Fat Body Politics

I really believe that a blog, organization or anyone who labels themselves “body positive” but doesn’t believe thin privilege exists is doing a disservice to themselves as well as their followers. I have found a ton of bloggers who talk about privilege that have an issue with using the framework of thin privilege because they believe it takes away from white and male privilege or somehow compares the two. The best response that I have had to me posing this question was from the moderator from This is Thin Privilege who told me that in order for discrimination to happen to one group, there has to be an equal action (aka privilege) given to another. This does not mean white, male, straight, or thin privilege is comparable but it gives oppressed people a framework to understand their experiences, while also allowing for people with privilege to understand the space they take up. Understanding straight, white and able bodied privilege gives me context to the privilege I have because part of privilege is not knowing I have privilege. It gives me language that having privilege allows me to ignore.

The reason that I think anyone who labels themselves a “body positive” blog but refuses to discuss how fatness is political and fat people are discriminated against are doing a diservice to their followers is because they are ignoring the experiences of their followers. It would be like me only speaking as a white, straight, cis, able-bodied female and only posting about experiences like my own. By not discussing transphobia, racism, ableism, homophobia etc I am erasing the experiences of fat people who have different experiences than me. If a blog is dedicated to making all bodies accepted, not just to an arbitrary bullshit place like most body positive spaces seem to do, then they need to make space for discussions that talk about different experiences. That also means talking about all of the other forms of oppression not just white, cis, thin, straight, able bodied experiences.

Why people stay away from it probably does have a lot to do with not wanting their followers to feel alienated, but also talking about thin privilege brings in a political element to most body positive blogs that I don’t see on a regular basis. Most blogs are dedicated to each individual and not a discussion about systemic oppression. This happens in many places, including fat positive spaces specifically. While being fat positive or body positive within itself can be a form of resistance actually discussing experiences with discrimination is a totally different form of resistance to fat stigma. It makes fat discrimination a reality giving people words and context to understand how their experiences are similar or different. It also gives specific instances or situations that people can fight back against.

People have a really strong reaction when they first hear about privilege, most of the time it is anger because they believe that all of their traumatic experiences a negated due to their privilege when in reality all privilege checklists try to do is make people understand difference.