Social stigma of obesity

Discrimination
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Forms Institutional Reverse Structural Statistical Systemic Taste-based
Attributes Age Caste Class Disability Economic Genetic Hair texture Height Language Dialect Looks Mental disorder Nationality or citizenship Race / Ethnicity Reverse Skin color Scientific racism Rank Sex Reverse Sexual orientation Species Size Viewpoint
Social Arophobia Anti-albinism Acephobia Adultism Anti-altruistic Anti-autism Anti-homelessness Anti-drug addicts Anti-intellectualism Anti-intersex Anti-left handedness Anti-Masonry Aporophobia Audism Biphobia Clannism Elitism Ephebiphobia Health mental in poverty Fatphobia Gayphobia Gerontophobia Heterosexism HIV/AIDS stigma Hypergamy Homophobia In-group Leprosy stigma Lesbophobia Against men Misandry Misogyny Misogynoir Nepotism Outgroup Perpetual foreigner Pregnancy Sectarianism Supremacism Aryanism Black Hutu Chauvinism Han Female Human Nordicism Male Ultranationalism White Transphobia Non-binary Transmisogyny Trans men Vegaphobia Xenophobia
Religious Religious exemption Persecution of non-believers Atheism Blasphemy law Religious censorship In Islam Apostasy Religious police Jizya Religious persecution In China Exclusivism Baháʼí Faith Buddhism Christianity Persecution Catholicism Eastern Orthodoxy Coptic Christianity Jehovah's Witnesses LDS or Mormon Protestantism Tewahedo Orthodoxy post–Cold War era Falun Gong Hinduism Persecution Untouchability Islam Persecution Ahmadiyya Shi'ism Sufism Sunnism minority Muslim Judaism Persecution Neopaganism Rastafari Serers Sikhism Yazidism Zoroastrianism
Race or ethnicity Afghan Pashtun Hazara African Fulani Igbo Serers Albanian Arab Armenian Asian France South Africa United States Assyrian Austrian Azerbaijani Black people African American China South Africa Bengali Catalan Chechen Chinese Han people Colombian Croat Dutch English Estonian Filipino French Finnish Georgian German Greek Haitian Hazara Hungarian Indian Indonesian Indigenous people Australia Canada United States Iranian Irish Italian Japanese Jewish Eliminationist New Religious Anti-Yiddish Zionist Korean Kurdish Lithuanian Malay Māori Mexican Middle Eastern Mongolian Montenegrin Nigerian Pakistani Palestinian Pashtun Polish Portuguese Quebec Romani Romanian Russian Scottish Serb Slavic Somali Spanish Taiwanese Tatar Thai Tibetan Turkish Ukrainian Uyghur Venezuelan Vietnamese Welsh White people
Manifestations Algorithmic bias Anti-LGBTQ rhetoric SPLC-designated list of anti-LGBTQ hate groups Blood libel Bullying Cancel culture Capital punishment for homosexuality Carnism Compulsory sterilization Corrective rape Counter-jihad Cultural genocide Defamation Democide Dog whistle Domicide Economic Education Academic In curricula Sexism Eliminationism Eliminationist antisemitism Employment Enemy of the people Environmental racism Ethnic cleansing Ethnic conflict Ethnic hatred Ethnic joke Ethnocide Excellence Gender-based dress codes Cosmetics policy High heel policy Forced conversion Freak show Gay bashing Gendercide Transgender genocide Genital modification and mutilation Circumcision Female genital mutilation Intersex medical interventions Genocide examples Glass ceiling Hate crime Disability hate crime Violence against LGBTQ people Violence against transgender people Hate group Hate speech Institutional discrimination Institutional racism Homeless dumping Housing Hypergamy Age disparity Indian rolling International inequality Kill Haole Day Lavender scare LGBTQ+ grooming conspiracy theory Linguicide Lynching Media bias Minority stress Moral exclusion Mortgage Native American mascots Braves Blackhawks Chiefs Occupational Apartheid Inequality Injustice Segregation Opposition to immigration Paper genocide Persecution Pogrom Political Political repression Ideological repression Purge Racialization Religious persecution Religious terrorism Religious violence Religious war Scapegoating Selective enforcement Selective prosecution Sentencing disparity Sexual harassment Sex-selective abortion Slut-shaming Structural abuse Structural discrimination Structural evil Structural inequality Structural violence Untermensch Trans bashing Victimisation Violence against women White flight White genocide conspiracy theory Wife selling Witch hunt
Policies Algorithmic wage discrimination Age of candidacy Apartheid in South Africa in Israel Blood purity Blood quantum Breadwinner model Conscription and sexism Disabilities Catholic Jewish Disparate impact Fagging Gender pay gap Gender roles Protecting Women's Private Spaces Act Gerontocracy Gerrymandering Ghetto benches Internment Jewish quota Opposition to LGBTQ rights MSM blood donation restrictions No kid zone Numerus clausus (as religious or racial quota) One-drop rule Racial quota Racial steering Redlining Same-sex marriage (laws and issues prohibiting) Segregation age racial Jim Crow laws Nuremberg Laws Segregation academy religious sexual in Islam Social exclusion Sodomy law State atheism State religion Ugly law Voter suppression White Australia policy
Countermeasures Affirmative action Anti-discrimination law Anti-racism Audit study Autism rights movement Gender-blind Blind audition Constitutional colorblindness Cross-sex friendship Cultural assimilation Cultural pluralism Diversity, equity, and inclusion Diversity training Empowerment Fat acceptance movement Feminism Fighting Discrimination Golden Rule Hate speech laws by country Human rights Intersex human rights Korenizatsiia LGBTQ rights Mad pride Music in the movement against apartheid Racial integration Reappropriation Rock Against Sexism Self-determination Social integration Stop Murder Music Toleration Transgender rights movement Universal suffrage Women's rights
Related topics Allophilia Amatonormativity Bias Capital punishment for homosexuality Cisnormativity Civil liberties Criminalization of homosexuality Dehumanization Diseases of despair Ethnic penalty Figleaf Heteronormativity Historical eugenics Internalized oppression Intersectionality Masculism Oikophobia Oppression Police brutality Polyculturalism Power distance Prejudice Prisoner abuse Racial bias in criminal news in the United States Racism by country Racial color blindness Religious intolerance Second-generation gender bias Snobbery Social equity Social exclusion Social model of disability Social privilege Christian male white Social stigma Speciesism Stereotype The talk

Human body weight
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General concepts Obesity (Epidemiology) Overweight Underweight Body shape Weight gain Weight loss Gestational weight gain Diet Weight management Overnutrition Childhood obesity (Epidemiology)
Medical concepts Adipose tissue Classification of obesity Exercise paradox Genetics of obesity Metabolic syndrome (Epidemiology of metabolic syndrome) Metabolically healthy obesity Obesity paradox Set point theory
Measurements Body adiposity index Body mass index Body roundness index Body fat percentage Body Shape Index Corpulence index Lean body mass Relative Fat Mass Waist–hip ratio Waist-to-height ratio
Related conditions Diabetes (Type 1) Eating disorder (Anorexia • Bulimia • Binge eating disorder) Food addiction Hyperthyroidism Malnutrition RED-S Starvation (Starvation response) PCOS
Obesity-associated morbidity Arteriosclerosis Atherosclerosis Fatty liver disease GERD Gynecomastia Heart disease Hypertension Obesity and cancer Osteoarthritis Prediabetes Sleep apnea Type 2 diabetes
Management of obesity Anti-obesity medication Bariatrics Bariatric surgery Dieting (List of diets) Caloric deficit Exercise (outline) Liposuction Obesity medicine Weight loss camp Weight loss coaching Yo-yo effect
Social aspects Comfort food Fast food (Criticism) Fat acceptance movement Fat fetishism Health at Every Size Hunger Obesity and the environment Obesity and sexuality Sedentary lifestyle Satiety value Social determinants of obesity Weight cutting Weight class

Social stigma of obesity is bias or discriminatory behaviors targeted at overweight and obese individuals because of their weight and high body fat percentage.^[1]^[2] Such social stigmas can span one's entire life as long as excess weight is present, starting from a young age and lasting into adulthood.^[3] Studies also indicate overweight and obese individuals experience rates of stigma near prevalent to that of racial discrimination.^[4] Stigmatization of obesity is usually associated with increased health risks (morbidity) of being overweight or obese and the possibility of a shorter lifespan (mortality).

Obese people marry less often, experience fewer educational and career opportunities, and on average earn a lesser income than normal weight individuals.^[3] Although public support regarding disability services, civil rights, and anti-workplace discrimination laws for obese individuals have gained support across the years, overweight and obese individuals still experience discrimination, which may have detrimental implications in relation to both physiological^[5] and psychological health. These issues are compounded by the significant negative physiological effects that are already associated with obesity,^[6] which some have proposed may be caused in part by stress from the social stigma of obesity (or which may be made more pronounced as a result of that stress).^[5]

Anti-fat bias refers to prejudicial assumptions that are based on an assessment of a person as being overweight or obese. It is also known as "fat shaming" or "fatphobia". Anti-fat bias can be found in many facets of society,^[7] and fat activists commonly cite examples of mass media and popular culture that pervade this phenomenon.^[8]^[9]

^ Puhl RM, Brownell KD (November 2003). "Psychosocial origins of obesity stigma: toward changing a powerful and pervasive bias". Obesity Reviews. 4 (4): 213–227. doi:10.1046/j.1467-789X.2003.00122.x. PMID 14649372. S2CID 31481832.
^ Puhl RM, Heuer CA (May 2009). "The stigma of obesity: a review and update". Obesity. 17 (5): 941–964. doi:10.1038/oby.2008.636. PMID 19165161. S2CID 152352.
^ ^a ^b "Dicke sind faul und dumm" (in German). Süddeutsche Zeitung. August 11, 2008. Retrieved March 8, 2011.
^ Cite error: The named reference Puhl was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ ^a ^b Muennig P (April 2008). "The body politic: the relationship between stigma and obesity-associated disease". BMC Public Health. 8 128. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-8-128. PMC 2386473. PMID 18426601.
^ "Health Risks of Overweight & Obesity - NIDDK". National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Retrieved 2025-07-27.
^ Cite error: The named reference PuhlBrownell was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Ahern AL, Bennett KM, Hetherington MM (2008). "Internalization of the ultra-thin ideal: positive implicit associations with underweight fashion models are associated with drive for thinness in young women". Eating Disorders. 16 (4): 294–307. doi:10.1080/10640260802115852. PMID 18568920. S2CID 2473526.
^ Hawkins N, Richards PS, Granley HM, Stein DM (2004). "The impact of exposure to the thin-ideal media image on women". Eating Disorders. 12 (1): 35–50. doi:10.1080/10640260490267751. PMID 16864303. S2CID 28802161.