>Which brings us to the most hard-wired problem of all: Our
>shitty attitudes toward fat people. According to Patrick
>Corrigan, the editor of the journal Stigma and Health, even
>the most well-intentioned efforts to reduce stigma break down
>in the face of reality. In one study, researchers told 10- to
>12-year-olds all the genetic and medical factors that
>contribute to obesity. Afterward, the kids could recite back
>the message they received—fat kids didn’t get that way by
>choice—but they still had the same negative attitudes about
>the bigger kids sitting next to them. A similar approach with
>fifth- and sixth-graders actually increased their intention of
>bullying their fat classmates. Celebrity representation,
>meanwhile, can result in what Corrigan calls the “Thurgood
>Marshall effect”: Instead of updating our stereotypes (maybe
>fat people aren’t so bad), we just see prominent minorities
>as isolated exceptions to them (well, he’s not like those
>other fat people).
>
>What does work, Corrigan says, is for fat people to make it
>clear to everyone they interact with that their size is
>nothing to apologize for. “When you pity someone, you think
>they’re less effective, less competent, more hurt,” he
>says. “You don’t see them as capable. The only way to get
>rid of stigma is from power.”