Posts Tagged ‘weight stigma’

Close to 500 science writers gathered at Penn State this weekend for a mix of professional development, scientific briefings, and networking. Within this group, two talented professionals from NIH, Judith Lavelle and Hillary Hoffman, deal with highly stigmatized health conditions every day – HIV, infectious diseases, and immune disorders. But they wanted to do more […]

At the National Academies yesterday, we found ourselves immersed in mixed messages on obesity. The occasion was a public workshop on effective communications strategies for obesity. OCEANS President Faith Newsome summed it up for us: I left with a lot of questions, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. We talk about “solutions” and promote “healthy” […]

Listen up folks. A donut is not the way to tell the world about the state of obesity in the United States. Nope, not at all. Donuts do not lie at the root of the problem. Neither do french fries. But cluelessness drives people to reduce the complex problem of obesity into a simplistic infographic […]

Bill Maher has kindly reminded us that we have no time for hateful public figures. Friday he held forth with a hateful diatribe about fat people on his HBO platform. He says we need more fat shaming. According to him, the answer to obesity is to shame people into having smaller bodies. With talk about […]

Almost 30 years ago, David Allison, Vincent Basile, and Harold Yuker were studying how to measure weight stigma. Among other things, they found belief in personal control over obesity is a key factor in bias against people with obesity. Likewise, disgust is a key factor. Together, these factors provide the basis for moralizing obesity. They […]

The Kurbo kerfuffle has revealed a lot about how grownups are dealing with childhood obesity. Because mostly, they’re not. In fact, most of them are totally out of touch with the reality of childhood. But in sharp contrast, Michelle Cardel and Elsie Taveras bring a refreshing dose of reality and balance with a new commentary […]

We’ve known for a while that weight bias is especially strong in the UK. But with a viewpoint in Radio Times, Michael Buerk is breaking new ground. He has moved beyond simple weight bias into vile hate. Let people with obesity die to save the state money, he says. “They’re weak, not ill.” Bubbling Ignorance […]

YWM2019 opened yesterday with powerful personal stories about coming to terms with obesity and advocating for change. The message from every corner of this meeting was clear. Please raise your voice. Because it’s your voice and your lived experience with obesity that will lead us all to better care and less stigma. In the opening […]

Are we all sufficiently aware of our weight? Many answers might come to mind for such a broad question. Health professionals offer honest accounts of patients with severe obesity and no idea that it might have an effect on their health. Patients tell of health professionals who suggest all their symptoms are due to obesity […]

Two weeks ago, Cancer Research UK blanketed the United Kingdom with billboards to proclaim that having obesity is like smoking. We and more than 12,000 petitioners have voiced strong concern that this misguided campaign will serve only to promote weight stigma, not health. Because CRUK has thus far not granted that promoting stigma might be […]