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Fat Acceptance Movement
Replies
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NorthCascades wrote: »As I walk through this wicked world searching for light in the darkness of insanity, I ask myself is all hope lost? Is there only pain and hatred and misery? And each time I feel like this inside, theres one thing I want to know. Whats so funny bout peace love and understanding?
She is watching the detectives
when they shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot.
They beat him up until the teardrops start,
but he can't be wounded 'cause he's got no heart.1 -
When I went from Fat to incredibly FIT I was shamed, constantly being told I needed to eat more, I looked gaunt or ill when in reality I was just super fit, running 20-21 minute 5ks, lifting heavy but just living off a diet that I enjoyed without ever feeling bloated.
Apparently all the salads and exercise wasn't good for me... blah blah blah.
Maybe we should start a Health Acceptance Movement. People can then choose between FAM and HAM. I guarantee HAM is better
p.s that guy was texting his own buddy, it was an idiotic thing to say and shows he is a very shallow person, however she was a nosey feck.
I'm not as fit now as I was then, but I am certainly not fat either.
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I have yet to feel like people are looking down on me because I'm fit and a healthy weight. This was most definitely not true when I was an obese single woman.10
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I think most of the vocal "thin shaming" is mostly done by men to other men... or that you don't hear the comments as being bad. If you have always been fat and you are now thin and someone makes a comment on you being skinny you may take that as a compliment. However, a person who has always been skinny - particularly a man - who hears that comment it's most likely going to taken a negative.1
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Does "fat shaming" mean telling someone the truth about how they look? If a person is overweight they're overweight. I don't agree with mocking anyone for stuff like that but saying to them they're heavy is just being honest.4
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Does "fat shaming" mean telling someone the truth about how they look? If a person is overweight they're overweight. I don't agree with mocking anyone for stuff like that but saying to them they're heavy is just being honest.
I think it depends on the situation. Is it a coworker who asked your opinion? A loved one you are worried about? Did you cross the mall to tell someone they are too big?
Context matters.6 -
Does "fat shaming" mean telling someone the truth about how they look? If a person is overweight they're overweight. I don't agree with mocking anyone for stuff like that but saying to them they're heavy is just being honest.
If they ask for your opinion, then be honest. If they haven't asked, it's not up to you to say. Trying to couch unsolicited commentary on someone's shape or size as 'honesty' is sophistry.7 -
I don't think the fat acceptance movement (if that's actually what it's called) is necessarily saying they don't have health risks per se, or that they are giving up on getting healthier. I thought it was more about shedding light on exactly what constitutes body shaming.
OK, so I am overweight, and I avoid swimming at the ocean, I avoid going to Hawaii. I hate the stares and the horrid comments behind my back. I'd love to go to the gym, but that one girl is always snickering at me. Or, the offhand comment by that one person at the birthday party who asks if you really need to be eating a slice of cake. It isn't just body shaming that got out of control, seriously. They don't need anyone around reminding them on a daily basis of how unhealthy it is, or "just trying to be helpful" in their comments on other peoples choice of foods.
How many say, as soon as I fit in that dress again I will go on a trip? I wish I could go play out on the ocean at the beach, but I look dreadful in a bathing suit? It's really about accepting that you as a human being are as entitled to enjoy your life as anyone else, even if you don't look like a magazine cover. I think it's more about promoting not to forget to enjoy the wonders of the world and life from day to day based solely on your looks.4 -
I don't see the fat shaming discussion as having anything to do with health or happiness. It's part of a much broader movement towards passing responsibility on to someone else.
The big issue here is personal responsibility. And that means people need to be responsible for their own feelings. And it also means people need to be responsible for their words and actions. I am a huge fan of freedom. And I'll never stop fighting for the freedom to think and say whatever I want to, even if it's unpopular or controversial.
But by the very same measure, I respect that I will be judged by what I do, think and say.
This anti fat shaming movement is all about passing responsibility for how you feel onto the people around you because deep down you are not happy with yourself and when someone points out the obvious it shatters the fragile web of lies you have woven for yourself. The people around you are not responsible for your feelings. And if you need everyone else to change the way they think just so you can feel good about yourself, then you are definitely the one with the problem.
Society already has systems for determining and dealing with a55h0les. And I don't think we need to define the rules any further.9 -
I always feel torn on this topic. I do think people should love themselves and body shaming at any size is not ok but I also think it’s become a way to act like overweight is ok and I don’t think it is. I hear about how the average US woman is a size 16 (or 14, can’t remember) and to me, that’s an issue. Being overweight/obese shouldn’t become the norm IMO12
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The movement itself is unhealthy. It has nothing to do with "leave me alone while I find my own path to getting to a healthy weight." It is "shut up and accept as I am because I don't care what society says is a healthy weight."
Many fat people are guilty of thin shaming to deflect their own low self esteem. They are just as quick to "fat shame" someone that is working out and trying to change their life.
Would we ever "accept" a movement that demands we not recognize anorexia as an unhealthy and potentially fatal eating/psychological disorder?
Is is "fat shaming" to charge someone who is two people wide for two seats on a commercial flight? Some people think it is a hate crime to feel uncomfortable when an extreme plus size crushes you in your seat because they don't fit in there seat.
I'm not skinny. But I'm no longer one of those people that passengers pray isn't sitting next to them as I board a plane.
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It's unhealthy to just continue living with all that weight. I look at "Kate" on This Is Us show and just feel worried she is a walking heart attack ready to happen. I do not believe in shaming those and I do believe it to each there own philosophy but it is a medical fact that being morbidly obese is dangerous.3
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You know what I wish? I wish people acted with good manners even if they couldn't manage to be considerate or kind people. If good manners and treating every person as a worthwhile human being were the universal standard, none of these postmodern theories of power and identity would gain any traction.10
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The movement itself is unhealthy. It has nothing to do with "leave me alone while I find my own path to getting to a healthy weight." It is "shut up and accept as I am because I don't care what society says is a healthy weight."
Yes, that is exactly what it is. It is "accept me as I am and don't reduce me to my body". I think that is a very healthy approach.Many fat people are guilty of thin shaming.
Really? I am pretty fit, and I have never had to endure abuse by someone who's fat. The myth of "thin shaming by fat people" reminds me of "reverse racism" - yes, it's possible in theory, but it's a false equivalence, because we live in a society where being thin or normal weight comes with many privileges, while being fat is associated with loads of stigmas.I'm not skinny. But I'm no longer one of those people that passengers pray isn't sitting next to them as I board a plane.
Good for you, really. And, sure, I don't like being squeezed in my seat by someone who is too wide for theirs, either. I am almost certain their plane journey is less comfortable than mine, however, and "fat shaming" them isn't going to help either of us.
I believe that being fit and being at a normal weight has real benefits, and if somebody who feels they are overweight or unfit and want to change it, I am happy to encourage it, or help them if they ask. But, more importantly, I believe everyone should be made to feel happy in their own body.9 -
tomaattikastike wrote: »Many fat people are guilty of thin shaming.
Really? I am pretty fit, and I have never had to endure abuse by someone who's fat. The myth of "thin shaming by fat people" reminds me of "reverse racism" - yes, it's possible in theory, but it's a false equivalence, because we live in a society where being thin or normal weight comes with many privileges, while being fat is associated with loads of stigmas.
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My husband and siblings are all pretty thin & the comments people make are thin shaming. Although it’s done by people of all sizes. One my husband posted a picture of us on social media and he had at least “jokes” about how thin he looked before he took it down.
Although I do agree that being fat comes with stigmas way beyond what is placed on someone thin. Until they are thin enough to look like they have an ED- then I think the same types of stigmas are placed.1 -
tomaattikastike wrote: »The movement itself is unhealthy. It has nothing to do with "leave me alone while I find my own path to getting to a healthy weight." It is "shut up and accept as I am because I don't care what society says is a healthy weight."
Yes, that is exactly what it is. It is "accept me as I am and don't reduce me to my body". I think that is a very healthy approach.Many fat people are guilty of thin shaming.
Really? I am pretty fit, and I have never had to endure abuse by someone who's fat. The myth of "thin shaming by fat people" reminds me of "reverse racism" - yes, it's possible in theory, but it's a false equivalence, because we live in a society where being thin or normal weight comes with many privileges, while being fat is associated with loads of stigmas.
Thin shaming definitely exists - recall Calista Flockhart when she was on TV (can't remember the name of the show). She is a very thin woman and every week there was some gossip column or Access Hollywood expose on how she was actually an anorexic in denial, or bulimic or some other such nonsense crap being spouted about her.4 -
tomaattikastike wrote: »The movement itself is unhealthy. It has nothing to do with "leave me alone while I find my own path to getting to a healthy weight." It is "shut up and accept as I am because I don't care what society says is a healthy weight."
Yes, that is exactly what it is. It is "accept me as I am and don't reduce me to my body". I think that is a very healthy approach.Many fat people are guilty of thin shaming.
Really? I am pretty fit, and I have never had to endure abuse by someone who's fat. The myth of "thin shaming by fat people" reminds me of "reverse racism" - yes, it's possible in theory, but it's a false equivalence, because we live in a society where being thin or normal weight comes with many privileges, while being fat is associated with loads of stigmas.
Thin shaming definitely exists - recall Calista Flockhart when she was on TV (can't remember the name of the show). She is a very thin woman and every week there was some gossip column or Access Hollywood expose on how she was actually an anorexic in denial, or bulimic or some other such nonsense crap being spouted about her.
I don't think she was ashamed. She co-wrote the Ally McBeal episode featuring the scene where she was sitting on the toilet and fell into the bowl due her, um, diminutive frame. "Ally fell and she can't get up". Remember? Do you think she would have played the lead role as a hotshot career gal sexy pretty lawyer in a prime time TV show in the 1990s if she was a fat girl?
She personally wasn't ashamed of her figure, but she was frequently 'shamed' for her figure.3 -
I can't believe anybody actually doubts that overweight people shame thin people.
How many threads a DAY come up on here where people talk about fat people in their life telling them they're "getting too thin" or "why don't they take a break." How many times have you heard a man say “give her a sandwich” about a thin woman?
What do you think that is?
And it absolutely causes shame. If it didn’t there wouldn’t be so many people coming here stressed about it.14 -
I'm sure I'm taking this too literally but to say someone is "shamed" means the result would be shame. Which is rarely, if ever, the case with thin people as opposed to fat people. Ridiculed would be the word. Thin people get ridiculed occasionally for being what is perceived to be too thin. They look great in both tailored power suits and evening gowns alike though so I think they'll be okay.
I'd say you're right. But the term that has recently become popularized is "fat shaming" So that's what people are discussing.0 -
Leave them alone, remember...
Obesity - Saving Social Security One Chicken Wing at a Time10 -
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Shaming is wrong.
Justifying one form of shaming while disparaging another just makes you a jackwagon.4 -
I don't doubt that people, and especially women, get body-shamed whatever their size - and that is wrong. My point was that, when we discuss "fat shaming" and "thin shaming", we cannot do that outside of the context of our society, where normal-weight and thin people have many privileges that fat people don't. I quite like this piece - the point I was trying to make is illustrated in the third section, but of course, the others are important, too: https://everydayfeminism.com/2014/10/skinny-shaming-not-reverse-discrimination/
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Like what "privileges"tomaattikastike wrote: »I don't doubt that people, and especially women, get body-shamed whatever their size - and that is wrong. My point was that, when we discuss "fat shaming" and "thin shaming", we cannot do that outside of the context of our society, where normal-weight and thin people have many privileges that fat people don't. I quite like this piece - the point I was trying to make is illustrated in the third section, but of course, the others are important, too: https://everydayfeminism.com/2014/10/skinny-shaming-not-reverse-discrimination/
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I can't believe anybody actually doubts that overweight people shame thin people.
How many threads a DAY come up on here where people talk about fat people in their life telling them they're "getting too thin" or "why don't they take a break." How many times have you heard a man say “give her a sandwich” about a thin woman?
What do you think that is?
And it absolutely causes shame. If it didn’t there wouldn’t be so many people coming here stressed about it.
Agreed. Overweight people shame thin people all the time. Especially overweight women...if I had a dollar for every time I've heard an overweight woman make some comment about "REAL women's" bodies...I would be a billionaire. They seem to think that if you don't need to shop in the plus size department you are somehow less of a woman. And how many times have we heard people say "real women have curves". Seriously...it is really no better than insulting a fat woman.6 -
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Like this: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/11522021/Nearly-half-of-employers-unlikely-to-hire-overweight-workers.html
Or this: http://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/obesity-affects-job-prospects-for-women-study-finds/
Or, indeed, not to suffer from constant bullying for their body shape.6 -
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tomaattikastike wrote: »Like this: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/11522021/Nearly-half-of-employers-unlikely-to-hire-overweight-workers.html
Or this: http://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/obesity-affects-job-prospects-for-women-study-finds/
Or, indeed, not to suffer from constant bullying for their body shape.
Still not seeing "privilege". Employers can hire who they want to. I don't hire people who are unkempt, inept, had a boogey hanging out their nose during an interview, I didn't like their hairstyle etc. Obese people are going to have higher cost associated with them, possible "special" requirements and accommodations, and it can be perceived as a poor mark on their character.6
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