Let´s talk about fatphobia
Fatphobia and anti-fat bias are topics that I am interested in for some time. I was afraid to speak up, because… I am fat. Yes, my darlings! Being fat made me feel small and incompetent. The discrimination I suffered since early childhood made me want to become invisible.
First few questions for you for self-reflection:
• Who do you imagine when you hear the word fat?
• Have you ever heard the word fat in the pejorative sense?
• If I would ask you to draw an attractive person, would they be slim or fat?
• Could you give me the name of the famous female and fat movie star? Hard, isn´t it?
• What about singers, a part of Adele?
Most probably the answers to these questions will prove that fat people, and especially women somehow became invisible. According to the WHO report in Europe, we have over 26% of fat people (they use the term obese and use BMI as an indicator, but we will talk about it in some other article). One-quarter of the European population is fat and it is so challenging to think about fat artists, fat politicians, fat female CEO and in general fat people in position of power and/or position exposed to the public eye.
And why is that? The answer is very simple — because we suffer from fatphobia. It is a…