Why being thin is seen as a privilege?
This preference towards slim people culminates in thin privilege or skinny privilege. This is an ideology that people have special rights or immunity when they are thin. Thin privilege is very dominant in our society and people are rewarded for their weight-to-height ratio. This also means that thin privilege will afford varying levels of immunity from certain harms in society because of a person’s body size and receive advantages that they may not even realise.
Thin privilege represents all forms of social, financial and practical benefits a person gets because of thin body shape or size. People who have it may not even realise this privilege as they may not have to think about finding the right clothing sizes or being stared at in public spaces or being remarked for their body size. There’s research that shows that thin people are perceived to be kinder, more clever and hardworking compared to peers who are sometimes considered as having aggressive and rude behaviours based on their body size.
