Puritan Roots of New Years Resolutions & Western Fatphobia

 

In Max Weber’s writing on The Protestant Ethic and Spirit of Capitalism, he discusses the influence of Protestantism's work ethic on the fueling and reproduction of capitalism. Calvinists, members of a major branch of Protestantism, believed it was their moral obligation to uphold to will of God through hard work and strict time management. Any ascetic practices and indulgence would deter their progress and path to salvation. 

Fat-phobia or the “the implicit and explicit bias of overweight individuals that is rooted in a sense of blame and presumed moral failing” (Boston Medical Center), is a prevalent issue in Western culture that fuels a consumer industry for weight loss and influences people to engage in self-discipline. While the religious connotation to modern-day fat-phobic rhetoric is not evident, there is a distinct connection between the shame in “spontaneous enjoyment of possessions” (Weber) seen in early Protestantism and the stigma of overindulgence with food and weight in modern society. Large institutions capitalize off this rhetoric of “self-discipline” by shaming people’s character and basing their worth on their physical appearance. 

A social phenomenon in different parts of the world is New Year's Resolutions– or the idea that a new year brings an opportunity to improve aspects of your life that you deem to be “failing” or could improve upon. The meme pictured above is a well-known example of a “weight loss” new year resolution known to occur each year. While the Puritans would probably argue that this practice is a waste of time, there are evident parallels between the Protestant ideals of regiment and discipline.

Sophie Homlar

https://www.bmc.org/glossary-culture-transformation/fatphobia#:~:text=Noun,highly%20stigmatized%20in%20Western%20Culture.