|
Open any local newspaper today and you are likely to find an article about the "fight against fat" or "war on weight." Growing numbers of schools across the nation are responding with everything from special nutrition and physical education programs to "Body Mass Index Report Cards" for students considered overweight and unhealthy.
Largely overlooked in this battle against obesity, however, is the collateral damage to young people stemming from the social consequences of size stigma and society’s harmful fixation on thinness.
Fat in U.S. society is not just a health or aesthetic issue, but also a matter of deeply held values. Our culture attaches negative personal qualities to people who are overweight—in the same way it does to people with AIDS or drug addicts, for example—because they are perceived as the cause of their own condition. In the U.S., being fat is equated with being a bad person.
The results of this equation can be seen everywhere. In film, television and popular media, overweight people are significantly underrepresented, except as the objects of humor and the embodiment of stereotypes that would be unacceptable if directed at many other groups.
In the workplace, overweight people experience hiring prejudice, lower wages, fewer promotions and higher rates of dismissal. They report that physicians and nurses often scold and humiliate them, causing a reluctance to seek health care, especially for weight-related conditions. Obese people have been denied the opportunity to adopt children and experience frequent problems in public settings, such as, theaters, airplanes, and buses.
Stories abound about overweight individuals being ridiculed by complete strangers in supermarkets, restaurants, shopping areas, and other public places. Even in court it has been found that thin, attractive people are found guilty less often, and when they are found guilty, they receive less severe sentences.
When surveyed about their experiences with bias, however, overweight people report that the most common place in which stigmatization occurs is within the school setting, followed by the home -- the two places that should be safe havens for all youth.
According to a National Education Association Report on Discrimination Due to Physical Size, "for fat students, the school experience is one of ongoing prejudice, unnoticed discrimination, and almost constant harassment" and "from nursery school through college, fat students experience ostracism, discouragement, and sometimes violence."
The research supports this claim. Studies consistently show that overweight children are more likely to be teased, bullied and socially marginalized. Their peers frequently reject them, are less willing to socialize or study with them, and admit to feeling ashamed to be seen or associated with them.
Overweight children are also more likely to receive negative ratings from teachers, poor school evaluations and experience lower college acceptance rates. Disturbingly, it has been found that the parents of overweight children provide them with less financial support for college than the parents of average weight children.
It should come as no surprise, then, that being overweight in our society is associated with low self-esteem, anxiety, depression and suicide. Ironically, weight bias also undermines physical health and effective weight management (contrary to the popular belief that stigma motivates individuals to make positive change). Prejudice leads children to avoid recreational physical activity due to the potential for teasing and embarrassment, and may also contribute to unhealthy eating behaviors, such as extreme dieting, binging and eating disorders.
Prejudice and stigmatization contribute to a severely impaired quality of life (QOL) for overweight children. Studies have found that QOL measures among obese children are lower across all domains—not just physical health, but also psychosocial health, emotional functioning, social functioning and school functioning. Researchers in one study were alarmed to find that obese children had QOL scores similar to those of children with cancer.
Weight bias and rigid ideas about body size impact not just overweight children, but all young people. Narrow conceptions of beauty encourage socially hierarchical and cruel behavior that impairs the social and emotional potential of all students.
In addition, societal obsession with thinness and beauty is associated with decreased body satisfaction and self-esteem, contributes to the development of eating disorders, and promotes the relentless and unattainable pursuit of the ideal body. When the National Eating Disorders Association reports that 42% of first to third grade girls want to be thinner, something is clearly awry with our attitudes as a nation toward body size and image.
This edition of The ABCs (The Anti-Bias Classroom) explores the problem of weight bias and discrimination, and suggests actions that educators can take to both foster safer environments for overweight children and to create healthier attitudes about body size among all students.
Contact us for permission to reprint this article. Please reference its title in your request and provide the name and location of your school/organization.
|
