Survey: Some Americans OK With Being Fat By CANDICE CHOI, Associated Press Writer
Thin is still in, but apparently fat is nowhere near as out as it used to be. A survey finds America’s attitudes toward overweight people are shifting from rejection toward acceptance. Over a 20-year period, the percentage of Americans who said they find overweight people less attractive steadily dropped from 55 percent to 24 percent, the market research firm NPD Group found.
With about two-thirds of U.S. adults overweight, Americans seem more accepting of heavier body types, researchers say. The NPD survey of 1,900 people representative of the U.S. population also found other more relaxed attitudes about weight and diet.
While body image remains a constant obsession, the national preoccupation with being thin has waned since the late 1980s and early 1990s, said the NPD’s Harry Balzer.
Those were the days when fast food chains rushed to install salad bars. In 1989, salads as a main course peaked at 10 percent of all restaurant meals. Today, those salad bars have all but vanished and salads account for just 5 1/2 percent of main dishes.
“It turns out health is a wonderful topic to talk about,” Balzer said. “But to live that way is a real effort.”
Fewer people said they’re trying to “avoid snacking entirely” — just 26 percent in 2005, down from 45 percent in 1985 — while 75 percent said they had low-fat, no-fat or reduced fat products in the last two weeks, down from 86 percent in 1999, according to the survey.
At 5-feet-6 and 230 pounds, Lara Frater likes her body just fine and turns up her nose at trendy diets.
“I don’t beat myself up if I have a piece of cake,” said Frater, a 34-year-old New Yorker and author of “Fat Chicks Rule.”
The survey’s findings aren’t that surprising, as attitudes about weight constantly shift, said John Cawley, associate professor at Cornell University’s College of Human Ecology.
While heavy women were idealized at times — think “Rubenesque,” a term born of 17th century painter Peter Paul Rubens’ full-figured women — corseted women with tiny waists were preferred in other eras.
“I don’t think we’re going to go back to worshipping obese women, but it’s interesting to see how attitudes change as more people become overweight,” Cawley said.
Others argue that people are merely becoming more politically correct and that bias against fat people is actually growing sharper.
“These studies don’t pick up on implicit, unconscious bias,” said Kelly Brownell, head of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University.
“It’s like if you asked people around the country if they had racial bias. There’s a difference between what people say and what actually happens,” Brownell said.
Researchers at Cornell also found that negative attitudes about obesity persist.
The NPD study results may simply be a sign of “resignation from overweight people,” Brownell said, noting that it’s likely a majority of survey respondents are overweight.
The survey, to be published in February in the journal Rationality and Society, also found obese boys and girls were half as likely to date as normal weight kids.
At an obesity doctors meeting in 2003, a University of Liverpool study indicated that just standing next to a large woman can be bad for a guy’s image. The study had young women look at one of two pictures: One of a trim young man standing next to a svelte woman, and the other showing the same man next to a heavy woman.
When the man was shown standing by the large woman, he was rated 22 percent more negatively by the study volunteers than when he was next to the thin woman. When seen with the large woman, he was more likely to be described as miserable, depressed, weak and insecure.
Marilyn Wann, board member of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, said fat people are the target of a witch hunt in a fitness-obsessed nation.
“Everyone thinks it’s OK to make fun of fatties,” said Wann, who won’t use the word “overweight” because she says it’s judgmental.
Even if people say they are more accepting of overweight people, many still yearn to be thin. The NPD survey shows the number of people who said “I would like to lose 20 pounds” jumped from 54 percent in 1985 to 61 percent last year.
January 15th, 2006 at 7:16 am
Acceptnce of overweight people……hm-m-m….
I wonder if this is due inpart to some of the performers, like..’Queen’ Lafaytte [I know I spelled her name wrong, hope someone that reads this can do it right]. Saw her on ET last night, and they had clips of here - she was heavy, then thin, and now full-figured [notice how it went from .. ‘heavy’ to ‘full figured’]. She is succesfull, well liked by those around her [at least we don’t hear anything negative yet], always looks well dressed and made-up…the way most of us want to, but don’t have the time, or the money, to do it..
[…..apparently fat is nowhere near as out as it use to be….]
Yet, a picture of an attractive man with a ‘larger’ woman was seen as weak, insecure, depressed and miserable…. Is that the only kind of man a ‘larger’ women can get, when the same man with a thin women is evedently happy, handsome, ok [the article didn’t say that, but implies it, to me at least]?
And while ‘more accepting’ of overweight, the number that wants to lose weight jumped…hm-m-m-m-m-m….
After reading the comment from MikeXG about the airlines and the seat restrictions, I’m not sure about overweight being more accepting….I think people that answers surveys don’t want to be bias so give the answers they know would be acceptable–the way they hope they are. —— If 2 people walked in for a job, one thin and one overweight….equal quialifications and experience and age….I would bet the one hired would be the thin one….
I have never been made to feel fat or obese or ugly or stupid because of my weight. But I never listen to gossip either, so people would have to be talking really loud for me to hear anything like that… Once in awhile dh might say something, but he thinks he is encouraging me in losing weight when he does. He doesn’t say anything if I’m not ‘dieting’….
Super Son Shinning on us Sunday, Editor. Have a great soul satisfying day.
January 15th, 2006 at 7:32 am
Such good comments by you, Angelic! I appreciate every well thought out word. Fat Acceptance? I don’t think so other than more sites are cropping up trying to make a movement to accommodate a certain segment of the population. The only fat one in the Bible that I note is: Eli—and not favorably. 1Sa 4:18 And it came to pass, when he made mention of the ark of God, that Eli feel from off his seat backward by the side of the gate; and his neck brake, and he died: for he was an old man, and heavy. And he had judged Israel forty years.
I don’t want to be remembered for that.
Angelic, you are not fat nor obese. You are overweight. Mike, The Century Club and myself have been the brunt of prejudice. This is recognized with hurt. We want freedom from obesity. Even Hollywood only allows 1 overweight person per 5000 thin. I set my standards on what I see there. Christ Ally and Oprah even lost the weight to stay in their field. I will too. Roseanne Barr and Al Roker even had Gastric bypass to stay in their field. I don’t believe that our built in intuitive will ever allow us to be fat and happy acceptance.
January 15th, 2006 at 7:42 pm
I agree…I think they are trying to be more politically correct than accepting.
Queen Latifah appears to have accepted her own weight, and that self confidence is very attractive. But how many anorexic looking stars are out there? They are thin and still don’t accept themselves. I personally can’t stand seeing a woman’s ribs sticking out.
January 16th, 2006 at 3:14 am
You are right about that, Toni. If Hollywood would be more favorable of fat than they are of anorecic, public opion might sway. I think we should be comfortable in our own skin, and if we are not we must react.
March 2nd, 2007 at 4:54 pm
Google…
Google is the best search engine…