Can Fat Shaming be Defended?

After 'fat shaming' on trains and a campaign for health checks for models, do we risk creating unachievable and narrow ideals of body image that do more harm than good?

Weight stigma, of course, is alive and well in our society.

Weight stigma itself is a direct threat to fat people's health.

In 2007, a study was conducted to research the affect of negative weight stigmas on patients.

"I had a painful childhood, and it would be worse now because weight stigma has increased," she said.

They also report evidence that experiencing weight stigma is related to poor medication adherence.

Broadly speaking, experiencing weight stigma is associated with psychological distress.

"They are trying to promote healthier behavior, but at the same time they're likely promoting weight stigma," says Becker.

Weight stigma is a unique source of stigma for many reasons including the following:

These authors further recommend that a necessary first step in reducing weight stigma is raising a broader awareness of its negative consequences.

"We need to develop strategies to recognise and combat weight stigma when we are training our maternity care professionals," she said.

Puhl et al. (2009) also reviewed how in entertainment, news reporting, and advertising, media is a particularly potent source of weight stigma.

Such weight stigma can be defined as derogatory comments, preferential treatment towards normal-weight colleagues, and denial of employment.

It doesn't make people thinner or healthier in the long term, and it encourages weight stigma, prejudice and discrimination.

Weight Stigma and Public Health: A Tool or a Threat?

Moreover, weight stigma in educational settings also affects interpersonal relationships (see "Interpersonal Situations" below).

Among weight loss treatment-seeking adults, experiencing weight stigma might exacerbate weight- and health-related quality of life.

His public policy work focuses on expanding access to care for obesity treatment services, addressing weight stigma, and training physicians in obesity treatment modalities.

The conclusion was that in several cases, the belief in the negative weight stigmas led to overeating and bad health habits in patients who were studies.

Additionally, in a study of over 2,400 overweight and obese women, 79 percent of women reported coping with weight stigma on multiple occasions by eating more food.

Overall, the impact of weight stigma in healthcare has become so problematic that many scholars have suggested that obesity-prevention programs should make minimizing stigma a priority.

Weight stigma is present in multiple domains, such as healthcare, education, media, and interpersonal settings, and is perpetrated by friends, family, and the individual him- or herself.

Although many health policy scholars and public health initiatives have suggested that weight stigma might motivate weight loss, the evidence from the existing literature largely does not support this notion.

Over the past few decades, many scholars have identified weight stigma as a long-standing form of social stigma and one of the last remaining socially acceptable forms of prejudice.

"This seemed like a critical gap in the literature on weight stigma," Schvey said, adding that it's not clear whether negative socioeconomic perception based on body mass factored into the results.

Another area where the two fields converge is weight stigma, said Rebecca Puhl, deputy director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale.

The social stigma of obesity has created negative psychosocial impacts and has caused disadvantages for overweight and obese people.

Anti-fat bias can also be found at an early age.

Anti-fat bias can be found in the educational system.

Instances of implicit anti-fat bias have been found across several cultures.

Anti-fat bias is not a strictly Western cultural phenomenon.

She has since become a commentator on issues of anti-fat bias and obesity in the United States.

Previous research has shown that on average, physicians have a strong anti-fat bias similar to that of the general population.

But it is clear that anti-fat bias in and of itself takes a toll on public health in ways many may not suspect.

Anti-fat bias can be moderated by giving a mitigating context to the individual's appearance of obesity.

The movie propagates fat acceptance movement which is a social movement seeking to change anti-fat bias in social attitudes.

Anti-fat bias refers to the prejudicial assumption of personality characteristics based on a visual assessment of a person as being obese.

Fat activists allege anti-fat bias can be found in many facets of society, and blame the media for the pervasiveness of this phenomenon.

The history of the fat acceptance movement can be dated back to 1967 when 500 people met in New York's Central Park to protest against anti-fat bias.

As a consequence of anti-fat bias, overweight individuals often find themselves suffering repercussions in many facets of society, including legal and employment issues later in their life.

Anti-fat bias leads people to associate individuals who are overweight or obese with negative personality traits such as "lazy", "greedy", "stupid", "smelly", "slow", or "unmotivated."

Overall, 39 percent of medical students had a moderate to strong unconscious anti-fat bias as compared to 17 percent who had a moderate to strong anti-thin bias.

One dangerous effect of anti-fat bias is the presence of this bias in healthcare professionals, whose biases could result in a lower quality of treatment for overweight patients.

In the United States, research has been conducted on symbolic racism as it relates to Latinos and Asians, as well as modern sexism, anti-fat bias, and heterosexism.

During a lifetime of art and activism Heather MacAllister was involved in a range of social justice issues, particularly LGBT rights, anti-racism and addressing anti-fat bias.

Fat feminism or fat-positive feminism is a form of feminism that merges with fat activism and specifically addresses how misogyny and sexism intersect with sizeism and anti-fat bias.