Fat-shaming More Harmful Than Racism And Sexism

From movies to magazines, people everywhere are bombarded with what perfection is supposed to look like, making those who are overweight a punchline.

After what some would consider a hate-fueled rant on national TV this month, the call went out for Charles Barkley to apologize.

Barkley has been getting heat from the city of San Antonio, specifically its female population, for saying, on live TV, that the city's women were a "gold mine for Weight Watchers."

But Barkley is not alone. Just peruse the internet for a few minutes, and thousands of jokes and memes will appear - all directed at people who are overweight.

A new study suggests those comments, looks and jokes could actually be more detrimental to a person's psyche than if they were a victim of racism or sexism.

The study from the Florida State University College of Medicine says it could be because weight is seen by many as something that's easily controlled, whereas race and sex are not.

"I think that because it is seen as a choice and it potentially says something about their personality, people feel more comfortable doing it," said Hailee Bland-Walsh, a personal trainer.

"It’s almost like obesity is the last of the acceptable groups to be teasing," says Madelyn Fernstrom, NBC News health and diet editor. Being biased about the overweight or obese, she says, is still very socially acceptable.

Research has already shown that stigmatizing overweight people leads to psychological factors that are likely to contribute to weight gain – things like depression or binge eating. This new paper takes that a step further, linking what the Internet likes to call “fat-shaming” to weight gain and suggesting that you can’t scare people skinny.

“Stigma and discrimination are really stressors, and, unfortunately, for many people, they’re chronic stressors,” says Rebecca Puhl, deputy director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University. Puhl has studied weight bias and discrimination for 13 years. “And we know that eating is a common reaction to stress and anxiety -- that people often engage in more food consumption or more binge eating in response to stressors, so there is a logical connection here in terms of some of the maladaptive coping strategies to try to deal with the stress of being stigmatized.”