Addressing Anti-Fat Bias in Psychology: Education and Resistance

Abstract

This is a commentary on Ward and McPhail’s (2019) article “Fat Shame and Blame in Reproductive Care: Implications for Ethical Health Care Interactions.” Here I note the importance of good mental health to positive pregnancy and childbirth experiences and consider whether psychologists and other mental health professionals share medical providers’ tendencies to blame and shame their fat clients (they do). I discuss the absence of coverage of sizeism (fat prejudice) in textbooks used to train psychology graduate students, students’ and trainees’ resistance to discussions of sizeism in classes and workshops, and the importance of intersectionality and consideration of fat as a social identity. Resources for teaching and practicing fat-affirmative psychotherapy are provided.

Keywords:

• Fat shaming
• fat oppression
• fat-affirmative therapy
• size acceptance
• mental health

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.