An entertainment–education study of stereotypes and prejudice against fat women

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the impact of Fat Pig on the attitudes of high school students towards fat women and investigate the perspective of dietitians as health professionals on the messages in Fat Pig.Design: Performance analysis, pre–post analysis of students’ responses to self-administrated pre-constructed questionnaires, students’ focus groups and personal interviews with dietitians.Setting: Tenth grade (15–16 year-old) high school students in Israel who saw Fat Pig as part of their high school’s educational–cultural curriculum, and dietitians from four different healthcare organizations in Israel that came to see the play as a group.Method: Performance analysis, quantitative analysis of students’ responses using SPSS, and qualitative analysis of students’ focus groups and personal interviews with dietitians.Results: Students’ responses indicate that the play’s impact is completely opposite to the playwright and the educator’s original intention to challenge stereotypes and prejudice towards fat women in society. Moreover, the play reinforces the student’s social and cultural norms that glorify the ‘thinness ideal’. In addition, according to the dietitians, the play cannot serve them as an additional treatment tool.Conclusion: Creating or using drama in education not according to theoretical approaches, such as the entertainment–education (EE) approach, may lead to paradoxical outcomes, completely contradict educational intentions, and even reinforce undesired attitudes and behaviours.