British MPs have suggested that calling someone "fatty" or "obese" should be considered a hate crime on a par with racism or homophobia. Generations of children have traded banter - or bullying, depending on your perspective - about body weight in the schoolyard, and Enid Blyton even named one of her characters "Fatty" in her Five Find-Outers series.
But a report by the all-party parliamentary group on body image has recommended that the Government should investigate putting "appearance-based discrimination" on the same legal basis as race and sexual discrimination.
Under the Equalities Act 2010, it is illegal to harass, victimise or discriminate against anyone on the basis of a number of "protected" characteristics, such as their race, gender, sexual orientation, age, or disability. The parliamentary group, supported by the charity Central YMCA, today (Tuesday) publishes a report, Reflections on Body Image, recommending "a review into the scale of the problem of appearance-based discrimination and how this would be best tackled".
It says: "This may include exploring whether an amendment to the Equalities Act would be the most appropriate way of tackling such discrimination."
Under the current Act, people can and are prosecuted for verbal abuse if it is deemed serious enough. Rosi Prescott, the chief executive of Central YMCA, said if there was strong evidence that appearance-related discrimination was widespread, the Equalities Act should make it a punishable offence. This could make it a crime to draw attention to a person's weight.
She said: "All the rules that apply under the Equalities Act now would also apply to appearance-related discrimination; they would be applied consistently."
The report found one in five people had been victimised because of their weight, and that appearance was the major cause of bullying in schools. Miss Prescott even questioned whether doctors should refrain from telling patients they were carrying excess pounds. She said: "If they don't feel overweight, and there are no health indications, what is the problem?"
Numerous studies have shown that overweight people consistently underestimate how fat they are, and that those who are overweight when young are more likely to develop heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer and die younger than those of a healthy weight. Almost two thirds of British adults are now either overweight or obese. Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, agreed with the concept of outlawing "size-discrimination" and harassment. But he said doctors must be able to tell patients, for their own good, if they are overweight. "There are a lot of people who are very fat and are quite happy being so," he said. "However, the problem arises if they don't know the medical consequences that result from their fatness. Doctors must be able to give them 'tough love'."
