Fat Shaming: From Dancing with the Stars to College Campuses
Gabrielle Fanelli, Staff Writer
Photo courtesy of pixabay.com
Fat shaming.
It’s a term that many openly use on social media but it is no joke to some. BEDA says, “An act of bullying, singling out, discriminating, or making fun of a fat person. The shaming may be performed under the guise of helping the person who is overweight/obese realize they need to lose weight or they will die, become ill, and/or never succeed in life or relationships.”
Where do we see fat-shaming? Recently, candidate Donald Trump has openly been accused of fat-shaming a number of women including Rosie O’Donnell, Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Lopez, and former Miss Universe, Alicia Machado.
Trump addressed Machado as “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeper” because she was Latina. Recently at the presidential debate, he said cyber threats to national security might well be conducted by “somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds,” which can easily create negative ideas about over weight people.
Amber rose says she felt fat shamed by Judge Julianne Hughes on Dancing with the Stars. “You know, all the beautiful professional dancers that are on ‘Dancing With the Stars,’ I mean, they dress very sexy and they do the splits and they grind up on these guys and they look absolutely stunning and get a standing ovation,” Rose said. “And me, and my body . . . made her uncomfortable.”
Julianne Hughes verbally said during this performance she felt uncomfortable. Was this because of the provocative dance moves or was she really suggesting she was uncomfortable because of Rose’s curves?
In a study done by Authority Nurtrition of 93 women, exposure to weight stigmatizing information made overweight women, but not normal weight women, eat more calories and feel less in control of their eating.
In another study, this time in 73 overweight women, those who watched a stigmatizing video ate three times as many calories (302 vs 89) afterwards compared to women who watched a non-stigmatizing video.
If fat shaming is happening with public figures is it possible that it is seen in universities?
Geoffrey Miller, a psychology professor, has been censured by the University of New Mexico, two months after he sent out a fat shaming twitter post that caused an angry Internet uproar. “Dear obese Ph.D. applicants: if you didn’t have the willpower to stop eating carbs, you won’t have the willpower to do a dissertation #truth.”
Fat shaming is all over in public figures and even in universities. Lets choose to end it and not partake in it.
