Fatphobia: what it is and how it psychologically affects those who suffer from it

What is fatphobia? Fatphobia is the hatred, rejection or violence suffered by fat people for being fat. It causes the individuals whose body size does not fit with what is socially accepted and established receive humiliation, invisibility, abuse, ridicule, pathologization, marginalization and exclusion.

The basis of this discriminatory treatment are prejudices about the habits, customs and health of overweight people.

In this article, María Ramírez, an expert psychologist in EDs (Eating Disorders), analyzes why fatophobia occurs, the types of fatophobia and how it affects people to suffer this type of discrimination.

By Maria Ramirez

fatphobia: why it occurs

to understand What is fatphobia and why does it occur? I’m gonna put an example. Imagine that you are born with brown hair, perhaps it is your case. Years go by, and as you grow older, your hair changes color. The people around you are worried about it.they accompany you to all kinds of specialists to see what happens and the experts recommend that you take measures to return to having brown hair.

You undergo dozens of treatments that damage your hair and make you feel tired, desperate and sad because you can’t change it, which is what they tell you to do. “It’s not good to have it like this”; “it is important to take care of it”; “you can tell by the color that it is not healthy”… And not only everyone seems to have the right to speak, comment and give their opinion, you also receive judgmental looks on the street, insults most of the time and constant rejection.

Sounds a somewhat absurd logic, TRUE? well exactly The same is true in our society with fat people. And I want to tell you what the reason is.

A fatphobic society understands that a fat person is like this “because they want to”, “she does not have enough willpower”, “she has abandoned herself”, “she does not take care of herself” “she is lazy and very lazy” and this needs to be punished or rejected. She doesn’t take responsibility for herself.

This is determined for several reasons:

Lack of information: The contextual and personal factors that influence whether a person is the way they are, fat or thin, are unknown. The formula of calories ingested – calories expended = body X. This current model has been shown not to work. If we all ate the same thing, we would still have different bodies.Salutism: health is the main objective of life and being overweight is indirectly proportional to the state of health. Fatter equals less health. This depends on your eating habits and your physical activity and also on your rest, your stress management, your emotional management, giving yourself permission to share, enjoying what you eat, the space where you do it and with whom. Pesocentrism: weight is conceived –wrongly– as the only and sufficient indicator to determine a person’s health. It does not take into account, nor does it matter, aspects such as mental, emotional, spiritual or social health. Being skinnier does not mean being healthier and science supports it. Just as there are people with high weights and a perfect state of vitality, there are thin and very sick people.diet culture: fear and hatred towards fatness. It’s as if fat people belong “lower” on the social scale. The ideal body is thin and everyone should – crave – have it and do something to achieve it. Whatever the cost. Overweight people carry out much more aggressive risk behaviors to achieve “their ideal weight”. These are normalized and go unnoticed because they are fat. And it is “what they have to do”. Plus, according to diet culture, getting the “perfect body” is quick and easy.

Aesthetic violence exerts a pressure well charged with demand. This type of cruelty affects many factors to determine the imperfections that must be modified or suppressed according to what is established as beautiful or body beauty. One of the factors that is assumed to be the most important is weight, understanding thinness as a condition and characteristic of the ideal female canon.

It is proven that the obsession with a thin body clearly threatens the overall health of a person generating greater life dissatisfaction.

Types of fatphobia

Fatphobia occurs in different levels or typologies:

Intrapersonal: wanting to fit into established beauty standards. fear of gaining weight or maintain the belief that if you don’t lose weight you won’t be healthy, enough and you won’t accept yourself. Interpersonal: jokes or judgments made about fat bodies. Jokes, mockery, memes who judge overweight people based on their choices, habits, actions, or appearance.Institutional: the biased attention of professionals, furniture, inaccessibility to public transport, material and equipment not adapted, stores without standardized sizes and a minimum of these, etc.Ideological: a thin body is better, more valuable, healthier, more active, prettier or more intelligent.

Where is the fatophobia?

Fatphobia is everywhere. It is a structural and systemic discrimination, functioning freely in an automated, normalized way and without being questioned.

society is built on established bases, canons and patterns so the people who do not fit into these norms –in this case the fat ones– are left out. Literally.

People who stop attending events for fear of not fitting in the chairs, without traveling by plane because they do not know if they will be able to sit well or they will have to pay more money in order to do it in a bigger seat –if there is one– without having guarantees of comfort, with Difficulty finding clothes in your size fear of going to the beach, avoiding going to the health system because the solution to your problem will always be to “lose weight”, barriers to looking for work, establishing friendships and affective sexual relations, see mockery of fat people in movies and series, threats due to the risk of illness and death and a lot of other examples to which shame is added due to different experiences, looks and comments that point out that they are “not normal”.

Consequences of fatphobia for those who suffer from it

This oppression that fat people suffer supposes true and serious limitations in the full development of his life that reminds you that having that body is your responsibility. Besides, generates feelings of guilt and shame that can trigger physical, mental, social and spiritual health problems: low self-esteem, negative self-concept, concern about image, academic or work problems, discrimination, isolation, body dissatisfaction or eating disorders.

examples of fatphobia

These are common situations of fatphobia:

You are surprised when a fat person has a partner with a normative body. Believing that an overweight person can only flirt because of their personality. Idealizing past times when you had a thinner body. Saying “what’s up, you’re great” when someone refers to that they have gained weight.Thinking that tight or thin clothing is not for fat people.Giving advice on diets and sports without asking for it with the reason “it’s for your health.”Praising someone’s weight loss without knowing the cause.Commenting to them tell a fat person how brave they are for leading a normal life.Insulting with the term fat or fat.Discriminating an overweight person because others do it too.Sharing memes about gaining weight and making fun of it.Allow comments about the size of your body. Accept the modification of your body if someone asks you “for your own good”. another that is not.Imagine that an overweight person consumes certain foods: more carbohydrates, sugars and fats.Plus size clothing is much more expensive.Use the expression “fat food”.Think that fat people only do physical exercise to lose weight

What to do against fatphobia

As a society we can do a lot to break with all this structural and systemic system. Enter other things to make visible:

BODY DIVERSITY: body diversity is natural. People need to identify with what we see and hear. Incorporate positive references of fat people in the media and diffusion to recognize its existence.ACCEPTANCE AND BODILY RESPECT: break the norms set by the diet culture by working in create a healthy bond with one’s own body from self-care and fostering a good relationship with food. Stop recommending diets and talk about food in a broad, accessible and quality way.INTEGRAL HEALTH: health beyond weight. One has to approach it from a global and integrative perspective at all levels and spheres with social policies and laws that cover the psycho-emotional needs, social and labor inclusion of fat people, moving away from salutism and pesocentrism. FAT ACTIVISM: zero tolerance. “Getting informed” and nurtured with reliable and truthful sources of the reality that overweight people live and suffer who, from their experience and generosity, they share and claim what they need to stop suffering from this oppression to live free and in peace.

Fatphobia is a collective aspect, not an individual one. If you live in a fat body, you have the right to exist, to receive dignified and respectful treatment. You are a person with your body, whatever it is. And point.