We, and the first person is used intentionally, are not allowed to have fat as part of our identity, yet at every turn; we are reminded that we are fat. Every day, we see and hear hundreds of negative messages about weight in the world around us, from the news stories about the "obesity epidemic", magazine covers about some celebrity's latest weight loss or gain, advertising for weight loss products or diet foods, to public service announcements about living a "healthy lifestyle" which always imply that healthy equals thin.
I recently published a post about fat rolemodels, and I received lots of comments on various social media platforms, most negative and telling me that being fat is unhealthy.
That wasn't the point of the article, it wasn't a discussion about weight and health, it was a discussion about representation and what happens when people you looked up to, turn their back on you.
But the comments I received made me really angry.
" I think it's really quite influential of her to get healthy and at a safe weight. I don't think it's right to support unhealthy body images and she worked incredibly hard to better herself. Being incredibly overweight and putting your health at risk is just as detrimental to young women as showing overly skinny and malnourished bodies. She's a healthy weight and no one should be bashing her for that."
" But it also doesn't mean not to try and stay fat all the time "
" just as a side note fat acceptance is terrible its making people feel ok about gorging themselves to an early grave while getting diseases "
Why is the narrative about health? Why is that the place these people always go? They like to feign an interest in fat people's health, because they look like the good people, being all concerned for me, and I look like the bad person, because I'm fat and making people concerned (and outright angry that I'm fat) and I'm the one who won't change, is costing the NHS millions, being a bad role model and basically being an irresponsible person by loving my fat body and not being ashamed of who I am. How can it be in 2017 and people are still harping on about health. I'm going to drop some research here....
The results of a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicineshould not come as a to most people. Being doesn't necessarily make you unhealthy, according to researchers in both the United States and Germany. The new research confirmed this. People who are overweight have a fifty-fifty chance of having , or elevated , and some studies have shown that fat can protect against fat people live longer than thin people and are more likely to survive cardiac events "infections, cancer, lung disease, heart disease, osteoporosis, anemia, high blood pressure, rheumatoid arthritis and type 2 diabetes."
Shock horror, a lot of what they are spouting is bullshit, yes, a fat person can be unhealthy, but so can a thin person. You cannot determine health just by looking at someone, that is the same as looking at a car and going yeah that looks fine but never opening the bonnet and looking at the engine to be sure (crap analogy but you get the point). It almost seems as if they just don't like fat people and need an excuse to make this hatred valid - viola health is the perfect scape goat when it comes to fat people.
When it fact this type of thing is what is fuelling streotypes. I'm about to drop some more research...
Numerous studies have documented harmful weight based stereotypes; that overweight and obese individuals are lazy, weak-willed, physically unattractive, unsuccessful, unintelligent, less popular, lack self-discipline, have poor willpower, and are noncompliant with weight loss treatment (Puhl and Brownell 2001, Brownell, Puhl, Schwartz and Rudd 2005, Puhl and Heuer 2009 Molly and Herzberger 1998; Stephens, Hill and Hanson 1994, Wooley and Wooley 1979, Keys 1955). These stereotypes give way to stigma, prejudice, and discrimination against obese persons in multiple domains; in fact weight discrimination, has increased 66% in a decade in America and is now on a par with racial discrimination. This just reinforces that weight stigma remains a socially acceptable form of bias.
They also seem to think that fat is a choice, that we spend our days stuffing our faces with cakes and do nothing. Again, this couldn't be further from the truth. Do you think many of us would chose a life where we are judging purely on how we look, find it difficult to just exist in the world because we take up more space, things such as flying or going out for a meal become a mind field as you worry your body won't fit into the predefined space of a seat. Get treated like some sub-human because we carry more fat on our bodies, including getting abused and harassed, get discriminated against for jobs, get treated poorly by medical professionals (one study found that nurses didn't even want to touch fat people) and let actual health problems take over our lives as anything wrong with us can be solved by losing weight. We are human beings, with feelings and emotions and only want to be treated as such.
I also know many active fat people; although this opens a whole other discussion about the idea of being a good fatty and that one must be seen to be eating healthy and exercise to reinforce the idea to a wider audience that they aren't the kind of fatty you have to hate because I'm not like the stereotypical fatty.
The question I ask myself is, do these health concern trolls, people who tell me that losing weight will change my life, I will no longer have health problems, I will no longer be a drain on the NHS, do they feel the same way about smokers? Are they out on the streets on a Friday night, going from pub to pub to tell the smokers outside that they are going to die, that they are cutting their lives short? It is a choice they are making, they know that smoking causes cancer and other health concerns. Are they out there telling people who drink the dangers of drinking? That one day they might need a liver transplant? I don't think they are, because bottom line, they actually aren't concerned with health, of any one. They just need to believe that fat people are the problem, to fuel their belief that they are justified is their hatred (back to the point I made earlier).
So in short, health concern trolls, can kiss my fat ass.
