The Stigma of Obesity in Women: The Difference is Black and White

TLDR

Possible explanations for these findings include differences in social role models, weight salience, subcultural beliefs about obesity, and disidentification from mainstream values among Black and White women. This study examined whether there is subcultural variation in the stigma of obesity. Black and White women rated photographs of thin, average, and large Black and White women on multiple evaluative dimensions, using professional models in fashionable clothing. White women rated large women, particularly large White women, lower on attractiveness, intelligence, job success, relationship success, happiness, and popularity, whereas Black women did not similarly denigrate large women, especially large Black women.

Abstract

This study examined whether there is subcultural variation in the stigma of obesity. Black and White women rated photographs of thin, average, and large Black and White women on a number of evaluative dimensions. The photographs depicted professional models dressed in fashionable clothing. Results showed that White women rated large women, especially large White women, lower on attractiveness, intelligence, job success, relationship success, happiness, and popularity than they did average or thin women. By contrast, Black women did not show the same denigration of large women, and this was especially true when they were rating large Black women. A number of possible explanations are offered for these results, such as the difference in Black and White women's social role models, weight salience, subcultural beliefs concerning obesity, and disidentification from mainstream values.