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So, this is something that was new to me a couple of years ago, and this is something that I’m really learning about now. But what’s actually happened is that fat phobia, the fear in hatred of fat bodies has stems from racism. And again, this is relatively new to me. I had no idea. 

 

There is an absolutely phenomenal work that was released a couple of years ago called Fearing the Black Body by Dr. Sabrina Strings. 

 

If you’re going to read anything in the next year, Body Respect and Fearing the Black Body are really, and not just personal reading, this is vital professional reading.

 

Fearing the Black Body traces back four of 500 years of racism and demonstrates how fat phobia was created as part of racism. So as a white woman, I’m essentially collateral damage. And that doesn’t mean that I don’t experience fat phobia. I have some stories, both medical and non-medical, but it means that people who are in brown and black bodies get the worst of it. 

 

So, I always try to note that when I’m speaking about this, because yes, it affects me in other white people, but it affects black folks more because it was created specifically as part of a system of oppression aimed at them. So, that is really important to note, that’s where it’s coming from. 

 

And so, when you get feedback from people in Black and Brown bodies, it’s even more important to take that into account. So that said, let’s talk about practical things.

There’s your mindset, there’s your challenge in your belief system around fat bodies. But let’s talk about your physical spaces. I’ve once had a dermatologist that I went to for a few years where I literally could not sit down in his waiting room. I had to stand in this little bitty waiting room, and like lean back over the chairs when someone else would come in so that they could get through.

 

Lori: Oh my goodness.

 

Lindley: Absolutely humiliating. And at the time, I was not as strong of an advocate for myself as I am now. And I didn’t know how to say your waiting room chairs are all tiny and they have arms, I can’t sit in them. 

 

What are you going to do to fix it? If nothing else, can I wait in an exam room or something? But seriously, can people sit down in your waiting room? Do you have at least a couple of armless chairs? Some of it is really that simple. 

 

Do you have a large blood pressure cuff? Do you have exam rooms with tables for the people who… clinicians who have exam rooms. Are the tables sturdy enough so that they can fit on them? If you’re a massage therapist, is your table wide enough to accommodate larger bodies? 

 

These are things that when you move through a space and you’re in a smaller body, you literally don’t notice them because those aren’t obstacles for you. But take a walk through your space and just pretend that whatever body you live in, and of course, not everyone who is listening to this is going to have a smaller body. 

 

But whatever body you live in, assume that it’s three times as large. And if you need to hold your hands out from your sides to make that happen, or whatever thing you need to make that visible to you.

Move through your space, see if you can squeeze between the exam table and the wall. See if you can get between the door and that potted plant. Whatever, whatever, just move through your space. And then also, you have done that, see what you can fix. 

'

I understand that not everyone is in a building where they control everything. It’s entirely possible that you’re a part of a practice where you can’t just wave a magic wand and change everything in the waiting room, or wave a magic wand and buy new tables, but this is your point to start advocating.

 

A lot of this is work. A lot of it is not glamorous. It’s advocating for as long as necessary to get an armless chair into your waiting room. It’s sucking it up and investing in what you need, whatever kind of equipment you need to serve all kinds of bodies; not just the ones that are socially acceptable. 

 

And I often hear clinicians give feedback or give pushback in the sense that it feels like an expensive extra. It’s like, oh, I have invested all this money into my business and now I got to do more. And the thing is that, once again, this is a mindset thing, because at least in the US, I don’t have Canadian stats on me, but in the US, people who are “overweight or obese”, are something like two thirds of the population.

Not only is our larger people, the majority of the population; we’re not like this weird little niche population that has extra special needs that it would just be ridiculous to consider fulfilling – we’re the majority. 

 

And the fact that businesses aren’t already built to accommodate larger bodies is evidence of fat phobia, whether you intended to or not, it doesn’t make you a bad person. It’s just something that you didn’t know and now you do. 

 

But it’s also a market opportunity. This is a business opportunity for you to be the one that welcomes people in larger bodies. So, this sort of pushback that I occasionally get that people think that having to do something extra, it’s really not. 

 

And even if it were, again, if I can’t sit in the dermatologist waiting room, then I’m going to go to the dermatologist I see now who has a variety of chairs in their waiting room. I don’t have to stand. I can sit on this nice padded bench. I could sit in that chair over there without arms, or I could sit in one with arms.

Warmly,
Lindley

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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