Posts Tagged ‘weight discrimination’

At the opening of ECO2018 this morning, one thing is abundantly clear. With the rise of global obesity, we have a growing recognition that weight bias is becoming an important global problem, too. New Study Confirms Unfavorable Trends Alan Moses is presenting an analysis of the global prevalence of obesity and diabetes. Unfortunately, the trends […]

In a provocative post on Medscape, medical ethicist Arthur Caplan tells us that he doesn’t believe in literally calling out people with obesity and shaming them. But, he says, we can’t give in to acceptance. Obesity is just too harmful to health. What Exactly Does That Mean? We find ourselves scratching our heads over his […]

Discrimination against fat people is so endemic, most of us don’t even realise it’s happening When we think of prejudice and discrimination, most of us tend to think of overt attacks, harassment, or discriminatory behaviour. Blatant examples of prejudice do still occur with depressing frequency. But for most members of stigmatised groups, it is not […]

The picture is stark. Writing in the Atlantic, Olga Khazan says bariatric surgery is out of reach where people need it the most. The five states with the highest rates of self-reported BMI in the range of obesity are WV, MS, AL, AR, and LA. But not one of those states requires insurers to cover […]

It’s become a bit of a cliché. Poverty and obesity seem to travel together. Though obesity rates are rising among all social and economic groups, populations under the most pressure suffer disproportionately. But that begs a question. How does the relationship between poverty and obesity work? Reversing the Usual Assumption The typical assumption is that […]

Beautiful honesty is a gift for an ugly world. And yet again, Roxane Gay offers us this gift with a well-crafted essay on her decision to have gastric sleeve surgery in January this year. Mixed Emotions About a Harsh Reality This was not an easy decision. Gay describes the final straw: After more than 15 […]

Human nature can be noble and it can be shameful. But how do you counter the shame of human nature that expresses itself in weight bias and stigma? Some very smart people (Rebecca Puhl of the Rudd Center comes to mind) have gone after it with academic rigor. Social activists and the internet named it “fat […]

Obesity affects men and women differently. It’s an obvious fact – whether you’re living with obesity yourself or you care for people living with it. But discussions of weight stigma and fat shaming often focus almost exclusively on women. This needs to change. New research published in Obesity this week makes it clear that shaming and […]

Little more than a month from now, the European Congress on Obesity (ECO2018) promises a global view of obesity. Though it’s a European meeting, the programme offers up a global perspective on this pandemic. A few themes stand out. Gaps in Understanding Obesity Obesity has been slower to develop in most of the world compared to […]

A colleague recently asked: How do you keep doing what you do in the face of so much awful stuff? By awful stuff, she meant flagrant examples of weight bias. Like the Guardian’s recent Op-Ed by Lizzie Cernik, proclaiming “It’s not fine to be fat.” The short answer to our friend’s question is this. Bias […]