Fat-Shaming worse than Racism?

Fat-shaming may leave a lasting impact that may be more negative than even racism or sexism, a recent study has shown.

With the glorification of the skinny figure by society, a parallel issue seems to be that of discrimination against overweight people. This is more commonly known as "fat-shaming".


A study by researchers at the Florida State University College of Medicine found that characteristics that are considered "changeable" - such as your weight - and which come under criticism, caused far deeper emotional hurt and feeling of being ostracised than fixed qualities that are discriminated against such as race or sex.

The study of over 6000 participants showed that those who reported having been fat-shamed in the past were also more likely to report lower self-satisfaction, loneliness, and poor health.

The same study found that those participants that had been discriminated against based on their weight were more than twice as likely to become obese.

In contrast, scientists found that discrimination of a sexist or racist nature were less likely to be associated with a decline in health.

"We know how harmful discrimination based race and sex can be, so we were surprised that perceived discrimination based on more malleable characteristics like age and weight had a more pervasive effect on health than discrimination based on these more fixed characteristics," lead author Angelina Sutin told Mail Online.

Weight discrimination did considerably more psychological damage because it was a characteristicthat participants felt they could change themselves.

More research is required to explore the complex reasons behind fat shaming's profound impact, however, researchers hypothesised that it may be that such discrimination made people increasingly vulnerable, particularly if they felt that it was something they could change and was a result of their own doing - thereby becoming not only a judgement of their outward appearance but a judgement of their character too.