Combatting Weight Bias Against People Living with Obesity
October 18, 2024 Posted by: Eli Lilly and Company

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.
Weight Stigma and Bias in the Media
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.
Our Commitment to Stopping Weight Bias
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 www.StopWeightBias.com.