Positioning of Weight Bias: Moving towards Social Justice

Table 1

Summary of similarities and differences identified among research areas.

Research perspective	Language used	Theoretical position	Consequences identified	Weight-based social inequity
Weight-centric	Obesity; Obese person; Person with obesity	Attribution theory; Thin-ideal internalization; Social comparison theory	Depression; Anxiety; Stress; Binge-eating; Low physical activity motivation; Patient-provider relationship	Gender; Patient quality of care
Health-centric	Fat/fatness; Fat person	Critical analysis of obesity discourses; Critical fat studies; Feminist poststructuralism; Intersectionality	Oppressive social context; Harassment; Social exclusion; Female body anxiety; Draining of female energy	Gender; Race; SES; Sexual orientation
Health at every size	Obese/fat; Fat person; Obese person	Critical analysis of “healthism”	Reinforcing & privileging thinness; Decontextualize health; Demotivates health behaviour; Avoidance of health care