For my Argumentative Research Paper, I will be exploring the negative affects that fat shaming and fat stigmatization has on people who are obese and overweight. Through evidence supported by medical and argumentative sources, I will develop a valid argument that explains that fat shaming does not help motivate people to lose weight and become healthier. The "how" aspect of my research question makes me explore the different reasons why fat shaming hurts the people it is targeted to rather than just saying, "yes, fat shaming is bad". Hopefully with my research paper, I can show my reader that being negative and hurtful towards people who struggle with obesity will not help them overcome their struggles. My research should show people that in order to help others overcome their struggle with weight, they need encouragement and positive influence.

America has more obese and overweight people than any other country in the world. Two thirds of American adults are considered obese or overweight and 1 in 3 children are considered obese or overweight. Many people in the media and those of public influence are the ones that criticize these people. Also, obesity is an epidemic that is one of the hardest to solve, which makes it difficult to find an absolute solution and allows criticism to continue. One of the reasons why I chose this research topic was because I wanted to bring to light that criticizing people by their weight actually hurts more than it helps. I have struggled with my weight my whole life and I was bullied a lot in school because of my weight. People would laugh at me when I would eat my lunch, they would make rude remarks about my shape and taunt me about breaking chairs in class. One time that I specifically remember being criticized and bullied because of my weight was when a group of my classmates actually threw food at me in the cafeteria. It was my freshman year of high school and I was leaving the cafeteria to eat my lunch outside and a table full of sophomore boys threw Dunkin Donuts munchkins at me. It was the most humiliating thing I had ever experienced but it did not motivate me to lose weight or get healthier. I would sit at home and eat a bunch of crap to mask the pain I felt inside. I was lucky that I did not develop an eating disorder but I felt the negative affects of fat shaming that a lot of people my size did and it hurt me more than it helped me. I did not begin to get better and lose weight until my family told me that I should just work to become healthier and that they were there to support me along the way. They told me I was beautiful the way I was but my parents wanted me to be happy with myself and to see me develop healthy habits. With their help and positive encouragement, I began exercising, playing sports and eating better to just improve my health and the weight loss came with that. This makes me incredibly connected to this argument, making me a stakeholder, and it is very important to me that people see that stigmatizing obese persons is not going to help them become healthier.

This argument is a direct reflection of my values regarding fat shaming. I came into this research topic with a view already in mind. I began looking for evidence that supported my argument and did not think about arguing from the other side. I personally cannot see how someone would think stigmatizing people because of their weight and making them feel bad about themselves will motivate them to lose weight. With the personal connection, I have motivation to really make my arguments strong and persuasive. I believe that having a personal connection and a side to argument before I write my paper will help me formulate claims that I believe and feel passionate about rather than saying things just to get the page count up on my paper. There are only few things that I did not know about my research question when I first picked my topic, whether or not their was actual research that backed up my argument and if fat shaming was an actual problem that was argued by people that are not just YouTube people. Once I gathered a few sources I gladly found a lot of scholarly works argued the fat stigma and did not have to base my whole paper off of popular source material. 

Using the scholarly sources that I have been able to find through databases and scholarly websites, I believe I can present a valid argument on my side. There are a lot of points that I will be able to address throughout the 8-10 pages that are required that I believe will give the reader a full understanding on my claims and effectively answer my research question. I have already found three sources that support my answer to the research question. My sources agree with the statement that fat shaming and stigmatizing negatively affect people who are victims to it. They have research studies that are evidence to how negatively fat shaming affects people and the psychological damages it causes. This is crucial for my argument because you cannot argue that much against scientific evidence. 

As I move forward, though, I hope my research question becomes less wordy and more straightforward. I want my thesis to answer the question in the clearest way possible so I may need to make the question itself a little clearer. My thesis needs to be strong and directly answer my research question. My research question and thesis are what will set up my paper, so they will both be flexible as I discover new information on my topic. I think that this topic is the perfect balance of scope, controversy and complexity. It is not too broad so that there is a definitive subject being argued but it is not so small that there is not much to talk about. It is a topic that is applicable to the lives of people in this time and also is a topic that is discuses by many people of many ages. There is a wide audience and the stakeholders are normal people, which makes the topic easier to relate to. It is not too controversial; it is a topic that people have opinions on but not ones that are too sensitive to talk about. I think a lot of people will be interested to learn how I argue my case and hopefully they can make claims of their own. Hopefully with my arguments and evidence I can get the reader to see this side of fat shaming and why it is hurting more than helping. 
