Took a little break from the internet and touched some grass and it was great. Wander back in here after my hiatus and what do I find? Just a thread with a bunch of fatphobia.
Cute.
For a community that is incredibly careful about protecting its users from the -phobias and the -isms, there sure is a hell of a lot of unchecked fatphobia here basically any time fatness gets brought up.
It’s something I’ve noticed on the left in general as well. The leftist org I’m in has almost no fat people in it and something tells me that’s not because there aren’t any fat leftists out there.
Fatphobia is rooted in anti-Blackness and ableism.
I’d highly recommend the “Maintenance Phase” podcast with Michael Hobbes and Aubrey Gordon, as well as Aubrey Gordon’s books “What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat” and “You Just Need To Lose Weight.”
TL;DR: There’s mounting evidence that anti-fat bias in medicine is more to blame for poor medical outcomes in fat people rather than just the fat itself.
Diet and exercise don’t result in long-term weight loss for something like 95% of people. As a leftist, are you really gonna sit here and blame this on individual choices rather than systemic issues? Are you really gonna try to convince us that 95% of people are just lacking willpower?
Please note that this thread is not an invitation to convince me I’m wrong or share your own personal anecdotal story of successful long-term weight loss with the implication that others can do it because you did it. This post is a request that any thin person (or thin-adjacent person) reading this who wants to argue about how being fat is bad for your health do some research and some self-crit. This post is a request that this community rethink the way it engages with discussions about fatness, diet, fatphobia, and anti-fat bias.
Anti-fat bias literally kills people.
I definitely agree that it's a topic that's overpoliced and there are certain unhealthy behaviors that are glorified. In particular I have been myself tired and critical of all the health influencer and social media information peddlers who specialize over health topics while being sensationalist and seem to made with aim of making people panic. In particular, bodybuilders and weightlifters being such an extensive part of this when it is precisely those that can promote behaviors that are unhealthy both mentally and physically is something I came to greatly dislike recently with my observation that so much information and advice regarding self-care being monopolized by lifters who may or may not be on substances not to even mention crooks and grifters selling things like carnivore diets and what not.
However it seems that there is an argument being made specifically that being overweight is not the cause of certain health complications ascribed to it, which I'll try to look up now.