DEI’s Big Fat Problem

Let me ask you a question: have you ever had diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) training that was focused on size inclusion or anti-fat bias?

Has anti-fat bias even been a footnote in any DEI training that you’ve had or seen?

I asked these questions to company leaders, DEI professionals and my audience on Instagram and the answer was a resounding big fat ‘no’.

69% of people said they had had DEI training and the amount of those people who had training that mention the existence of fat* folks? 0%.

Not a single person I asked (and it was hundreds of people) has been exposed to anything related to size diversity.

This is a problem.

The reason why it’s a problem? Many of us live in bigger bodies and a saddening amount of workplaces alienate and harm fat folks with policies and ways of operating that exclude us. 

Not to mention that fat people are hired, paid and promoted less than their smaller-bodied** counterparts. I don’t think it’s intentional most of the time (although there are certainly many people who openly admit disdain or revulsion towards higher-weight people), however, the unintended consequences still occur.

The most common response when I asked folks about anti-fat bias training was “That is so needed, what a wonderful idea!” But still, employees are experiencing unwelcoming and sometimes harmful attitudes in the workplace.

People shared with me some of their experiences of being fat at work:

• “The diet talk: people literally saying fat people are disgusting”

• “I’ve been waiting for a uniform that fits for over a year”

• “The chairs are not made for fat people. The lunchroom tables and chairs are in a fixed position”

• “My boss openly makes fat jokes”

• “I have to swallow fatphobic comments reluctantly”

• “It sucks. No support but plenty of workplace weight loss initiatives”

I asked my audience on Instagram if their company had a DEI team, person or committee if they believed that DEI person/team were even aware of anti-fat bias as a concept. Only 5% said yes (45% said no and 50% were not sure). 

Some comments people shared about DEI and anti-fat bias training:

“I’m in my offices’ DEI committee and frankly I’m scared to bring it up”

“Our DEI director is entrenched in diet culture, it’s never going to be part of the plan”

“I wish, but I don’t think it’ll ever be accepted as important in workplace DEI spaces”

More reassuringly however 20.8% of respondents speculated their company would be open to including anti-fat bias in their DEI efforts, 25% said it was a ‘maybe’ but unfortunately 54.1% said it would likely be a ‘no’.

These numbers reflect employees’ perceptions of their workplace and the reality could be different.

I asked leaders and DEI professionals why they thought that size inclusion has yet to be a topic. Some admitted they had never even considered it before while others expressed there were more important things to focus on.

What a lot of folks don’t realize is that fat liberation is a deeply intersectional issue. Anti-fatness is a manifestation of anti-Blackness, ableism, colonialism, healthism and classism to name just a few. It must be a part of our DEI lens if we are striving to be intersectional. 

So, we have a big fat problem in DEI: people in larger bodies are being ignored and worse excluded. This fact is alarming considering many employees live in bigger bodies. We are not an insignificant portion of the employee population yet we live in the shadows of DEI initiatives.

Let me ask you, reader, have YOU had training on anti-fat bias and if not, do you think it's important to consider?

P.S. While reading this you had the thoughts “Well fat people should just lose weight” or “But fat people are unhealthy and we shouldn’t encourage them” then they are clues that you have anti-fat beliefs (we all do) and could seriously benefit from training on anti-fat bias.

*The word “fat” is a neutral descriptor and has been reclaimed as an empowering word by fat liberationists. 

**Smaller-bodied means someone who is not fat

Vinny Welsby (they/them) is the Founder of Weight Inclusive Consulting, and Fierce Fatty a TEDx speaker, podcast host and diversity consultant. To get free resources and learn more go to www.weightbiastraining.com/