'Fat Studies' course deems 'weightism' a 'social justice issue'

'Fat Studies' course deems 'weightism' a 'social justice issue'

• "Fat Studies" is returning to Oregon State University next spring, when students will be able to earn three credits to explore “forms of activism used to counter weightism perpetuated throughout various societal institutions.”
• “My course now frames body image disturbances more as a function of oppressive societal structures than of individual pathology," Patti Lou-Watkins explains in a 2012 academic journal article. Oregon State University will offer a spring course on “fat studies” in order to teach students how “weight-based oppression” is a “social justice issue.”

According to a syllabus for the course obtained by Campus Reform, students will examine “body weight, shape, and size as an area of human difference subject to privilege and discrimination that intersects with other systems of oppression based on gender, race, class, age, sexual orientation, and ability.”
"The field of fat studies has undergone tremendous growth in recent years."
...In a 2013 article in European Health Psychologist, for instance, Lou-Watkins argues that the growing “war on obesity” has actually caused more harm than good, saying many who attempt to lose weight suffer psychological consequences..."
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