476-Weight Stigma in the GLP-1 Era with Dr. Angela Meadows

Oh, that is a broad question.

[laughs]

Yeah.

Um, yeah.

I think in terms of most people, if you mean the general population-

Yes

... uh, then I think many of them are blissfully unaware of weight stigma to begin with.

Um, I think it's so normalized in society that it generally goes unrecognized by, certainly by thin people, but by very many fat people as well.

So if somebody tells a fat person, you know, they, they could have a boyfriend if they just lost weight, or if kids point and shout at them and say, you know, "You're so fat," you know, "You're disgusting," or whatever like that.

A lot of them are telling us in research and online that people are just telling them the truth.

They're not actually recognizing it as a systemic fat phobia because it's so ingrained in them.

So I think in the era of GLPs, I tend to use the Ozempic 'cause it's catchy.

Sure.

Um, I think what's really, what's really happening is we're seeing under the cover of what has for the last sort of five to 10 years or so been a rise in so-called body positivity.

Yeah.

Where we've seen people saying, "Oh, all bodies are great, and we need to accept more diversity." And when they say all bodies, they don't mean all bodies.

They mean thinner people who have a slight tummy.

[laughs]

They don't really mean very big bodies.

But there has been this veneer of acceptability of not being model size, and it's the Ozempic era, for want of a better word, is just really blasting that out of the water.

It's just showing how shallow that acceptance was.

Um, and I think that's very much based on the idea that people have kind of worked out that diets don't work, uh, but try and decide that it's making it not work.

Um, and there is actually a s- s- social psychological theory that explains what's going on here, if you're interested in it.

Yeah.

Absolutely.