400-pound hacker? 'Miss Piggy'? Trump comments fuel dialogue on fat-shaming

It was a casual remark tossed off by Donald Trump that jolted Johanna Kandel from her seat during the recent presidential debate.

An anonymous computer hacker, Trump said, "could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds."

"The hair on the back of my neck definitely stood up," said Kandel, 37, of West Palm Beach, Florida, who has struggled with eating disorders and now works to raise awareness about the issue. Kandel recalled how vicious comments about size and appearance contributed to her own struggle.

"How many of our youth were sitting there and watching these debates, and thinking that this is OK to talk about and shame people based on their appearance?"

Ever since the Monday debate, another national debate has erupted: What happens when fat-shaming becomes part of the presidential campaign?

[Debate setback prompts Trump to air complaints]

Trump's personal fixation on weight was on display during and after the debate. He reignited a feud with comedian Rosie O'Donnell, whom he once said had "a fat, ugly face." He was unapologetic in responding to Hillary Clinton's comments that he had called a former Miss Universe, Alicia Machado, "Miss Piggy."

"She gained a massive amount of weight, and it was a real problem," he told Fox News the next morning, although he denied calling her the name.

But it's the blithe comment about a hypothetical 400-pound hacker that helped trigger a national conversation about fat-shaming.

More than two-thirds of American adults (including Trump himself) are considered to be overweight or obese.

"It would make logical sense that if the majority of Americans are fat, that this would definitely do him in," said Kimberly Massengill, a self-described fat person who specializes in photographing people who are fat. But she doesn't think that will happen because fat people often think poorly of themselves. "The fact is that the majority of fat people feel unworthy."

After Trump's comment about the 400-pound hacker, Massengill said, her cellphone buzzed with text messages from friends.

"They all said the same thing," said Massengill. "Wouldn't it be great if fat people were the ones to keep Trump out of office?"

But obesity experts and activists say fat-shaming is one of the last bastions of acceptable discrimination, and Trump's public body shaming simply reflects a culture in which it is still considered acceptable to mock people for their weight.

"With two-thirds of people struggling with weight, you would think that some of the shaming would be on the decline, or that acceptance or tolerance would increase," said Rebecca Puhl, a professor and the deputy director for the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at the University of Connecticut. "We are not seeing that."

Puhl points to the paucity of laws protecting people from hiring discrimination based on their weight — so far Michigan, she said, is the only state to forbid it. Studies show that overweight people, women in particular, are discriminated against in the workplace for their size. And research shows that even medical professionals provide worse care to people who are overweight.

The concern is that cavalier comments about weight by a public figure can have far-reaching effects. Being teased about weight is a strong contributor to both disordered eating and weight gain among young people, said Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, the head of the division of epidemiology and community health at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.

"In some ways it legitimizes making those types of comments, which we know from our research can be very dangerous," she said. "In my opinion, these things trickle down."

Kristina Saffran, 24, who was hospitalized with anorexia nervosa in high school, said body-shaming comments from a public figure, even when they aren't directed at an individual, still can be deeply painful to people who struggle with eating disorders.

"They live in a society where everyone is thinking they are bad and stupid and lazy for being fat, and we have a presidential candidate who is championing those beliefs," said Saffran, who lives in San Mateo, California. "It is going to be even harder for them to seek help."

Though Trump's comments may reflect a widely held view that being overweight or obese is a personal failing, some people fear that fat-shaming comments by a presidential candidate will encourage others to go further.

"Saying these negative things about people's weight and women's appearance will further embolden people to express similar ideas," said Lesley Kinzel, a Boston-based author of a memoir about being fat.

Until the debate, Kinzel said she had not focused on much of what Trump has said. But during the debate, it became personal. She said she realized overweight people like her were now "just one in a line of people he wants to dismiss as losers."