#fatism

[contemporarysex-blog]

Remember when they said being gay was a choice, and succumbing to it was a moral failure? When making fun of gays was universally accepted, because they were so obviously ridiculous? When they said gay people just had to get their act together, make an effort and they could be good straight members of society again?

That's where we are today with fat people.

[jerisbraindump]

FATISM

I have always noticed clear discrimination between skinny or athletic people and overweight/fat people. I am built like my mom was. Voluptuo

[hillbillyhorror]

You don't have to be skinny to be goth. Fat goths are awesome too.

[allgoodstore]

本日最後のお客様は総料理長a.k.a旅する料理人タケシくん @made.in.kitchen いつもあざます&BBQ調理担当の約束取り付けました🍖🍖🍖 #allgoodstore #valleytown #fatism (ALL GOOD STORE)

[here4yall]

Happy is more than Weight

I used to be fat and I used to get bullied about it. I used to pinch at my fat and wish it would just go away. Eventually I realised that I had to change what I didn’t like and I went on a weight loss regime that saw me lose all the excess weight.

This didn’t fix my life, I still have down days. There is more to life than image and people value us on what we can give. Happiness, love, a smile. These are all more important than what you look like and what you weigh.

The body is a vessel for the soul and the soul is all that matters

[x-fits-y]

People like me are aware that they are fat and we needn't some skinny bitches and self-righteous health Inquisitors to constantly remind us that we are failures and worthless just because we are fat. Thank you for finding the words I couldn't find.

[asynca]

I'm trying to reconcile two important points. Society sucks for making women only feel beautiful at borderline anorexia (which you combat beautifully with your pictures), but science says there is an obesity problem on the horizon in the first world countries. (Which can lead to long term health issues that I don't want people to suffer). Both which are true as far as I know. So what is Auntie Asy's reconciliation of these two facts. At what point does it become a health issue over societal?

First of all, I suggest checking out thisisthinprivilege‘s FAQ about the science re: being fat, because you might be surprised what non-biased studies about being fat actually say about health and weight loss (I was - and I’d had eating disorders most of my life to try and stay thin).

The hysteria around public health and obesity is fed largely by societal ideals of beauty and looking for great reasons to hate fat people. Sure, being fat does predispose you to health problems (although for fat people who eat healthy food and exercise, it’s actually only a fractional increase), but it’s largely lifestyle issues around being sedentary and eating shitty food that cause those problems and thin people also suffer a much greater likelihood of the same health problems if they do they same thing. Furthermore, fat people are less likely to get help early if they do think something is wrong, because doctors are extremely fucking discriminatory even when there is no medical basis (I had one of my fat friends have a gyno rudely refuse to assist her simply because the gyno wanted her to lose weight for no reason in order to have an IUD removed, which is something that has absolutely nothing to do with being fat or what she was at the gyno for. The gyno had just taken a position on her fatness without knowing anything about her health or her history with weightloss surgery or anything). Because of going to see doctors later, obese people are more likely to have more advanced problems that are harder to treat that have nothing to do with the effect of fatness on their health. 

Fatness in itself is not the enormous huge public health crisis that we’re led to believe. There are lots of groups in society that have greater likelihood of medical issues: certain peoples of colour are vastly more likely to get diabetes, tall people are more likely to have cardiovascular issues, etc, etc. But it’s fat people who cop all the hysteria, because fat people are considered ugly and wrong and a scourge on society so people use health as an excuse to berate them into no longer being fat. It’s called ‘concern trolling’, citing health as a reason to hate fat people for their own good. Logically, it’s a ridiculous argument and a flimsy way to hide prejudice. 

The thing is, there is no cure for being fat. Like, do people get that? 95% of people in almost every reputable study conducted on weight loss put all the weight back on plus some more in 5 years. So this ‘just lose weight’ shit is fucking ridiculous, because you’re making a demand that only 5% of people can achieve. And it’s not because fat people have no discipline, it because of a plethora of changes that take place in your body when you lose weight beyond a point at which your body has decided is comfortable (ie, a ‘set point’). Your brain literally behaves like you are in starvation, literally. Imaging studies prove this. You’re hungrier, you can’t stop thinking about food, and the onslaught of food obsession doesn’t ever stop. You can’t lower your set point. So basically, you’re living half-starving and suffering because of it - and why would you want to do that or wish that on anyone? 

Here’s a really contentious and scientifically proven statement: some people are naturally fat. Their set points for weight are higher. Their bodies protect them to stay at specific higher weight ranges, just like the bodies of naturally thin people maintain their homeostatic weight lower. This is a fact. Why are we fighting it?

The health issue society needs to face is much more complex than obesity. Sedentary lifestyles and bad eating are not issues that are solely confined to fat people - they’re actually just a general problem in the Western World for everyone. It’s just that people who get fat from it get finger-pointed as if they’re doing something differently than everyone else. 

I don’t need to ‘reconcile’ anything. I’ve read the papers, I’ve see the lectures and debates. The science says some people are naturally fat, and that this fatness doesn’t cause illness, it predisposes people to it but just like other groups of people can, good diet and exercise (not for the purposes of weight loss!!) can easily help them avoid it. 

:)