Confronting Weight Discrimination in Germany—The Foundation of a Fat Acceptance Organization

Abstract

The author describes the foundation and development of the German Society against Weight Discrimination (Gesellschaft gegen Gewichtsdiskriminierung) from its founding year 2005 to 2011. The cultural and socioeconomic contexts of fatness in Germany are analyzed and some differences between Germany and the United States in confronting fatness are pointed out. One difference is identified in Germany's National Socialist past that influences political jargon in Germany up to the present time in that rhetoric even remotely resembling Nazi rhetoric is inacceptable as official jargon. Open argumentation for the fitness of the masses along the lines of Foucault's governmentality is thus highly critical, and political campaigns implementing governmental strategies remain vague. When arguing against fatness, German official jargon tends to resort to constructing the fat person as a threat to collective resources, be it the health care system, the disability insurance system, or the national economy at large. By way of a comparative analysis of discourses around fatness in Germany and the USA, the author points out the specific challenges a fat acceptance organization in Germany faces and describes how the Gesellschaft gegen Gewichtsdiskriminierung works to confront them.

Keywords:

• anti-fat rhetoric
• comparative analysis
• fat acceptance
• Germany
• National Socialism
• protestant work ethic
• USA
• weight discrimination