Half the backlash to fat lib content essentially boils down to "I can't believe you're FORCING me to not be mean to you"
Thin people are absolutely relentless with this. "But I have to TELL them!" "I can't just not SAY something!" "We can't just PRETEND it's fine to be fat!"
They really seem to think the main reason people are fat is because we're simply drowning in approval and no one has been brave enough to inform us that it's better to not be fat, actually
I genuinely think it's related to what I observe about singleness, virginity, and ace/aro topics: people's entire worldviews are threatened by fat liberation. And having your worldview challenged is scary... especially because so many people have put so, so much personal effort into Not Being Fat, so much self-hate into gaining weight, so much self-denial of food they like and forcing themselves into activities they hate, to avoid being fat.
And fat liberation says "It's okay to be fat!" and fat people say "I'm happy being fat and I don't try to become skinny!"
And it scares people that that is an option. It scares people to think that they have sunk so much time, so much effort, so much misery into avoiding being fat. And this person in front of them is just... not even trying. Rejecting the game. Saying You Don't Have To Do That.
If they accept that they didn't have to do that... then they made themselves so unhappy, for so long, for no reason.
They want their effort, their unhappiness, to have been worth it. To have meant something.
So they have to believe that being fat is wrong, bad, gross, a moral failing, and the only reason anyone would be happy that way is if they just don't know better. Because the other option is to realize and admit that they suffered unnecessarily for years and it meant nothing at all.
I don't think there are any fat people who don't know they're fat and who aren't aware their lives would be easier if they weren't. I don't think that's a type of person who actually exists in our society.
Much of the time when I'm talking about fatphobia, I'm talking specifically about medical fatphobia and my experiences struggling to access treatment for various issues - like how I now have eight screws and a metal plate in my right ankle, because I broke it, the first surgeon refused to do the surgery I needed and dismissed me because I'm fat, and so I needed a much more invasive surgery five years later.
It is telling, I think, that when I talk about those things I invariably get a lot of replies going "You can't make me want to fuck fat people! >:(" and assorted comments about how gross fat people's bodies are.
First of all, bold of you to assume I'd want to fuck YOU.
Deeply weird thing to frame an issue about access to medical care in terms of "Do I want to fuck this person?", you know, the human rights issues I was talking about. "Only people I think are hot should have access to competent, appropriate medical treatment and human rights" is not the slay you think it is.
I had a friend who'd had suicidal ideation since she was a small child who refused to increase her antidepressants - which made her want to not die - to a therapeutic dose because "but what if I gain more weight?"
This shit kills people, and they want to talk about "Ew, I think your body's gross".
It's telling that people are so fucking threatened by the idea fat people might exist and just live their lives.
