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When psychologist Lisa Berzins, Ph.D., walks onto a stage to speak
about eating disorders and the prejudices we hold towards those
who are overweight, she doesn't always get the respect that she
deserves. Students can be somewhat disruptive, she explains, and
she often hears comments that she is not the person to be talking
about weight issues…especially because she's a size 22 herself.
But, when she leaves the stage during a video and comes back 10
minutes later as a much slimmer woman, a size 4/6 to be exact, the
audience sits up and takes notice. Then, she says, they pay closer
attention.
The dramatic change in her stature could be a major part of their
attitude adjustment or, as Berzins believes, it could be a symptom
of a larger problem…the prejudices faced by people who are overweight.
Berzins, senior research clinician at the University of Connecticut
Health Center, specializes in working with patients with eating
disorders in her private practice in West Hartford, Conn. She has
appeared on television, as well as in front of school, community
and corporate groups to give her presentation wearing a specially
designed "fat suit." She spoke with New England Psychologist's
Catherine Robertson Souter about the effect the quick change
has on audiences.
Q: How did this unique presentation start?
A: In 1994, I was on a series called "Fat and Forgotten" that
Channel 3 news did about weight discrimination. They had a fat suit
made for the reporter to see how people treated her differently.
When that was over, I begged for the fat suit because I could really
use it in my work in schools and various places.
I wear the suit when I start and talk about media messages and
self-esteem and eating disorders and how the media hypes ultra-thin
appearances for women. Then, I put in a videotape and go change
while it's playing. When the video is over, I come back in without
the suit on.
Q: The reaction?
A: Usually people are open-mouthed and shocked. Then we have
a discussion about what their attitudes were towards me when I was
wearing the suit and towards heavy people in general and I explain
that most people in this society have that prejudice.
Q: Are the kids honest about their reaction?
A: They do talk about it. They say that they didn't take me
that seriously - they wondered why I was talking about weight issues
when I had a problem myself. And they are more disrespectful. The
level of noise and disruption is distinctly different when I am
wearing the fat suit and when I am not.
To loosen the audience up a bit I will tell them about an experience
I had when I wore the fat suit out to a restaurant to meet a good
friend of mine. I didn't tell her that I was wearing the suit and
I hadn't seen her for a couple of months. The restaurant was not
crowded in the least but instead of getting seated in the section
where we always had, we were seated all the way in the back, near
the kitchen.
I was planning all these different responses to what my friend
would say but she said nothing, which I wasn't prepared for. She
didn't want to insult me.
At one point, I had to go to the bathroom and I didn't make eye
contact with people because I felt so self-conscious - even though
I knew it wasn't me. I had a lot of the same feelings that people
that I treat describe in terms of feeling uncomfortable. When I
got back to my seat, my friend said that people were giving me disapproving
glares. (She knew at that point).
I had an interesting experience on national TV when I wore it.
We were all waiting backstage to go on a show about teenagers being
desperate for beauty. The "experts" were talking about how different
shapes and sizes should be accepted, but [backstage] they all just
ignored me. There was one person on the show, a plastic surgeon,
who went and got water for everyone on the show, except me.
Q: Awww…
A: Later when he realized that it wasn't real and that I was
a psychologist, he changed his tune and was very friendly and gave
me his card. People said what a great thing I was doing but it was
a really distinct difference.
Q: You were also on the Discovery Channel?
A: That was a show called "Obesity, a Deadly Risk," an hour
documentary with a segment on cultural attitudes and weight discrimination.
With the suit on, I talked with a group of seven-year-olds about
attitudes towards friends and that kind of thing. When I changed
and came back, some of the kids didn't know it was me.
Q: Are you changing attitudes? Or do most people still say,
well, why don't you lose the weight if you are 300 pounds?
A: I've done before-and-after questionnaires with the kids I
see at the schools. A lot of them say it's made them more sensitive
to people who are heavy and that they hadn't really thought about
it before.
It's hard to tell the difference between what kids say and what
they feel. There are some kids who will admit that they had negative
attitudes and that they still have negative attitudes but most kids
will say, on this paper and pencil test, that they will now be more
sensitive.
To really change these attitudes, you'd have to have some kind
of curriculum that starts in kindergarten and goes through school
on the whole concept of diversity and size and shape, along with
everything else.
Q: Have you had reactions from students who are overweight?
A: Yes. And a lot of times these same kids have really negative
attitudes about themselves and about fat people.
Q: Anyone feel betrayed?
A: I haven't had anyone ever say that they did, or write that
they did. That was a concern that I originally had, people would
feel that I was making light of them or that I could take it off…
Q: "It's easy for you to say…"
A: Exactly, but I have not run into that. I have seen more of
the opposite - people being appreciative.
Q: Has this helped you in terms of dealing with the weight issues
that you see around you?
A: Well, I still think it's sad that people, and the media especially,
are much more likely to listen to a thin person wearing a fat suit
rather than just a fat person experiencing their everyday life.
At different points, The New Yorker did a story on it and The New
York Times did a story on it and The Hartford Courant did a story
on it. It receives a lot of attention.
Someone who is just fat talking about his/her life would receive
a lot less attention.
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