Teaching Sizeism: Integrating Size into Multicultural Education and Clinical Training

Abstract

Multicultural education, training, and practice have traditionally focused primarily on race/ethnicity with gradual inclusion of gender, sexual orientation, social class, and age. Issues of size, which intersects with racism, sexism, and classism, have been notably absent from diversity discussions. Psychologists have typically framed size issues around obesity and adopted a medicalized, individualized perspective that belies data that show traditional approaches to weight management, such as dieting and exercise, are largely ineffective and non-maintainable. Here, we offer a rationale for including body size as an issue relevant to a multicultural curriculum. Strategies for training psychologists and therapists are delineated.

Keywords:

• Ethics
• medicalization
• multicultural education
• sizeism
• training