In the same week that Victoria Secret model Candice Swanepoel is criticized for being to thin, then university of Arizona has released a study showing that "fat prejudice" is on the rise. This prejudice is not confined to North America however, where most studies have been done, but has spread to areas where a women's curves have been associated with youth, fertility and beauty in the past (think Latin American and African cultures).
The North American fear of fat and fat prejudice is nothing new however. A 2006 study documented the American public views on fat when a report showed that a majority would rather be blind or dead then obese. Since approximately 1 in 10 of the world population is classified as obese, this is a large amount of people.
It is interesting that rather than becoming more broad in our definition of beauty, it seems that the focus is becoming even more narrow. More concerning is the fact that as North American culture spreads, so does their concept of what is beautiful. If we consider the images and messages that we are inundated with on a daily basis, it is not unreasonable to think that there could be many people who are experiencing not only the effects of what could be called "fatism" or "sizism" but also many feelings of self-loathing...
and with 1 in 10 being classified as obese and approximately an additional 4 in 10 being classified as overweight, that's a lot of discrimination.
So what does this mean for you and me? Just to be a conscious consumer of media and what you are being told. Make those choices based on what fits for you, not what you're told fits or told what should fit. Because the next person that gets judged could be you.
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