We’re starting our “metabolism” module at med school this week, and I’m dreading it with every fibre of my being. You see, I am going to be a doctor, and I am fat.
I’m not the type of fat you feel after you’ve had a big lunch, and your usually flat belly is protesting against the waistband of your jeans. I’m the real kind. My BMI hovers a couple of points below “morbidly obese”.
I worry a lot about what people will think of me as a fat doctor. For the smartarses among you, of course I’ve tried to be non-fat, it goes without saying. The thing is though, bodies don’t really like weighing less all of a sudden and are pretty good at reversing things in the long run. Mostly my body settles back to the same size 18 shape eventually.
I am always aware of my fatness, but perhaps more so here at medical school. We are training to work with bodies, and mine is a type of body we warn our patients not to have. It is the first thing described in every list of ‘modifiable risk factors’. A colleague suggests “just don’t let yourself get too fat” as we talk about preventing a certain type of cancer. A final exam question asks us to list four poor health outcomes associated with obesity. I sit through lectures with slides that have sniggering titles like “how BIG is the problem?”
hey, just a psa: when you make comments about another person’s weight in front of me, or any fat person, we know what you’re doing. youre not as subtle as you think you are. youre not slick, youre not getting away with anything when you make fun of other plus size bodies in our presence. all you are showing us is that you are not a friend, that we cannot trust you. even if you arent doing it on purpose to belittle us, we see how you view our bodies and our dignity in your treatment of others. respect fat people. stop using us to make yourself feel better.
Can we please fucking stop trying to make fat acceptance about health or attraction? It doesn’t matter if someone is healthy. It doesn’t matter if someone is attractive. They’re still a person and deserve decency and respect regardless. Trying to tie fat acceptance into arguments about health and beauty inherently excludes anyone who doesn’t meet those standards. It’s also inherently ableist and racist because said standards are based on the values of our racist and ableist society.
No one owes you their health. No one owes you your standards of attractiveness. Fat people are people and should be treated as such. Period. End of story. Fuck your caveats.
I absolutely understand what you saying and I agree ass 300lb+ POC woman but I do get the intent behind that. We’ve been told our entire life that being fat makes you ugly and I have a close friend and roommate who refuses to go the doctor because the last like 6 she’s tried all blame her ailments on her weight without doing any test. Health and beauty should not be the main factor point of fat acceptance but it still needs to be addressed because I want little plus size kids to feel comfortable and beautiful in their own skins regardless of what a scale says and I want every person to have full treatment of whatever I’d bothering them medically without having to fight the doctor because they just want to brush you aside saying it’s an effect of your weight.
