Universities are considering "fattening up" their curricula.
In the last few years, there has a been a push to add fat studies, a course which its supporters say will focus on people who are victims of prejudice, stereotypes and oppression by mainstream society. Proponents of the program see it as a sister subject to women's studies, ethnic studies, queer studies and disability studies, a November New York Times article said.
Penn State has yet to look into establishing a fat studies program, said Fred Vondracek, Health and Human Development's interim dean.
Because the curriculum within each class is determined by the teachers, it's not known whether or not any teachers incorporate aspects of fat studies into their classes, Vondracek said.
Even though Penn State has not looked into establishing a fat studies program and there is no such program in existence at any university, there will be a huge growth phase for fat studies in the next two years, said Marilyn Wann, author of Fat!So?.
"Like women studies or critical race theory, fat studies is an area of intense human experience," she said.
Peggy Howell, public relations chairwoman of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA), said adding fat studies to universities would help people realize that "people of size" are unjustly discriminated against.
"If it became a topic of study at universities, then people seeking higher education will be enlightened, and it can be changed," she said.
Some students agree that "people of size" should not be discriminated against.
"I'd take the class. I feel bad for them. Some are born that way and they're looked down upon," Kevin Pate (freshman-business) said.
Other students, such as Elliot Baker (sophomore-computer engineering), said they saw no need for a fat studies course.
Howell said many times fat people are stigmatized because of their size and in turn don't socialize.
"We're criticized for being lazy, but then you go to the pool and you get mocked at," Howell said.
Therefore, one of the objectives of NAAFA is to create a social environment where people of size would be accepted without fear of being ridiculed or mocked.
"We are not something to be feared or shunned or avoided. We're people, we just happen to have a little more fat on our bodies than the average person has -- that doesn't make us monsters," Howell said.
The NAAFA is working to implement anti-fat discrimination laws in every state. Michigan is the only state that has such laws, she said.
Last year, Margaret Carlisle Duncan, professor in the department of human movement sciences at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, went on sabbatical to study obesity. She decided that people spend too much time talking about body issues and are "blowing it out of proportion." This spurred her to construct a course, "The Social Construction of Obesity," which was designed to help her students deal with cultural body issues and prevent them from being judgmental.
"I try to present facts and support that there is an obesity epidemic and there's a kind of panic around it," Duncan said.
She said Americans know little about the complex issue of obesity and although some people think fat studies is an unnecessary program, she disagrees. Fat studies could help treat disorders like bulimia, she said.
Cole McDanel (sophomore-crime, law and justice) said he disagreed.
"I wouldn't take it," he said. "It's not a legitimate thing to study."
Although the response to Wann's book has been mostly positive, she said there has been the occasional negative response. She said many times--when she's on radio shows--she will get the "doughnut speech" from people who are concerned "about maintaining superiority."
"You're fat and you're gonna die, and you are fat because you eat doughnuts. You are probably eating a doughnut right now. If you didn't eat doughnuts you wouldn't be fat, and you wouldn't die," Wann said, mimicking those on the radio.
Perhaps her critics obsess about doughnuts because they can't have one, she said. "I'm not uptight about doughnuts," Wann said.
