Models in Fat Suits and Fat Acceptance

When it comes to America's attitudes about fat people, there's good news and bad news.

It's a well-known fact that discrimination against fat people is the last socially acceptable form of prejudice. They're the brunt of jokes, cruel remarks and unsolicited "helpful" remarks from complete strangers who have been known to offer comments on everything from the selections in their grocery baskets to their entrée choices in restaurants. Recently, in separate "investigations," both supermodel Tyra Banks and gorgeous Entertainment Tonight correspondent Vanessa Minnillo donned 350 pound "fat suits" and reported back the astonishing news that fat girls have it rough! Both these genetic lottery winners tearfully complained to their respective audiences that they were "ignored" at trendy boutiques, and seemed "invisible" when they weren't being ridiculed outright ("Three people turned and laughed right in my face!" exclaimed Banks). There's a news bulletin. Thin, gorgeous models have more fun. What a shock.

The good news — from a humanitarian point of view, anyway — is that these times may be a-changing. According to new market research by opinion polling firm NPD, America's attitudes towards overweight people are shifting from rejection toward acceptance. Over a 20-year period, the percentage of Americans who said they find overweight people less attractive steadily dropped from 55 percent to 24 percent.

Many argue that these figures may not reflect what people actually feel. Kelly Brownell, PhD, head of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, argues that these studies don't necessarily pick up on implicit, unconscious bias. "It's like if you asked people around the country if they had racial bias. There's a difference between what people say and what actually happens," Brownell says.

Nonetheless, with Americans getting fatter and fatter — about 2/3 of US adults are now overweight — Americans seem more accepting of heavier body types. On some level this is good news, as no thoughtful person really wants to see those suffering with obesity subjected to the further pain of social ostracism. "Fat people are the target of a witch hunt in a fitness-obsessed nation," said Marilyn Wann, board member of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance.

But the bad news is that you can't change the medical facts: being overweight is still unhealthy and still presents major challenges with serious consequences. A recent study out of Northwestern University and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that being overweight in midlife substantially increased the risk of dying of heart disease later in life. Fat tissue "is not like an inert storage depot — it's a very dynamic organ that is actually producing hormones and chemical messengers," said JoAnn Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Harvard's Brigham and Women’s Hospital. These substances can damage blood vessels, increase the risk of blood clots and cause insulin resistance that makes people prone to diabetes.

While some research shows that fit people who are fat are better off than normal-weight people who are sedentary, the uncomfortable fact remains: being overweight still puts you at risk for a host of health problems. While it's great that we're becoming more compassionate about those suffering from obesity, we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that this is about more than just social acceptance. Obesity remains a major health crisis.

As David Katz, MD, an obesity researcher and director of Yale University's Prevention Research Center says, "People who say obesity has been hyped are wrong."