Barbie movie draws attention to fat phobia, dietitian says

Jennifer Brady says society is steeped in stigma against larger bodies

CBC News

The blockbuster film Barbie tackles a number of social issues and, like the doll it is based on, has sparked a conversation about weight and body image.

In the film, America Ferrera’s character Gloria  says “You have to be thin, but not too thin. And you can never say you want to be thin, you have to say you want to be healthy. But also, you have to be thin.”

Jennifer Brady, a registered dietitian and an associate professor in the School of Nutrition and Dietetics at Acadia University, spoke to CBC Radio’s Information Morning Nova Scotia about why weight stigma continues to be a problem.

Their conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

Information Morning – NS7:22Jennifer Brady: Barbie and body positivity

For a film about a doll, Barbie addresses some serious issues. Our nutritionist columnist Jennifer Brady talks about how the movie of the summer is reviving discussions about the real impact of weight stigma and who feels it the most.

How do you define weight stigma?

Weight stigma has other names it’s also known as weight-based discrimination, fat phobia, fat stigma — a variety of different names.

Essentially it’s any sort of discriminatory act or attitude toward a person because of their weight or size.

And how did the stereotypes tend to play out?

The stereotypes are absolutely everywhere. We’re steeped in weight stigma. So much so that we don’t even notice that we’re thinking discriminatorily or stigmatizing things or doing or saying things that are discriminatory or stigmatizing.

It plays out in stores, in restaurants and public transportation, in the workplace, even in health-care settings.

Some people might think that it’s just about hurt feelings and that also is a serious issue. It can lead to a lot of health problems. There’s also other serious consequences like employment and education.

Gloria says in her monologue that typically we think of the pressure to be thin as a women’s issue but it affects more people than women too.

Traditionally, weight stigma has targeted women more often and also more harshly.

Research shows that women experience weight stigma at lower weights than when men would start to experience weight stigma.

That said, we’re increasingly recognizing that other groups of people experience weight stigma as well and suffer those serious consequences with women.

Ryan Gosling as Ken, left, flaunts his six-pack abs in the movie while Margo Robbie keeps up with traditional Barbie leanness. (Jaap Buitendijk/Warner Bros. Pictures/The Associated Press)

As America Ferrera’s character Gloria says “you have to be thin but not too thin,” and that’s kind of the emphasis for women.

But for men the emphasis is being thin but then also being ripped or shredded. So really muscular.

There’s a different way that it shows up for men and women of course, for LGBT folks or non-binary folks. We’re increasingly recognizing the way that weight stigma impacts LGBTQ people and and non-binary people.

What do you make of the comment about too thin? Is that is that about jealousy or “OK, now you’ve gone over into an eating disorder,” even though there’s all this pressure to be thin that may have caused your eating disorder?

I think at the core of that is really about controlling women’s bodies for the most part.

But again, that is also reaching out into other groups of people, and a lot of that too, is because of the diet industry.

It makes a lot of people a lot of money when we’re unhappy with ourselves. We buy more things to fix the way we look. When we’ve just been convinced of that. We don’t really need to fix the way we look.

Why do you think it’s such a a problem and so difficult to to grapple with?

it’s absolutely everywhere and we often don’t even notice it.

Media is one of the biggest culprits.

Think about this. How many people could we name or could we think of that we see in the media, TV, film, etc. that are in a bigger body that are happy, that are portrayed as being healthy, successful in a relationship, not dieting?

I don’t think I could name a single person that fits that bill.

What we see represented all around us is guilty of perpetuating that. But there’s other ways that it gets perpetuated as well.

Health-care professionals are also a group of people that are culprits of perpetuating weight-based stigma. Oftentimes people in bigger bodies will go into a health-care professional’s office for something completely unrelated to their weight, but will be simply told to lose weight.

There’s many well documented cases where that’s been the case.

The underlying cause of their health concerns been missed and people have died because of weight-based stigma. It’s not just a hurt feelings.

Even before the Barbie movie, the doll has been criticized for its unrealistic body shape which is extremely thin, tall and buxom. (Suphatthra olovedog / Shutterstock)

What would you suggest people think about when they are looking at other people’s bodies, or even at their own?

One rule of thumb that I always say is that it’s never OK to comment on someone’s body, ever.

Whether that’s those underhanded compliments that we often think are complementary to people but are so loaded with weight stigma.

Things like “you look so good. Have you lost weight?” That sounds really nice, but it actually is loaded with weight stigma and that the underlying message there is that you look better because you’ve lost weight or you deserve praise for losing weight,

That also can begin with educating yourself about why that is a problem, to say those kinds of things.

And think about how you talk to yourself in your own mind about your own body, but also to other people around you —especially when there’s kids around you.

You have to be extra sensitive because those little ears hear those things and internalize those messages and then the cycle continues.