In academic news:
The University of Rochester offers cards to students at medical appointments that state “please don’t weigh me” if they are inclined against it. The University Health Service division touted the cards… as an effort to combat “weight stigma.”
Says the website of the University Heath Service:
Weight stigma is the discrimination of someone based on their weight or body size, and it has very harmful effects on folks emotionally and physically.
Much like fatness, in fact.
Weight stigma appears in many places in our society, including in relationships with family and friends, the workplace, social media, television and movies, retail stores, athletics…
Weight stigma in athletics. I’d better write that one down. The site also stresses the importance of “body positivity,” which is,
The idea of unconditional self-love, focusing on the goal of having a positive body image.
Well, losing some of that excess weight would probably help on that front. Less crippling self-consciousness. Less sweating and wheezing, too. We also learn that “weight stigma” is perpetuated by language. Not, say, by being massively fat and the problems that so often follow from that.
At which point, sharp-eyed readers will notice that the direction of all this effort is away from the actual problem.
The “don’t weigh me” cards are a project of More-Love.org, which argues: “Because we live in a fatphobic society, being weighed and talking about weight causes feelings of stress and shame for many people.”
Well, again, obesity will do that. Best, then, to keep oneself in some reasonable proportion. Rather than faffing about with five-dollar bits of cardboard that make it clear just how neurotic you’ve become. As a result of being fat.
Consider this an open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
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