Obesity has been one of the most discussed problems in the field of public health in recent decades. It is not a disease that affects some people but is treated globally. This disease is also found in social and cultural figures such as the great actor Alfred Hitchcock. This issue has always had great social pressure, Hitchcock reflects this great problem in all his films.
Hitchcock's films, in which the use of suspense plays a fundamental role, the issue of obesity causes tension in public conversation. The great fear of related diseases, such as diabetes, heart disorders and some types of cancer, creates a constantly and increasingly controversial environment. Health campaigns and public discussions often create this fear by representing obesity as a great danger to society and citizens do not believe it or do not give much importance to this problem. As we well know, this actor suffered from obesity since he was a teenager, so he had it very present in his life and day to day, therefore in his films we can have that feeling or intrigue that something bad is going to happen.
In many of Hitchcock's films, the characters are characterized by their traits and personalities. In a similar way, obesity is related to negative stereotypes in all media, where people who suffer from this disease are people who do not care about their appearance, are unhealthy or even many comedians or other people use it as jokes or to make people laugh. Today, these stereotypes maintain these characteristics or discrimination that generate many problems such as anxiety, traumas... to people who suffer from obesity. Hitchcock usually manipulated the expectations or thoughts of his audience through stereotypes, thus increasing the fear of obese people about social prejudices and what people will think of them, since this great actor reflected that.
As we have argued before, this actor's usual theme is dominance, the lack of confidence that all his characters experience. This would suggest that contemporary society deals with obesity. The desire to have the ideal body or meet the standards of beauty and health established by society and this generates a feeling of little confidence in people. Campaigns that encourage accelerated diets, surgical interventions to meet beauty standards, the need to lose weight are used as mechanisms of control in society. This control and the anxiety that accompanies it can be compared to one of the psychological tensions that Hitchcock always tried to reflect in his characters.
Hitchcock excelled and was so good at keeping audiences intrigued until the very end and this was what really hooked his audiences. At the same time, social stories with the main theme of obesity are intended to scare the audience. The results of public health crises, such as the rise in obesity in children or the rising rates of diseases related to being overweight keep society in a constant state of alert. This is the use of that famous suspense used by Hitchcock to keep the danger to society and that an effective solution is needed to combat it. The difficulties faced by the population in purchasing healthy and nutritious foods also play a fundamental role in this problem, either due to economic reasons or due to where they live, since these foods cannot be found everywhere in the world.
Obesity is a public health and cultural phenomenon, and is related to social concerns similar to the suspense and tension that Alfred Hitchcock generated in his cinematographic works. As in Hitchcock's film, where the creation of fear is carefully directed, the fight against obesity uses fear, anxiety and social control to sustain a narrative that transmits to the public that feeling of fear, anguish, anxiety and the immediate danger of this disease on a global level. However, in the actor's films, the characters who continually fight against obesity find themselves trapped in a network of stereotypes, social idealization, social approval... Finally, it is very important to overcome this social fear in order to deal with the problem of obesity.
References
Baskin, M. L. “Products - Health e Stats - Overweight Prevalence among Adults 2005-2006.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 10 Jan. 2005, www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/overweight/overweight_adult.htm.
Hitchcok, Alfred. “Sections.” Ransom Center Magazine, 2 Dec. 2013, sites.utexas.edu/ransomcentermagazine/2013/12/02/fellows-find-hitchcocks-weight/.
Byrnes, Paul. “Weight That Drove a Taste for Torture.” The Sydney Morning Herald, The Sydney Morning Herald, 3 Jan. 2013, www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/weight-that-drove-a-taste-for-torture-20130103-2c759.html.
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