Meet the UCLA medical school ‘fat pride’ staffer whose compulsory lectures warn trainee doctors that using the word obesity is ‘violence’ (and she’s been condemned by a top Harvard doctor)
The UCLA medical school had been condemned by a renowned Harvard doctor for forcing students to take a “fat positivity” course.
All first-year medical students at UCLA should read an essay by Marquisele Mercedes, a self-described “fat liberator” who claims that “fatphobia is the status quo of medicine” and that weight loss is a “hopeless endeavor.”
Mercedes’ article, titled “No Health, No Care: The Big Fat Maze in the Hippocratic Oath,” is on the required reading list for the required course on Structural Racism and Health Equity.
The class syllabus, obtained by the Washington free beaconshows what students learn at the elite medical school – which has drawn the attention of experts across the country who disagree with the course’s teachings.
Jeffrey Flier, the former dean of Harvard Medical School and one of the world’s leading experts on obesity, denounced the course, saying the curriculum “promotes extensive and dangerous misinformation.”
All first-year medical students at UCLA should read an essay by Marquisele Mercedes (pictured), a self-proclaimed “fat liberator” who claims that “fatphobia is the status quo of medicine” and that weight loss is a “hopeless endeavor.”
Jeffrey Flier (pictured), the former dean of Harvard Medical School and one of the world’s leading experts on obesity, denounced the course, saying the curriculum “promotes extensive and dangerous misinformation.”
UCLA “has focused this required course on a socialist/Marxist ideology that is completely inappropriate,” Flier said. ‘As a medical teacher, I found this course really shocking.’
Mercedes’ essay describes how weight has become “pathologized and medicalized in racial terms.”
She offers guidance on “resisting deep-seated fat suppression,” according to the course syllabus.
Mercedes claims that “ob*sity” is a slur “used to enforce violence against fat people” — specifically “black, disabled, transgender, poor fat people.”
“This is a deeply misleading view of obesity, a complex medical condition with major adverse health consequences for all racial and ethnic groups,” Flier said, adding that teaching these “ignorant” ideas to medical students is “malpractice.” .
She uses her social media account to express more of her fat positivity activism.
“It’s so damn isolating to be a disabled black fat person working toward individual and collective liberation,” she wrote in an Instagram post – adding that being fat is a disability.
Mercedes has also led presentations on how “anti-fatness comes through in the work you do” – which she says includes using “fear-mongering language to encourage healthy eating and physical activity”.
Mercedes also taught students during a public health seminar that “fat people face anti-fatness every day in every area for their entire lives.”
Mercedes says that ‘making the decision to provide health care for fat people often means making the decision to likely put yourself at risk’
She has also led presentations on how “anti-fatness shows up in the work you do” – which she says includes using “fear-mongering language to encourage healthy eating and physical activity.”
Mercedes also taught students during a public health seminar that “fat people experience anti-fatness every day in every area of life throughout their lives.”
She says that “making the decision to commit to health care for fat people often means making the decision to likely put yourself at risk.”
DailyMail.com has contacted Mercedes for comment.
Mercedes is just one voice amid a wave of ‘big positivity’. Virginia Sole-Smith, a ‘fat activist’, has sparked controversy for saying childhood obesity is not a problem, but anti-fat bias is.
Mercedes (pictured) claims ‘ob*sity’ is a slur ‘used to enforce violence against fat people’ – especially ‘black, disabled, transgender, poor fat people’
Virginia lets her children eat whatever they want, even against the wishes of her former husband, who caught his daughter eating a stick of butter.
She is the author of “Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture” and an advocate for dismantling diet culture and combating fat bias.
“We don’t take body size into account,” Sole-Smith said on the Pressure Cooker podcast. ‘How your child eats and how much he exercises is actually the smallest piece of the puzzle. If you focus on that with the goal of controlling your child’s weight, you’re doing a lot of damage.”
Although Sole-Smith’s book is a New York Times bestseller and many turn to her for parenting advice, others think she promotes a dangerous lifestyle.
“It’s not okay to be overweight, it’s not okay to eat excess sugar and animal fats, it’s not okay to eat junk food, it’s not okay to not move your body, it’s not okay to claiming that being overweight is all good,” Caroline Hailstone said on one of Sole Smith’s Instagram posts.
Mercedes has also received her fair share of criticism – and Flier isn’t the only expert to condemn UCLA for incorporating her ideas into the course curriculum.
Nicholas Christakis is a sociologist who has spent decades providing medical care to underserved communities, including on Chicago’s South Side.
He calls the curriculum “nonsensical” and says the course is “embarrassing for UCLA.”
First-year medical students at UCLA were also forced to attend a bizarre lecture by a pro-Hamas activist who had them pray to “Mama Earth” while a faculty member tried to identify a student who refused to participate.
Lisa Gray-Garcia gave the two-hour presentation on March 27 in Geffen Hall, on the university’s downtown campus.
The lecture was a required part of the Structural Racism and Health Equity course, taught by pediatrician Lindsay Wells.
UCLA class syllabus reveals what students learn at elite medical school – which has drawn the attention of experts from across the country who disagree with the course’s teachings
UCLA isn’t the only university criticized for including certain teachings in the curriculum for DEI purposes.
Stanford Medical School has been spreading lessons on “microaggressions,” “structural racism,” and “privileges” in education.
Yale Medical School students were required to complete an “Advocacy and Equity” series on “becoming a physician who advocates for health equity.”
Columbia Medical School faculty are told to call women “people with uteruses” to promote the disease ‘anti-bias and inclusive’ curriculum.