Gay and trans people will literally go “Even if these identities were a choice, it’s still wrong to oppress us!” and then turn to fat people who are facing immense oppression and say “You’re making the choice to be fat, so…kind of your fault :/”
Also keep in mind that, just like queerness, fatness is not something the average fat person “chooses.” Genetics, socioeconomic status, disabilities, and so much more determine fatness.
This. I mean, I’m fat, and people in school used to call me a cow or wouldn’t hang out with anyone who looked fat to them. Like, I can’t help being heavy anymore than I can help being trans and gay, or being short. I exercise when I can, I try not to overeat, and I take it one day at a time, but I don’t lose weight, because it’s just something in my genetics.
And people fail to remember that words hurt, bad, and their words that they use to hurt fat people like me, those words never leave my mind. When I look in the mirror, I hate what I see… when I look at other people, I think, “I wish I was strong like they are, holding their head up high and not showing the pain of the words fat-phobic people use,” or, “they look fucking amazing, and I wish I looked like them,”… do people not realize that the harmful words people use do affect people, that once they say something harmful, they can’t ever unsay it? Because if they did realize it, and chose better words. The world would be a better, beautiful place.
Not only do fat people face oppression through bullying, we also face wage gaps, workplace harassment, job discrimination, are not protected by anti-discrimination laws, our abuse is televised for entertainment (shows like Biggest Loser), we’re encouraged to mutilate our organs in order to conform to society’s beauty standards (weight loss surgeries), fat children are taken into the foster care system purely for being fat, medical discrimination (fat people are not given the same quality healthcare as thin people), and so much more. Don’t forget that when I say oppressed, I mean that we are oppressed in literally every way.
Support those who need help that are legitimate usersandhave posts that are truthful who have means of communications enabledandcan be sent messages if your still cautious.
Asks to reblog pinned posts are usually scams. Generally they’ll have their ask boxes disabled and messages turned off meaning you can’t contact them. They’ll commonly tell you their cat/dog needs help but the pictures being used are reused/stolen from others. Other times the pinned post is about anything else but is still a scam. These scammers will spam ask boxes of any user they may find in a certain tag and then may start tagging popular tumblr blogs to spread the scam. They’ll make a guilt trippy story and send asks to users who are not financially stable enough to support anyone. Or are too young to be able to. The scammers blog is set to be hidden. You won’t be able to access the blogs archive to see all posts. However! On mobile there’s timestamps so you can see if a blog is days/hours old when they started up sending asks. You can see if the blog is new or was an old one that suddenly started posting months later. Search the e-mail listed. If it’s already got a warning posted about it, it’s a scam.
You can find people who legitimately need help. They’ll have all methods of contact enabled and will answer any questions you have. They (hopefully) didn’t spam ask boxes for you to find them. Often they’ll be mutual followers or friends of those sharing their posts. They won’t have a strangely worded donation post and likely is using a well known donation service to collect funds. They also hopefully didn’t use SO MANY tags on their donation post because they want it to be easier to find. Their blogs are (usually) accessed from wherever, though some may have it set to hidden for personal reasons regardless.
As an aside, it’s Pride Month. Some scammers will use this as well to scam users unfortunately.
(If you liked this post enough, perhaps donate to myko-fi? But otherwise, I decided to hopefully cover everything here. Yet again once more wasting money to spread this final warning across tumblr.)
I’m gonna say it here too. Allow me to be crystal fucking clear.
It is not cowardly to stay in the closet. Full stop. You do not owe anyone any part of yourself you aren’t ready to share
If you unable to come out because you fear for your safety or well-being or because you know it will cause you substantial discomfort, that is not a defect in you. It’s a failure of the society in which you live and the community surrounding you.
If you just don’t want to share that part of yourself, that is valid and I support you
