Though it's pretty much agreed that it's not OK to fat-shame people, apparently actual educational institutions are cool with thin-shaming instead. At least, that's what seems to be going on over at Yale University in the US, where a student has been threatened with suspension because she is too skinny.
Frances Chan is 92lbs and 5ft 2in tall, and says that, due to genetics, she can't put on any weight. However, when she went to an on-campus doctor with a lump in her breast, she was sent an email saying there was 'a concern resulting from your recent visit'.
She assumed the worst, so immediately visited a clinician. But whilst she recieved the news that the lump was benign, she was the told that she must put on weight and attend counselling and treatment sessions for an eating disorder.
'These appointments were not optional,' Chan wrote in an essay for* The Huffington Post*. 'The clinician threatened to put me on medical leave if I did not comply: "If it were up to the administration, school would already be out for you. I'm just trying to help," she told me.'
Frances tried to follow the school's recommendations and put on 2lbs. However, once she did that, they demanded she put on another 3lbs.
'It felt really bad to be this powerless,' she later told the* New Haven Register*. 'I ate ice cream twice a day. I ate cookies. I used elevators instead of walking up stairs. But I don’t really gain any weight.'
Yale, who relented only when Frances got her parents involved, have only thus far made one simple comment about the incident, which was: 'Yale has a strong system of mental health care for students.'
It really doesn't sound it – who are they to tell a student what to do with her body?
Frances is now campaigning for the university to drop their reliance on BMI – which focuses on height and weight primarily over other health needs – and reassess how its medical officials measure health.
Frances added: 'At Yale, you’re taught to be the change that you want to see in the world. Well, this seems like an easy thing to change.'
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.