The Women’s Center hosted a "Fat Activism" panel in collaboration with University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh to target the stigmas surrounding body image.
About 100 individuals gathered in Ellis Hall to talk "fat activism" Tuesday night.
In an event hosted by the Ohio University Women's Center, a Global Google Hangout was led by Geneva Murray, the new director of the Women’s Center, in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.
"Fat activism," as explained by panelist Cat Pausé, is the promotion of the idea that people with all body sizes deserve the same rights and dignity.
The event focused on stereotypes of being fat and raised awareness about the negative impacts of those stereotypes.
The event featured activists from around the world, such as Pausé, Ragen Chastain, Jenny Lee and Irene McCalphin, through a Google Hangout conversation.
In her opening speech, Murray spoke about how fat shaming is taught from a young age, citing the example of body mass index report cards being sent home to young children, telling them that they’re not healthy and promoting shame among them.
“(Nursing) is a really important profession to be aware of fat activism and (if you’re in the healthcare profession) to be aware of the importance of treating all your patients equally, regardless of their size,” Sarah Jenkins, the program coordinator for the Women’s Center, said.
Jenkins said the event’s goal was to introduce people to fat activism. She said it was great to have many students from the nursing department attend the event.
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Murray said she was also thrilled to see more than half of the room filled with students from the nursing department.
“When we’re thinking about what fat activism and fat scholarship look like, it’s absolutely critical that we have the medical community engaged in that conversation,” Murray said.
Lacey Rogers, a second-year graduate student studying public administration, said it was her first time participating in an event specifically about fat activism.
“(Body image) is present at all times. It’s something that you see in from music videos to magazines and there’s a lot of objectification that’s shown,” Rogers said. “Some people are aware and some people don’t notice, but it’s important to talk about it so people understand that it’s an issue that impacts (others).”
A prevalent topic in the evening's discussion was the treatment by medical professionals to people who were considered fat. One example the panel brought up was men’s cancer being undetected by their doctors who instead advised them to lose weight.
“There’s been a lack of information or a lack of interrogation of some of these health studies that we’ve hold onto,” Murray said. “We’re constantly learning new information, (whether it be) information about our biases or information about the reality of fat people’s lives. We’re challenging a lot of stereotypes (such as) fat people being lazy.”
Murray said it is important for people to realize that everyone deserves love and respect regardless of size. She quoted Pausé saying, “It’ll be great if everyone knew that there’s no one way to have a body, that we are us and that we are all people.”
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