Obesity "Fat" acceptance movement in the U.S.

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Brief background for this post: I don't get any newspapers. Anytime we visit my Mother-In-Law I read her papers. There was a multi-page article with full color photos of three obese women who were posing. One was wearing a miniskirt and started a plus sized fashion line. Another was wearing skin tight jeans and a low cut spaghetti strap tank top with no bra and is a columnist and writer. The third was wearing pants and a shirt and I don't recall what she did for a living. The article was about how each of the women has not only embraced themselves as they are, they have furthered a cause to shift society's views on obesity to being a beautiful thing. They use the term "fat" for themselves and are proud to be fat. For disclosure, I've never been one to "fat shame" a person.

My understanding is that obesity (ie more than being a bit overweight) is prevalent in the U.S. One statistic, which I find hard to believe, is that the average bra size in the U.S. is 34DD and this is correlated with obesity apparently.

I'm confused by the "fat pride" movement. It's common knowledge that obesity often results in a host of health problems including but not limited to diabetes, heart disease, early mortality, fatigue, shortness of breath, etc. It's also known that there are medical conditions and genetics that make it extremely difficult if not practically impossible for certain people to lose weight even if they work very hard at doing so. However, I would argue that for those people who do not have a medical reason for being obese that for many a change in lifestyle, even if radically so, would reduce their weight (e.g. eating less, eating healthier food, exercise). One could view obesity for such people as being a lifestyle choice of a sort.

I'm confused by this movement because of the inherent health risks. Other lifestyle choices that carry serious health risks are thankfully not embraced, encouraged or celebrated such as: Smoking/tobacco use, excessive alcohol consumption, illicit drug use such as meth, cocaine, unprotected sex with multiple partners who in turn have unprotected sex with multiple partners, etc.

If I'm off base in my confusion, where or how so?

I think the thresholds for being overweight/obese are too low. Frankly, skinny supermodels look unhealthy and unattractive to me. I've always thought women looked best "plump" - but being genuinely fat is another matter, of course, and nothing to be proud of at all.

Society and the (social) media are going way overboard in policing people's habits and behaviour and are ridiculously obsessed with looks. Women, in particular, can never win - they are either too thin or too fat, too feminine or masculine, too pretty or too ugly and it goes on... People have different body types and preferences and in my book it's nobody's business what choices they make as long as they understand the risks.

Obesity is not predominant in my country (yet), but myself and my wife travelled to places where it is and we would get snarky comments and asked if we have an eating disorder because we're athletic and slim (and I'm old too)

Yes, obesity it's unhealthy and shouldn't be encouraged, but if fat people wouldn't be publicly shamed and derided they might not have such knee jerk reactions and feel the need to defend themselves by turning obesity into a lifestyle or something to be proud of.

Last edited by BenderRodriguez on 04 Jul 2019, 3:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

It is now considered a form of harassment in many workplaces to make any mention of another person's weight.

In my culture, it's generally considered rude and intrusive to make comments about people's physical appearance (outside close family and friends) and it would definitely be considered grossly unprofessional at work.

But what goes on social media...

I didn't choose to be the weight that I am. I've been on medications such as Risperdal and Depakote and while I am on Lamictal, Abilify and Zoloft now, I still retain weight. I've always been bigger even has a 6th and 7th grader. I've been tested for PCOS but nope! Nothing like that. Just genetics and crap luck with medication. If I don't take my seizure meds, I have insane seizures. If I don't take Abilify, Zoloft and Ativan I have very bad outbursts.

While I'm not unhappy with my weight (I can run very fast, do crunches and lift heavy boxes so I do have fitness and stamina on my side) overeating to be my clothing size and weight if you have no medical reason to, that's like sabotaging your own unique body and damaging your health.

The fat acceptance movement is in reaction to discrimination

Size discrimination

The fat acceptance movement is not trying to encourage everyone to be fat

I, too, think that this movement is confusing. I'm guessing it came out of the body positive movement (which encourages people to love themselves). It seems that people mistook "loving themselves" for "fat acceptance". If you really love yourself, you will work to better yourself, lose the excess fat, and take care of yourself. That being said, having some fat on you isn't a bad thing. We need fat to survive. The problem is when you have too much fat, and you don't do anything to take care of yourself. I think these people are just confused.

Where I live specifically in the US, I only see a few people who are actually very morbidly obese. Usually, people are more average-leaning or a little overweight.

Again, I don't go out that much so I might be in for a surprise.

The truth is that we all have our prejudices and there will always be some people who will discriminate against characteristics no matter what movements are in society.

I also have my right to say that truly fat (unhealthy) shouldn't be accepted, especially without being de-platformed or kicked out of somewhere.

In the UK as part of their "Beat Cancer" agenda, (*Everything* on the TV is supporting cancer charities, even TV programmes are all sponsoring them. The media is obsessed with cancer.) they're now saying that obesity causes cancer and have put up adverts with pictures of cigarette packets and pictures of obese people on them.

So, that's likely going to confuse people here.

I do have a metabolic disorder that causes obesity (PCOS) and all my life I’ve had to work twice as hard as other people to maintain my weight. I can understand the movement a bit. From my PCOS message board I’ve seen many obese women get treated very poorly by their doctors. Their doctors shame them and refuse to help them with anything until they lose weight but don’t give them any useful advice on how to achieve that goal. I think everyone has the right to be respected and everyone deserves proper medical care. I also think everyone has the right to feel good about themselves even if they have issues.

I think fat acceptance is originally about them wanting to be accepted for their body size, not have their weight be challenged, not have doctors dismiss their struggles and medical issues to their weight without doing any tests, not be looked at or judged for their bodies.

But then there are the radical fat acceptance people, they lie and say there is nothing wrong with obesity and that doctors are just fat shaming you when they are looking after your health when you have weight related problems, they also do pro binge eating and tell you if you are craving sugar, that is your body's way of saying it needs food, they are also telling you it is okay to eat unhealthy and binge on it. On Tumblr they have all these pro eating disorder stuff and binge eating is an eating disorder. They will also shame you for losing weight and for getting healthier and being happier with your weight loss because you feel better psychically. This movement is no different than pro ana and I am surprised these websites have not been shut down yet like they did with pro ana forums and pages. They also convince you that is it airlines and clothing companies and public places that are the problem and not your body because they should have bigger seats and stuff and make big clothes and demand that stores put large clothing at the front of the store or have them sold in stores than online and that there is a conspiracy that they want you to lose weight. No, it's about supply and demand. Most people are not over 300 lbs or 500 lbs. so places are not going to build a bunch of large seats and car companies are not going to build cars to hold a 500 lb person or else it makes them unsafe for us to use them. No doctors are not refusing surgery on you because of your size, it's because of risks involved. Plus it makes it harder to get medical treatment because of your size. How much medicine you are given is also based on your weight and height so if you are too heavy, they can't properly medicate you because too much of it based on your size would be risky and dangerous so they are going to prescribe a weight loss plan for you.

These fat activists will also lie and tell you obesity can never affect you and it's the health industry that are against fat people and making up science.

No one should be shamed for their size and treated less human. No healthy person feeds themselves to 400 lbs, people who do have a underlining problem and obesity is just a symptom of a problem. Because I repeat, no one eats to 400 lbs unless they have a problem. Anxiety, depression, food addiction, trauma, all contribute to over eating.

Lot of people over eat and are overweight or obese but they are not so obese they can't fit in cars or seats or can't find their clothing size in most stores, or can't get medical treatment because their size is still "normal." Most doctors will just prescribe pain killers to excessive obese people because they don't know what to do. It's just a band aid. But for normal sized people, doctors can still help them and don't prescribe them pain killers.

Sometimes to lose weight, they have to get psychotherapy for their underlining issue of their eating problem first before they can focus on their weight loss.

But fat acceptance people will gaslight you and shame you and make you feel it's wrong to lose weight and call it fatphobia. One toxic movement there.

My current girlfriend has been big since she was born. Her weight has been mostly stable as an adult despite being big till a few years ago. She has depression & anxiety issues all her life that she's been getting help for including seeing a psychiatrist & a counselor. Cass gained a lot of weight in the last few years cuz her stress has gotten worse. She also has fibromyalgia or some other disorder that causes pain. Our GP has been pushing for Cass to exercise more & telling Cass that her pain issues getting worse are due to her weight & she needs to be more active. Thing is that Cass is more active now than she used to be. We're going out a lot more & we don't drive so we take buses & do some walking so in a way Cass is more physically active nowadays. Also her eating is kinda the same as it was when we got together & she was actually losing weight when we 1st got together even thou she was less physically active then. It's hard for Cass to be anymore physically active than she is cuz her pain issues are worse & she's more stressed & depressed. The reason she's more stressed & depressed is actually partly related to the fact that she's having to be more active than she used to be. Pushing her to be more active in order to have lose weight & have less pain is causing her to gain weight & have more pain which is the exact opposite of what most people believe.

Fat/obese people are regarded by society as lazy and a result of bad lifestyle choices. Junk food or sugar taxes have been implemented into some societies and are having positive effect on people's health and limiting intake of junk food and sugar. Obesity rates can only be changed by changes in diet by reducing junk food and sugar consumption.

I don't think truly obese women could fit into any 34 bra size. A rib cage circumference of 34" is actually rather slim. I wear a 32 to 34 myself, and I am on the low to normal BMI for a woman.

Anyway, more to the point: Women face far more pressure from society than men to have attractive bodies. Women who are perceived as obese are far more likely to be criticized for it than men. I think the understandable and beneficial side of obesity acceptance is that it calls out this way of thinking as being sexist and degrading to women.