I am bone-tired as I watch Bill Mahers segment on fat shaming.
I weigh 340 pounds.
I have worn plus sizes since my freshman year in high school.
Malte Mueller
Yup, I can believe it.
No, we fit shame!…
I should be moreunhealthy so that you could feel better about your fat ass?
Fat shaming doesnt need to end.
It needs to make a comeback.
Some amount of shame is good, Maher insists.
But years of medical, psychological, and sociological research beg to differ.
Bias against fat people isnt on the way outits on the rise.
But anti-fat bias isnt just a matter of belief.
But despite what we like to believe, those thoughts arent tidily contained in our own minds.
They regularly show through in our actions, and those actions have powerful, harmful effects on fat people.
Contrary to what Bill Maher and many other people would like to believe, fat shaming hasnt gone anywhere.
And all of that discrimination and stigma shows up in our bodies.
Paradoxically,patients who experience weight stigmaare2.5 times as likelyto gain significant amounts of weight than those who dont.
As the researchers ofone studyexplain, when it comes to public health, stigma is a known enemy.
Health stigma triggers when people are perceived as being to blame for their health condition.
In other words, weight stigma is a significant driver of poor health outcomes for fat people.
Bill Maher shouldve talked to a fat person.
The research confirms what many of us live every day: Fat shaming hasntgoneanywhere.
Fat shaming isnt motivating us to become thinnerits making us fatter.
It isnt making us healthierits making us sicker.
But the only thing we need saving from is you.
Your Fat Friendwrites anonymously about the social realities of life as a very fat person.
Her work has been translated into 19 languages and covered around the world.
Most recently, Your Fat Friend was a contributor to Roxane Gays Unruly Bodies compilation.
