Living with fat bias 'THIS IS THE PERFECT BODY FOR ME'

After a lifetime of illness, Ashlea's seeking size equality from medical professionals

- Kasia Jillings

As a child with a chronic, life-threatening illness, Ashlea Gillon’s youth was consumed with medical appointments, hospital stays and trying to survive, leaving little time to dream of her one-day career.

What she did have was plenty of time to ponder how others treated her and her body. From as young as five years old, Ashlea – who has lived with chronic steroid dependent asthma since birth – has vivid memories of being told she was fat and being treated differently because of it.

Now, 33, these experiences have inspired an academic career. She’s six years into her PhD exploring fat indigenous wāhine experiences and enactments of body sovereignty, and in July, she was awarded a $249,000 Health Research Council grant for her latest research into fat bias within health spaces for Māori.

“It’s encouraging that fat bias is being recognised as a big problem, especially for Māori,” says the University of Auckland doctoral candidate, research fellow and Fulbright alumni, who dreams of all fat people being taken seriously by medical professionals.

She believes too often that being fat can be blamed as the sole cause of health issues.