With similar deference to a referent’s humanity, “the obese” has given way to the prolix “people living with obesity,” as if all that excess weight is merely renting a spare bedroom down the hall. Yet the logic of this prohibition taints any noun that refers to a person. If I’m a “Londoner” or a “libertarian,” is that all I am? Aren’t these words, by identifying me via a mere location or creed, reductive?
