Refreshingly, The Guardian decided to take a stand against against weight stigma last week. They told the world in an editorial there’s too much moralizing about obesity medicines. Their editorial says:

“Ever since GLP-1 agonist drugs emerged, many have argued that using them for weight loss is a sort of cop-out – an answer to a problem that should be addressed through willpower and strength of character. This ranges from articles claiming that ‘weight loss isn’t supposed to be easy,’ to countries such as Germany covering the drugs to treat diabetes but not obesity in general, with a government spokesperson saying that weight loss is ‘a matter of individual responsibility and personal lifestyle.’”

To The Guardian’s epiphany, we say amen.

Now Clean Up Your Act

But as good as it is to recognize the problem, it’s not enough. This is where much of the world sits on the subject of weight bias and obesity stigma. We recognize it is wrong and call out explicit expressions of it. But we persist in expressing it implicitly.

The Guardian advises us in its editorial that “being obese” doesn’t come from a lack of willpower or discipline. As an argument against stigmatizing obesity, this is tepid at best. It’s like directing pity at someone “being an addict” or “psychotic.” In short, it’s implicitly dehumanizing. When people truly reject stigmatized identities for obesity, they let go of stigmatizing labels like “obese.” Instead they speak and write about the disease and the persons living with it separately.

Likewise, the dehumanizing images The Guardian uses to depict obesity belong in the dustbin. Illustrating an article about preventing obesity with a picture of a child eating a ridiculously oversized burger tells us more about editorial bias than it does about preventing obesity. The same applies to disembodied pictures of bellies and butts.

So, kudos to The Guardian for recognizing the problem. We hope they – and all of us – can take the next step and erase the vestiges of implicit bias from words and images we use.

Implicit bias is real and ever present.

Click here for the editorial from The Guardian. For perspective on the harm of implicit weight bias, click here.

A Young John Wesley Preaching, painting by John Russell / WikiArt