Weight Stigma
Weight stigma is the discrimination of someone based on their weight or body size, and it has very harmful effects on folks emotionally and physically. Weight stigma appears in many places in our society, including in relationships with family and friends the workplace, social media, television and movies, retail stores, athletics, and certainly in healthcare.
Definitions
An adjective to describe someone鈥檚 body. This word has neutral meaning and can also be used in a liberating way to describe one鈥檚 own body.
Dislike, fear, or mistreatment of people because they are fat. Fatphobia can also be internalized when someone applies the biases and beliefs about fat people that they learn to themselves.
Discrimination due to someone鈥檚 size or weight.
Healthism was coined by Robert Crawford in a 1980聽聽for the聽International Journal of Health Services. In the 1970s the U.S. had seen a wave of renewed interest in holistic health and wellness, and Crawford was wary of how that investment in health was curdling into a perceived聽responsibility to seem healthy to others.聽He defined healthism as 鈥渢he preoccupation with personal health as a primary鈥攐ften聽the聽primary鈥攆ocus for the definition and achievement of well-being; a goal which is to be attained primarily through the modification of life styles.鈥�
Source, and place to read further on the effects of healthism:
A reductionist way of thinking about food that assumes the whole point of eating is to maintain and promote bodily health. What we know is that food is so much more than the sum of its nutrients. Food can bring people together, have emotional value, provide us comfort, and so much more 鈥� all of which are just as valuable as the nutrients that we get from food.
The idea of unconditional self-love, focusing on the goal of having a positive body image.
Accepting your body as it is and regarding it as neutral.
Check out about body neutrality, which touches on some of the ways that body neutrality has helped folks, but also discusses where the idea lacks.
How to combat weight stigma
It is important that we all work to combat weight stigma, regardless of our body size. Some things that we can all do to address weight stigma include:
- Speak up when we see someone else facing weight stigma or if we hear someone using language that perpetuates this stigma.
- Use neutral language when describing bodies, as well as food. Bodies and food do not have moral value.
- Have conversations with those in your life about weight stigma, including medical providers, friends, family, etc.