That's the reaction a mother felt when seeing the results of her seven year old daughter's state mandated BMI screening. Even though the letter specifically and emphatically says only a doctor can fully determine if she was obese, and that BMI is often not an accurate indicator of obesity, that word in that letter is "triggering so much concern, shame, and anger".
Obesity is an issue. It can lead to a myriad of health issues like diabetes and heart disease.
But obese people are also the last socially acceptable group to bully and stigmatize. last month, evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller tweeted: “Dear obese PhD applicants: if you didn’t have the willpower to stop eating carbs, you won’t have the willpower to do a dissertation #truth.” In Georgia, billboards of overweight children are going up with messages like "Chubby kids may not outlive their parents," for example. Or: "Big bones didn't make me this way. Big meals did."
It's called "fat shaming". The idea being that stigmatizing, bullying, and discriminating against obese people will somehow make them motivated to lose weight. After all, they're just "concerned about their health", that's all.
But guess what? Fat shaming DOES. NOT. WORK. In fact, studies have shown it to have the OPPOSITE effect.
