Body Size is a Social Justice Issue
Photo by Anete Lusina
Below is writing taken from a research paper I wrote last year. An important note on research: much of what is published today is biased toward white, cishet males who carry enough privilege and academic clout to be published. While the research scene may slowly be changing in the right direction, looking at research with this in mind can be helpful to understanding why data samples are frequently limited to majority culture. Most research also uses the word '“obese” liberally, which is why it is quotes in this manner.
Among the many identifiers a human being can be discriminated against – be it race, gender, sexual orientation, national origin or ability – weight rarely makes the cut. Despite the fact that weight discrimination has increased by 66% among U.S. adults in the period between 1995 and 2005 (Puhl et al., 2020), there is a clear lack of “authentic, credible space where the oppression associated with fat can be spoken about" (Young, 2005, p. 251).
The purpose of this post is to create one such space. Here we will look at weight stigma through the lens of power and privilege, culture and context as well as systems of oppression. By shedding light on the insidious ways weight stigma wreaks havoc on the lives of fat people, I hope to call all of us into including body size into our social justice practices.
Social justice - what is it?
Social justice is both an idea and a practice. It can be described as fair distribution of available resources and opportunities, “full participation of all individuals within society so they are able to achieve their potential, and direct action to decrease the oppression of marginalized populations” (Nutter et al., 2018, p. 90).
And while social justice can be a practice, it is important to note that individual action toward a more equal, just world must be accompanied with systemic change.
Thinness: power and privilege
In Western society, thinness has become not only an ideal everyone is forced to strive toward, but a required attribute if one is to reap the benefits of fitting into the dominant narrative. In other words thinness, as a characteristic, is not benign. It carries privilege.
Fear of fatness and the preference for thinness are, principally and historically, not about health but rather they are ways to legitimize race, sex, and class hierarchies.”
- Da’Shaun Harrison, author of Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness
Dividing people into ‘us’ and ‘them’ is a familiar ploy of exclusion and oppression. When a group of individuals can be ‘othered’ based on a biological attribute it creates a premise of exclusion from the benefits allocated to those of the ‘in’ group.
Add to this foundation the intersections of identity - different race, gender, sexual orientation, class, national origin, ability - and interplay of the levels of oppression changes. Research shows that weight stigma is more prevalent toward women than men (Puhl et al., 2020) and toward those in a lower socioeconomic status (Ciciurkaite & Perry, 2018).
The marginalization/discrimination cycle
Research shows that those society labels as “obese” are largely from “nondominant racial and/or ethnic backgrounds as well as individuals of low socioeconomic status" (Nutter et al., 2016, p. 6); those who experience at least two areas of disadvantage are also those who have higher rates of “obesity”.
Given that research shows linkage between weight stigma and adverse health behaviors, such as “maladaptive eating behaviors, low physical activity, physiological stress, and weight gain" (Puhl et al., 2020, p. 275), a grim picture emerges: the more disadvantaged one is, the more likely one is to be “obese” and experience weight stigma, which in turn only worsens one’s health and leads to more weight gain and more weight discrimination as a result.
A vicious cycle occurs perpetuated by social structures that only further harm those already on the margins.
Photo by Anete Lusina
Anti-fatness: culture and context
How did we get here, where anti-fatness is the cultural norm? In her recently published work Fearing the Black Body, Strings (2019) links two major contributions to the current thin ideal: the transatlantic slave trade and Protestantism.
Strings explains that the anti-fat sentiments were dominating the discourse in Western Europe for a good part of two centuries, but that it was not until the massive influx of enslaved African and the resurgence of religious ideology in the United States that “slenderness was increasingly promoted in the popular media as the correct embodiment for white Anglo-Saxon Protestant women” (Strings, 2019, Introduction, para.19). Only much later would the medical establishment begin to quantify what constitutes ‘excessive’ fat, placing the origin of Western fat phobia squarely in the center of oppression tactics that legitimize some bodies and ostracize others.
The current impetus for blaming those in larger bodies for their weight gain, citing laziness, lack of resolve or gluttony (Puhl et al., 2020) has direct ties to the denigration of large Black women several centuries ago (Strings, 2019). Labeling fatness as sinful and Black was a method of both degrading Black people – Black women in particular – as well as discipline white women (Strings, 2019). It is no surprise that today’s weight stigma is a continuation of "an oppressive social context for individuals with large bodies, where large bodies are visual representations for immorality" (Nutter et al., 2016, p. 5).
With the medical industry getting louder on what are ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’ amounts of fat, other social currents have picked up the baton of framing the blame on the individual, whether it is the media, the food industry, the diet industry or the government (Saguy, 2013). Given Western capitalism, it is no wonder that the personal responsibility frame directly benefits the system, forcing individuals to purchase products, gym memberships, or dangerous surgeries to curb the ‘obesity epidemic’.
Placing blame for weight on the individual is not only oppressive, but also dangerous. Focusing on thinness decontextualizes health from “the structural and social forces that impact people's lives, with serious consequences for the health care and health outcomes of individuals with large bodies" (Nutter et al., 2016, p. 5). Western culture’s mouthpiece – be it the media, the government agencies that focus on health or the diet industry – frame fat as a medical and public health crisis that has been proven to “worsen weight-based stigma and discrimination” (Saguy, 2013, p. 136).
The medical industry, the health care industry, and the diet industry all exist to maintain a culture intended to “discipline” those whose bodies refuse to - and, for many, simple cannot - conform to the standards of health.
- Da’Shaun Harrison, author of Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness
While the systems encourage binary thinking and claims there is a clear right and wrong when it comes to health and wellness, social justice embraces diversity and advocates for multiplicity of voices in any given narrative. Body size diversity is as natural as height diversity, yet we do not see our culture amassing an anti-shortness campaign and framing it as a public health crisis.
Photo by Anete Lusina
Systems of oppression: how does it all work together?
Let’s look at employment, education, health care and interpersonal relationships. Weight stigma in employment contributes to the stereotype that fat people have poorer performance, reliability and possess lower intelligence (Nutter, 2018). Educational settings tend to label overweight students as having lower ability (Nutter, 2018). In the health care sector, people in larger bodies have been regarded as lazy, non-compliant and lacking willpower (Nutter, 2018). Weight stigma in interpersonal relationships contributes to not only violent behavior that can range from name calling to bullying, but also to increased social isolation and avoidance by peers (Nutter, 2018).
Weight stigma can also impacts one’s social status. Pickett (2018) reiterates that "individuals with stigmatized traits have reduced social capital and power in society, while those with desirable traits are afforded greater social status" (p. 22). For those who are already experiencing marginalization – specifically people of color, immigrants, LGBTQIA+ community and people with disabilities, to name a few – the mounting oppression has many detrimental effects on mental and physiological effects, such as depression, anxiety and overall lower quality of life (Forbes & Donovan, 2019).
Framing weight as a personal responsibly, alongside the religious roots of pairing ‘excessive’ weight with immorality, help explain the current rhetoric of labeling fatness as a public health crisis. The persistent and aggressive antifat sentiments present in virtually every sphere of Western cultures have created a world where weight bias and stigma have become "socially sanctioned bigotry" (Young, 2005, p. 250).
Where do we go from here?
Social justice allows for alternate views to not only be included, it also allows them to actively shape a new story. In addressing weight stigma, social justice can begin with learning about the history and roots of anti-fatness and understanding its intimate connection to anti-Blackness and racist practices in the United States and Canada. It can look like adopting and advocating for the body liberation practices, the result of a movement spearheaded and led by Black femmes, and ensuring that our social justice efforts de-center the majorly white-led, small to mid fat "body positivity" movement in order to work toward total body liberation that includes fat folks that are large fat, superfat and infinifat too. Our social justice practice can and must actively divorce body size from the notion of health. Fat bodies exist and their health is nobody’s concern but their owners.
We live in a society obsessed with weight, and one that leaves little room for existence of natural body diversity, despite its actual abundance. It is paramount to start challenging our internalized fat phobia and the diet culture narratives around food and bodies. This may mean noticing our habits and thoughts around food, clothing and body size. Are these habits and thoughts harmful to fat folks? If yes, we must begin decolonizing our ideas about weight and bodies, actively speaking out against the rampant fat phobia we see, hear and experience. Most importantly, we must collectively model recognizing the very basic fact that fat people deserve dignity, respect and fair treatment, with no ifs, ands or buts about it.
Advocating for bodily diversity, speaking out against anti-fat bias in public and private places can be a great start toward cultivating your social justice practice. But beyond this, knowing the history of anti-fatness and its direct origin of anti-Blackness must push our social justice efforts beyond surface-level "body positivity" into full, total body liberation. While anti-fatness harms all people, it is particularly harmful to Black femmes and it is they who have launched and continue to advance the movement.
Until all of us can freely and fully experience all of the benefits this world has to offer us: a society free of racism, fat phobia, homophobia, xenophobia, ableism and other forms of oppression, none of us can live, play and thrive uninhibited.
While we are working toward that kind of world, going to the doctor's office, boarding a flight, or going out to eat and being treated with fairness, dignity and respect must be the bare minimum to start.
For a list of references for research cited above, please click here.