I’m Not Fat, I’m Fluffy

Recently, I’ve seen many articles related to body shaming, whether it be fat or skinny. It seems to be a trend in popular culture to voraciously consume magazines whose sole purpose is to keep track of which celebrity has gained or lost weight this week. Although we may like to think that we don’t judge people by their appearances, we do. Preconceived notions based upon a person’s appearance are useful tools in everyday life. We have developed certain heuristics, or “rules of thumb,” which aid us in making quick decisions regarding everyday scenarios. Related to these heuristics are correlations that we use to quickly relate information to preconceived notions we have about that information.

Fat shaming has been a popular past-time in pop culture for a long time. However, lately it seems that we’ve come into what I like to call a curve revolution. With the general acceptance of celebrities like Adele, Melissa McCarthy, and Christina Hendricks; a new form of shaming has come into fashion: skinny shaming. Stereotypes exist on both sides of this battle. Larger people are considered lazy, while super skinny people are sick or druggies. These stereotypes, and almost all stereotypes are consistently inaccurate.

Stereotypes are negative generalizations people make about others. Often, stereotypes are negative, nonconstructive and lead to people paying attention to particular behaviors that are often related to a stereotype, which creates an illusory correlation. Correlations are useful tools, but this particular type often leads to inaccurate snap-judgments of others.

Our brains are programmed to filter through an infinite amount of information in very little time. In order to process this information, and in order to do so quickly, we develop certain heuristics and correlations to help us quickly categorize information so we can make decisions based on information we’ve collected from our environment. Illusory correlations happen when two events seem to exist, when actually there’s no discernible correlation, or when the correlation is weaker than the initial assumption indicated.1 Stereotypes are related to this correlation.

In the long run, stereotypes are not a great tool. They frequently lead snap-judgments and prejudice. Unfortunately, even the most educated and seemingly neutral people still tend to hold common stereotypes in mind. Its inescapable, but we can choose to read into peoples’ character, rather than their characteristics. Not all fat people are lazy, and sometimes skinny people are just skinny.

Citations

1. Goldstein, E. Bruce. “Reasoning and Decision Making.” Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience. 3rd ed. Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.

3 thoughts on “I’m Not Fat, I’m Fluffy

  1. Courtney Alexandria Bowden

    I must say that I enjoyed reading your blog post. To extend on your post for more discussion I wanted to add that in popular media there is always illusory correlations between something. Not only are their illusory correlations between fat and skinny people, it is also within people who seek mental health treatment. For example, mental health recipients are also stereotyped as well an often times the rule of thumb is that they are crazy when in actual reality there is little to no correlation between the two. I also wanted to share that I am on the fence with heuristics. At certain times I think heuristics can be positive and can point someone in the right direction to a solution or problem but then other times I think heuristics can be negative because since it often times follows that rule of thumb it doesn’t give room for thought of other possible solutions to a problem. To touch on you last paragraph I totally agree with you when you say that “we can choose to read into peoples’ character, rather than their characteristics” but in all honestly when you are looking for a best guess solution to a problem heuristics will never look at the person as a whole like the why psychology looks at individual people and their problems but more so the generalized rule of thumb of society today.
    Citations
    1. Goldstein, E. Bruce. “Reasoning and Decision Making.” Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience. 3rd ed. Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.

  2. Courtney Alexandria Bowden

    Kimberly,

    I must say that I enjoyed reading your blog post. To extend on your post for more discussion I wanted to add that in popular media there is always illusory correlations between something. Not only are their illusory correlations between fat and skinny people, it is also within people who seek mental health treatment. For example, mental health recipients are also stereotyped as well an often times the rule of thumb is that they are crazy when in actual reality there is little to no correlation between the two. I also wanted to share that I am on the fence with heuristics. At certain times I think heuristics can be positive and can point someone in the right direction to a solution or problem but then other times I think heuristics can be negative because since it often times follows that rule of thumb it doesn’t give room for thought of other possible solutions to a problem. To touch on you last paragraph I totally agree with you when you say that “we can choose to read into peoples’ character, rather than their characteristics” but in all honestly when you are looking for a best guess solution to a problem heuristics will never look at the person as a whole like the why psychology looks at individual people and their problems but more so the generalized rule of thumb of society today.

  3. April D Scripture

    Kimberly,
    I love your blog post! It is so true about judging people based on their size. Heck we even do it to ourselves; women can be their own worst enemies when it comes to weight and self-esteem.
    I had a rude awakening regarding this very topic. I was always very skinny, no matter what I ate, and even after having a child I weighed barely 115 pounds. During my pregnancy with my second son I was very ill, it was a high-risk pregnancy due to an autoimmune disease that I have, and afterwards I became even sicker. My doctor at the time wasn’t that familiar with my condition and accidentally put me on double the dose of steroids that I should have been on. This caused me to gain almost 75 pounds, and it took nearly three years to lose that weight. It was the first time in my life that I was considered overweight, and I can’t say that it was a fun experience, but I do not regret that I went through it because it gave me more compassion for others.
    I would like to think that I don’t judge people based on weight, but I know I have. I think we all do whether we like it or not. But I think there is a very big difference in looking at someone and thinking they are big or small, and looking at someone and thinking they are lazy or have an eating disorder. I have been on both sides of this. I am sure people at some point have thought I was so skinny that I must have an eating disorder, or that I was overweight and therefor must be lazy. Everyone fights different battles that we don’t know about, and I would like to think, especially after going through what I went through, that I no longer judge someone based on their weight. But I do mentally acknowledge his or her size, with no ill-will intended. My experiences have given my heuristics an emotional side to my predictions when it comes to weight. I don’t think there is a way to turn off our heuristics, but I like to think that we can determine how we want to use them, whether in a positive or a negative way.
    Thank you for your post!

    Goldstein, E B. Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience. 3rd. ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.

Leave a Reply