The dominant ideological belief of North American beauty standards is primarily associated with being light-skinned, thin, and youthful (Johnston, 304) . Hegemonic body standards found in society have created a diet culture. To me, diet culture is a society that overemphasizes thinness and equates it with health and moral virtue. This means that an individual can spend their entire life believing that they are irreparably broken because they do not coincide with the impossibly thin “ideal”. Diet culture also promotes weight loss, leading individuals to spend significant time, energy, and money trying to slim down their bodies. I argue that food culture in North America is inherently flawed and detrimental to women. I suggest that the valorization of thin bodies is a socially constructed mass that is neither “natural” nor universal (Johnston, 305). The sociological theory I will use to frame my essay is symbolic interactionalism because, to me, it captures the essence of the social impact of weight loss products. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay. My goal in this essay will be to describe and illustrate how society has created the stigma surrounding obesity as well as the exploitation of this characteristic. for monetary gain. Capitalists use the weight loss industry and diet culture to exploit and profit from obesity. To understand the social significance of weight loss products, we must first explore how body ideals have been created by society and the effects that these standards have specifically on the social perception of the female self. Finally, I will conclude on how capitalism is the main beneficiary of the weight loss industry through the concept of bodywork. Symbolic interactionalism is a theoretical microsociological perspective that focuses on how our social world is created through the relationships and interactions in our daily lives, these interactions then construct meaning and self-identity (Johnston, 278 ). The concept of the mirror self proposed by Charles Cooley insinuates that the self-concept is an imagined feeling about ourselves based on how we think others perceive us. This theory suggests that actions and expressions of how others interact with us are an indicator or reflection of how we perceive ourselves (Johnston, 278). There is ample evidence in everyday interactions that shows the effects of fat shaming that go far beyond the rude remarks, stares and stares fat people hear, the hurtful comments strangers make about their bodies and “funny” memes and jokes featuring overweight people. It turns out that fat bias differs from other forms in ways that make it particularly difficult to overcome (Kolata, 2016). These interactions that overweight people face have a huge impact on how they view themselves. This stigma causes fat people to hate, blame, and shame themselves, as well as to feel the same way toward other obese people (Kolata, 2016). Bodywork is a concept in sociology that refers to the work that people perform on themselves or pay for. in order to manipulate their bodies to improve their physical appearance (Johnston, 306). Obese people then constantly find themselves in a situation where they.