ABSTRACT
Obesity is a complex phenomenon having a variety of causes and consequences, and accordingly, it is very insufficiently understood. In a sociological view, therefore, the terms obesity and overweight may be considered as synonyms and used interchangeably. One of the many possible reactions to the marginality of the youthful situation is obesity, and the answer given in adolescence may set the tone for the entire life. Apparently, nature is intolerant of obesity in ectomorphic types while endomorphic, and to a lesser degree mesomorphic, types are susceptible to it. As tracing indigence to poverty, for all its tautology, implies the moral responsibility of the poor for their own misfortune, so does tracing obesity to indulgence imply the depravity of the overweight person. In stigmatization, deviance, rather than being an attribute of the deviant, becomes a label attached to a person by others.
