Is it true that fat bias is worse for women?

Since we are on the topic of the social rejection of fat people, here is another hot discussion point – women get discriminated against far more than men.

Apparently, this report on weight discrimination released in a 2008 report by the International Journal of Obesity (Perceptions of weight discrimination: prevalence and comparison to race and gender discrimination in America) cited the discrimination to be almost three times as bad against women as against men.

The definition of being over weight was put at a weight level where the Body Mass Index (BMI is greater than 35. Interestingly, women even get discriminated at a BMI of between 30 – 35. They are discriminated against more than their male counter-parts in similar weight/height categories.

In society, many discriminations are found: weight, height, sex, age, race, religion and so on. Fortunately, for weight discrimination, there are ways to overcome them.

For women, dressing sensibly is a great start. By not accentuating the fat look, it will help keep some discrimination at bay. Having a bright, sunny disposition also helps. But the most effective way to end the discrimination is to lose fats.

Whether it is going on a diet, starting an exercise regime or using some natural fat reducing aids like herbs and fat blockers, it is a start.

For those who discriminate against fat people, understand that being over weight is just a state of the body at a point in time. It in no way reflects on who the person is. After all, just because you are skinny does not mean you are automatically regarded as a “nice person”, right?

Why skinny people don’t like fat people?

As we focus on losing weight and getting rid of the extra fats, we sometimes stop to wonder, why is there a bias against the fat person?

Being fat is unhealthy. That has been proven beyond any doubt. Interestingly, there was an article released in the HBES Journal (Human Bhaviour & Evolution Society) that talked about research in this area.

Apparently, our body’s immune system is programmed to avoid germs and other unhealthy things. For example, when you smell rotting food, you feel nausea and avoid it. In a similar way, the immune system reacts when it sees rashes and lesions.

That particular research seem to indicate that obesity seems to be lumped together with some of these perceived diseases. It might be that being fat is considered “socially contagious” and the body reacts to that by “rejecting” the image.

Much as you would not happily chew on rotting food (your body will reject that), your protective immune system attempts to draw you away from a perceived threat (obesity). They claim that this new evidence indicate that aversion to fat people could be an evolved response – a part of survival.

Whatever the truth may be, our daily experience tells us that there is a bias against fat people. It could be explained by any reason, but a bias is never good.

For fat people, the dangers are very real. Losing fats is an important consideration to live a healthy life. Either consider diet, exercise or some other form of therapy and get the fat level down to a more manageable level.