Fat Body Politics

cynicalxme:

fatbodypolitics:

cynicalxme:

IDK about you guys, but I don’t fucking want my kids to be malnourished because there isn’t enough “good stuff” in the food they are eating. 

I don’t want my kids to go through school having some half-assed understanding of nutrition, and being made to believe that calorie count is an indication of healthiness. 

I don’t want people in lower income classes to be forced to eat unhealthy food because that is all that is sold in their price range.

I don’t want to have to scour the city in pursuit of a half-way-decent grocery store. 

I don’t want to not be able to go out to dinner with my family because everything on the menu is over 100% of my recommended daily allowance of sodium, fat, or sugar.

I didn’t see one person disagree with you that the way our food system is set up is bad and needs to be fixed, for all people because if it was fixed fat people would still exist. Continuing the label fat bodies as inherently unhealthy while trying to divorce the “obesity” epidemic from fat stigma and the people who benefit from that stigma is a huge problem. 

This also ignores that body acceptance that reinforces stigma and oppression creates a line of what is considered acceptable. Reasons why I’m not an advocate for body acceptance. There are too many people who are completely happy with pushing fat stigma (along with racism, ableism and most other -isms) and creating boxes around what an acceptable body is especially when using things like health as an excuse.

You weren’t looking too hard, were you? 

No where, ever, did I say I wanted fat bodies to stop existing. TO THE CONTRARY, I made the post to say, when I am talking about obesity as an epidemic, I’m NOT talking about “getting rid of fat bodies” but rather, fixing an unhealthy culture.

When half of a country is battling with obesity (as ours is) that is a symptom of a larger problem.  The problem ISN’T that people are fat. The problem is that the food we’re  all consuming is unhealthy.

And this goes for “skinny” people too. Obviously. Having a fast metabalism, and/or calorie counting, doesn’t mean you are consuming healthy food. 

Again “obesity” rhetoric wants fat bodies to not exist because at its base fat bodies need to be cured or fixed through weight loss.. By continuing to push or reinforce that kind of thinking you are doing the same. Possibly you missed this post / response to your other post where I not only outlined this further. 

If you want to create a society that give access to certain behaviors, preventive care etc to stop people from getting sick framing it within an obesity epidemic is harmful. Though framing anything in medicalized terminology that reinforces healthism is harmful.

Edit…

I’m also wondering if by chance you are confused about what the “obesity epidemic” is. It is not directed at all people. It is directed primarily at fat people to oppress fat people. Regardless shaming people for the food they eat or how unhealthy you think they are is still harmful.

I going to be saying harmful for the rest of my life it seems.