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The (not so) ancient history of weight stigma
And what you can do to change the future.
Until at least the 1990s, societies around the world such as in American Samoa, Puerto Rico, and Tanzania, were considered “fat positive.” There, larger bodies represented success, generosity, fertility, wealth, and beauty. But in the last three decades, with globalization and more exposure to Western culture, those same societies have begun to stigmatize larger bodies. Studies show that today, people commonly associate obesity with undesirability, laziness, and lack of self-control. And these perceptions have real world consequences –obesity is associated with a significant wage gap, fewer educational and career opportunities, and outright bullying in many countries. Weight stigma has been called the “last socially acceptable form of bias,” and no federal laws exist to protect against weight discrimination in the United States. But weight bias is not only a modern phenomenon. It turns out that body size and morality have a long, intertwined history.
Some examples of the tie between weight and morality have survived from ancient Greece and Rome. In 69 AD, the Roman emperor Vitellius was assassinated by a mob yelling cries of “fat belly” and “glutton,” among other insults. The ancient Greek text, The Philogelos, one of the world’s oldest surviving collection of jokes, contains negative remarks about drunkards, fools, and gluttons. And the infamous, fiddling Roman emperor Nero was known for his large body and gluttony, which he evidently asked artists to exaggerate in their portrayals of him.
Today, weight bias has been shown to compound with other forms of bias and discrimination around race, gender, and class, further deepening inequities and negatively impacting the mental and physical health of some of society’s most marginalized groups. Thanks to a combination of art, religion, and pseudoscientific research, many societies are ruled by the idea that equates largeness with immorality. But moral associations with body size have constantly evolved – so what can you do to change the future?
When weight bias has become so deeply embedded and accepted in culture beliefs, acknowledging one’s own internalized weight bias can be a powerful first step to changing the conversation. You can also intervene when someone makes a joke about fat people, help a loved one advocate for themselves at the doctor, and continue to demand change from elected officials and workplace representatives.
To learn more about the not-so-ancient history of weight bias, watch the video above.