Obesity becoming US civil rights issue for
some
By Edith Honan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Kate Harding
has spent most of her life on one diet or another, losing weight
but always gaining it back. Determined to improve her quality of
life, she joined a fast-growing group of anti-dieting activists
promoting overweight people's civil rights.
Launching an anti-dieting blog
called Shapely Prose, Harding and other fat-acceptance advocates
online -- calling themselves the fat-o-sphere -- are also educating
one another about how to improve overweight people's
health.
She and other bloggers with names
like FatChicksRule and Big Liberty say society's "war on obesity"
makes overweight people hate their bodies and suffer from low
self-esteem.
"Being fat doesn't make me lazy or
stupid or morally suspect," said Harding, 34, of Chicago, who also
has written a book, "Lessons from the Fat-o-Sphere."
"The message we're promoting is
health at every size."
Her blog entries criticise dieting
obsessions and ponder coverage of weight issues in the mainstream
media.
Since launching her blog, Harding,
who says she is 5 foot 2 inches (1.6 metres) tall and about 195
pounds (88 kg), says her body image has improved. But she admits
wearing a bathing suit in public "can still throw me for a bit of a
loop."
Fat-acceptance advocates are
starting to organise to promote anti-bias laws, encourage tolerance
in health care and the workplace and help retailers recognise the
profit potential of catering to plus-size customers.
"People are just beginning to
think about being empowered," said Lynn McAfee, director of medical
advocacy at the nonprofit Council on Size and Weight
Discrimination.
"The emphasis has just been 'lose
weight and everything will be fine,' and it's becoming really clear
that people aren't losing weight," she said. "So we want to shift
the emphasis to making us as healthy as we can be at whatever
weight we are."
Activists say the movement is
beginning to amass some victories, from larger seat belts in cars
to a decision by the Supreme Court in Canada that obese and
disabled people travelling on airplanes can't be forced to buy a
second seat.
The Fox television network is
developing a reality show featuring "average looking" people called
"More to Love," billed as a "dating show for the rest of
us."
The National Association for the
Advancement of Fat Acceptance, a civil rights group formed in 1969,
has found new life as fat-acceptance advocates gain force
online.
There are now more than 50
fat-acceptance blogs and more than a dozen books promoting the
idea, from Linda Bacon's "Health at Every Size" to Wendy Shanker's
"The Fat Girl's Guide to Life." There are even romance novels
featuring plus-sized characters with names like "Dangerous Curves
Ahead."
But the dominant view remains that
overweight people should be focussed on losing weight.
Some two-thirds of Americans are
considered overweight or obese. Cities across the country have
declared wars on obesity, calling it a costly public health crisis
that increases the risk of heart disease, type two diabetes and
certain cancers.
Obesity-related health care cost
upward of $100 billion a year, research shows.
PERVASIVE
DISCRIMINATION
There are no U.S. laws prohibiting
weight discrimination, and only one state, Michigan, has an
anti-weight bias law. Legislatures in Massachusetts and Nevada have
taken up size-bias bills, but similar efforts have failed in recent
years.
Weight discrimination is
pervasive, said Rebecca Puhl, director of research at Yale
University's Rudd Centre for Food Policy and Obesity.
An "obesity wage penalty" --
larger employees getting paid less regardless of job performance --
is widespread, and research shows overweight people are less likely
to land a job or be promoted than a non-obese worker, she
said.
"We do need to fight obesity, but
not obese people," said Puhl. "Individuals ... who are
discriminated against because of their weight are more likely to
engage in unhealthy eating behaviours and avoidance of physical
activity."
Anecdotal evidence also suggests
overweight people avoid trips to the doctor out of fear of being
mocked.
According to NAAFA, about 70
percent of overweight and obese women have experienced bias from
doctors. Others complain of being turned down by health-insurance
companies.
Bloggers in the fat-o-sphere track
cases of discrimination they say go uncovered in the mainstream
media.
Just recently, United Airlines, a
unit of UAL Corp, said it will require obese passengers bumped from
full flights to purchase two seats on a subsequent flight. That
would match the policies of other carriers, including Continental,
Delta, JetBlue and Southwest Airlines.
SEXY AT ANY
SIZE
Deb Malkin, 39, considers herself
a fat-acceptance advocate but leaves the political battles to
others.
Instead, in what she describes as
a labour of love, Malkin has opened ReDress, a plus-sized vintage
clothing boutique in New York's Brooklyn borough.
Housed in an airy 3,000
square-foot (280 square metre) space, ReDress sells frilly dresses,
formal gowns and jeans, all in size 14 and up.
One recent afternoon, shoppers
carried armloads of clothing to spacious dressing rooms, while
sales assistants compared the comfort of ReDress to the more
typical shopping humiliations of plus-sized consumers.
"There's a whole indy fashion
world that we don't have access to," said Malkin. "I think women
just come in here and are so excited."
Bevin Branlandingham, who
considers herself a fat activist, has worked in Malkin's store
since it opened in November.
Sorting through lingerie, a frock
from the 1960s and a colourful size 22 dress by Calvin Klein,
Branlandingham said she likes to help women overcome hatred of
their bodies.
Branlandingham, who is partial to
dresses with plunging neck lines, says she discourages women from
buying so-called goal outfits that are too small and instead pick
out things that flatter their figures.
"I feel like my life's mission is
to make the world safer for people to love themselves no matter
what their differences," she said.