A powerful collection of testimonies from teenage girls who have been victimized by fatphobia, a social phenomenon that stigmatizes and discriminates against individuals because of their weight.
What is fatphobia and what can be done to overcome it? With poetic illustrations and painful, compelling testimony, Tales of Ordinary Fatphobia offers multiple examples of the psychological effects of weight-based discrimination and bullying on adolescent girls.
Guiding Question: Think critically about how we perceive people based on looks alone. How might these judgements limit our thinking, and what can we do to change our thinking and the thinking of others?
Before watching the film, ask students to take a moment to think about their own biases towards people of size. What do they think about these people? Do they have any prejudices towards them? Are there any larger people in their circle and how do they see themselves? Are they preoccupied by their physical appearance?
Tales of Ordinary Fatphobia, Josiane Blanc, provided by the National Film Board of Canada