceptions that lead to fat shaming and stigma?