Fat-positive Feminism and Weight Loss

BuffyEat2Live

Is fat positive the same as the fat acceptance movement?

I don't know, but that was my assumption. Obesity is a disease. "Fat positive" is an oxymoron. Would you say you're "cancer positive"? "MS positive"?

At some point in America an idea took hold that everyone has to feel good about about herself or himself all the time, to the point where one is not only supposed to tolerate obesity, but argue it's a good thing. It's not.

I'm offended that you compare obesity to cancer and MS. Those are legitimate diseases. Obesity is how much one weighs. Not a disease.

Actually the AMA just recently categorized it as a disease.

Obesity IS A DISEASE. And it also CAUSES disease. It is the WORST disease you can get.

Really? The worst disease you can get? :noway:

neandermagnon

One more thing: I spent a lot of years feeling pressure to conform to social norms, trying to lose weight for all those reasons. Once I got to a place of embracing myself for who I am, and my focus became on being the best me I can be, my attitude changed, my commitment changed, and I started seeing results. I feel stronger and more capable now than at any other time of my life - and that is a gift every woman should give herself.

I agree with this totally. And it's very empowering to just give the British 2 finger salute to social norms and what others want, and just be who you want to be. But when it comes down to it, of those who have a choice, who's going to choose to be unhealthy over healthy? Some people don't have a choice because some health issues you can't do anything about, and I don't believe in judging others anyway. But when it comes to me, then I'll choose strong, healthy and capable every time.

Also, just because you're not judgmental about something in others, i.e. refusing to judge someone for being obese, doesn't mean you have to embrace that for yourself. You can want to be a healthy body fat percentage for yourself, while at the same time not judging others based on their body fat percentage.

jjoy1227

OP -- Feminist and I'm totally OK with being called "fat positive." Or body positive or accepting or any of it if it suggests I care more about your ideology and behavior than I do your appearance. I'm chunky. I'm sexy. And I totally hear ya on the internal conflict of losing weight for "you" and the subversive nature of appearance-driven motivations.

The way I deal with it is to own up to my own duality. I'm losing weight to look a certain way in a wedding dress. That's what's driving me at this time.

I've been "trying" to lose weight to be healthy and lower my risk of multiple diseases for some time, but realistically what's pushing me is the damn dress.

I can't totally reconcile everything about myself that has inadvertently bought into our sick culture, but I *can* leverage it to still get what I want (which is to be healthy and powerful.) And I can call it out, love myself and resolve to give love to all anyway.

We are complex humans and cannot be so narrowly limited as our society or even the characterization of our women's movement would define us. That's part of being wholly human. We are always somewhat conflicted. Make your best decisions and be brave enough to accept their naturally flawed nature. You are more than the sum of your parts and ideologies. You are human.

ashandstuff

This thread was great but then it just got like....wow really judgmental. Which is fine, people are entitled to their opinions.

But I have to admit some of these responses had me like

NO FRIENDS NO

lndsylck

OP -- Feminist and I'm totally OK with being called "fat positive." Or body positive or accepting or any of it if it suggests I care more about your ideology and behavior than I do your appearance. I'm chunky. I'm sexy. And I totally hear ya on the internal conflict of losing weight for "you" and the subversive nature of appearance-driven motivations.

The way I deal with it is to own up to my own duality. I'm losing weight to look a certain way in a wedding dress. That's what's driving me at this time.

I've been "trying" to lose weight to be healthy and lower my risk of multiple diseases for some time, but realistically what's pushing me is the damn dress.

I can't totally reconcile everything about myself that has inadvertently bought into our sick culture, but I *can* leverage it to still get what I want (which is to be healthy and powerful.) And I can call it out, love myself and resolve to give love to all anyway.

We are complex humans and cannot be so narrowly limited as our society or even the characterization of our women's movement would define us. That's part of being wholly human. We are always somewhat conflicted. Make your best decisions and be brave enough to accept their naturally flawed nature. You are more than the sum of your parts and ideologies. You are human.

Yes. Just yes.

neandermagnon

It's one thing to love your body if you are overweight/ out of shape. HAES (health at every size) is complete and total bull**** though. I'm sorry, but after a certain weight you are not healthy. That doesn't mean you shouldn't love yourself, but don't tell me your health isn't at all impacted by your weight. That pisses me off.

Body acceptance- YES
HAES- Never in this lifetime

^^^ this. carrying too much body fat has health risks. You don't have to be unkind or judgemental towards someone based on their size, in fact you shouldn't be. And some ways of measuring obesity like BMI are inaccurate so not everyone who's told they're too heavy for their height's health is actually at risk, and you can't predict someone's healthiest weight by height alone.

However there's no denying that once your body fat percentage gets beyond a certain level, there is a risk to health. And it goes the other way as well, and I don't think feminists would be advocating telling dangerously underweight women that their health is not impacted by being dangerously underweight. Ditto people suffering from normal weight obesity (i.e. "healthy" according to BMI but obese according to body fat percentage), that too carries significant health risks. There is such a thing as unhealthy body composition, and people shouldn't kid themselves that their body composition isn't impacting their health when it is. But at the same time, people shouldn't be *judged* based on their body composition. You don't know why someone's body composition is not healthy, or what they've faced in life that brought them to that point. But that doesn't make their body composition healthy and there's no point pretending that it is, when it's not.

TeachTheGirl

I'm totally on board the Body Acceptance wagon. Whether that makes me 'Fat Positive' or not, I'm not sure, but I believe everyone has the right to love their body, no matter what size.

I have a lot of 'Pro-Fat' webpages liked on Facebook. Oftentimes these are the only pages that tackle Body Acceptance as a whole. I don't believe any one body shape should be admired or despised more than others. For me, I wasn't happy with my body and I wanted to change it. That should be left up to each individual to decide.

laele75

I am trying to fight my natural urge to roll my eyes at someone declaring themselves a feminist. I am a humanist, I believe in empowering all people. Regardless of gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or weight. I was perfectly fine with myself and my body image at 320lbs.

But I was wrong. It was unhealthy. It was affecting me badly. Just like anorexia, it is a disease. A disease that can kill you. Most pro-ana people are 'fine with their body image'. It doesn't mean they're any less sick. Same goes for extremely obese people like myself. Once I realized this, losing weight became more important.

I am never going to be 'skinny'. But I want to be a healthy weight for myself and my son. That's my positive body image.

_SABOTEUR_

Your life does not have to be a socio-political statement.

Think of it this way: it won't matter how fat positive you are when you die of an obesity related disease.

It's also difficult to fight the feminist cause when you're dead.

brower47

I'm A negative.

_SABOTEUR_

I'm A negative.

You should try to B positive.

brower47

I'm A negative.

You should try to B positive.

Ba Da Tshhhh

ZombieEarhart

Just like being 320 pounds didn't make any valuable as a person, being 160 pounds won't make me any less valuable as a feminist.

BeachIron

Your life does not have to be a socio-political statement.

Think of it this way: it won't matter how fat positive you are when you die of an obesity related disease.

It's also difficult to fight the feminist cause when you're dead.

^ This.

I got fit for me.

I continue to strive to be a better me. That takes a combination of a positive internal dialogue and a heck of a lot of self *kitten* kicking.

Like me or hate me, it's not going to change who I am or what I do. And I SAS do not care what kind of political statement my life makes.

gramarye

I'm hoping you can answer my question: what is the point of fat acceptance? Isn't it kind of bending to society, in a way, if you feel you have to give it the middle finger and be fat to spite it? By going out of your way to not conform to society's pressures, you're still expending energy on societal rules - even if the efforts are on breaking them. Wouldn't it be better to have people be "self positive", in that they accept their spirit and mind wholeheartedly and learn to love who they are on the inside? I guess I am a little confused in how this is a good thing, and a better alternative to focusing on being thin, because it's still largely dependent on someone's appearance. I'm not trying to be sarcastic or trollish, either, this is genuinely tripping me up a little bit.

I'm going to try to answer this and hopefully not eff it up. >_>;;

It's not saying, "Fat is great! Everyone should be fat!" (That's no better than, "Skinny is the best! If you're fat, you're bad!") It's about knowing our bodies, rather than believing that our bodies are faulty, ugly, unhealthy, or broken just because society expects them to be. It's a rejection of an expectation and a stereotype of what a fat person is or isn't. It's owning a space that is ours. I found this blog to be really helpful when trying to navigate the concept: http://danceswithfat.wordpress.com/

I generally prefer the phrase "body acceptance" to "fat acceptance," just because its a lot more inclusive, and trips because up less. (And of course, in a perfect world, we would all be self-positive! )

taunto

So loving your body as it is makes you a feminist eh?

By this definition the bald, 500 lb men wearing a barely noticeable underwear at the beach are all feminist.

laele75

So loving your body as it is makes you a feminist eh?

By this definition the bald, 500 lb men wearing a barely noticeable underwear at the beach are all feminist.

No, no, you have it wrong. Only women can use being a feminist as an excuse to be fat.

Those guys are just fat men.

/feminist rhetoric

bowlofpeaches

Hello all,

I'm writing to see if there are any other people out there who consider themselves fat positive but are still trying to lose weight. I consider myself a feminist and part of that is accepting and loving my body as it is, at any given time, so I'm finding it difficult to reconcile my desire to lose weight and be healthy and remaining fat-positive. I'm feeling like a hypocrite and wondering how much of my desire to loss weight comes from societal pressure to conform to a thinner silhouette.

Any other fat-positive feminists out there? How are you dealing with this?

Thanks for your thoughts!

ME TOO i have my whole tumblr devoted to it but, at the same Body positivity should be for any shape or size whether it's petite, round, big, short, tall, fat, curvy, straight etc... you should always love yourself and it's always good to feel healthy and have the body you want it's all about how you feel!!~ and what's right for your body and what you want!!~ so it's not society ^_^ YOU SHOULD ADD ME FEMINIST SISTA!!!~ :DDD