stigma

Under law - you cannot discriminate against anyone on the basis of color, race, creed, gender, age, and so on and so on...

There is one exception however - body weight.

New research shows that weight discrimination remains socially acceptable in today's culture.

There used to be a quaint notion that people who were overweight were "jolly" and "fun-loving" and generally more social than skinny folks.

But that's just an old wives tale... isn't it? One would think that with the stigma and discrimination overweight people face in modern society, they'd be more shy, anxious, and introverted, right?

Well, a new study claims that those who pack on more pounds are actually more sociable and less anxious than people who are not overweight.

The UK Independent reports on an interesting "discovery":

The authors of the research (abstract here) believe that "obesity serves as a cue for pathogen infection".

New guidelines for pediatricians and other health professionals recommend that doctors need to start using the term “Obesity” when referring to or talking to overweight children and their parents.

Sure - angry debates are part of building television ratings - but this one had my stomach churning.

Meme Roth - president of National Action Against Obesity speaks on Fox News (prior to the final of American Idol).

It appears Roth has confused a singing show with America's Next Top Model.

UK tabloid Daily Mail explains that every woman needs a 'fat friend'.

Universally acknowledged?

Being overweight or obese can place a person in many stigmatizing situations. Stigma comes in many forms; criticisms, others making negative assumptions, inappropriate or nasty comments.

Here is a list of the top ten sources of such stigma.

If you're flying - and your baggage is overweight - you get charged more.

Body weight does not factor into the equation - but will that soon change?

If the anti-fat bias is increasing - then how do people cope? Brownell and Puhl have published new research investigating this - entitled Confronting and Coping with Weight Stigma: An Investigation of Overweight and Obese Adults (see abstract).

The UK Times Online claims that fat is a class issue. Apparently rich, educated people are not fat. Obesity is directly related to lower education and lower incomes.

A hotel owner in Germany is charging his guests 50 euro cents per kilogram of body weight (about 25 cents US per pound). He said that some guests strip down to try to save money. The single-room maximum fee is 39 euros -- or 78 kg (172 pounds). Heckrodt got letters complaining he was discriminating against fat people from people who read about his hotel in German newspapers.