A San Diego State professor wants to change the way we talk about being fat.
"Fat" is the word professor Esther Rothblum uses, and it's the subject she'll examine in her upcoming anthology. She's editor of a book called "The Fat Studies Reader." She says the expressions overweight and obese are medical terms. And they don't tell the story of the American obsession with weight and appearance. Rothblum is a women's studies professor who says you'd be surprised to know how many young people believe they're too fat.
"When I lecture about weight in my undergraduate classes, even my very thin students tell me that they're very fat, they saw me looking at them, they think they should lose weight," she says.
Rothblum says reality shows about people trying to lose weight are just one way society has fastened on a subject. Putting aside the health concerns, she says her message is: It's okay to look different.
