This shows you as heavy as I was. How loud are you? About 280. 18 plus percent of our children right now are obese.
If you go with the flow in America today, you will end up overweight or obese, as two-thirds of Americans do. I don't want to be fat for the rest of my life. I've got diabetes.
Sleep apnea. High blood pressure. I get dizzy when I get up.
Everything's hurting now. We don't now take this as a really serious, urgent national priority. We are, all of us individually and as a nation, going to pay a really serious price. Hello, Rudy. Good, how are you?
I'm Dan. Hi, Dan. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Now, Rini, can you give me some individual examples of stigma you've experienced?
Yes. For instance, yesterday I was taking the bus. There was this skinny...
person sitting in the bus, and I wanted to sit next to her. She looked at me like, oh my God, this huge person is going to sit next to me. I could feel the vibes. And the minute I sat down, I was uncomfortable. I went in for an interview.
It's actually for an ice cream salesperson. And he said, to be honest with you, I really think that you're going to eat the profits. I really think that you're going to make the company lose money.
And I'm like, you're joking, right? And he goes, no, I'm dead serious. People that I don't even know have walked up to me and taken items out of my shopping cart when I'm at the store and say, you don't need that. If we define the problem of obesity more broadly, it's not just a problem of health.
It's a problem of society. And actually what I mean by that is, it's a problem of how society treats people who are obese. The assumption is that there's something wrong or defective with the people who are overweight, and they deserve to get this ridicule heaped upon them.
We tend to perceive obesity as simply an issue of personal responsibility, and many people do not understand that this is a complex, multifaceted condition. People who suffer with this disease, which is not their fault, are stigmatized as if it were. There is strong, pervasive, and persistent bias against people who are overweight. These are the very people who could be a doctor that would save your life.
that teaches your children. It could be somebody that makes some important discovery that could completely change the way humans lead their lives. They're every bit as talented. They're every bit as sincere.
They're every bit as loving. They have all the qualities that you have. They just have more weight.
One of the things that is so striking about weight stigma is just how socially acceptable it is and how people feel completely justified in making negative comments, derogatory remarks, even... exerting physical aggression towards people who are living with obesity. Weight bias is right up there with gender and race bias and its strength. Stigma takes many different forms. Negative derogatory remarks, physical aggression, cyberbullying, something called relational victimization, which is being ignored or excluded.
People just, they're rude, they say things. She said, wow, you're really heavy. Why am I out in public?
Fat people are disgusting. If you're fat, you should go die. Blatantly coming out and saying you're so fat right to your face. To your face? Yeah.
Actually, it was fat bitch. If we were to replace the word obese with a word describing an ethnic minority or a different religion, there would be public outcry and outrage. But with obesity, we see this everywhere.
I think that being obese, people do tend to think that they can say nasty things or comments that they wouldn't say to someone. I think we're one of the last people that it's okay to be prejudiced against, yeah, most definitely. I mean, it's gotten to the point where I'm prejudiced against myself.
I think in their minds, sometimes they think they might be doing you some good to actually point it out, but hello, we live with it every day. We don't need it pointed out like that. Some people believe if you stigmatize overweight people, it will motivate them to lose weight, motivate them to take action. But it seems to do exactly the opposite.
It disheartens people, demoralizes them, they give up, and they're more likely to eat even more. More portion of Sofia. I am so struck by the unfairness of how people assume that you're a certain way.
Like what? Like you have no self-control. We gotta control.
Poor. Uneducated. Ignorant.
Dirty. Unkept. Oh, his house must be a wreck.
You know, he's probably got pizza boxes everywhere. Continually eating, and that's all they care about, and they're lazy. Lazy.
Lazy. Lazy. Good for nothing. Our research involves having people complete self-report surveys where they're asked very straightforward questions about how they feel about obese individuals.
It's concerning to see how consistent these attitudes are expressed by multiple different groups of individuals in the population. There really is no place in society where an obese individual can feel safe and protected from bias. It's your friends, your family, society, random people you meet out on the street, co-workers, it's everybody around you. It's coming from all sides.
I was an eyesore to my father. I was put in a certain seat in the car because I wasn't supposed to wear down the tires and I wasn't supposed to sit in the front seat because I was an eyesore to him and he didn't want people to see me. And even though I'm his own child, you know, that's hard.
My grandmother looked at me and she said, well, you're too big to fit into any of these dresses. It hurt my feelings a lot, actually. My father always used to say to me, when I'd buy new clothes, he'd always say, it's nice to see they're putting some style in the larger sizes.
Family members, who often I think are concerned and want to help loved ones who are struggling with their weight, can end up saying things that are very critical and judgmental. And again, that has a devastating impact on a person's self-esteem. Whenever I go to a new doctor, I get the look and the lecture, and I don't feel like I'm being heard at all.
My doctors would rather just get me in and out because they didn't know how to deal with it. The doctor I went to in that one situation, I'd be right away she just said, oh no I can't, I can't, I can't, and that's exact words she said, I can't, I can't, I can't, I'm like... They made me feel so belittled that I just wanted to get out of there and just say, forget it, I'll just go home and forget about this. And so I got overlooked on a lot of health issues. We have just outrageous comments being made from providers to patients who are not only devastated by the comments that are being made, but are then avoiding health care because of those negative experiences.
There was one particular job that I was applying for as a, it was like a housekeeper, but I didn't get the job. I really felt it was because of my weight. I don't think they thought I could carry my weight. It's made finding a job very difficult.
As soon as you're seen and you're fat, let's believe you're going to be looked over. I may have the skill set or whatever, but I don't have the polished image everyone's looking for. I used to be a DJ.
I wouldn't get the prime gigs, especially the personal appearances, because of my weight. This stigma associated with obesity results in serious economic hardships. When an overweight or obese individual is discriminated because of their weight, they do not have a legal outlet. They do not have an avenue for successful recourse.
There are no federal laws that prohibit weight-based discrimination. Media portrayals of obese individuals in our society are extremely negative. They portrayed obese individuals as headless. They showed them from unflattering angles with inappropriately fitting clothing, engaging in unhealthy eating behaviors and sedentary activity.
These have an impact on attitudes regardless of what the written content of the news is. There are very strict ideals for female physical attractiveness in our culture and if women deviate from those even a small amount they are vulnerable to stigma whereas for men those ideals are not quite as strict. The key word is, oh you have such a beautiful face.
I'll be like, man what happened to the rest of me? We go through that all the time. I think it's really hard for girls because you have the image of what you're supposed to look like and if you don't meet that standards the media makes it seem like you can't be happy. Two of my brothers are also overweight as well but they haven't had near the same struggles that I have being a woman. I saw firsthand the difference that we were treated.
Women tend to be more vulnerable to weight bias at lower levels of overweight. No matter how well I take care of myself and my looks and my grooming and it's just not fashionable. It's not in to be obese.
What about relationships with the opposite sex? I don't have any. Men approach my friends, not me. I don't know if it's more them or if it's more me not feeling like I'm good enough yet to settle down with somebody because I don't like the way that I look.
I'm sorry, I just don't. But he just... I told me you're just too fat and I can't be seen with you because how am I gonna talk to my family and tell them and bring you around you know I want to find love I might be big but I want love you know everybody had that natural human urge for love and I it's like I feel that you can't I'm not gonna get that and that's what scares me the most We can't ignore just how debilitating stigma is on the everyday functioning of individuals who are affected by obesity.
Those who are teased or victimized about their weight are much more likely to be at risk for depression and anxiety, low self-esteem. Even suicidal thoughts and behaviors take tremendous courage to sometimes even get through the day. I don't feel invisible.
I feel like I'm something that just shouldn't be there. Something that they don't want to look at, they don't want to be around. Sometimes I wish I was invisible.
And that's why I would always buy clothes that would cover me up, because I didn't want anybody to really see who I was. I wish I could cover my face, because I didn't want to face society. I instantly look at someone and start doing their dialogue in my head. You know, no matter how many friends I had or... how good I was at what I was doing or how successful I was.
I always felt that I wasn't successful enough or had enough friends or people really liked me because I was overweight. I learned early on that what you look like is going to hurt people, so don't go out and let them see you. I hated myself more than people hated me. Having people avoid you makes you kind of a hermit. Society is telling you that, you know, you're ugly.
Nobody wants to be your friend. We're made to feel like we're worthless. It's very scary. I've thought of taking pills several times. I have in the past thought about, I just don't want to be here because what's the purpose?
It's not an easy thing, taking so much room. Fighting obesity does not mean fighting people who are affected by obesity. We need to provide support to those individuals to help them become healthier rather than instill shame and stigma. It's very important that people in all sectors of society, including the medical profession, try to address this issue of weight bias so we can attack the problem of obesity but not attack the people who have it.
As someone who has struggled with obesity, what would you say to people who judge people for their obesity? I would tell people that obese people have a sensitivity that by hurting them more, by judging them and letting that person know that you don't approve of their weight, It is really affecting their lives, and it should stop. You cannot pick on us or any other kind of people with what you perceive as a problem. To get judged. just on a glance is just plain wrong.
Treat me just the way you would want to be treated. What would it make you feel like if you were ostracized before I ever had a chance to meet you and who you really are inside? How would you feel if I just took the time out of my day to make you feel less than just because you have an issue that you might not be able to control?