That, I think, is the heart of the movement. You have a right to be happy as yourself, whatever your size.
The weight loss industry is big, and isn’t above using fat shaming to squeeze money out of people.
I can remember seeing commercials for weight loss products on TV that used the number 0, to imply, or maybe say outright, that if you are round like a 0, you are a zero. That’s nasty - telling people they’re worthless if they’re not thin. A nasty tactic for getting people to buy a diet product.
I haven’t seen commercials that rude in quite a while, perhaps because of pressure from body-positive movements.
I’m fine if your fat. But if you have weight, you at least have to be healthy. Like as long as your healthy I don’t care what you look like. You just have to get some physical activity and eat your daily dose of vitamins. Now, if your fat and unhealthy, and then people are saying “don’t care about your weight” like yes: you shouldn’t be ashamed of your body type but, the people that say that are promoting unhealthy eating and exercise habits!
I hate those people who use the I only care about your health as an excuse to mention your weight when they really couldn’t care less about your health, but just want to keep mentioning the fact that you are fat.
Now I know that there are people who really do care about your health but there also a lot of people who use that as a cover up so that they can continue fat shaming you.
Skinny, fat, I hate using that word , tall, short, it really dosnt matter. It’s about just being happy, we all have our own beauty, we all have our own inner beauty too.
It really don’t matter about what other people think about you. You are who you are and you should never change that just because someone else dosnt like the way you look.
Yeah I get that being over weight isn’t healthy and there’s a lot of risks but other people should not have to right mock you for that. Most of the time being over weight or anorexic is because of stress, bullying, self consciousness, there’s lots of things Its also classed as a disability too.
We are all human, we are all different, but we are all beautiful no matter how we look.
Sorry if you don’t agree with me but this is just my opinion
I am mostly sick of seing all that body idealism on instagram and co. When i was younger I always thought that those instagram girls look so beautiful and I always wanted to look like them, tall, curves, but still a thin waist. Today I‘m actually mad at myself for not realizing that 95% of this is just fake and marketing. What I‘m mostly tired of is when people assume everything about you.
Quick story: 4 years ago people started to tell me that I was too thin and starve myself in order to be a model. I always got stupid remarks from people that I don’t even knew personally and it made me sick. From „there is not even a clothing size for you“ , „do you even know what food is“ , „You are only hungry after attention“ , „ „even a stick has more curves than you“ to „you attract skeletons“. 2 years ago I started to get myself anorexic, because I thought „Everyone tells me that I have anorexia. It does not matter how often I tell them that it is genetically determined that I almost can’t gain weight fast. That I went to many many doctors who told me that everything is fine and that my genetics are messing with me. Im still getting stupid comments everyday, judging looks and negative feedback. If people really want me so much to be anorexic, then here you have it. You won, are you happy now?“
This continued about 4 months until my parents noticed that something is wrong with me. Long story short, my psychologist helped me to get out of this mindset.
Today I‘m just smiling at people and telling them that I love myself for who I am.
One of my friends is chubbier than others, but her weight is not harmful. She eats normally ,she excersices normally , she lives normally, she is fine. There are still people who tell her that she is too fat.
If she started to lose weight, people would then call her anorexic.
I don‘t really know what to think about this anymore. It seems that people are never satisfied enough.
I think “fat shaming” as it’s called is wrong. I would consider fat shaming telling someone they are ugly and horrible and bullying them because they are over weight, or calling someone fat when they obviously aren’t or if they’re underweight. I believe it will cause them emotional trauma and people need to be aware of that. In saying that, people saying fat shaming is when a doctor tells you you need to change your lifestyle cause you are overweight and will have medical problems, a loved one telling you you need to change to live a healthier, better life, or having to pay more for plus sized clothing or finding it harder to find something in your size is not fat shaming. It’s a fact of life. Of course there are exceptions to these rules because there always is. However, it’s a known fact obesity leads to health problems such as:
type 2 diabetes
high blood pressure
heart disease and strokes
certain types of cancer
sleep apnea
osteoarthritis
fatty liver disease (it’s a thing)
kidney disease
pregnancy problems
so a doctor telling you to lose weight is not fat shaming, it’s them trying to help you. Same when a loved one tells you you need to lose weight to live a happier healthier life.
And of course if you buy plus sized clothing its going to cost more! More material = More money. That’s why baby clothes cost less than adult clothes, that’s why kids clothes cost less than teens clothes (always exceptions). It’s not fat shaming its business. And you not being able to find your size. Girl same! But that don’t mean nothing! Just means you can’t find your size, happened to me before.
Here’s the thing. The fat acceptance movement really isn’t about idolizing poor health; it’s about fighting anti-fat bias - which is at best emotionally hurtful and at worst their killer.
Weight bias in healthcare is a pervasive issue and affects so many people who are suffering from causes that have nothing to do with their weight. Doctors, whether we like it or not, are just as subject to bias and social influence as the rest of us. And the idea that more weight = poor health is an extremely dangerous mindset.
These are just a few amongst the hundreds of articles and think pieces about the impact of weight bias on countless human beings. I have friends who are affected by this. I have friends of friends who are affected by this.
I’ll never forget someone I know (who isn’t even what other people would consider “chubby”) saying that they naturally lost weight after becoming sick and people commented positively on the weight loss, saying she looked better. It upset her so much because she was sick and she knew that in this case being thin wasn’t healthy. Anti-fat bias feeds into thin bias, thin bias feeds into anti-fat bias, and they affect people on both ends of the spectrum in a negative way.
When talking about weight and examining the intersection of weight and health, please consider this first: nobody can know the health status of someone else whether they are skinny or fat or in-between, because health issues are often so invisible. Someone thin could smoke cigarettes and eat trash all day while someone overweight might exercise and eat healthy but naturally maintain their body size despite it all.
And I’m sorry but I have to say this: no one fat needs to be told they’re fat. They already know because the world tells them that very thing day in and day out. Good intentions or not, worded nicely or not, it’s a hurtful and constant burden. They don’t need to be told to lose weight or given advice on how to live, especially when that very thing isn’t even accurate or relevant. Please just leave it alone.
Not all doctors are incompetent at their job. If they say something like, “Stop being a fattie!” then yes, that is fat shaming and totally not professional of them.
I do not like the movement. I think that every size is beautiful if it’s healthy. Just like people don’t support thin bodies, they shouldn’t support obesity.
It’s a toxic movement for me.
But obviously you don’t tell people with a bad manner that they should lose weight, but if you are a friend you can care enough to tell gently to your friend that she/he may have health problems in the future.
Sometimes it’s not something that they control, so it’s better not to say anything if they don’t explain.
Sometimes if both of the parents are overweight there is a chance you will too.
Like you mentioned ptsd is a reason too. Maybe someone has been sexually assaulted and felt that if they were fat they wouldn’t get assaulted or touched again, or the traumatic loss of a loved one can leave to comfort of the food.
I don’t think it should be supported as a movement if it stans unhealthy sizes.
Or the toxic argument between the “two” body types.
Pictures like “this is beautiful” pointing to a curvier girl with some extra pounds (not considered overweight) and pointing to a thinner girl and saying “this is not”. It’s disgusting,toxic.
Of course I agree with you that weight doesn’t always mean health and you don’t need to go around pointing out that someone is overweight. However, generally speaking weight gives you a very good idea on someones health. If you are underweight you can get or may have the following health risks:
Osteoporosis
Thinning skin
Hair loss
dry skin
poor dental health
Low immunity system
Fatigue
Anemia
Irregular Periods
premature births when pregnant
Slow or impaired growth
So if you came into a doctor and had any of the following symptoms they would ask you about your weight or weigh you. Being skinny however is not the same as being underweight. You can obviously be skinny and healthy however you can be skinny and unhealthy for a number of reasons, but that’s another topic.
It is also a known fact that obesity can lead to the following health problems:
type 2 diabetes
high blood pressure
heart disease
strokes
certain cancers
sleep apnea
osteoporosis
fatty liver disease
kidney disease
pregnancy problems
Gall bladder disease
Gout
Asthma
If you came into a doctor and you were overweight and you were complaining of any symptoms that could correlate with these, you are going to be asked about your weight because wither you like it or not, it could be related. On top of that, if you are morbidly obese and you are coming in for something like sore joints or stomach issues, your weight is obviously going to be the first thing questioned.
Yes there are exceptions to the rule, there always is. No you shouldn’t be down right rude towards people with weight problems. But generally speaking, unhealthy weights will be unhealthy.
I totally agree with you. I don’t hate fat or skinny people, I hate it when people glorify unhealthy lifestyles or put down other people with shit like “Real women have curves, bones are for dogs”.
Not sure if I have mentioned this before but when I had this friend who is bigger than me. She always used to fit shame me just because I’m chubby myself trying to lose weight for myself and she got really salty about it. One day, she started hating her stomach so much that she kept doing 100 crunches. She came to me for weight loss advice and I given her decent advice like:
Healthy meals does not mean eat salad all the time
Pay attention to her calories
Go for long walks, swimming if she can’t afford the gym
Limit on the red meat and eat a lot of lean meat like chicken, turkey, salmon, tuna (any non-meat source of protein if vegetarian)
Try not to snack on sweets all the time
She then told me that I’m “fat shaming” her when I did not even say anything like, “Stop eating like a pig” or “Lose all that weight you pig!” she instantly put words in my mouth there that I stopped helping her.
Definitely. As a PTSD survivor, I felt the same way that I comforted in food and shut myself out from friends & family.
I can’t stand these stupid pictures, that full on body shaming!
That isn’t what I’m trying to have people take away from my comment.
The issue I’m addressing with health bias in health care isn’t the humiliation of fatshaming; it’s about doctors evaluating heavy patients through the lens of “extra weight = cause of poor health.” Whether it’s worded kindly or professionally truly doesn’t matter.
If your health professional isn’t looking at all the possibilities, if they aren’t evaluating whatever illness you’re experiencing from impartial a lens as possible, they are at best risking your health and wellbeing.
It’s not that weight cannot cause issues; obviously it can, because bodies are physical and anything that happens to it can have wildly different repercussions. But I cannot emphasize this enough: my point isn’t whether or not more weight/less weight can cause issues.
My point is that weight bias - in this context, the assumption that extra weight is what’s causing x issue - leads to misdiagnosis. All lives vary to a degree, but this kind of bias is common experience of larger people (particularly if you also intersect with other minorities such as being a person of color, being LGBT, etc).
“My hip hurt so badly I could barely walk from my car into work. I was sent to an orthopedist. I started to describe the pain I was in and he cut me off with ‘Let me cut to the chase—you need to lose weight.’ The funny thing is, I had recently lost 70 pounds, so if the pain was weight related, why would it be happening now? I started to cry and said to him ‘You’re not even listening to me. The only thing you’re seeing is my weight.’ In his report to my primary care physician, the orthopedist’s diagnosis was ‘obesity pain.’ When I finally worked up the nerve to go to another orthopedist, he took X-rays and discovered I had scoliosis—a 60-degree curve in my spine. My pain is much improved since I started physical therapy.”
“I went to my doctor with severe abdominal pain, nausea, and sometimes vomiting with eating. My symptoms were more or less dismissed as ‘Well, you just moved and you just started a new job and you’re under a lot of stress, I’m sure things will settle down’ because I was also losing weight rapidly because I couldn’t eat without being in pain. My doctor quite transparently valued the weight loss enough to ignore the acute symptoms and said something along the lines of ‘You look great and your weight is coming down nicely so let’s just wait and see how things are once your life settles down a little bit.’ A few months later, I ended up in emergency surgery with gallstones that had blocked my common bile duct. Turns out it wasn’t just stress.”
These are two experiences from the earlier article I posted, but there are other people saying things just like it all over the place. I can’t tell you what to think or feel, but I really urge you to look deeper into weight bias in particular and how it negatively affects health care.
I’m genuinely not intending to be rude by saying this, but I mentioned something along these lines in my previous post and it was this: you can’t know what someone’s health issues are (or if even have any) purely by sight.
Nope, you weren’t being rude but I kinda do see where you’re coming from. There are some bigger people who are very lucky that they don’t even look huge since the fat is stretch. Like if you’re above 5ft 10 and weigh 180 lbs and over, you can easily get away with it.
I am in complete agreement with you. Fat people know they are fat and that can put them at risk for various diseases listed here several times.
I thought this was very interesting from one of your linked studies:
“Patients with obesity who experience identity/stereotype threat or felt/enacted stigma may experience a high level of stress which can contribute to impaired cognitive function and ability to effectively communicate 66. Accumulated exposure to high levels of stress hormones (allostatic load) has several long‐term physiological health effects, including heart disease, stroke, depression and anxiety disorder, diseases that disproportionately affect obese individuals and have been empirically linked to perceived discrimination 67-69. Indeed, stress pathways may present an alternate explanation for some proportion of the association between obesity and chronic disease 70.”
So this means all those people (including doctors) “helpfully” telling them how fat and sick they are can lead to more stress and unhealthiness. Cool.
I hope more people do some research on how their biases and behaviors can impact others. It’s not just about intention of the action (but I didn’t mean to offend them, I just wanted to let them know) it’s about the result… which in this case can be increased stress.
I also love Jameela Jamil and her “I weigh” movement. She’s thin now so in her words “people listen to her now” and she’s using that platform to say what she did when she was heavier - that fat phobia is real, harmful and needs to stop! We are worth more than what we weigh!
I definitely think it comes into play with people’s perceptions of you and your health. I’m not heavy now, but I was at a younger age. Even though I was heavy then, I was actually thinner than I think someone else who ate the same diet I did would be. Fat settles on my body less noticeably or so I’m told. I also eat pretty trashy at the moment (trying to do better though), but nobody would know that unless I told them.
Thanks for checking out the links! I know not everyone has the time or energy, but I appreciate it when people check out sources and look into things for themselves.
I also agree with this very much. Most people aren’t total bullies. Having good intentions but poor consequences is at times part of life; it isn’t inherently a mark of bad character. Maturing is all about growing and learning more about one another as human beings and adjusting accordingly.
This is probably gonna get a lot of hate, but I don’t believe in fat-shaming. I mean, sure, don’t be a dick to fat people. Everyone’s entitled to their own body weight.
…BUT being grossly obese is actually really, really bad for you and shouldn’t be encouraged.
