The Black Body:

The Racist Origins of Fatphobia

By Lily Grigoriadis

Therefore, the societal standards must reflect a self-controlled individual (thin). Thus, making body size a tool to determine who was free and capable of maintaining the white image of racial superiority; if they could not maintain their size they were then a slave. Hence, body size became a weapon that can isolate and oppress people and is still affecting us today. These beliefs have embedded themselves into our modern world and even our medical system. With models such as the Body Mass Index (BMI), which does not account for the natural amounts of fat within Black bodies, it has been used to determine the health of a person and how obese they are. Although, many have disproven BMI’s use to determine health it is still being used. Thus, these attitudes are deeply ingrained into our society because the medical system built on racist foundations is still valued. Anti-fatness attitudes have created a structure of oppression that neglects to consider factors that would affect plussize people, such as chair sizes.

The world is created to comfort the fortunate, making seats that fit the “average,” creating fashion trends that exclude majority of people in the world or using outdated science to determine health. It is unsurprising that media has followed a similar path, considering that media has been dominantly produced by white males. Although more diversity is being invested and represented in media, body diversity specifically Fat people, are still missing from the conversation. Fat people face tropes that marginalize their identities or represented with negative depictions of their bodies. Media often misunderstands the greater issues of fat-people writing storylines that are surface level. Media needs to broaden its perspective of fat people by treating them as people first and fat second.

Their roots in racism should be acknowledged and used to understand how subconscious racial undertones are present throughout society. Media is just one of many undertones that are still present and with the power of media, we must consider the influence it has to change attitudes about fat people.