Fat Body Politics

fatcatsandcurls:

fatnomimalone:

cynicalxme:

fatnomimalone:

religiousragings:

cynicalxme:

…

You are missing the point.

You are so missing the point.

The point isn’t to rid the world of fat, or even over indulgence. The point isn’t to treat obesity as it’s something to be ashamed of.

The POINT is to acknowledge that our country has a problem. An unhealthy problem. That is effecting the majority of us. Certain demographics more than others. In this country, being and eating healthy costs a lot of money.

AND THAT IS NOT OKAY.

When I talk about obesity being a problem, I’m not saying obese people are the problem. When I say we need to talk about it, and fix it, I’m not saying we need to rid the world unsightly people. Because fat doesn’t make people unsightly!! I’m not saying we need to “fix” people because they are somehow broken. It is our culture that’s broken. It is our grocery stores, our restaurtants, and our food brands. They are broken, and they need to be fixed.

We need to talk about ways to adress the obesity problem NOT because it’s a size problem but because it is an overarching health problem, effecting millions and millions of people.  People die everyday because of it.

Fighting obesity has nothing to do with fighting plus sizes. I wish people would get it through their thick skulls.

Not everything is about you. If you can’t put aside your hurt feelings while talking about the health of our nation, then you need to stay out of the discussion. 

As a formerly obese person, I support this message…

Actually, more than that.  This states it better than anything else I’ve ever read about the topic.

But no. Health isn’t determined by whether or not someone is obese. If you want to address the lack of healthy food options and food deserts in the nation, please feel free to do so. YOU CAN BE UNHEALTHY AND BE THIN, YOU CAN BE UNDERWEIGHT AND STILL EAT CRAPPY FOOD THAT HAS AN EFFECT ON YOUR HEALTH, IT IS NOT NOT NOT STRICTLY AN OBESITY PROBLEM AND IT IS NOT A “WAR” THAT NEEDS TO BE FOUGHT. the SECOND you made it strictly about an obesity problem is the second you made your argument completely invalid. 

I would say your point is valid… if over half of the united states wasn’t dealing with obesity. Obesity IS RELATED to the health crisis in america. 

If the majority of america was underweight and unhealthy you’d better bet we’d be talking about that too. 

And please save the “obesity doesn’t mean unhealthy” crap. Stomach fat is well known to increases risk for type II diabetes and heart disease. Obesity substantially increases the risk for certain cancers.

I’m young, obese, and sick. And it hurts to watch other people being lulled into the false sense of security that obesity doesn’t come with a gigantic health risk. 

Ah, I see. You’re using your own health as a measure for everyone else. Sorry to say that your arguments are invalid and biased. 

As a counter to your over hyped links I’m going to send you to Kate Harding, who has covered all this - http://kateharding.net/faq/but-dont-you-realize-fat-is-unhealthy/ please go read (including all the links SHE has countering yours) and educate yourself. 

You want people to be healthy, good for you! Go after smokers, excessive drinkers, and people who work too hard and stress themselves out. Address the high cost of healthcare(and the many dr’s who REFUSE to treat a health prob because if fatty’s would just lose weight they wouldn’t be sick) & access to nutritious and low cost food, and other things that contribute to the unhealthiness of Americans. Skinny people are unhealthy, too, but I don’t see not a DAMN word about you being worried about their health. You wanna fatty shame under the guise of ‘the health of the nation’? Nope, gonna call you exactly what you are. It isn’t about fat peoples hurt feelings, its about you using the ‘Obesity epidemic’ to externalize your self hatred. Stop it. 

a gorgeous gorgeous girl friend of mine, who actually models, she is 5’11” and I’d say 110 pounds? 

she was recently hospitalized for high blood sugar and cholesterol

HOSPITALIZED

at age 19

because all she eats are large amounts of greasy fried junk foods

she’s slim

no one would ever look at her and tell her that her hospital visit is everything that’s wrong with America

yet they would look at me and say that

when my friend was relating her story to me she said “I wish I was as healthy as you” 

I weigh 210 pounds at 5’5” 

and my being healthy should not be necessary in order for me to deserve respect in this world, but it does help to prove the point that health is not determined by size. in fact, if you are slim you are JUST AS LIKELY to develop diabetes and heart disease as a fat person if you are eating and living unhealthily.  

it’s called internal fat, it’s the fat that surrounds your organs

it’s the fat that slim almost underweight models have 

it doesn’t determine your size

health is not determined by your size full stop

not: OH BUT SOMETIMES

not: BUT THIS COUNTRY HAS A PROBLEM

full.stop. size is not an indicator of health. the only thing that can tell you about a person’s health are their blood tests and body scans.

This reply is really to the OP.

I feel like statements like this are completely misguided and try to divorce themselves from the reality that “obesity” hysteria does harm fat people. It is trying to make fat people not exist and it does shame them. Our society values health in a way that anyone who does not conform to what we consider to be healthy – body type, the food we eat and the activities we participate it – are shamed and/or shunned for it. 

When we talk about “obesity” being a problem we are talking about fat people being a problem. This isn’t just about health as people would like to believe, if it was we would acknowledge that access to “health” is multidimensional like socioeconomic status, social location, access to preventive care, access to fresh foods and places to move ones body. We would also acknowledge that “health” on its own is an oppressive construct that is really bogus in the end. Even a person who has the best of everything will still die and they can still have an illness.

The idea that the “obesity” hysteria does not harm fat people and/or are not talking about fat people completely ignores that I cannot remove myself from my fat. My fat is part of myself so by telling me that it is a problem is saying that I am a problem. Even if that isn’t the intention of people who want to solve a false crisis like the “obesity epidemic” they are blindly labeling bodies as diseased while ignoring the numerous sources of research that completely contradict it.  The CDC ignores their own data that shows the percentage of fat people has been level since 2003. Type 2 diabetes rates in kids, which everyone freaks the fuck out about, are so rare that they cannot find any statistics to know how prevalent they are.

While I do think that creating access to certain foods / spaces is totally important for society, not just to erase the existence of fat people, assuming that is the source of all of our problems is really short sighted. All of the blaming and pointing fingers for why people are fat ignores the fact that some fat people just exist, that fat bodies are normal and not a sign of disease. 

Also, passive aggressively dismissing people who bring up relevant claims of fat phobia or stigma occurring because of this hysteria is ridiculous. Emotional wellbeing is extremely important to help a person live their lives. I would again state that if this was really about “health” fat stigma would be a main topic to discuss.

The current rhetoric surrounding the “obesity epidemic” actually harms people more than it helps. It creates more disease, changes peoples set point so that they are heavier than they would have been if they were not shamed into dieting, it ignores the multidimensional issues surrounding “health” and allows us to stay in the dark about how we ourselves continue to oppress people through healthism. If we were really interested in “health” we would be looking into the government, drug companies, food sources and everything else that has a hand in keeping fat bodies labeled as inherently diseased. We would be trying to solve poverty and create access to preventive medicine. We would also be talking about how we have more old people living now than ever before meaning higher rates of disease than ever before as well.

BTW scare quotes around “health” because I really mean prevention of illness. Not health in its oppressive form through social construction. Scare quotes around “obesity” because using medicalized terminology to define a body type as inherently diseased is oppressive. We can’t even talk about this shit without shaming fat people because the terms we use are oppressive people.

(via queervashti)