FAT DISCRIMINATION MASKS ITSELF AS HEALTHISM

We've all seen it and heard it. Fat people are at the receiving end of degrading jokes. They are stereotyped as lazy, untrustworthy and out of control. They are ranked as less qualified at their places of employment and receive lower starting salaries. This population experiences incessant discrimination. And just like all the other -isms, healthism must be critically examined.

So what is healthism? Healthism is a term used to describe the idea that one's health is entirely their responsibility and that failing to take "proper care" of one's body is a moral failure.

The interweaving of obesity and discrimination has effects not just on those who are obese but on every body size. Individuals in smaller bodies observe the way society demonizes fat people and in response internalize a fear of fatness themselves. Thinness has been conflated with "good" and fatness has been conflated with "bad." When we conflate people's body size with their individual value and worth, that is the harmful impact of healthism.

Much of the emotions that we experience around health are fueled by the ingrained societal messages that tell us we are better, more responsible humans if we eat a certain way, look a certain way and exercise a certain way. However, thinking about health as an individual choice encouraged by a fear of moral failure ignores the impacts poverty, environment, ableism and elitism have on the ability to live up to a defined set of health behaviors. For example, financial privilege has a tremendous impact on one's ability to access encouraged behaviors - attending hot yoga and buying strictly organic are health behaviors that few can access.

Healthism is harmful because it falsely encourages many of us to believe that we have complete power and control over what happens to our bodies. With so many things out of our control such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and the fragile state of our democracy, many of us crave moments when we can feel in control. Believing that we have complete control over our bodies is a coping mechanism when feeling powerless over the outcomes of our health.

Health is largely influenced by various implicit and indirect factors. There are many social forces that encourage undesirable health behavior, such as juggling two (or three) jobs in order to pay for a house mortgage, consuming foods that lack nutrients but happen to be the only affordable option, or being held to unsustainable expectations and pressures at work.

These are large issues that demand a coordinated, global shift in our responses and interventions to health and well-being. Until we recognize that health is not an individual responsibility and that health does not equal morality, we will continue to have ineffective solutions to obesity and chronic health conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.

So what can be done to rework the internalized messages of healthism that have been ingrained in our minds and in our actions?

* We must check our judgment before assuming a fat person's health behaviors.

* We must speak up when we hear fatphobic comments from our partners, our families or our coworkers.

* We must recognize that all humans deserve love, respect and value regardless of their health status.

* We must critically analyze the body representations in the mass media and social media.

* We must take action to make our government, employers and the health insurance industry accountable for the ways in which they perpetuate health inequality.

Health is a combination of social, political, economic and environmental factors. In order to truly encourage health and longevity, we must abandon the idea that health is a problem of the individual and must hold our own biases and our government institutions accountable.