In
1977, a researcher named Lambros Kerris conducted a study where he sent two
groups of men to 11 apartments that were for rent. One of the men was obese, but the remaining
five were average build. Out of the 11 apartments visited, 5 landlords refused
to rent to the obese man, three increased the rent, and two said the apartment
had already been rented (Moore, Hickson, & Stacks, 2010, pp. 142-143) . This is not a
unique story. In her book, “Fat
Shame: Stigma and the Fat Body in American Culture,” Amy Farrell (2011)
discusses how a sorority at DePauw University was struggling for membership and
was visited by their leadership to attempt to correct the problem. Several members of the sorority were removed
from active membership, placed on alumnae status, many claiming it was because
they were fat, ethnic, or looked different from the stereotypical sorority girl
(long blonde hair, thin, attractive, etc.).
After successfully protesting, the university removed the sorority
chapter from campus for being discriminatory (Farrell, 2011, p. 6).
Fat
people move through a world that tells them, both verbally and nonverbally,
that being fat is bad and somehow shameful.
In her TEDTalk on thin privilege, Madison Krall (2017) noted that 50% of
adults surveyed would rather give up a year of their life than be obese. Moore, Hickson, and Stacks (2010) note,
“Because people can control their body weight and physical fitness, it is a
popular assumption that body type is a message about individuals’ personalities
and their interests” (p. 141). As a society, we have stigmatized our waistlines
and, as a result, we have stigmatized fat people. We have created a world where it is socially
acceptable to stigmatize and demean fat people.
Fat is bad, therefore fat people are bad. Being fat has become a stigma, with Moore,
Hickson, and Stacks (2010) noting, “Stigmatization can have dramatic negative
effects on an individual.” (p. 153) So, not only do we fat shame verbally and
nonverbally, but often, this fat shaming is concealed as a concern for health
and is completely counter productive.
Fat
shaming is nothing new. Since the dawn
of the nation, fat people have been mocked and derided in advertisements,
postcards, and cartoons. Fat people were
portrayed as dumb, weak-willed, lazy, gluttonous, immoral, and even primitive. They are less likely to be hired or get
promotions, with a whopping 93% of Human Resource professionals admitting that
they were less likely to hire a fat candidate even if the fat and “normal”
candidate had the exact same qualifications (Krall, 2017) .
Brewis, Hruschka, and Wutich (2011) note
that being fat “often takes the form of a master status in that it appears to
trump other aspects of self in the creation of social identities and hence the
experience of stigma” (p. 491).
Until
the late 19th century, “only the privileged – in terms of wealth and
health – could become fat.” (Farrell, 2011, p. 18) That all changed as
food production increased and occupations became more sedentary in the early 20th
century. Historians put the beginning of
the diet industry in the 1920’s, but Farrell (2011) believes that fat shaming
began much earlier, noting that it had been associated with slavery and racism,
in addition to extreme wealth, as early as the American Civil War, and that
diet ads have surfaced in magazines dating back to the late 19th
century. Indeed, fat women were used in
anti-suffragist material pre-dating the diet industry by more than 20 years,
portraying the suffragette as a greedy, fat woman who wants it all, and, in
some documents, blurred the lines between size and race, giving black features
to white skinned cartoons of fat women to portray them as less civilized (pp.
17-23).
Over
time, these cartoonish depictions of the fat body as a source of moral
deficiency became an unstoppable stigma that has far-reaching consequences,
both for the fat person and for the person stigmatizing the fat body. In a 2011 study done by Lewis, Thomas, Blood,
Castle, Hyde, and Komesaroff, overweight women were surveyed for their
experiences with fat stigmas. Women
consistently reported that many of the judgements about their personality were
based on stigmas surrounding their weight.
One woman in that study reported that her family advised her to lose
weight so she would be taken seriously as a medical professional. Another was told by her boss that her weight
was affecting her work as a web developer.
Several told of encounters with judgmental sales staff while clothing
shopping who made it clear that they were not welcome in that space (pp.
1349-1356).
While
the most studied group of fat people is women, they are not the only victims of
fat shaming. In a study on weight stigma
of men, Pearl and Wadden (2018) noted that “approximately 40% or more of men across
three samples reported having experienced weight-based stigmatization” (p. 949)
Another study on weight stigma of men by
Himmelstein, Puhl, and Quinn (2018) noted that, while both genders feel weight
stigma as their BMI increases, men are unique in that they perceive stigma at
both ends of the weight spectrum, being underweight as well as being
overweight. The study concluded that the men experience weight stigma as often
as women do, according to national statistics, even if women get the lion’s
share of the attention (p. 974). There
is strong evidence to suggest that fat shaming of men is also systemic and has
a strong nonverbal message as well, especially since the authors of the study noted
unfair treatment and discrimination as secondary and tertiary examples of
weight-based discrimination in men.
Brewis,
Hruschka, & Wutich (2011) found no link between perceived judgements and
actual judgements, noting:
For
individuals with a BMI of 25, the judgements of non-close (relationships) have
no detectable influence on target’s perceptions, and they are perceived on
average as providing a rating of 0.61 (where 4 = most judgmental). Close (relationships)
who actually provide a rating of 0.0 (no judgement) are also judged as
providing a rating of approximately 0.61 (some judgement).
This
research into perception of fat shaming is further discussed in Himmelstein,
et. al. (2018), who stated, “The most common sources of weight stigma across
developmental periods were peers (61%), family members (41.7%), and strangers
(35.7%).” So even if there is no
judgement being made, as Brewis stated was the more likely case, the fat people
in the study still felt like they were being fat shamed by those that love
them.
Fat
shaming is so accepted in our culture that even among medical professionals, a
whopping 40% of doctors polled had some kind of weight bias, admitting to using
terms like “weak willed,” “ugly,” or “awkward” to describe their obese patients
(Krall, 2017) . Fat people are less likely to feel that their
concerns were addressed by medical professionals than their more average sized
peers. Frequently, doctors will advise
overweight or obese patients to lose weight without investigating further. A full 24% of nurses polled stated that they
were “repulsed” by the idea of an obese patient (Krall, 2017) . More than half of the 620 primary care
doctors surveyed described obese patients as “awkward, unattractive, ugly, and
unlikely to comply with treatment” (Brown, 2010) ,
which is important to note because doctors who don’t believe a patient will
comply with treatment will treat them differently than patients they believe
WILL comply. “The cultural stigma
surrounding fatness inhibits our ability to think clearly about health issues…
headlines that scream ‘obesity epidemic,’ can quickly become justification for
discrimination against fat people” (Farrell, 2011, p. 11)
Fat
shaming goes beyond what is said and bleeds into what isn’t said. Frequently, fat shaming is disguised as a
“health concern” and well-meaning people tell fat people that they need to
pursue the old standard of exercise regularly and restrictive eating to lose
weight, which is supposed to make the fat person healthier. However, the science states that this method
of fat shaming has the exact opposite effect.
Little
evidence exists, however, that stigmatizing obesity promotes weight loss. In fact, among overweight individuals,
experiencing weight-based stigmatization is associated with greater reports of
maladaptive eating habits, increased motivation to avoid exercise, and poorer
weight loss outcomes among adults in a weight loss program. Furthermore, experimentally activating weight
stereotypes decreased overweight women’s self-efficacy for exercise and dietary
control. (Major, Hunger, Bunyan, & Miller, 2013, p. 74)
Linda
Bacon and Amee Severson (2019) agree, saying, “Even a quick glance at the
weight research shows that, despite decades of trying, there is no evidence
that efforts to prevent or reverse ‘obesity’ are successful. In fact, there’s
much evidence to suggest that the prescription for weight loss is more likely
to result in physical harm and weight gain” (p. 3). Bacon and Severson argued
that fat shaming doesn’t decrease obesity because it focuses on the individual
as having moral deficits that keep them fat, rather than focus on the systemic
inequalities that keep them fat, like food security, access to healthcare, and
social support.
Farrell
expanded on this by discussing a study performed at U.C. Davis, in which two
groups of fat women (described as having a BMI over 25) were divided into two
groups: The first group would receive traditional diet-and-exercise advice,
while the second group would receive coaching in exercising for fun, eating a
healthy diet, listening to their bodies, and support from a fat positive group. Over the course of the two-year study, half
of the women in the first group dropped out, and the self-esteem of the
remaining women fell through the floor.
They all managed to lose weight initially, but most gained it back by
the end of the study. Their metabolic
numbers also did not change much, indicating that the gold standard of health
was not achieved. The group of women
that received the fat acceptance model largely stayed with the study for the
full two years. Although they didn’t
lose any weight, their metabolic numbers dramatically improved, and they were
happier, defying the notion that one needs to be thin to be healthy. (Farrell, 2011, pp. 11-12)
Fat
shaming is so common that people are told, both verbally and nonverbally, by
family, friends, and even medical professionals, that they are lesser because
they are overweight. Despite the overwhelming evidence that traditional fat
shaming produces the opposite results as intended, and that fat people can
actually be healthier than their “mesomorphic” counterparts, our society
continues to pass judgement on fat people, as if their waistline is in any way
indicative of their worth as a person. In
the last few decades, the “Fat Acceptance” movement has started gaining hold,
and research is starting to indicate that one doesn’t need to be a size two to
be healthy. We are still a long way from
ending fat shaming in the Western world on a systemic level. As Moore, Hickson, and Stacks (2010) concluded:
“Stigmas are often difficult to overcome through physical change. (…) Physical
appearance communicates ‘meaning,’ and many stereotypes are based on our first
impressions of others’ body shape and body image (pp. 155-156).”
Until
we are prepared to accept that physical appearance isn’t an indication of
health, and being fat isn’t a personality defect, we will continue stigmatizing
fat bodies and the people who inhabit them.
-------------------------
grade: 20/20
Professor comments: What a pleasant read, Ms. (Katlin). With some dusting and tweaks, this would be student paper conference worthy. Let me know if you want to present that. :)
