Social stigma of obesity
Obese people marry less often, experience fewer educational and career opportunities, and on average earn a lesser income than normal weight individuals.
Anti-fat bias can be found in many facets of society,[16] and fat activists commonly cite examples of mass media and popular culture that pervade this phenomenon.
One study conducted a multinational examination of weight bias across four countries (Canada, United States, Iceland, and Australia) with comparable obesity rates.
[33] People, often said to be living in the west, value healthy and strong bodies that prioritize agility, endurance and fertility[33] - with focus on achievement and individual responsibility.
[35] The overabundace of high caloric, depleted of nutrients and other essential vitamins and minerals and food options more common in the western hemisphere is often associated with people who are against fat phobia.
[37] Anti-fat bias leads people to associate individuals who are overweight or obese with negative personality traits such as "lacking willpower",[38] "lazy", "gluttonous", "stupid", "incompetent", or "unmotivated".
[44] For example, when told an individual was obese because of "overeating" and "lack of exercise", a higher implicit bias was found among study participants than those not provided with context.
News reports have blamed individuals who are overweight and obese for various societal issues including prices of fuel, global temperature trends, and precipitating weight gain among their peers.
[2] The news media repeatedly engages in the "Headless Fatties" phenomenon, coined by Charlotte Cooper, in which images and videos only depict overweight individuals as bodies by cropping out their heads.
News stories were more likely than the scientific articles to use dramatized language, words such as epidemic, crisis, war, and terrorism, and were more likely to cite individual behaviors as the causes and solutions to obesity, ignoring the systemic issues.
Several studies have evidenced that in environments such as these, students with obesity face greater educational disadvantages and are less likely to attend college, an effect that is particularly strong among women.
[2] Another review by Giel and colleagues (2010) found that certain stereotypes about employees with obesity are highly endorsed by employers and supervisors, in particular that they have poorer job performance and that they lack interpersonal skills, motivation, and self-control.
[62] A study by Michigan State University researchers shows evidence that overweight political candidates tend to receive fewer votes than their thinner opponents.
Using a previously established scientific method, research assistants determined from color photos whether the candidates in 126 primary and general elections were of normal weight, overweight, or obese.
[22] A national survey of the United States found that individuals who were overweight reported a three times higher likelihood to be denied medical care than average weight people.
[68] Additionally, a 2012 survey revealed that 54% of doctor respondents believe the National Health Service should have the ability to withhold non-emergency treatment from obese individuals.
[2] Another recent review by Puhl and Suh (2015) also documented that in school settings weight-based bullying is one of the most prevalent types of harassment reported by parents, teachers, and students.
[75] Weight-based teasing in childhood and adolescence has been associated with a variety of damages to psychosocial health, including reduced self-esteem and lower self-concept,[75][76] higher rates of depression and anxiety disorders,[77][78][79] and even greater likelihood of entertaining suicidal thoughts.
[75] Further, weight-based teasing has been associated with higher rates of binge eating and unhealthy weight control (e.g., fasting, self-induced vomiting, laxatives, diet pills, skipped meals and smoking).
[82] A survey of 7,266 children aged 11 to 16 conducted by the World Health Organization reported higher rates of physical victimization (e.g., being shoved) with increasing body mass index (BMI) among girls.
[72] A separate survey of 7,825 students aged 11 to 17 also noted that, compared to average-weight peers, obese boys and overweight girls were more likely to be victims of bullying.
[89] Overweight and obese individuals report experiencing forms of internalized stigma such as body dissatisfaction as well as decreased social support and feelings of loneliness.
[90][91] In addition, similar to findings in adolescence, weight stigma in adulthood is associated with lower self-esteem, higher rates of depression, anxiety, and substance abuse.
[85][39][90] In both adults and children with obesity, several reviews of the literature have found that across a variety of studies, there is a consistent relationship between experiencing weight stigma and many negative mental and physical health outcomes.
[94] Papadopoulos's 2015 review of the literature found that across several studies, this distress can manifest in anxiety, depression, lowered self-esteem, and substance use disorders, both in weight loss treatment-seeking individuals as well as community samples.
[104] The article explains how ableism, fatphobia, and racism interact to form a "double bind" in which violence is excused because fatness is already causing inherent injury, but necessary because the size of a large black person is a threat.
The findings of this publication demonstrated that there were no significant differences in weight stigma as a function of race or gender, having an overall equal representation across all racial groups analyzed.
Besides its political role, for example in the form of anti-discrimination NGOs and activism, the fat acceptance movement also constitutes a subculture which acts as a social group for its members.
However, it also has the consequence of treating that trait as "toxic" abnormality which should be "fixed" to achieve normalcy, and which due to its inherent negativity must be talked about in a special, careful way, rather than used as a simple "benign" descriptor.
Advocacy groups have criticized a top-down approach whereby proponents of person-first language claim to speak for all, whereas in reality it is not the preferred terminology of many in the fat-acceptance movement.
