1. Fat-shaming contributes to poor mental health. Weight-based stigma was associated with increased scores of depression in individuals with obesity [1]. Unsurprisingly, weight stigma has also been associated with increased body dissatisfaction, and decreased self-esteem [2].
2. Fat-shaming works against weight loss on a metabolic level, and may contribute to chronic disease. Exposure to weight-based stigma and fat-shaming statements has been shown to increase cortisol levels. Cortisol is a stress hormone, and has been shown to inhibit weight loss. It also works against insulin, thereby increasing blood sugar levels. [3, 4]
3. Fat-shaming makes people exercise less. Research has shown that the more weight-based stigma people experience, the more they avoid exercising [2, 5]. There is no evidence that shaming people for their weight motivates them to exercise, and in fact, it seems to do the opposite.
4. Fat-shaming makes people eat more. Exposure to weight-based stigma leads to increased caloric consumption [6, 7]. This directly challenges the notion that shaming individuals to lose weight will have any sort of positive or motivating effect.
5. Do you really need a reason to be kind? Fat-shaming has been associated with a myriad of negative effects on mental and physical health, and has never been shown to have a positive, motivating effect on individuals. Most importantly, though, all people are worthy of respect and should not be judged, shamed, or pressured to act differently due to their weight or appearance.
The next time you’re thinking of making a comment about someone’s weight out of a desire to ‘motivate them’, or supposed concern about their health, consider the points above. You’re only doing harm to people’s mental and physical health when you engage in fat-shaming behaviour.
References are included below the break, and I’m happy to chat about any of the above in more detail on request.
The references deserve to be out in the open and not under a break.
1. Depressed mood in class III obesity predicted by weight-related stigma. Chen et al. 2007. Obesity Surgery. doi.org/10.1007/s11695-007-9112-4
2. Internalized societal attitudes moderate the impact of weight stigma on avoidance of exercise. Vartanian and Novak. Obesity. 2012. doi.org/10.1038/oby.2010.234
3. The weight of stigma: Cortisol reactivity to manipulated weight stigma. Himmelstein, Belsky, and Tomiyama. 2014. Obesity. doi.org/10.1002/oby.20959
4. Associations of weight stigma with cortisol and oxidative stress independent of adiposity. Tomiyama et al. 2014. Health Psychology. dx.doi.org/10.1037/hea0000107
5. Effects of weight stigma on exercise motivation and behaviour. Vartanian and Shaprow. 2008. Journal of Health Psychology. doi.org/10.1177/1359105307084318
6. The impact of weight stigma on caloric consumption. Schvey, Puhl, and Brownell. 2012. Obesity. doi.org/10.1038/oby.2011.204
7. The ironic effects of weight stigma. Major et al. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2013.11.009
A stray dog in Bolivia joined a monastery and became a monk. The resident monks of St. Francis Monastery, named for the patron saint of animals, decided to adopt a dog they call ‘Friar Bigotón’ from the Cold Nose Project, which hopes the dog’s story will now inspire more monasteries to take in homeless pets. Source Source 2 Source 3
don’t forget the woman who charged a bunch of dudes money to attend an orgy but never promised any women would be there so they all just showed up to find nothing but men
Maybe that person you called racist or homophobic or accused or being sexist is secretly breaking down inside. Maybe they’re crying as they see your hate. Maybe they have feelings just like you
aight so european leaders got together to make decisions about the refugee situation and the bottom line is 1) refugees are gonna be detained outside of europe, 2) the detainment centers are actually named “kontrollierte zentren” in german which is not ominous or in incredibly bad taste at all, 3) private rescuers are gonna be charged for rescuing drowning refugees, 4) we pay countrues such as turkey or libya a lot of money to keep refugees out of europe, 5) outer european borders will be strengthened and frontex (border control) will receive more funding
so in short uhhh europe decided on killing and locking up more refugees; fun!
The European Union is killing refugees through neglect, and planning to put them in prison camps in Turkey, Libya, Morocco etc. If you wanna help, you can donate for example to: Mission Lifeline sea rescue, HelpRefugees, RefugeeSupport, the UN Refugee Agency, Solidarity Now in Greece, Open Migration in Italy, BetterPlace in Germany, Care4Calais in France and Belgium, RefugeeAction in the UK.
SupportRefugees lists ways to become active as a volunteer across Europe.
Support FRONTEXIT to let European leaders know we do not condone their border politics!
Keep informed and keep vigilant, for example on Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch. Please spread this and add any good links you have. Thank you!
The absolute fucking WORST trend Americans had latched onto in the past few decades is a supposed “return to nature” movement that is literally anti-science and anti-medicine, and extremely dangerous for individuals and the general population at large. I’m not saying modern life doesn’t have its share of problems, but please, if you want to partake in some sort of “back to nature” ideal, go camping or something, don’t skip on fucking vaccinating your kids. I was born in a country that had a lot of rural areas where people didn’t have the means or resources to keep up with important medical necessities like vaccinations, and you know what usually happened? Polio. Polio happened. You know what happens to people who drink “raw water?” Cholera. Average Americans are extremely sheltered and are very, very lucky that shit like herd immunity is a thing so that their kids aren’t getting fucking smallpox in 2018 or some shit.
The Danes, who have struggled to integrate non-Western families, are getting tough: From age 1, immigrant children will receive mandatory instruction in “Danish culture.”
When Rokhaia Naassan gives birth in the coming days, she and her baby boy will enter a new category in the eyes of Danish law. Because she lives in a low-income immigrant neighborhood described by the government as a “ghetto,” Rokhaia will be what the Danish newspapers call a “ghetto parent” and he will be a “ghetto child.”
Starting at the age of 1, “ghetto children” must be separated from their families for at least 25 hours a week, not including nap time, for mandatory instruction in “Danish values,” including the traditions of Christmas and Easter, and Danish language. Noncompliance could result in a stoppage of welfare payments. Other Danish citizens are free to choose whether to enroll children in preschool up to the age of six.
Denmark’s government is introducing a new set of laws to regulate life in 25 low-income and heavily Muslim enclaves, saying that if families there do not willingly merge into the country’s mainstream, they should be compelled.
For decades, integrating immigrants has posed a thorny challenge to the Danish model, intended to serve a small, homogeneous population. Leaders are focusing their ire on urban neighborhoods where immigrants, some of them placed there by the government, live in dense concentrations with high rates of unemployment and gang violence.
Politicians’ description of the ghettos has become increasingly sinister. In his annual New Year’s speech, Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen warned that ghettos could “reach out their tentacles onto the streets” by spreading violence, and that because of ghettos, “cracks have appeared on the map of Denmark.” Politicians who once used the word “integration” now call frankly for “assimilation.”
That tough approach is embodied in the “ghetto package.” Of 22 proposals presented by the government in early March, most have been agreed upon by a parliamentary majority, and more will be subject to a vote in the fall.
Some are punitive: One measure under consideration would allow courts to double the punishment for certain crimes if they are committed in one of the 25 neighborhoods classified as ghettos, based on residents’ income, employment status, education levels, number of criminal convictions and “non-Western background.” Another would impose a four-year prison sentence on immigrant parents who force their children to make extended visits to their country of origin — described here as “re-education trips” —in that way damaging their “schooling, language and well-being.” Another would allow local authorities to increase their monitoring and surveillance of “ghetto” families.
