Size as Diversity Absent from Multicultural Textbooks

Abstract

The current clinical approach adopted by many mental health clinicians is the medical model, which, in the case of size diversity, has been connected with weight stigma. Mental health practitioners need to be exposed to the critique of the medicalized view that fat is a disease that can be cured through dieting. Weight stigma and fat-shaming may be reduced through adoption of a social justice perspective on sizeism as a form of oppression. An analysis of textbooks designed for use in graduate multicultural courses indicates that size is not currently addressed as a diversity or social justice issue within psychology. It is recommended that fat be conceptualized as a social identity that intersects with other diversity dimensions within coursework for mental health trainees as opposed to a sizeist paradigm where fat is depicted as pathological.

Keywords:

• Content analysis
• diversity
• fat
• multicultural counseling
• pedagogy
• psychology
• psychotherapy
• graduate textbooks