Bradley University in Peoria, Ill., has boldly gone where no institution of higher learning has gone before. While other schools grapple with sexism, racism, genderism, ageism, and a host of other societal ills, Bradley is committed to stamping out “fatism” — discrimination against people based on their girth.
Opposing Views reports that “fat acceptance” is all part of “the Body Project,” an initiative of Bradley’s Women’s Studies Program in cooperation with the Center for Wellness and Department of Sociology. The connection, in case you’re wondering, is that in the U.S. overweight women tend to make up the (is there any other word for it?) bulk of fatism victims.
According to a page on the university’s website:
Fat acceptance advocates work toward goals which promote size diversity. After all, humans come in all shapes and sizes! Part of this acceptance is the preferred use of the term “fat”. Activists hope that this word can be de-stigmatized and embraced in our culture.
But their ambitions go beyond just combating fatism, as the next paragraph reveals:
Activists propose that the concept of an “ideal” body size or weight be abandoned entirely. Height and weight tables delineating “ideal” body proportions are based on Caucasian body types. The genetically distinct body types of people of color are not considered in the formulation of “ideal proportions”. [Emphasis added]
But being fat is not all roses. As Opposing Views’s Michael Allen points out:
[T]he Centers for Disease Control [and Prevention] notes that obesity raises people’s risk of having numerous health problems including: high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, strokes, ailments.
There’s more:
The Washington Examiner notes that a new report released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on Oct. 20 found that the U.S. tops 33 countries (in the Americas, Asia and Europe) in obesity.
A whopping 35 percent of Americans are obese, according to the report. The U.S. also has the most obese and overweight children at 38 percent, and the most unhealthy teens with 22 percent.
