Sizeism: Identifying a Prejudice

Sizeism is perhaps one of the most prevalent, unidentified prejudice for America in 2012. It is not an academic disciple like ethnic or gender studies nor has clear legal definitions for discrimination, yet it is widely present in our culture. In a recent poll on weight prejudice conducted by Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity director, Rebecca Puhl, Ph.D, and Glamour magazine, men and women were asked to choose from pairs of words to assign to photographed women they had never met. The project revealed heavier women were more likely to be labeled “lazy,” “sloppy,” “giving,” and “undisciplined” than skinnier women, while thinner women were more likely described as “conceited,” “superficial,” “bitchy,” “vain,” and “controlling.”

The project reveals how much body size and shape plays into perceptions of identity, character, and even friendliness, and raises questions regarding how much people realize they participate in discrimination based on size. Dr. Ruhl observes, “weight is one of the last acceptable prejudices.” Yet weight is also one of the last unidentified sites of prejudice because people often do not recognize sizeism as discrimination.

Sizeism is complicated because it plays both social and medical roles. When 35.7% of American adults are obese, sensitivity about fat shaming can take the back burner to health concerns regarding Americans’ problems with emotional eating, portion control, and food deserts. Yet there is an important distinction between attitudes about food as health issues and attitudes about body shape as social issues.

Sizeism is slowly becoming recognized as a form of discrimination and prejudice in the media and academy. Zooey Deschanel, Sophia Rossi, and Molly McAleer’s website, HelloGiggles, has featured two articles on sizeism: one on ending fat shaming and one on ending skinny shaming. Jane Pratt and SAY Media's website, xoJane.com, has featured multiple articles like this one that identify fat shaming as intolerance. Ms. Magazine blog has also documented feminism’s future in body acceptance in articles like this one on fat activism and this one on the perpetration of negative attitudes about body image. Substantia Jones of The Adipositivity Project has created a movement for reformed social attitudes about weight, specifically “fat physicality,” by portraying images of overweight women. The Adipositivity Project promotes size acceptance in which “the hope is to widen definitions of physical beauty. Literally.”

The future of sizeism is recognizing it as a prejudice, and hopefully in doing so, attitudes about size will transform social norms of body image, health, and activism.