Posts Tagged ‘fat phobia’

Weighing the Rituals of Body Weight

February 10, 2022 — What is it about body weight and obesity that activates so many people in so many different ways? As people weigh the rituals of body weight, the reactions may be very different, but they are often just as intense as they are diverse. In the Washington Post today, Fortesa Latifi writes with intensity about telling […]

Does It Always Help to Promote Healthy Eating?

January 4, 2022 — “Healthy eating” is the catchphrase of the moment. This moment – in case you’re living under a rock – is January, when many people think about losing the excess pounds they picked up over the holidays. But there’s a problem this year. Diet culture is unhealthy and immoral, says moral philosopher Kate Manne. So talking […]

A Plea from Santa: Stop with Your Health “Concerns”

December 25, 2021 — OK, I admit it. This has been a rough year for me, so the filter is off. I’ve had enough with the so-called health concerns for Santa that keep coming at me from anonymous trolls. Some of you don’t seem to approve of my lifestyle, my body composition, or my enjoyment of milk and cookies. […]

Public Health Policy That Harms More Than Helps

June 24, 2021 — Writing in the Lancet, Janet Treasure and Suman Ambwani have a simple request. Public health policy should stop promoting weight stigma. The request is simple, but it may not be easy. For decades now, public health has often focused on promoting fear of fat, rather than the pursuit of health. The result is health policy […]

The Scramble for Vaccination Meets the O-Word

March 10, 2021 — The scramble for COVID-19 vaccination is clearly messy. For one thing, people who need it most have found it hard to get. And then we have others, with sharp elbows and privilege, who want to be at the front of the line. To claim priority that public health guidelines don’t grant them. So when you […]

Expecting Respect in Healthcare

July 29, 2020 — Presumably, when people choose a career in healthcare, at least one of the motivations is to care for other people. So we might expect that along with caring comes respect in healthcare. But that is not a guarantee, apparently. For some providers, respecting diversity in race, ethnicity, gender, and size seems to be a challenge. […]

Conscientious Fear of Fat

January 23, 2019 — What should we make of links between personality and fat phobia? Or negative attitudes about people with obesity? Angelina Sutin and Antonio Terracciano have new data to suggest personality traits can tell us some things about the social experience of body weight. The associations they found are interesting. But they leave us with questions. For instance, […]