‘Fattitude’ tells the plight of heavy-body people

By Sheldon F. Merel

ENCINITAS, California –I recently watched the documentary film Fattitude at the ArcLight Theatre in La Jolla. The film is by Lindsey Averill and Viridiana Lieberman, and sponsored by the Women’s Museum in San Diego. It is a graphic portrayal how fat people are ridiculed in our society. It exposes how pop culture fosters fat prejudice, and hopes to inspire people to speak out against “Fat Shaming.”

Here are some of the salient facts in the film:
–Fat people are paid $ 1.25 less and hour than their thin counterparts.
–1 in 3 doctors associates fat bodies with hostility, dishonesty  and poor hygiene.
–72 % of representations of fat people in the news are demoralizing .
–More U.S. women wear a size 16 than women who wear sizes: 9,2, and 4 combined.
–43% of fat people report they have experienced weight bias from employers.
–92% of adolescents report witnessing bullying and teasing of their heavier peers.
–Only one state, Michigan, legally prohibits discrimination against people based on their weight..
–More than 2 out of 3 fat people report they have experienced discrimination from their doctors.

In African and Latin American countries heavy women are considered more the “norm.” Our society, however is “brain washed” by TV and magazine commercials that portray thin woman as the norm to be emulated. This “thinness myth” is endemic in our society, and often motivates many woman to literally squeeze into a dress size smaller than their own to look  thinner.

Weight loss programs make billions of dollars a year although their efficacy is unclear . In a study by Kevin Hall, published in Time Magazine, he learned that even when the conditions for weight loss are perfect–with a tough motivating trainer, doctors, strict meal plans and killer workouts–the body will in the long run fight like hell to get fat back. Over time, 13 of the 14 contestants in his studies gained an average 66% of the weight they’d lost, and four were heavier than they were before the competition.

Hall’s studies show it’s biology, not simply a lack of will power that makes it so hard to lose weight. His findings suggests that the body itself sabotages any effort to keep weight off in the long term, and genes play a role in how some people break down calories and store fat.

I had lunch the following day with some male friends, and shared the details of the film. They were not impressed with statistics I provided, nor had sympathy for the despair that big-body people live with every day. Their consensus was fatness was a failure of dieting and exercise. Unfortunately, their reactions represent a large cross section of our society.

Perhaps as this Fattitude documentary is shown at Film Festivals around the country, its message will bring more understanding to the plight of many men and women.

*
Merel is cantor emeritus of Congregation Beth Israel.  He may be contacted via sheldon.merel@sdjewishworld.com