Liverpool Weighs Ban on Word “Obesity”
The Liverpool City Council is reportedly considering a ban on the word “obesity” after the Liverpool Schools Parliament, a student body organization, expressed concern that some could find the term offensive. Although some experts have apparently disputed this contention, suggesting that the word adequately reflects the severity of the health condition, students argue that the stigma “would turn people off, particularly young people,” as one youth representative told the press. The proposal would require the council to use the description “unhealthy weight” in all literature geared toward children. “We can’t change government terminology or clinician terminology, but we can look at changing how we communicate weight issues in council reports and in our communications with children,” a council spokesperson was quoted as saying. See BBC News, April 12, 2010; The Telegraph, April 13, 2010.
Meanwhile, a South Yorkshire community has also attracted considerable media attention for its aborted plan to burn a “40 [foot] effigy of a fat boy in tight clothes sitting in an overflowing ashtray opposite a table full of cakes of burgers,” according to an April 15, 2010, column in the Guardian. The town of Barnsley apparently wanted to conduct the ceremony, dubbed “Bye Bye Burger Boy,” as the centerpiece of its upcoming wellness festival, but scrapped the idea after health workers feared the display might “humiliate” some attendees. “We recognize there is a real health issue regarding obesity in Barnsley and we need to continue to find ways to address it, but this is not the way to do it and, together with NHS Barnsley, we apologize for any offense that has been caused,” stated the city council.
