Review of Weight Bias: Nature, Consequences, and Remedies (Hardcover)

This is a collection of essays and research reports about bias against the overweight.I think the primary intended readership is professionals involved in helping people with weight problems, although it is clearly written and deserves a wider audience.
Victims of obesity suffer in many ways.As adults they often have an increased liability to physical illness.Their major cause of suffering, especially at younger ages, is the effect of the condition on physical appearance, and the discrimination they endure on account of this.The commonest obesity-related related cause of death amongst teenagers is suicide.Suffering is often increased by efforts to force them to become thin, and complicated by the fact that most of them would like to be thinner.
To a large extent, what the book does is to document the severity and extent and sources of this discrimination. This may sound unnecessary but the discrimination is often so subtle and pervasive that that "consciousness-raising" is necessary.
While I hope not to sound as if saying anything that legitimizes bias, there are certain aspects to overweight that complicate crusading against bias and that none of the authors fully grapple with. Being short or dark-skinned or paraplegic are always completely outside the victim's control, whereas the possibility always exists, however faint, of losing weight.This possibility is used by the anti-fat bigot to justify making life more difficult for overweight people.(See, for example, California's SB 78)..


Product Description
Discrimination based on body shape and size remains commonplace in today's society. This important volume explores the nature, causes, and consequences of weight bias and presents a range of approaches to combat it. Leading psychologists, health professionals, attorneys, and advocates cover such critical topics as the barriers facing obese adults and children in health care, work, and school settings; how to conceptualize and measure weight-related stigmatization; theories on how stigma develops; the impact on self-esteem and health, quite apart from the physiological effects of obesity; and strategies for reducing prejudice and bringing about systemic change.




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