In response to a campaign that speaks out about, and seeks to stop, doctors shaming women who are members of oppressed populations, Dr. Lisa Girgis has penned a spectacular tribute to derailment, tone-deafness and victim blaming. I wrote about it for the ASDAH Blog. So this was at the top of my mind when I read several articles today about a recently-built hospital that was designed to be accommodating to fat patients and fat visitors. The articles were all problematic in the way that they talk about fat patients (too problematic for me to link to them) but it was the comments that were really interesting to me (TW: The indented sections contain fat hate, concern trolling, and general crappy behavior)
Hospitals aren’t helping these people by accommodating them.
Actually, making healthcare facilities accessible to people, and then providing them with the healthcare they need is basically the definition of helping people. What would not be helpful, would be for the hospital to not accommodate fat people who need the healthcare that the hospital provides, thus possibly leading to people dying.
Did they ever think that not being able to fit in the bathroom is the wake up call that these people need?
Did this person ever think that fat people who go to the hospital are in need of medical care, not some “wake up call?” Even if someone believes, despite the complete lack of evidence, that long-term weight loss is possible for most people, the kind of weight loss that they are talking about would take a lot of time, and this person obviously needs help from the hospital now, so what the hell do they want them to do about the restroom? This is where the concern trolls show their true colors, you think fat people shouldn’t have access to a restroom while we’re hospitalizedl so that we can be encouraged to become thin? Tell me again how you’re “concerned about my health.” On second thought, please don’t.
Blah blah muh tax dollarz blah blah
This is total bullshit. If that’s not immediately apparent, feel free to head over here for an explanation.
So there are doctors who confuse victim blaming with ethical medicine, and there are horrible people who think that fat people should die rather than be accommodated by hospitals, a lot of these people are also those who haven’t thought this through at all and are just repeating what they’ve heard. the good news is that, despite these people and their seriously screwed up ideas, the article against medical shaming got written, the hospital that accommodates fat people got built. Progress is happening. We’re obviously not there yet, but progress is happening.
The Fat Activism Conference Is Back!
This is a virtual conference so you can listen to the talks by phone and/or computer wherever you are. Whether you are looking for support in your personal life with family, friends, healthcare providers etc. or you’re interested in being more public with your activism with blogging, petitions, protest, projects, online activism, or something else, this conference will give you tools and perspectives to support you and your work, and to help you make that work intentionally intersectional and inclusive, so that nobody gets left behind.
Get all the details here!
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