- Camila Veras Mota
- BBC – Brazil
Ryan Souza was 14 years old when she stopped using public transportation in Brazil because it was not suitable for plus size people
It’s strange, I’ve never come here even though it’s so close to my house. But it was only five years ago that I started going to the beach once more.”
The author of the above statement is Ryan Souza, a young Brazilian influencer on social networking sites, and an activist in the field of combating discrimination once morest obese people.
Ryan herself suffered from this discrimination, which caused her to avoid swimming for many years.
Ryan was sitting on a bench facing the sea when the BBC interviewed her to talk regarding her so-called “gordophobia”, an expression in Portuguese that can be translated as “obesephobia”.
Ryan Souza grew up on the island of Vitoria, the capital of the Brazilian state of Espirito Santo, and lived in the affluent Ilha do Pui neighborhood with some of the city’s most beautiful views.
Awareness of “obesity phobia”
Ryan co-founded Godra Na Lei, which means Obesity in Law, an association that works with lawyers to help victims of obesity discrimination bring court cases and obtain compensation.
Brazil may be known for the stereotype of “sun-kissed beauties” ready to hit the beach in swimsuits, but it is also the country where campaigners are working to pass laws that make life in cities easier for plus-sized people.
Lawyers bring cases of discrimination before the courts, especially discrimination in the workplace. In Brazil, beauty is also celebrated regardless of weight, and beauty contests are held for overweight women.
While we were talking to Ryan, her fiancé was taking pictures of her, which she posted on her Instagram account, which has more than 18,000 followers, sharing details of her daily life.
The 32-year-old looks completely different today from the girl who, for 11 years, did not dare to think regarding going to the seaside.
“During my teenage years, I used to make any excuse to avoid going to the beach with my friends. Sometimes I say I’m on my period, other times I say I’m sick… When all my excuses fail, I’m the only one in the group sitting on the sand in long black pants and a T-shirt,” Ryan says. Loose lumbar.
“I’ve been fat all my life. I was a fat kid, a fat teenager. I used to hear comments regarding my weight.”
But she says that a certain incident that she was exposed to during her university studies changed her way of thinking.
Shocking experience
In 2012, several of Ryan’s university classmates created a WhatsApp group to mock her appearance and her excess weight.
They would take pictures from their classmate’s social media accounts, and share them in the group with derogatory comments. At one point, one of the students, feeling guilty, told Ryan regarding it.
But that traumatic, painful experience was the reason that made Ryan change her way of thinking, and her view of herself upside down.
While trying to deal with her grief, the girl discovered the idea of dealing positively with the body in all its forms, a concept born in the United States in the 1970s, and focusing on “self-care, self-love and acceptance.”
“When I understood what hepatophobia was, I began to realize a lot of what had happened to me throughout my life,” says Ryan. “It was never my fault, it was society’s fault.”
Ryan and Mariana
Ryan decided to take it positively, and in 2019 she asked her friend, Mariana Oliveira, a human rights lawyer, to help her launch a group of campaigns to defend the rights of overweight people.
Ryan and Mariana began receiving letters from people seeking compensation for discrimination, or wanting to share their experiences, at a rate of regarding 70 messages per month.
According to official statistics, there are now more than 1,400 obesity-related cases being heard by labor courts in Brazil.
Discrimination in the workplace
Mariana explains that “obesophobia” is not considered a crime under the law in Brazil, but there are legal ways to combat it, such as taking someone to court for defamation or slander, or committing immoral psychological harassment.
Mariana refers to a case in which an employer required one of his female employees to lose some weight in order to pay her bonus.
“He even made her stand on the scale,” she says.
And the decision was issued in favor of the female employee, with a ruling to her in compensation of regarding $ 1,800, which is one of the highest compensations awarded by Brazilian courts in cases related to obesity, although it is considered a small amount compared to compensation in cases of another kind in the country.
Marian adds that the employer said, in his defense, that he asked her to lose weight because he “considers her as his daughter, and he wanted the best for her.”
The judges considered that the employer’s dealings with the employee had nothing to do with the father-daughter relationship, and the decision stated, “The facts related to this case seem surreal, although they are indisputable.”
Ryan and Mariana say that despite the increase in the number of court cases in this regard, many people still do not claim compensation, because they want to avoid repeating the trauma and relive the experience.
The revolving door problem
One of the difficult experiences was the case of a woman from Espírito Santo, who was stuck in the revolving door of a bus because of her large body, and was stuck for four hours, before firefighters intervened to get her out.
“People were making fun of the woman, taking pictures and videos of her, and posting them on social media,” says Ryan.
Revolving doors are a major problem for Brazil’s larger people. Ryan stopped riding the bus when she was 14, following she once got stuck in the door of the bus she was taking to downtown Vitoria.
“I’m lucky enough to be able to take a taxi or drive myself wherever I want to go. But that’s not the case for most Brazilians,” she says.
bring regarding change
A classroom in Recife has a large chair suitable for larger pupils
Ryan believes there are some laws that need to be changed, in order for cities to become comfortable and suitable for people of all sizes.
And she believes that with regard to buses specifically, one of the easy solutions is to allow passengers to board from the back door, as today the person has to ask the driver to allow him to do so, as a favor or a special favor, and sometimes the driver refuses the request.
Some Brazilian cities have adopted this policy, such as the coastal city of Recife, which is located 1,500 kilometers north of Vitoria.
Decisions to combat obesity phobia
Last year, two resolutions related to combating obesity were issued: the first is to designate a special day to raise awareness of this matter, and the second is to oblige schools to provide more seats for students, at least one larger seat in each semester.
“I heard many stories of people who suffered a lot of humiliation in their school years. They had to go to the principal’s office every day to take one of the adult chairs,” said Seda Pedrosa, a Recife city council member who proposed the bill.
She believes that initiatives aimed at making the city suitable for people of all sizes are as important as initiatives to combat obesity and promote healthy food or exercise.
“The two things are not necessarily mutually exclusive. We have to commit to providing healthy food for students in public schools, and encourage people to lead a healthy lifestyle. But at the same time we cannot continue to reproduce the idea that fat people are sick.”
Carole Stadtler adopts the same principle in her defense of the rights of overweight people, and she is a member of a group called “Bonita do Carbo”, meaning “Beauty of the Body”, and she has joined Sida in efforts to pass the new legislation.
A classroom in Recife has a large chair suitable for larger pupils
Carroll says that older people are often portrayed as lazy, which is a hindrance to their path in the work environment, and they are seen as personally responsible for their situation.
She adds that the reality of life in today’s world, with many people working in low-paid jobs and having to commute for hours in big cities to and from the place of work, makes having money to eat fruits and vegetables and finding time to exercise, a luxury that can be difficult to reach.
“People are getting fatter, and we have to deal with it,” she stresses.
Official figures show that half of Brazilians are overweight, and one in four is obese.
Weight loss challenges
Dr. Lucia Cordero says that losing weight is not easy, and she believes that natural evolution is partly responsible for this, as humanity throughout history has suffered from hunger much more than it lived in an abundance of food, which helped program our bodies to increase appetite as soon as we start losing weight. .
The endocrinologist, who is from the city of Recife, adds that the psychological factor can play an important role in weight gain, and indicates that regarding 30 percent of obese people in Brazil suffer from eating disorders, and this is what often makes treatment It requires the intervention of a mental health professional.
Genetic factors are also a cause of weight gain in regarding 30 percent of cases, says Dr. Lucia.
Bonita do Carbo is trying to make cities suitable for people of all sizes
Dr. Lucia explains that obesity is an inflammatory disease linked to a wide range of diseases, from cancer to heart failure and sleep apnea.
But at the same time, it indicates that a person can be overweight or obese, but his health is good.
“The opposite is also true: a person can be thin, and his health is not good,” Dr. Lucia told the BBC.
“We assess a person’s general health. If he is overweight but does not suffer from high blood pressure, diabetes or lipid disorders, he is classified as a healthy person.”
She believes that the high rates of obesity is a public health problem that needs to be addressed. But that doesn’t mean society doesn’t need to change to make life better for plus-size people or fight discrimination.
And she stresses the need to work in both directions, saying, “We have to urge society to try to lead a healthy life, but we have to be careful in how to send the message, so that it does not turn into prejudice, into obesity phobia.”
Back in Vitoria, Ryan says many people are “afraid to go to the doctor”.
The BBC has heard many stories of people being told they should lose weight regardless of their symptoms or reasons for seeking medical advice.
Many say being stigmatized by a health professional is not uncommon for the overweight.
Ryan is currently looking for a “sympathetic” doctor to help her follow a healthy diet. She and her fiancé, Thiago, are planning to have a baby in the future, and she wants her pregnancy to be as smooth as possible.
We do not promote obesity.
“I want to improve my lifestyle and eat healthy. If I lose weight, so be it, but that’s not my main goal. I think it’s possible to have a healthy pregnancy even if you’re overweight,” says Ryan.
In her opinion, one of the biggest misconceptions people have regarding anti-obesiophobia groups is that activists advocate an unhealthy lifestyle.
The goal, she says, is to make life in cities easier for overweight people, for doctors to treat their patients with respect, and for everyone to have a fair chance in the job market.
“(The campaigns) have nothing to do with trying to romanticize an unhealthy lifestyle. In fact, we don’t encourage people to maintain a body that always makes them marginalized,” Ryan stresses.
“We encourage people to empower themselves and seek their rights. Decisions regarding anyone’s lifestyle are their business.”