Is fatphobia a real thing?

I don't think it's that because in some societies and eras fat - or at least plump - has been seen as attractive.

I'd almost say it's the opposite: when times are hard or food is not easily come-by, fat has been seen as a sign of superiority in the sense that they have lots of what everyone else can't get.

It also has its evolutionary advantages. Maybe my fat genes come from ancestors who successfully stored fat for hard times?

But I think there is something more going on to be honest.

All the time I see faces I think are actually really ugly. Ironically, its often very slim women past a certain age, who have a sort of sour, gaunt look. But many, many people are ugly. We think things - of course we do - but I would take every measure possible to try to avoid them guessing I was thinking anything uncharitable.

I also find certain body types unattractive. I wouldn't treat them differently for it. I don't much like the look a long-bodied, short legged people, or of very pear shaped women with wide hips and flat chests. Skinny-hipped or narrow-shouldered men are not attractive to me. It happens that we don't like things but we GET OVER IT and treat them the same as everyone else.

There is something different going on with fat-shaming beyond just not liking the look of it. I think it's to do with it being socially acceptable to be nasty in that rare circumstance so certain types of people have to milk it as an outlet for something going on inside them.

Maybe it's also an evolutionary thing - a very overweight person would not be much help in times gone by. Too fat to climb trees for berries, walk far for water or stalk animals. So not attractive.
There's also the inferred gluttony, mentioned upthread. When food is scarce, as it was for most until very recently in evolutionary terms, over-eating would have been rather a faux pas. Fat people would have been despised for taking more than their fair share. That is no longer the case, but the judgement remains.

I do agree with you, and funnily enough in my post I was going to speculate that the pressure on the NHS may be part of the mindset. But then that would also apply to alcoholics, to smokers, to.. I don't know, motorcyclists.... none of those groups get the level of vitriol that fat people do, so there's something more to it than that I think. Plus of course this vitriol is not confined to the UK.

And it doesn't explain the annoyance that a lot of people seem to have with those who are using Mounjaro, despite the fact that the vast majority of those people are paying for it privately. Presumably those who are worried about the NHS should be universally delighted with the take-up of Mounjaro...

I'm so sorry that happened: its awful - and I hope you got the job anyway!

Strangely, in answer to your question about what must they be saying behind your back, there is something about the people who say these things that means, from what I've seen, they tend to be equally unkind to someone's face as behind their back. I think because the underlying drive IS to be unkind and it's never going to have that impact on a third person. I have a couple of larger friends, and the worst comments I have heard about them were either said to them when I was with them or reported as having been said to them.

You may need to work on your body, but some people need to work on much deeper problems than that.

Having been an almost ovese body (size 18) and dropped to a size 10 I can confirm in my experience people are treated differently (better) when thinner. Maybe it’s actually that when bigger people become invisible. I don’t know but it’s a horrible feeling to experience.

And I also now look at women who are fatter with empathy and sadness at the impact the weight is on health & knowing the not impossible steps I took to reduce (no medication) it is possible to sort out. I realise that’s ironic because I used to be bigger but when I was bigger I wasn’t able to connect the dots of my breaking body (and mind) with my size. I can now.

so yes people do think on the whole in my opinion more negatively on people who are fatter.

on a side note - the documentary showed disgusting behaviour from people meant to protect and serve us.

Literally nothing they do in the way of dietary changes or exercise could shift even one pound of weight.

All the more reason to see their GP for blood tests.

I have an extremely under active thyroid and at age 56, have never been anywhere close to overweight.

I’m pointing this out incase anyone reading thinks weight gain is a fait accompli, if they have hypothyroidism.

Having been skinny, fat, standard size, when I was fat I was invisible (or felt it). I get more attention and respect now - I don’t mean wolf whistles, just general acknowledgment.

Its very bizarre how angry people can get about other people's weight.

My theory is that men as a class of people generally hate women...they put on a good show if they find one attractive, but if they don't find a woman attractive, they don't even pretend.

As for other women... there is a type of woman I've found who is incredibly proud of being thin. It's often their greatest achievement....they loathe fat women... particularly fat women who don't hate themselves or have a nice life despite not having earned their thin tokens.

The only time I fear fat people is when they are heading towards the seat next to me on a plane or train.

Otherwise, I couldn’t care less.

Do I have a phobia of fat people? No.
Do I find fat people attractive? No.
Do I hate fat people? No.
Do I judge fat people? Probably a little bit, but I know I shouldn't.

The latest estimates are that the obesity crisis costs the tax payer £126bn a year:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jul/02/obesity-overweight-cost-estimate-nhs-study

Youre right, even slim people in amazing health can get cancer, I've known a few. So we should absolutely be focusing on what we CAN control, and that's lifestyle-related illness.

I'm not scared of fat people, no.

I don't like the proliferation of the suffix '-phobic' where it isn't intended to describe an irrational fear.

What you describe is someone being cruel.

Why are people especially cruel to the obese? Well, because they are cruel, and perhaps trying to be humorous, but not in a particularly clever way. Cheap and cruel laughs.

I think the perception is that obesity is self-inflicted, which is essentially accurate, although very simplified.

No I am slimmer I am also invisible. I used to have some heft to me - now young people barge into me in the street. Maybe it’s an age thing?

People with the correct BMI still get cancer, sadly, and all manner of other hideous diseases. I’d like to see the statistics for the actual cost to the NHS of obesity compared to the amount of taxes paid by obese people. There are plenty of other conditions that cost us a lot.

Plus, as I said earlier, I don’t think anyone who is obese wants to be that way! Weight usually creeps on slowly and it is far from “simple” to shift it.

Yes, I was invisible. Now I am slim, people respond quite differently to me (cars stop to allow me to cross the road, people hold doors open or thank me when I do it) and before I felt quite invisible. Yet I am exactly the same person - just no longer obese. People definitely make judgements about overweight people and it’s never ‘that person may have an underlying health problem or a MH issue and need my kindness and compassion’ is it?

I judge fat people negatively. I also judge myself very harshly when I am heavier.

That police officer is not sad and frustrated, @ufo although he would probably be equally vile about an alcoholic woman I suspect.

The abuse you're describing is shocking. But in response to your question "Why?" I think it's partly a general response to the rhetoric that we should all do our bit to ease strain on the NHS (and that messaging was very forceful during covid). That can lead people - maybe subconsciously - to think we'll all be paying for the overweight person's lifestyle choices down the line.
I'm not saying that's necessarily correct and doesn't apply to all overweight people, but it's definitely there.
My in laws are morbidly obese and since the age of 60 have had 3 knee and hip replacements between them and a raft of NHS support for a multitude of other obesity related conditions, and it's jarring to see so much resource spent on two people due to their own lifestyle choices.

I think it is. I do think it can be a genuine revulsion at the sight of extreme flab rather than a high and mighty superiority complex thing. The sight of very fat people who have no discernible angles to their body can cause a sort of visual disgust in the same way an anorexic person looks frightening. I wonder if it’s because it looks dangerously life threatening which strikes the phobic reaction..

It's just a mixture of sadness about the unnecessary social and physical damage to yourself, and frustration that people can't fix something that has such a 'simple' solution. It's a similar attitude towards alcoholics for example who similarly have an addiction that damages their body.

It was only recently that it became a "bad thing" to think fat people were lazy and ate too much. The excuse of "glands" would be given, but the sufferer also always seemed to have a penchant for cream cakes and nobody was fat by the end of WW2.
We now have a (metaphorical) obesity explosion.
It's caused by people eating the horrendous food available in the shops, which is cheap and chemically balanced to taste all right once you get used to it. To eat healthily requires more money and more effort. Obviously the taxpayer is footing the extra anyway, in terms of healthcare and disability benefits.
The corporation's making these frankenfoods pay out billions to shareholders and the top execs, to the cost of almost everyone else. History will not judge us well on this. It is sheer madness.
Footnote: Very occasionally, excess weight is helped along by chemical imbalances in the body. But, the fat cells don't spontaneously create themselves, so it's ultimately the food.

I did some training a couple of years ago about unconscious biases. The exercises and assessments we did as part of that revealed that I do indeed have an unconscious bias against very overweight people. I was shocked, but it explained a lot about my own self image.

So yes, it exists. Like all biases the problems arise when such views are expressed openly.