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October 25, 2012
August 13, 2015
Many Things are Not About Fat People
But What About Obesity?
One thing that I find really upsetting is when someone wants to draw attention away from a discussion, they play a game of “look at the fatties.” I’ve been thinking about this because the petition to get Barneys and Disney to abandon their plans to make Minnie Mouse into a 5’11 size 0 Super model has received over 137,000 signatures and a number of celebrity endorsements. It is getting a lot of media coverage and eating disorder experts, child psychologists, and body image experts and others are talking about how images like this and the unattainable photoshop beauty that girls are under a crushing pressure to attain are dangerous for girls’ health. But often one of the first comments is “What about obesity?”
One thing that I find really irritating is when someone wants to draw attention away from a discussion, and so they play a game of “look at the fatties.”
I’ve seen this won’tsomebodythinkofthefatties technique used in discussions from global warming to contraception to politics. It goes like this – someone writes a blog or article that says “here is my well thought out opinion on this issue that has nothing to do with fat people.” Then someone literally leaves a comment that says “But what about obesity?”
I’ve seen this won’tsomebodythinkofthefatties technique used in discussions from global warming, to contraception, to politics. It goes like this – someone writes a blog or article that says “here is my well thought out opinion on this issue (that has nothing to do with fat people).” Then someone literally leaves a comment that says “But what about obesity?”
An example that I saw today:
Somebody was discussing the rise in restrictive eating disorders, and somebody asked “What about obesity?”
What about it? Dude, this has nothing to do with obesity. You might as well have said “What about the new Smurfs movie?” It’s exactly as relevant. Besides which, obesity is a body size – it’s not an eating disorder, it’s not a diagnosis, it’s not the problem, and it’s not part of the discussion. It’s a body size.
What about it? Dude, this has nothing to do with fat people. You might as well have said “What about Sharknado 3?” It’s exactly as relevant. Besides which, obesity is a body size – it’s not an eating disorder, it’s not a diagnosis, it’s not the problem, and it’s not part of every discussion. It’s just a body size.
The first problem with this is that it’s derailing – even if you massively don’t get it and believe obesity is a problem, there are other problems and it’s ok to talk about those problems with absolutely no mention of other unrelated problems.
The first problem with this is that it’s derailing – even if you massively don’t get it and mistakenly believe obesity is a problem, there are other problems and it’s ok to talk about those problems with absolutely no mention of fat people.
If you don’t want to discuss whatever the actual issue is that is being discussed, feel free to go find a forum to talk about whatever you want to talk about.
If you don’t want to discuss whatever the actual issue is that is being discussed, feel free to go find a place to talk about whatever you want to talk about, no need to throw fat people under the bus.
What’s worse about using obesity to derail a discussion is that obesity isn’t the new Smurf’s movie, nor is it an abstract concept, it’s people. People who are ceaselessly shamed, stigmatized and bullied in our society for how they look. People who should have a reasonable expectation of being able to engage in a dialog on the internet without someone suggesting that they are a worse issues than whatever is actually being talked about, or that they somehow compound every problem by their mere existence. It seems like some people take joy in the idea that they can bash fat people all they want and justify it because, hey, that’s what everyone else is doing. There are people who just want to take every opportunity to treat a group of people poorly with little fear of repercussion. Look – making assumptions about people and/or attempting to blame them for things based on how they look is bigotry, straight up, there is nothing that can justify it.
What’s worse about using obesity to derail a discussion is that obesity isn’t Sharknado 3, nor is it an abstract concept, it’s people. People who are ceaselessly shamed, stigmatized and bullied in our society for how we look. People who should have a reasonable expectation of being able to engage in a dialog on the internet without someone suggesting that they are a worse issues than anything that is actually being talked about, or that we somehow compound every problem by our mere existence. It seems like some people take joy in the idea that they can bash fat people all they want and justify it because, hey, that’s what everyone else is doing. There are people who just want to take every opportunity to treat a group of people poorly with little fear of repercussion. Look – making assumptions about people and/or attempting to blame them for things based on how they look is bigotry, straight up, there is nothing that can justify it.
Fat bashing for the purpose of derailing a discussion is still fat bashing and it has to stop. If you’re up for a little armchair activism, you can always call that out when you see it. Either way, if you’re fat know that it’s completely inappropriate.
Fat bashing for the purpose of derailing a discussion is still fat bashing and it has to stop. If you’re up for a little armchair activism, you can always call that out when you see it. Either way, if you’re fat know that it’s not you, it’s them, and it’s completely inappropriate.