Fat bodies have always been invisible in the eyes of disaster planning, and fatphobia only increased with the COVID-19 pandemic. These past two years have shown a pattern where weight is being blamed for the intensity of illness (Pausé, Parker, and Gray, 2021). Thus fatness becomes a scapegoat to COVID, seen as something that drains finite public resources. Much of this has to do with WHO and CDC’s definition of “obesity” as an “underlying medical condition”– which, as we know, “underlying medical conditions” increase the risk of severe COVID-19 illness. Since the pandemic (and especially in the heat of it), you have the media spinning circles around this idea, establishing a fear factor that fat people are more likely to die from COVID-19. You have governments, like the UK, who start promoting weight loss to reduce COVID risk. And the cherry on top? Some medical professionals don’t listen to anyone deemed as “fat.” A woman named Lauren Rowello was refused the necessary antibiotics to cure COVID because the “medication could lead to weight gain.”
We have multiple channels peddling this BS that you can’t be “fat” and fit, that to be “fat” is unhealthy, using scare tactics to lay blame to one group for a pandemic. This adds to a number of studies that have said that people deemed overweight (according to BMI) are statistically more likely to have cardiovascular issues.
But we never hear about studies like this Dutch one from 2017 that found if high BMIs (eye-roll at the archaic measurement) were paired with high levels of physical activity, then there is no associated risk of higher cardiovascular issues. So why don’t we hear about notable studies like this? Well, because researchers consider it to be an ‘obesity paradox.’ And why is obesity a paradox?
“Think about it: A paradox is something contradictory or seemingly absurd. This term [obesity paradox] came about because it was considered absurd that fat people could be healthy,” stated Jeffrey Hunger (a social psychology professor).
That’s the part we’re trying to wrap our heads around; it’s not just social media but medical professionals and governments who are peddling these stereotypes. A study that interviewed medical professionals found that 24% of them stated to be uncomfortable with larger bodies and 18% said they felt disgusted by people with high BMIs. Like, what? Just like Lauren Rowello, this leads to destructive or missed diagnoses, which will lead to actual health issues.
These stereotypes, misinformations, and phobias lead to one thing– that people can’t have meaning unless they conform. But the issue with that is, there doesn’t seem to be a “healthy” weight in today’s society, just an unhealthy one. You hear people complain that either someone is too thin, or someone only looks good because they’re standing in a particular light, or they’re fat.
Why do we keep doing this to ourselves? To our society? Especially when the majority of US adults are over a size 16? Well, firstly, the diet industry was worth about $192.2 billion in 2019– so that’s one thing. And weight loss pharmaceuticals account for 1.7 billion of that.
Second, we could spend hours talking about the racist origins of fatphobia, but I think this TedTalk with Athena Nair or NPR explains it best. Then there’s also the whole oxymoron of body positivity going on in social media channels like Tiktok right now (explain to me again how you can talk about body positivity and rapid weight loss in the same breath?).
So where does this leave us? Well, first and foremost you can try and just be more conscious in how you discuss certain topics and the expectations that you have. While of course not everyone is consciously acting on their fatphobia, much of the way society is built allows it to go unchecked. So maybe ask yourself why you think about something a certain way, educate yourself on the topic at hand, and don’t get swept under the pandemic panic.
