Fatphobia, another form of discrimination

Carolina Gomez and Laura Poy

Newspaper La Jornada
Sunday, March 27, 2022, p. 6

Ameyalli Paredes is a cheerful, hard-working young woman who enjoys her profession: gastronomy. However, that emotion is diluted when she narrates how others perceive her, because before seeing her as a person, they notice that I am fat.

She avoids buying clothes in fashion stores and getting on public transport, she feels evaluated when eating in public, she hates being given advice on diet and exercise without asking for it, she has been rejected for jobs because of her appearance and it hurts her to be told fat as an insult.

At 25 years old, with grade three obesity, he experiences firsthand the discrimination called fatphobia, an expression that stigmatizes people for the simple fact of having extra kilos. The National Survey on Discrimination (Enadis) 2017 indicates that more than half of the population over 18 years of age has been discriminated against because of their appearance, which includes weight.

In Mexico City, the Survey on Discrimination (EDIS) of the same year indicates that the first cause of discrimination is being overweight, with 10.7 percent. More than a thousand specialists in health and obesity launched a statement with 10 recommendations to understand obesity as a chronic, complex and multifactorial disease. In addition, they demand that people with obesity not be stigmatized.

In a country where 75 percent of adults are overweight or obese, nutritionists who raise awareness on social networks against fatphobia warn that language that makes fun of large complexions should be eliminated, such as: I’m fat, she went like fat on the slide and what pissed you off?, phrases that, although they seem funny, send the message that it is valid to make fun of fat bodies.

Ameyalli tells the day that, although it is more expensive, he prefers to take taxis instead of getting into a pesero or, even worse, a combi, because I get in the way of others when I have to stand or it is difficult to fit in the small spaces of a combi.

She doesn’t have many clothes, because she prefers to avoid abuse in the stores: that moment when they sweep her with their eyes when asking if there is a size, that they immediately tell her that there are no clothes in her size or they send her directly to the extra sizes, where there are no pretty clothes. Choose to shop online with larger sizes and more variety. She is also annoyed that big clothes are more expensive.

female victims

Specialists warn that women are the main victims of fatphobia, because in our society it is more tolerated that men have extra kilos. The National Survey of Health and Nutrition (Ensanut) 2018 highlights that 76.8 percent of women over 20 years of age in Mexico suffer from obesity or overweight.

Carlos Contreras, professor-researcher at the Department of Sociology at UAM Iztapalapa, points out that there incomprehension of obesity: “It is a chronic condition that triggers an inflammation process; A structural and metabolic change occurs, which means that people cannot easily lose weight, because the functioning of the body has already changed.

“It is wrong to think of it as something minor, both for those who suffer from it and for those who observe it. We would hardly make fun of someone with cancer or high blood pressure, but we do with people who are overweight or obese.

Mistakenly, obesity is not seen as a disease, but as a lack of will and overeating, and puts the responsibility of healing itself on the people who experience it. It’s much more complexand warned not to forget that we live in an obesogenic environment.

Discrimination reproduces itself to the extent that people believe what others say based on a stereotype. Thus, the chubby people could think that it is indeed their fault, that they lack willpower, that society does not have to do anything and that only they should solve the problem, and that is false..

In the forum Gordofobia, of the Council to Prevent and Eliminate Discrimination of Mexico City (Copred), Izchel Cosío, researcher of critical gender studies, points out that this discrimination It is not only a cultural issue, but also a structural one, because it is deeply rooted in the structures that overlap from a health discourse, but it also has to do with beauty and morality..

Alejandra Oyosa, a feminist and anti-fat-phobia activist, indicates that this is a brutal stigma and it is also normalized; people take for granted that these discriminatory practices towards fat people are normal and justified and they are framed in the freedom to give an opinion about the body of others.

Paulina Magaña, food health coordinator at El Poder del Consumidor, highlights that the stigmatization of those who live with obesity has social effects, but also in public policies, because social beliefs, attitudes and even the language we use prevail. We tend to blame obese people and hold them responsible without considering the food environment. He added that for a long time the State failed to assume that dealing with obesity and overweight It’s up to all of us, not just those who live with this condition.