fatphobia
Last updatedDefinition
Fatphobia refers to entrenched cultural prejudices and stigma directed at those who are considered overweight or obese. The standards of weight are largely based on a white American aesthetic that some cultural historians describe as originating in reaction to the enslaved female African body.
The book Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia, by the sociologist Sabrina Strings, argues that it was the enslavement of Africans that led white Europeans — and later, white Americans — away from their celebration of plumpness as a symbol of health and wealth to constructing it as a sign of excess, gluttony, and racial otherness while valorizing thinness as a sign of moral strength, rationality, and individual superiority.
Others have argued that the stigma attached to fatness stems from sexism and classism in addition to racism. For decades, writers have been trying to unpack fat stigma and the cultural causes of obesity, from the 1987 self-help book Fat is a Feminist Issue to more recent works such as Roxane Gay’s Hunger and Tressie McMillan Cottom’s Thick, which examine the role of sexual abuse and race in constructing the fat body. Discussions of body size and weight may focus overly on individual choices rather than systemic factors such as the US’s industrialized food system, heavy advertising of junk food, and unequal access to fresh produce, which often corresponds with other racial disparities in access to resources.
Fatphobia has been a longtime subject of mental health researchers, who developed something called the Fat Phobia Scale in 1993. Some fat acceptance activists dislike the veneer of mental health terminology involved in using the “phobia” suffix, arguing that terms like sizeism, anti-fat bias, or anti-fatness are more accurate. Critics of fat acceptance say it downplays the health risks of obesity and excuses unhealthy individual decision-making.
If necessary and relevant to coverage to use “fatphobia” or a related term, some explanation of the chosen term can be helpful for clarity. Careful coverage will also consider systemic factors such as race, gender, and socioeconomic status that can affect both someone’s weight and the degree of stigma they may face for their weight. It’s also important to understand and acknowledge that anti-fat bias, and coverage that furthers those attitudes, can itself have negative health consequences.
Additional resources
- Fat Phobia and Its Racist Past and Present (NPR)
- In Obesity Research, Fat Phobia Is Always the X Factor (Scientific American)
- Are Medical Students Aware of Their Anti-Obesity Bias? (National Library of Medicine)
Summary
The term “fatphobia” in practice means entrenched cultural prejudices and stigma directed at those who are considered overweight or obese according to a white American aesthetic that some cultural historians describe as originating in reaction to the enslaved female African body. Some fat acceptance activists dislike the veneer of mental health terminology involved in using the “phobia” suffix, arguing that terms like sizeism, anti-fat bias, or anti-fatness are more accurate. If necessary and relevant to coverage to use “fatphobia” or a related term, some explanation of the chosen term can be helpful for clarity. Careful coverage will also consider systemic factors such as race, gender, and socioeconomic status that can affect both someone’s weight and the degree of stigma they may face for their weight. It’s also important to understand and acknowledge that anti-fat bias, and coverage that furthers those attitudes, can have negative health consequences.