December 1, 2022 — The Whale is premiering next week in theaters everywhere, after a New York premiere this week and a tour of film festivals that has many people suggesting Brendan Fraser will win an Oscar for his performance in the film. But why should we care? In a word, this film is already prompting discomfort with a […]
November 23, 2022 — Whether or not it’s by intention, when and if parents try to talk with their children about body weight, it comes across as finger wagging. In fact, research published earlier this year tells us many youth never want their parents to talk about their weight – especially not their fathers. Parents might want to offer […]
November 9, 2022 — Physiognomy – a textbook example of pseudoscience – came from ancient Greeks and fell into disrepute during the Middle Ages. This is the practice of judging a person’s character by their physical appearance. It happens, of course. But we’re more than surprised to find a medical journal – Sage Open Medicine – giving it credence. […]
October 28, 2022 — Medical ethicist Arthur Caplan is struggling. On one hand, he knows shaming people with obesity is clearly wrong. But while he rejects outright shame for people with obesity, he’s struggling with with the idea of acceptance. He decided to talk about this because he was watching the Emmy Awards and Lizzo came on. “For those […]
October 8, 2022 — Weight loss is a complicated subject these days. For good reasons, many people hesitate to dwell on it. Moral panic about fatness, weight bias and stigma, and concerns about eating disorders have made this subject controversial at times. So as we look at the meeting at the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics that starts today […]
October 5, 2022 — Toxic beauty standards are costly – both in terms of health and wealth. This message resonates from a new report funded by the Dove Beauty Bar brand and published jointly with the STRIPED project at the Harvard School of Public Health. This report details the cost of unrealistic beauty standards exploited by a beauty industry […]
August 16, 2022 — An article of faith in the fat acceptance community is the idea that weight stigma causes more harm than obesity itself. In the extreme, there’s a belief that we should do away will any reference to obesity. People hold this belief because they think the health harm ascribed to obesity actually comes from weight stigma. […]
August 15, 2022 — Obesity is a slow burn. It erodes a person’s health over time, causing other diseases and an earlier death. In contrast, the harm of weight bias and stigma is immediate. First, there is the everyday onslaught of dehumanizing treatment one receives. A constant barrage of insults and slights creates stress that chips away at both […]
August 13, 2022 — Two new studies in Pediatric Obesity point to a common theme. It seems that healthcare providers, parents, and youth all, for various reasons, may be avoiding the subject of adolescent obesity. It is a difficult subject for all three groups – largely because of concerns about emotional well-being. Whether parents and youth talk about or […]
August 11, 2022 — Weight bias in healthcare is getting in the way of meeting the primary mission of healthcare providers – improving the health of people seeking care. In fact, for people with severe obesity, there’s good reason to believe that weight bias in healthcare does more immediate harm that obesity itself. A brilliant new narrative synthesis in […]
