The Guardian finds new term for fat people

The Guardian has introduced a new term for fat people: “people living with excess weight”.

Of course, when publishing an article blaming the obese for throttling the economy with their excessive use of sick leave and healthcare resources, a bit of polite euphemism is really the least one can do. Admittedly, it doesn’t roll off the tongue quite like “large-bodied” or “heavyset”, instead joining a growing genre of cumbersome phrases meant to assure readers that we really mean no offence: “people experiencing houselessness”, for example.

Just when I thought we’d run out of euphemisms for fat, The Guardian pulls “people living excess weight” out of the woodwork pic.twitter.com/UY8Q1u9gZr

— Olivia Utley (@OliviaUtley) May 13, 2024

The obese and overweight, the Guardian warns, impose an enormous cost on society — at the global scale, the annual cost is in the low trillions. As long as we’re not calling them fat…