Shame on People Who Fat-Shame

[Agschmid]

Obesity isn’t nearly as bad for your health as poverty is. Let’s extend the logic …

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Last week comedian Nicole Arbour posted a self-described “truth bomb” on YouTube, “Dear Fat People,” that quickly went viral. “If we offend you so much that you lose weight, I’m OK with that,” she said, and then did her best to offend, mocking an obese family for smelling “like sausage” and claiming that “fat-shaming” is “fucking brilliant.”

The subsequent outpouring of criticism left Arbour unfazed. “I’m not apologizing for this video,” she told Time. And why would she? Arbour isn’t some lone hate-spouting troll. Quite the contrary: Studies show that her rant, which blames obesity on lack of personal responsibility, actually reflects mainstream beliefs, even among health professionals.

There’s actually not much difference between Arbour’s stance and the public declarations of prestigious scholars. In an interview with University of California–Los Angeles sociologist Abigail Saguy, Harvard epidemiologist Walter Willett said that if people were “really serious about controlling their weight,” most would succeed. JoAnn Manson, another Harvard epidemiologist, asserted fat people “just don’t feel like” doing exercise, instead opting for “the Big Mac and french fries instead of a salad or roasted chicken.” And Daniel Callahan, co-director of the Yale-Hastings Program in Ethics and Health Policy, has suggested fighting obesity with “the force of being shamed and beat upon socially.” He calls it “stigmatization-lite.”

What’s strange is how all these well-meaning fat-shamers ignore a health condition far graver than obesity, one that is also presumably within people’s power to change. This condition results in shorter lifespan, high frequency of mental illness, and increased risk for diabetes, heart disease, and countless other problems associated with fat.

It’s called poverty. And by the logic of fat-shaming, we should be shaming poor people as well.

Source.

[laundry_queen]

1. K&R

Excellent article. Thank you for posting it.

[Marrah_G]

2. As an obese woman I am glad to have gotten well into middle age.

Now I don't have to deal with young men and women who behave as if I have committed a crime by not being sexually attractive to them.

[dumbcat]

3. Poverty is not a health condition

It is an economic condition. It can lead to a health condition, but in and of itself it is not.

Warping the language is not really helpful to the cause.

[eridani]

4. The worst fat-shaming I've ever gotten was when out in public doing exercise n/t

[dumbcat]

5. Ironic, isn't it? nt

nt

[snooper2]

6. This article is fucking stupid, People can't control the poverty they were born into

This sentence-

" if people were “really serious about controlling their weight,” most would succeed."


Has been proven true over and over again. My wife lost 45 lbs in 4 months (and has kept it off) probably due to one thing- We went on a family vacation to the beach for the first time and she wanted to wear a swimsuit not a swimdress. She has half-ass tried (her own words) over years to lose some but always back and forth.


Determination is a powerful thing...Part of what separates the winners from the losers in the Olympics

[ladyVet]

7. Some people must not get out in the real world.

And by the logic of fat-shaming, we should be shaming poor people as well.

Because this does happen, even on these boards.

It's all part of the "shove yourself back from the table", "get a better job", "make the man marry you so you won't be a single mother" kind of attitude that's all too prevalent everywhere you go.

I'm a middle-aged woman who has now been overweight about half my life. Other than some arthritis, which I've had since I was a skinny teen (family inheritance, yay!), I'm fine. Poverty has been far worse for me than overeating, because I have to eat too much carbohydrates to be healthy for me.

And I'm at that age where little old men are hitting on me in the grocery store. My fat doesn't seem to faze them in the least.

[hedgehog]

8. There is entirely too much ignorance about nutrition and weight

masquerading as scientific fact.

My sister is very worried about her weight because she doesn't weigh what she weighed when she was 20. I point out to her that when we were kids, there were sewing patterns made in a Misses' range and a Womens' range; it was accepted that womens' figures changed as they aged. Has anyone ever researched whether people are healthier if they add 20 or 40 pounds as they age?

Fat shaming doesn't stop with fat people. I always thought i was overweight. When I saw some old photos, I went back to calculate my BMI back then - 19.3 - Underweight. The irony is that when I did become overweight, I didn't realize that anything had changed!