by PJ Heath
“Pretty privilege” extends beyond a person’s skin; it also includes idealistic weight standards perpetuated through flawed societal beauty standards and edited pictures.
The world shown through media and advertisements tend to establish unrealistic and unhealthy standards that exclude most of the population. Research has shown that this phenomenon is associated with and provokes fatphobia.
The Boston Medical Center defines fatphobia as the implicit and explicit bias of overweight individuals that is rooted in a sense of blame and presumed moral failing. Being overweight is highly stigmatized in American, Asian and European cultures. Fatphobia can be linked to racism, classism, misogyny and several other forms of discrimination.
A 2022 article by The University of Wisconsin-Madison says that fatphobia not only affects overweight individuals, but the fear society has about being overweight or becoming fat leads people down a path of strict dieting and exercise regimes. Fatphobic individuals are known to use the veil of fitness when their true goal is to do everything in their power to avoid being overweight.
This concept ties into “pretty privilege” in the sense that certain body types are frowned upon and that those with unconventional body types are treated as less than or are not given the privilege that those with conventionally beautiful body types are.
Healthcare professionals encourage everyone to eat nutritious foods and engage in regular exercise to support a healthy and strong body. But “healthy” can take several forms as bodies come in all shapes and sizes and are deserving of respect regardless.
According to that same article by The University of Wisconsin-Madison, equating weight loss with health can be dangerous because people lose weight for a variety of distinct reasons, and sometimes those reasons are a result of poor health issues such as eating disorders, cancers or other illnesses.
There tends to still be times where a person’s size and weight are the only thing that people see, and with a stigma attached.
A nonprofit publication called Taylor Lakeside Model United Nations Club Herald said “the stigma against overweight people has made employers develop biases towards plus size people, for many still think being overweight is a choice and thus think they lack focus and skills to be a competent person.”
Unfortunately, it is not illegal to discriminate against overweight persons the way it is illegal to discriminate based on race and sex, but so many businesses continue to get away with discriminating based on all three categories.
In American society today, people have begun to become more body inclusive and advocate for body positivity. This is a great step in the right direction, but recent body positivity trends often focus too heavily on the physical aspect. In short, overweight people do not want or need others to tell them they are “brave” or “beautiful” for just living in their own skins.
Not only do comments like these have backhanded undertones, but they also perpetuate the idea that appearance equates to human worth. It is important to keep in mind that everything on a person’s body should not have to be conventionally beautiful for a person to be accepted, loved and treated as equal.
This is the second part of a three article series.
