Weighing In Healthy at Any Size? As the number of obese and children grows, so does size bias.

BY CAMILLE JACKSON illustration by george bates

Celebrities like singer Jennifer result of a lack of self-control and will- with my body image. Even when I got Hudson and actress Kirstie Alley parade power, says Rebecca Puhl, a psychol- to high school, after football practice their drastic in commer- ogist and coordinator at Yale’s Rudd I would go straight home and shower, cials and magazine articles. Popular TV Center for Food Policy and . rather than go to the locker room.” He shows like The Biggest Loser promote “There are prevailing public percep- is now in a fitness program at a local gym fast, extreme weight loss. And fat jokes tions about the causes of obesity, like but says he “still has the same issues.” cut across race, ethnicity and gender the widespread belief that obesity is Megan Hansen, the founder of a lines to provide easy laughs for comedi- simply an issue of laziness,” Puhl says. healthy-lifestyle support group in ans at the expense of the heavyset. “This perception drastically oversim- North Carolina, also isolated herself Society is more fatphobic than ever plifies the complex causes—societal in high school because of her weight: before, with subtle and overt messages and biological—of obesity.” “When you’re fat you walk with your all around us that not only is fat bad, head down,” she says. “You go from but so are fat people. It’s easy for over- Bullies Leave Scars class to class not wanting anybody to weight children to feel singled out and Lamar Richardson (not his real name), see you.” Megan says she was careful shamed about their body size, at home 25, of Greenville, N.C., remembers not to stand next to cheerleaders, for and at school. Experts say children can being humiliated in his sixth-grade fear of being compared with them. easily interpret even the well-inten- physical education class when the Lavinia Rodriguez, a clinical psy- tioned “war on ,” coach jokingly suggested he wear a chologist in Land O’ Lakes, Fla., who meant to promote health, to mean a training bra. Richardson can still hear treats eating disorders and weight war on their bodies and on them. the laughter of his classmates. issues, says most of the size-discrim- “The number of obese kids has “It affected me for a very long time,” ination stories she’s heard have come increased, so negativity has increased,” says Richardson. “I was not comfortable from adult patients. “Younger kids says Reginald Washington, the chief medi- don’t want to talk about that,” she says. cal officer at Rocky Mountain Hospital for “They don’t bring it up. The things they Children and a leader in the fight against Am I biased about size? talk about suggest [size bullying], but childhood obesity. “It is true that if you + Do I think obesity shows a lack they don’t state it overtly.” Richardson are obese you are discriminated against of willpower? agrees: “I didn’t talk to anybody about in schools and the workplace, and even in + Do I think that everyone wants to it,” he says. “As a guy you’re taught not be thin? your home. Physical education teachers + Are all the heroines in our class to really share your feelings like that. see them as lazy and are harder on them stories slender? You just suck it up.” in class. Studies have shown this.” + Would I be willing to cast a heavy Rodriguez points out that girls are Size-based stigma stems in large student as the lead in the class play? more likely to talk about their body- part from the myth that being fat is a image issues and self-esteem than boys.

spring 2012 37 “Girls tend to remember name-calling In the Portfolio Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign, which and boys remember getting beat up,” Improving Health at Every Size began in February 2010, do not help mat- For educators, working with overweight she says. and obese children can present a bal- ters. NAAFA contends that the campaign, ancing act between showing accep- intended to “solve the problem of obesity Bias in Schools tance and guiding them to health- within a generation,” should focus on the Unfortunately, educators often pro- ier lifestyles. Re-framing the issue overall health of children rather than on mote the negative stereotypes over- as a matter of health—rather than body size alone. weight—can help. Here’s how. weight students face. Studies show “Low body weight does not equal teachers tend to call on lean children Body Image and Health: Cultural health, high body weight does not equal over obese students. Some are less Norms disease,” Howell said. Studies indicate many Hispanic and likely to give a favorable grade to over- African Americans—especially girls Rocky Mountain Hospital’s weight kids, and they generally per- and women—are not as cursed with Washington disagrees. He points out ceive these children to be less success- the stigma of being seen as overweight. that obese and overweight children are ful. According to the Obesity Action While notions of body image among more likely to have high blood pressure, Coalition, teachers often view over- minority youth may be less warped, diabetes, bone issues and other sub- many pay a price in terms of health. weight students as untidy and more Read about it. stantial problems. And obesity-related emotional, among other problems. tolerance.org/weighing-in health problems cost states billions of Obese students are also less likely to dollars each year. However, Washington be accepted to college, despite having does agree with NAAFA that size dis- equivalent application rates and aca- Georgia’s Department of Education. crimination is increasing, and says that demic achievement. Rather, “some kids will learn they are it is up to adults to be self-reflective State efforts regarding size bias in not in the healthy zone. It just means about their personal prejudice against schools have thus far focused on reduc- they need to make positive changes.” overweight people. ing weight, not reducing prejudice. For Teachers will receive the students’ “Teachers have to look within them- instance, in 2003 Arkansas became the data in aggregate form, she says, so that selves to ask, ‘Am I a part of this prob- first state to record students’ body mass schools can customize their curriculum, lem?,’” he says. index (BMI) and send the results home for example by starting a running club. in a report card. However, federal agen- What Schools Can Do cies, including the Centers for Disease Lobbying for Protection Schools can avoid perpetuating size- Control and Prevention, have not Children should be legally protected based stigma by de-emphasizing found enough evidence to recommend from size-based teasing and harass- weight and BMI numbers and focus- such programs as an effective strategy ment in school, says the National ing on overall health for all children. against childhood obesity. Association to Advance Fat Acceptance Psychologist Rodriguez says atten- The Arkansas program had no effect (NAAFA). The organization has called tion needs to be paid to behaviors, not on obesity levels, according to a 2010 for changes in the proposed Safe to numbers. report by the state’s Center for Health Schools Improvement Act to add “Don’t focus on one child as the one Improvement. And experts disparaged weight, height and physical appearance who has to do something different,” she Arkansas’s program coverage: “They as protected categories, alongside race, said. “It should be a family or school didn’t go the next step to give parents tools religion and sexual orientation. project. Parents are so focused on size, on how to design better meals and find At a news conference last August in the weight, the number, they look at afterschool activities,” says Washington Washington, D.C., Peggy Howell, the the symptom and just want to make of the Rocky Mountain Hospital. organization’s public relations director, the child lose weight.” Yet Pennsylvania, New York, unveiled NAAFA’s online child advo- Rebecca Puhl at Yale’s Rudd Center Massachusetts and other states soon cacy toolkit, a 50-page booklet for par- says that teachers must be more aware of followed with similar BMI-measuring ents and educators about size diversity. their own attitudes toward overweight programs. Georgia started a statewide “Discrimination continues to increase and obese children. Those attitudes affect school fitness program, the Georgia against people of all ages,” Howell told a the overweight children directly and can Student Health and Physical Education room full of reporters. One in six chil- indirectly promote bullying by other stu- initiative, which seems to approach dren are bullied, she said, and of those, dents. “Essentially, weight bias is rarely the issue in a more constructive way. 85 percent are bullied for their size or challenged, and often ignored,” she says. In Georgia, kids are not labeled by physical appearance. And Howell argues “As a result many youth who are strug- their weight, says Therese McGuire of that programs such as first lady Michelle gling with their weight are vulnerable.”

38 Teaching Tolerance