Issues
-Fatphobia is the racialized, classist, and ableist tool of oppression that codifies an “ideal” body type that centers a white, Western aesthetic ideal, demands time and resources that people may not have, and attempts to correlate thinness and heathliness—perpetuating white supremact violence against racialized people, classist oppression of people living with limited resources, and the ableist idea of healthiness as an indicator of human value.
+Fatphobia is the racialised, classist, and ableist tool of oppression that codifies a “ideal” body type that centres a white, Western aesthetic, demands time and resources that people may not have, and attempts to correlate thinness and heathliness—perpetuating white supremacist violence against people of colour, perpetuates classist oppression of people living with limited resources, and the ableist idea of healthiness as an indicator of human value.
Impact
- Medical professionals hold fatphobic biases and often prescribe weight loss instead of listening to their fat patients' concerns. That history of being ignored and shamed keeps many fat people from visiting medical professionals even if they have the means.
- Employeers hold fatphobic biases and percieve their fat employees as lazy, less intelligent, and unmotivated, therby paying fat employees less than their thin co-workers and offering them no protection from weight stigma in the workplace.
- Law enforcement officers hold fatphobic biases and think of fat people as unattractive, not sexually active, or undesirable, and making them less likely to believe fat people reporting sexual assaults.
+ A history of being ignored and shamed prevents many fat people from visiting medical professionals even if they have the financial and physical means to do so. Medical professionals hold fatphobic biases and often prescribe weight loss as a default instead of listening to their fat patients' concerns.
+ Employers will pay fat employees less than their thin colleagues and offer them no protection from weight stigma in the workplace, as their fatphobic biases lead to their perception of fat employees as lazy, less intelligent, and unmotivated.
+ Law enforcement officers are less likely to believe fat people reporting sexual assaults, as their fatphobic biases lead them to think of fat people as unattractive, not sexually active, or undesirable.
Impact
-Gaslighting reinfoces systems of power, as gaslighting abusers will tend to be in systematically dominant positions where they are intrinsically believed over their victim (e.g., white person over person of colour, man over woman, abled person over disabled person, parent over child, manager over worker, etc). Gaslighting is an abusive and oppressive behaviour and tactic.
The abuser can become in control of the victim, who now no longer trusts their own perception. The victim can become codependent upon their abuser, and internalise .
Gaslighting reinfoces systems of power, as gaslighting abusers will tend to be in systematically dominant positions where they are intrinsically believed over their victim (e.g., white person over person of colour, man over woman, abled person over disabled person, parent over child, manager over worker, etc). Gaslighting is an abusive and oppressive behaviour and tactic.
The abuser can become in control of the victim, who now no longer trusts their own perception. The victim can become codependent upon their abuser, and internalise their abuser's perspective, which can lead to self-doubt and self-hate.
Further Reading