WALL-E film's 'fattist' satire angers fat pride groups

New animated film WALL-E has got rave reviews for its satire on consumer culture, where future humans are depicted as a group of obese gluttons who never leave their padded floating arm chairs.

But one group is not amused - the swelling ranks of fat pride groups, who believe the film propagates anti-obesity hysteria comparable with the quest for the perfect body by the eugenics movement in Nazi Germany.

The US is the epicentre of the movement, where pro-weight "fat-tivists" are campaigning for human rights for the full of figure.

Fighters for fat rights are calling for legislation to ban weight discrimination in the workplace, denouncing airlines that demand they buy two seats and car manufacturers whose seat belts are too small. They are also battling doctors who won't treat patients who refuse to lose weight and companies that won't insure them. They seek to reclaim the word "fat", dismissing terms like "overweight" and "obese" as morally loaded.

Research published in April by Yale University's Rudd Centre for Food Policy and Obesity suggests they might have a point. It found that one in eight people now complain of weight discrimination, up from one in 14 a decade ago. The report compared the impact on victims compares with racism and sexism.

Fat-ivists argue that our genes not our lifestyles determine the broad parameters of our weight, and favour the 'health at any size' argument that is supported by sceintific research (a study by The Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research found that even the obese who exercise are less likely to die from heart attacks, strokes and cancer than sedentary skinny people.)

They argue for greater acceptance of fat people.

"Overweight people tend to have very low self esteem," says Shelley Bovey. "I have never met anyone who I believe is totally happy with being very large. However much self confidence they have, if you live in a society that hates overweight people it is very, very difficult to be yourself."

Rachel Richardson of the Coalition of Fat Rights Activists (Cofra) objected that the WALL-E film "singles out and targets obese people as the primary cause of mankind's demise."

Miss Wann (41 years in age and 20 stones in weight) is America's best known fighter for fat rights. She told The Sunday Telegraph: "It's the classic stereotype that fat people are stupid, smelly, lazy, disgusting and out of control. These are the same stereotypes that have been used for every group of outsiders: whether it's people of colour, or the disabled, or immigrants."

Miss Wann said the film company would never have considered stereotyping black people "dancing a jig" in the way they have done so with fat people.

She added: "Pixar should be out of business for portraying this level of prejudicial bigotry-mongering. These are 19th-century hatreds repackaged in modern animation. It's amazing."

Is fat-ism really comparable with racism or sexism? Shouldn't we just leave each other alone to get on with our own lives free of prejudice and stigma, regardless of our size?