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.
Itās something Iāve noticed on the left in general as well. The leftist org Iām in has almost no fat people in it and something tells me thatās not because there arenāt any fat leftists out there.
Fatphobia is rooted in anti-Blackness and ableism.
Iād highly recommend the āMaintenance Phaseā podcast with Michael Hobbes and Aubrey Gordon, as well as Aubrey Gordonās books āWhat We Donāt Talk About When We Talk About Fatā and āYou Just Need To Lose Weight.ā
TL;DR: Thereās 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 donāt 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 Iām 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 donāt think they do. (well, Iām sure some people do, cause anyone will say anything, but I donāt 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 donāt 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 weāre āconcern trollingā 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 donāt try to treat fat people. So sure, itās not my body, itās 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 Iāve grown up with have essentially no mobility and are constantly having health scares. Itās not just a āso whatā 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. Itās not my body, but I care about more than just my own body.
I donāt agree.
Your second paragraph is true, yes. Though, Iād frame it more around āhealthā than āweightā. Iām not saying āweightā has no impact on health, but the health is the important part of the equation to focus on (and, even there, āhealthā can be a dog-whistle for fatphobia sometimes). Itās that focus of āfat=badā that is the āconcern trollingā. You donāt need to āfix fatnessā, you need to fix all those other problems.
Its not a āpoisoned wellā if someone is telling people their weight needs to be fixed pisses people off (even if itās framed as not their fault!), and it is understandable that others find such comments to read as concern trolling.
https://www.marquiselemercedes.com/read/food-deserts
I donāt know how to explain to you that linking an accusation of fatphobia when I have been in this thread constantly defending fatness as ānot a moral failing,ā lost family to fatphobia, and experienced assumed fatphobia from people who donāt even know me is extremely patronizing.
I definitely agree that itās a topic thatās overpoliced and there are certain unhealthy behaviors that are glorified. In particular I have been myself tired and critical of all the health influencer and social media information peddlers who specialize over health topics while being sensationalist and seem to made with aim of making people panic. In particular, bodybuilders and weightlifters being such an extensive part of this when it is precisely those that can promote behaviors that are unhealthy both mentally and physically is something I came to greatly dislike recently with my observation that so much information and advice regarding self-care being monopolized by lifters who may or may not be on substances not to even mention crooks and grifters selling things like carnivore diets and what not.
However it seems that there is an argument being made specifically that being overweight is not the cause of certain health complications ascribed to it, which Iāll try to look up now.