I think what’s important to remember about fatphobia is that it’s most damning consequences (the brutal abuse and death of fat people) serve to reinforce its structuring logics (that fat people are always and already dying / evidence of societal&personal decline).
the work of undoing fatphobia thus is both pointing out the hypocrisy of a medical industry that has the audacity to call fat people an “epidemic” while actively hastening their deaths, AND about understanding the broader discourses of blame and unworthiness that allow institutions to commit murder while swearing that victims did it to themselves.
Just want to add real quick: if you are fat and have experienced medical abuse/neglect, it is not your fault. Never. Not even if you’re “unhealthy.” No one deserves abuse. Not from doctors or anyone else. The existence of medical violence is a symptom of systemic fatphobia, white supremacy, ableism, and cisheterosexism.
You have done nothing wrong. Doctors have wronged you.
I will say I generally hate the like, commonplace “progressive” outlook on fatness as something caused by oppression, the idea that if everyone had more time to exercise and more access to broccoli fat people wouldn’t exist but they don’t so we gotta be sympathetic to the sad fatties
its so extremely common a belief and its usually meant well so I don’t like, jump down anyone’s throat for it, its like for fatphobia what “sex and gender are different!” is to transphobia. Like no actually calling me a male who identifies as a woman isn’t actually very nice or liberating but thank you for trying i guess.
every time i see people trying to normalize fatness by sexualizing it i think of that post thats like “what are you gonna tell a fucking 12 y/o? dont cry dude youre so thick? stop it” bc like. truly. not only do i personally not want my body to be sexualized lol but also its so harmful to kids like?? being fat is normal in all contexts not just when youre in lingerie with a beat face looking pouty at the camera like can we talk about the variances in human bodies without resorting to making them normal only when theyre sexy, my god
your body is good, not because it is desirable to others, but because you live in it
“your body is good, not because it is desirable to others, but because you live in it”
this is 100% why i never fucked with that “normcore” nonsense and why i’m still extremely self-conscious about what i wear and how my clothes fit, even after my weight loss. wearing “normal” clothes only becomes “fashion” when it’s on skinny attractive people and once it’s on a fat person it’s suddenly the trappings of the tacky and the unwashed poors. fuck out of here. you can make anything look good.
This was labelled as “trendy 90′s style”, and a simple search of “90′s jeans with tucked in shirt” gave me thousands of images of skinny white girls wearing the exact same outfit as the people in the original picture, all captioned with words like style goals and want. I even found a whole article devoted to different ways to wear “mom shorts”, again filled exclusively with skinny models. But the second you add “plus sized” to the search, I found nothing but insults about the looks. The fact of the matter is that it has nothing to do with what they are wearing, but who they are and what their body looks like. A skinny person could wear a vomit covered trash bag and be praised, but a fat person could wear couture off the runway and still be criticized.
first time in a year that I’ve had… I’m not sure, either the courage or the sheer stupidity to actually read a comment on one of my stories, and it’s a diatribe about how badly and negatively I portrayed Kirk (aka my literal favorite Trek character ever), asking if I hate him or Shatner because I wasted so many words on being rude to/about him, and not-so-subtly accusing me of fatphobia/fat shaming/ageism.
if all of my ao3 and tumblr materials ever disappear, just… don’t be surprised.
your pal says something mean about a fat person in shorts this summer you SAY, “oh so they’re supposed to get heat stroke because of your sensitive ass?” (fat people deserve to wear weather appropriate clothing)
you’re getting ice cream with your friend and they make a comment about the fat person eating an ice cream cone you SAY, “oh then I guess you don’t want ice cream, let’s go.” (fat people don’t need to earn food even for enjoyment)
you’re at the beach and a fat person is laying out and your dad says something rude about it you SAY, “I think they look comfortable. It’s good they’re getting some sun. I bet they work hard all year for this vacation.” (fat people deserve to appear in public)
telling a someone you like their stretch marks does NOTHING for fatphobia and will NEVER make your friends and family think twice about their shitty learned hatred.
There is no form of hating fat people - including concern trolling or hating fat acceptance - that doesn’t amount to you saying, “Uh, excuse me, what made you think you could go around having a body without justifying it to me?”
When you talk about “fat” diseases - you’re saying: “uh, that body better be perfectly healthy in all instances forever before I give you my approval.”
When you talk about “it’s just not attractive” - you’re saying: “I think I made it clear that if your body isn’t pleasing to me, I’m not signing off on it.”
When you talk about “just eat less and exercise more” - you’re saying: “who gave you permission to live your life as you see fit instead of how I see fit?”
So let me just be clear: all anti-fat arguments are always and completely invalid because fat people will never owe you an explanation or justification for their bodies, their health, or their lives.
Fat acceptance is simply the assertion of a right fat people have always had, and one it’s long past time others started accepting.
