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Many people living with obesity experience weight-related stigma—and unfortunately, this stigma is often perpetuated by the media. That's why we're partnering with the Obesity Action Coalition (OAC) to launch their new bias-free obesity image gallery at this year's HLTH conference. The free image gallery, part of OAC's Stop Weight Bias Campaign, showcases authentic, diverse and humanizing images of people with obesity to help improve the way the media portrays the disease.
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Overweight man smiling and looking to the left
What Is Weight Bias?
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Weight bias is defined by the OAC as "negative attitudes, beliefs, judgments, stereotypes, and discriminatory acts aimed at individuals simply because of their weight." While it may not always be obvious, weight bias can occur in nearly any situation and could come from any number of sources—family, friends, coworkers, health care workers and even strangers. And some of the most overt displays of weight stigma and bias happen in the media we consume every day.
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Weight Stigma and Bias in the Media
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In movies, television shows and advertisements, obesity is often portrayed as a lifestyle choice rather than a disease. When many news outlets report on obesity, they use dehumanizing images that focus on the torso and crop out the rest of the body. And overall, the media tends to show people with obesity in a comedic light, even though it is a chronic disease. All these factors from everyday media consumption contribute to weight bias and can lead people living with obesity to believe the disease is their fault or that it can always be managed through lifestyle changes alone.
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Overweight couple sitting in a grassy park
The Impact on Access to Care and Treatment
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So, why does weight bias matter? For someone living with obesity, repeated encounters with weight stigmas and biases can lead to feelings of shame and may prevent people with obesity from getting the comprehensive care they need. Health coverage for obesity care is limited, due in part to misconceptions that undermine its severity.
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Our Commitment to Stopping Weight Bias
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People with obesity deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. And they deserve to have their disease taken seriously by all. By partnering with OAC to launch this media gallery of stigma-free images, we hope to help change the way obesity is portrayed in the media. This is a significant step to breaking down barriers and stigmas and to empowering the millions of people living with obesity to seek—and have access to—the care they deserve.
Learn more and view the image gallery at the Stop Weight Bias Campaign website.
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