Senate Fat Acceptance & Fatphobia Discussion

In the recent years we've seen the fat acceptance movement gain a lot of traction on social media. Fat acceptance seeks 'to change anti-fat bias in social attitudes by raising awareness for the obstacles fat people face'.

It aims to fight back against fatphobia and more clearly define what we consider fatphobia to be in modern society.

What do people think about fat acceptance and fatphobia?

 

Develop your thoughts on the subject.

 

Well, this isn't a one sided conversation. I started the thread, I was waiting for people to comment before I weigh in again.

 

You haven't really weighed in (nice pun) though. You haven't said much of anything, aside from defining.

 

@BRE
weird answer to someone who just saved your thread from oblivion.

 

Not really, I was just saying I was waiting for people to comment before jumping in myself.

But thank you so much for saving the thread 'from oblivion', very kind of you to take time out of your very busy day.

Yeah, I suppose not. I was just getting the thread started.

 

lol

 

"Do you want my opinion on the subject? Fat chance!"

 

It's just really lazy, "here's a topic, what do you think?"

 

Right well, great start to this thread. I'll get the 'bulk' of the discussion started.

I think fat acceptance is the wrong thing to strive for. This isn't to say we should allow people to be over-the-top mean to those carrying a bit of timber, but I think it's more dangerous to allow people to feel normal being largely overweight. The way I see it, there's a relatively safe level of being overweight, but it can quickly spiral out of control.

I'm mainly worried about this progression in society of fat acceptance in relation to youth obesity. 41.5 % of children living in deprived areas are obese in the UK. With the progression of plus-sized models, and public figures in the arts that are championing being 'fat and happy', I worry this will lead to young people growing up thinking it's okay, and ending up with a fat load of health problems to deal with.

 

I personally feel sorry for those who have thyroid condition that makes them gain weight despite not eating a lot. King Amaric of Jerusalem was so afflicted with a thyroid condition, “He did not overeat or drink to excess, but his corpulence grew in his later years, decreasing his interest in military operations; according to William, he "was excessively fat, with breasts like those of a woman hanging down to his waist." (Almaric of Jerusalem, Wikipedia). Back then they knew nothing of such health conditions. I feel sorry for people like Almaric who were taunted for being fat when it wasn’t their fault.

 

I don't know why you two are being so quick to misunderstand my intentions, but it's a bit irritating.

I was simply starting a topic, and thought it'd be good practice to make the initial post on-the-fence and separate from my actual opinion on the topic. I didn't want the first post to be subjective and on one side, and I know from my experience on this forum and others that I'm not the only person who does that.

 

I think there are two undercurrents in play right now. Obesity in America is a real public health issue, and it shouldn’t be normalized. However, many people (usually women) with perfectly healthy bodies get attacked for being “fat” because of cultural sexism, which obviously isn’t ok.

 

But for all those self-indulgent, indolent people who've become morbidly obese due to a fundamental character flaw, taunt away!

 

I'll give my probably unpopular opinion. Sometimes at my gyms a few of us talk about this subject and the growing trend towards "fitness-shaming." Since marketers and so on have promoted the idea that self-acceptance means just doing whatever feels good instead of practicing healthy activities and decisions, many people have adopted reverse attitudes and have acted to try to make themselves feel better by putting down those who focus on their own fitness.

Such as the Adele thing. I myself experienced this quite a bit in my daily work life, wherein larger folks kept trying to make me feel bad about my body. My trainer had similar experiences in his personal life, where larger people would try to make fun of us for being in shape and for caring about our diets and sticking to our workout plans. Mind you, neither he nor I ever went out of our way to criticize anyone else over their bodies, but we were the recipients of "fitness-shaming" criticisms.

Joe Rogan talked about the subject at length on his podcast a few times as well, about how somehow it's suddenly not cool to want to take care of your body.

I once read an article about the fitness-shaming trend and how it basically can be summed up as if Person A is working out and just taking care of their own body, Person B gets upset by this because now Person B feels bad about themselves. So to make themselves feel better, Person B will criticize Person A and put them down for their body, trying to make it sound as though Person A has an unattractive body. If I remember correctly, there are many people who belong to the Person B category, which allows them to joke about Person A's body in a group. This has certainly been my experience with the topic of body type shaming.

If someone wants to be a Person B, that's on them. Whatever. I don't care. But if I want to be a Person A, then leave me alone. I don't make fun of anyone else's body, so I'm not sure why people need to make fun of mine. And, honestly, I'd rather have my body than theirs. Meh.

 

Being overweight or obese is a public health issue with systemic causes such as the abundance of sugar in processed foods and more sedentary lifestyles. I don't think anyone should be shamed for it just as no one should be shamed for any other health problem, but it is still a problem. People continue to get more overweight and I think normalizing it serves the interests of the entities responsible and ultimately fails to make any progress toward solving the issue.

EDIT: I have never heard of "fitness shaming." lol

 

It's also majority rules. As more and more people become overweight and obese, the skinnies as I like to call them stand out more and more as an unwelcome minority.

 

Yes, I agree, we need to remove the notion of any curviness being considered fat, but without accepting people being obviously fat and unhealthy.

Not taunt, but we should make it clear they need to sort themselves out. If they have a thyroid issue or other medical problem making it nigh on impossible to lose weight, that's fair enough. But if they're just not doing anything about the issue, then they need to be told and reminded that the way they're living needs to change.

 

Well said. When I am in other countries than the US, the food is organic, no added sugars and salts, and I feel like I get my brain back. In the US you take s bite of some foods and your tongue burns from the salt and your blood sugar spikes.