Large Professor: How Being Overweight Affects Perceptions In The Classroom

In the United States, fat-shaming and fat-phobia are as American as apple pie.  While the Black community is more likely to embrace obesity as curvy, that embrace often acts as a defense mechanism against mainstream and European standards of beauty—a standard which excludes anyone who isn’t White, thin and blonde, or some acceptable variation. 

Yet even as we position full-figured as a body-type to be proud of, the weight loss market continues to be a multi-billion dollar industry. 

Why? 

Because as evolved and enlightened as we pretend to be, being overweight still carries a stigma in this country.  Even though there are many reasons that one may be overweight, extra pounds are often viewed as lazy, undisciplined and unattractive with the magical power to make the largest person in the room the most invisible.