Fat Shaming: A Personal Experience
I had went to the theater last weekend to watch the latest Will Ferell movie “Get Hard”. There was this trailer of “Spy” starring Melissa McCarthy where she is shown to be lazy and have a desk job at the CIA. Then, she gets an assignment to be a spy and the movie is about how she screws up things because she is fat.
I was about to laugh it off when I realized how blatantly society discriminates and likes to make fun of fat people. I think most of you have already guessed what I am going to speak about. It is fat-shaming.

After racism and sexism in the last few centuries, this is the new evil in town. A study in 2011 shows that all around the world, discrimination against overweight and obese people have increased even in societies where being overweight was celebrated before. A trip to the Art Institute is sufficient that not long before Western societies considered being fat as beautiful and a sign of wealth.
J.K. Rowling says “‘Fat’ is usually the first insult a girl throws at another girl when she wants to hurt her.” Fat women are more likely to be considered guilty by a jury than a skinny one. Study after study show managers and senior execs really hate fat people. If we do want to talk about income inequality, fat women earn 19000 less than their skinner peers even after adjusting for education and skill. UK government stopped welfare for fat people who do not go to the gym. Parents discriminate as well. They call overweight kids lazy and give less financial assistance to them. Then, I come to the last item on my list: Bullying. 41 % kids show antipathy towards a fat kid just because of their weight, and are almost twice as likely to be bullied than their skinnier buddies. This is an issue very close to my heart as I was that kid who was made fun off and bullied at school. What was my fault ? Even though I was excellent in my studies, I was made fun off and ridiculed. I feel for all those children and adults who are shedding tears right now as I speak because they have been called fat and ugly and lazy, and are being regularly ridiculed by society.

Last weekend, I heard some girls talking about another girl while I was taking the CTA. I only heard “She is so fat and annoying”. I did not do anything that day but I am going to suggest some actions which can make lives of fat people better. Just like people are unconsciously racist, we can fat-shame and not realize that.
- Talking about food in moralistic terms and acting like a food coach whenever a “fat” person is around
- Acting surprised when a fat person is active, and equating fat with health
- Telling stories about a fat person and how he/she is suffering because of their weight
- Mentioning tax dollars “Fat people’s health is my business as long as my tax dollars go to cover their care.”
- Suggesting a fat person to do something to look attractive. “You look good now that you have lost some weight”, “Your last pic was nicer. You seem to have put on some weight now”.
- Last but not the least, calling fat people “fat”. Why do we need to label people based on their BMI ? I don’t like my nick-name to be “fatso”.

