I know that I recently did a blog on fatphobia and sizism, but let's be honest: we all know it's not going away any time soon. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm pretty sick and tired of seeing weight loss ads everywhere I go. I was recently reading an article by Sam Harris on beliefnet and I saw a version of the ad you see to the left. I can hear the assholes now: "you wouldn't be offended if you weren't so fat". It's times like that when I'm glad I have thin friends who are just as outspoken against sizism and the focus on body image as I am.
Firstly, fat people are fat for a variety of reasons, but secondly, not a single one of those reasons is your business. Let's assume that what every thin person says about every fat person is true: that we just shovel food in our faces. My question would be: so what? Thin people are allowed to shovel food with no one batting an eye- some people may even find it endearing or entertaining. But should someone with a much slower metabolism do the same, they are looked at with disdain, disgust, and judgment. So my first question to these haters is why are we not allowed to enjoy the same lifestyle that you are?
The unintelligent retort tends to be "because it makes you fat!" but again I ask.. so what? The only reason this is a problem is because of assholes like you! If people were allowed to just be their natural sizes or whatever size they chose to be then there wouldn't even be an argument here. Okay naturally thin person who eats a lot and watches TV all day, you don't want to sleep with me. I get that.. I'm not attracted to all people either. I'm generally not attracted to thin people and I'm never attracted to extremely thin people, but I never degrade them or make them feel bad about themselves for being thin. Other people want to sleep with me- other people have slept with me, so it's obviously not a problem in my life. Combine that with the fact that I'm likely healthier than you are and you don't' have a single argument to back you other than your lack of attraction. If we got rid of everyone in the world that everyone didn't find attractive, how many people would we be left with exactly? I'm pretty sure that number would be low enough to exterminate the human race entirely.
Another argument may be "but it's bad for you". One more time everybody! SO WHAT? If people choose to eat unhealthy foods with the full knowledge of the risks then who cares? People go skydiving, people join the military, and people drive cars: all of these have well known risks and are rarely criticized for that reason. That doesn't even get into the fact that being thin does not exclude you from health risks of a bad diet.
So let's compromise: everyone can eat whatever they want as long as they're not directly interfering with another's wellbeing or life and people can stop being asshats about other people's eating habits or physical appearance. Let's make that apply to all aspects of physical appearance shall we?
2 comments:
People think they can look at other people and just know how healthy they are or aren’t, and, unfortunately, everyone's decided that fat people are always unhealthy. The fact is you can rarely make an educated guess about someone's health by merely observing what size they are. And if we're going to go that route, I've spent a whole lot of time in the chemo lounge at Forsyth. The cancer patients you worry about are the ones who are thin, not the ones who are fat.
Fat used to be a sign of health, and barring extreme situations in which a person is too obese to walk or otherwise take care of themselves, I don't really see why that should change. We're the wealthiest nation on Earth, and while I would argue that our national diet is awful, assuming we all get enough grains, veggies, fruits, beans, and (should you choose) dairy and meat, we should have a healthy amount of body fat, not a complete lack of it. And "healthy" is relative, so some people would have more while others would have less. I would argue that our nation’s “obesity epidemic” is a “nutrition epidemic.” The problem isn’t necessarily how much we eat, but what we eat, namely over-processed garbage full of empty calories and minimal nutrition.
We're a society that is obsessed with extremes, and our focus on one extreme (obesity) feeds the other (anorexia/bulimia/orthorexia/bingeing/etc.). We see commercials for McDonald's Quarter Pounders followed immediately by commercials telling us to get rid of our fat with pills or at the gym, since it's obviously eating away at our souls and wracking us with extreme guilt. And if we don't feel guilty for our fat, there's something wrong with us.
I’m a thin person (you’ve seen me), but even I’ve been caught in the cycle of hating my body, despite my eyes-wide-open approach to the way media informs and misinforms us. (For example: “I’m thin, but not thinner than her, ergo she’s better than me.”) I thought I’d escaped that mess when I graduated from high school with a decent amount of self esteem and no eating disorders, but now I’m discovering, much to my dismay, that first-time eating disorders in women 25 and older are on the rise.
Anyway, long story short (too late!): Great post. Obviously, it got me thinking.
Thanks so much for the great and thoughtful comment Amanda!
I have a button on my purse that says "I wish I was as thin as I was when I thought I was fat" In high school I unfortunately didn't escape having an eating disorder nor did I have any amount of self esteem. I was constantly told how fat I was. Now, as I look through photos of those days I am shocked and horrified at how I could have thought that. And it tears at my heart to know that other people had that much power over my self perception. It's not difficult to see where body dysmorphic disorder comes from as it seems to be imposed on a growing number of people now, both male and female.
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