Social Workout

Gym Poet

Fat Pride

Captain McCrea, Wall-E

"Fat pride" is a movement. I learned this from an article debating the severe weight discrimination displayed in Pixar’s WALL-E.  Apparently, the big anti-obesity crusade at the moment is comparable, for some, "with the quest for the perfect body by the eugenics movement in Nazi Germany." People are using weight as "a proxy for health and morality,"  says Sanda Solovay, a "fat discrimination" lawyer.  

Now, let me say, as an ex-fatty, that I'm all for self-acceptance, and I believe the value of community for esteem-building is astronomically important, but I'm dubious about these "fat-ivists."

The article introduced me to two groups: The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, and the Coalition of Fats Rights Activists, now called the Fats Rights Coalition. NAAFA is a non-profit human rights organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for fat people, who seek to take back the word “fat” and think “overweight” and “obese” are morally loaded. FRC seeks to establish and defend equal rights and opportunities for all people regardless of weight or body size. I found their website, but it doesn’t seem to be updated, and is just asking for money. (I did, however, find the Big Fat Blog, which raised some interesting questions concerning weight requirements for para-sailing.)

My thought: I think it’s difficult to reclaim “fat” as a positive adjective outside the, um, fatosphere. Having been there, I really only like to hear the word in terms of food, not people, and I can’t see that ever changing. I agree that “overweight” and “obese” are loaded terms. They carry with it societal pressures and expectations, but they’re also part of clinical diction that I don’t see the point in changing.  All connotations aside, obesity is a very real problem, and to rally against a “49 billion dollar diet industry” and to balk against words like “obese,” is to ignore the trillion dollar fast food, junk food, craving-then-consumption industry that’s debilitating people all over the planet. I mean, just look at some of this data on obesity and cancer!

Again, I'm all for community and fighting the evil influence of Madison Avenue photoshoppers, but when the group identity becomes so fanatical that the groupies reject the discussion of healthy living, or anyone who might not want to be fat, you lose me....

In the US, some fat-tivists reject those who support dieting as faux fatties....The British size acceptance movement turned against its founder Shelley Bovey when she dropped six stone in weight and started campaigning for healthy eating.

That's a pendulum swinging too far.