We hear plenty about the deleterious health impacts of obesity, which now affects more than a third of Americans. However, a new study examined another and equally disquieting downside of this condition—dehumanization.
Folks struggling with obesity and those overweight but not obese (another third of us) have long suffered the indignities of fat jokes and denigrating terms like “pig out” and “beached whale,” to name a few. These insults permeate our cultural mindset toward those with this issue, reflecting a set of deeply ingrained attitudes we rarely challenge. However, dehumanization goes beyond ridicule, and it can be far more psychologically damaging. Why? Because it assaults one’s essential worth.
The research in question examined whether people believe obese individuals are “less evolved and human” than their thinner counterparts. Sadly, most do. As part of the study, the researchers also obtained BMI readings for the 1,500 or so folks who participated; this was to determine if thinner people are more likely than overweight ones to dehumanize those with obesity. Perhaps to your surprise, even overweight individuals in the study often dehumanized obese folks. However, I don’t find this odd, because many who struggle with weight internalize the negativity they experience from others and the culture at large, essentially turning on themselves.
The bottom line? Many of us view people with obesity as “less human.”
The causes of obesity are multi-faceted and complex, incorporating such factors as genetics, environment, lifestyle choices, socio-economic status, metabolic set point and cultural attitudes (such as those in the study). There is evidence the negative social stigma attached to obesity undermines efforts to address it. Shaming, mocking and ostracizing fail to motivate people to better manage this condition. Au contraire, these verbal sticks-and-stones diminish the self-esteem and can-do mindset required for meeting this health challenge.
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Many who dehumanize the obese believe they lack willpower, assuming they are lazy and indifferent to their physical well-being. The opposite is often true. A large percentage of obese folks struggle to lose weight and, despite repeated failed efforts, keep trying again and again. Many exhibit a level of persistence their naturally thinner counterparts never have to summon; not to mention the mettle they must muster from within themselves to maintain their self-respect when so many seem intent on taking it from them.
So, where does this seemingly innate bias come from? In part, it is a sidebar to our ridiculous standard for physical attractiveness. The stereotypic fashion model comes to mind. Obviously, overweight folks violate this absurd cultural value. Within this whacky standard, lean and hard-bodied is beautiful, while large and Rubenesque is not. Who says? From what mountain top was this commandment handed down?
Another contributor to this dehumanization is the human penchant for denigrating others in an effort to puff up one’s self. Many of us take private satisfaction in playing and winning the comparison game.
This research tells us that, often, folks with obesity get treated more as things than persons and, in many instances, are made to feel less than human. Weightism, if we may call it that, is just as dehumanizing a bias as sexism or racism. In some instances, it has similar effects, messing with employment opportunities, promotions, acceptance in certain social circles and so on.
As is true with all the other -isms that plague us, we will become a better society if we see people, first and foremost, as just that—fellow human beings. All of us struggle, we have failings and endure suffering, so the challenges of this existence, however they emerge in our individual lives, are something we have in common. Meaning it’s a shame so many harbor a disparaging view of large people. And the shame is on us.
