Items
topic_interest is exactly
fatphobia
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2020-08-01
Weight Bias and COVID-19
It may seem strange to reference a study about obesity and H1N1 but if you are a member of the fat community it makes complete sense to reference medical mistreatment to understand what is happening to fat bodies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Obesity is said to be one of the risk factors with the highest death rate for COVID-19. As a fat asthmatic, I find it hard to believe that my body fat will be the death of me faster than my inflammation prone lungs. What I and others living in large bodies know is that medical professionals carry a traumatic and often dangerous bias against us. We swap war stories in the comment section of social media posts about the multiple times doctors have mistreated, ignored, or nearly killed us due to their often blatant ignorance. This study shows just how that bias has resulted in the death of patients before and how that bias may be the reason more obese patients die from COVID-19 then thinner patients. -
2020-06-07
Diet culture and Fatphobia are rooted in white supremacy
It's not a topic people want to talk about, and most people do not even know the history behind diet culture and fatphobia in the United States. Food is a powerful tool that has been used to convey morality and racial supremacy to Americans for more than a century. As Americans have been in lockdown since March, terms like "quarantine-15" and "the covid-19," have become common phrases to shame weight gain due to anxiety, disrupted eating habits, and food scarcity. The current protests and push for the end of racism has many anti-diet culture dieticians and nutritionists speaking up about not only the ugly history of diet culture and fatphobia but the current situation of fat-shaming people for gaining weight during a global pandemic. This meme shared publicly through an Instagram story is one such attempt by nutrition professionals to call attention to the issue of racism, diet culture, and fatphobia. Contributed by Stephanie Berry, a curatorial intern for Arizona State University, HST580.