Took a little break from the internet and touched some grass and it was great. Wander back in here after my hiatus and what do I find? Just a thread with a bunch of fatphobia.
Cute.
For a community that is incredibly careful about protecting its users from the -phobias and the -isms, there sure is a hell of a lot of unchecked fatphobia here basically any time fatness gets brought up.
It’s something I’ve noticed on the left in general as well. The leftist org I’m in has almost no fat people in it and something tells me that’s not because there aren’t any fat leftists out there.
Fatphobia is rooted in anti-Blackness and ableism.
I’d highly recommend the “Maintenance Phase” podcast with Michael Hobbes and Aubrey Gordon, as well as Aubrey Gordon’s books “What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat” and “You Just Need To Lose Weight.”
TL;DR: There’s mounting evidence that anti-fat bias in medicine is more to blame for poor medical outcomes in fat people rather than just the fat itself.
Diet and exercise don’t result in long-term weight loss for something like 95% of people. As a leftist, are you really gonna sit here and blame this on individual choices rather than systemic issues? Are you really gonna try to convince us that 95% of people are just lacking willpower?
Please note that this thread is not an invitation to convince me I’m wrong or share your own personal anecdotal story of successful long-term weight loss with the implication that others can do it because you did it. This post is a request that any thin person (or thin-adjacent person) reading this who wants to argue about how being fat is bad for your health do some research and some self-crit. This post is a request that this community rethink the way it engages with discussions about fatness, diet, fatphobia, and anti-fat bias.
Anti-fat bias literally kills people.
Does anyone suggest being overweight causes no issues? I don't think they do. (well, I'm sure some people do, cause anyone will say anything, but I don't think its a widespread view)
I think the argument is A) the issues are over-exaggerated and over-policed, B) we celebrate some other unhealthy behaviors (such as some aspects of weightlifting and professional sports, and some ED among the celebrity/model crowd), and C) so what if being overweight causes issues? Its not your body
I don't think they do [suggest being overweight causes no issues], but the well has been poisoned elsewhere by preemptively assuming that if we even present this as a societal issue and a negative outcome that we're 'concern trolling' and secretly only care because we hate fat people.
I grew up in Mississippi. Huge food desert, poor population, awful education, terribly obese, and the entire country is constantly being shitty to the people there like they chose it. And the healthcare sucks because doctors don't try to treat fat people. So sure, it's not my body, it's not a literal warzone, and there are other behaviors that need to die, but I have a lot of proximity to this and some of the people I've grown up with have essentially no mobility and are constantly having health scares. It's not just a 'so what' to me, these were my neighbors and the common perception is that they experienced some sort of moral failing and not that they are being exploited into an early grave. It's not my body, but I care about more than just my own body.
https://www.marquiselemercedes.com/read/food-deserts
I don't know how to explain to you that linking an accusation of fatphobia when I have been in this thread constantly defending fatness as 'not a moral failing,' lost family to fatphobia, and experienced assumed fatphobia from people who don't even know me is extremely patronizing.