Obesity Discrimination Statistics

Obesity discrimination has been called the last acceptable form of prejudice. Although eight out of ten Americans are overweight and 43 million are either obese or morbidly obese, people continue to make fat jokes, wear offensive t-shirts ("No Fat Chicks!"), and worse, discriminate against obese people in public, in healthcare, and on the job.

Obesity Discrimination Against Women

Very often, women find themselves the victim of obesity discrimination more than men. While a large man might not be yelled at, ridiculed, or "rated" on a scale as he walks down the street, it's a commonly reported event for obese women. Sadly, it's not at all unusual to hear a woman's body and weight be evaluated by a group of men who they happen to walk past.

A more subtle, but still painful, form of obesity discrimination is scolding from the general public. It's a common thing for obese people to have their food choices scrutinized, questioned, and disparaged by the general public. It's very offensive when someone else says you "do you know how many calories that has?" or "do you really need to eat that much?" Sometimes obese people even have to hear well meaning but nasty comments such as "you'd be so pretty if you would just lose some weight".

Both male and female children report obesity discrimination in schools often starting as early as kindergarten. As one of my friends' kids explained to me, one of the worst insults you can offer a classmate is to tease them about being in love with the fattest kid of the opposite sex.

Discrimination in Healthcare

The health care field is a common place where we see obesity discrimination today, ranging from the physicians to the insurance companies. Many doctors will not give an obese patient the same courtesy and respect that they extend to other patients, and some doctors even dismissively tell their obese patients to diet, knowing full well that 95% of all diets are complete failures long term. Many insurance companies will refuse to provide coverage to an obese person even when they are otherwise healthy.

Employment Obesity Discrimination

Employment discrimation is the most commonly seen type of discrimination against obese people that we see today. Statistics compiled by the American Obesity Association say that most employers tend to assign unflattering and untrue labels to obese people(such as "emotionally inept"), even when the obese person is just as well qualified as anyone else. Furthermore, employers constantly give obese people a lower ranking for job suitability than even those who are former felons, and mental patients! In fact, The American Obesity Association did a study which showed that obesity has a greater negative impact on securing a job than race, age, and sex.

And while there are laws to protect people who experience job discrimination based on sex, age, race, religion, and increasingly, sexual orientation, there are no laws in place to protect people who suffer obesity discrimination.

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