Things to stop doing in conversations unless you want to contribute to the hatred of fat people

[scullies]

TW for post and comments: fatphobia; body-shaming; discussing of diet, weight-loss, exercise.

You might have heard the terms fat-hate or fatphobia used to describe your words or what sounded to you like the reasonable words of others. Maybe you don’t hate fat people. Maybe you aren’t afraid of fat people. Maybe you aren’t less likely to hire fat

Comments

[pleasure_past]

one of the greatest human drives is the drive to fit in. When you call out someone for doing something weird or exceptional, even just by pointing it out, you are very likely to decrease their desire to continue with that activity.

THIS, SO MUCH. I get this kind of thing sometimes from my mother, both about food/exorcize kind of things and about other things, and I've never understood before now why it always immediately kills any desire I have to continue doing the activity she's "complimenting" me on.

“How I lost 30 lbs” was followed parenthetically by “(And got my life back)”.

I've always hated this one too. I HAVE A LIFE. I have school and friends and hobbies and healthy relationships with my family and Medieval Swordfighting and I travel and get jobs when I'm not on a visa that doesn't allow it. My weight has never stopped me from doing any of these things. When people say that getting thin = getting your life back, what they mean is that getting thin = getting a life that they consider worth living. It's not a statement about how it's more fun to be thin. It's a statement about how society thinks fat people are worthless.

“Childhood obesity” is a shorthand for a moral and political platform that spans food morality/policing, issues of class warfare, and pathologizing more bodies for profit.

YES. THIS. THANK YOU. Especially with bullshit proposals to take kids away from their parents for being fat.

Whether or not a fat person should wear striped clothes, have a certain haircut, go out in a bikini, etc is entirely up to the fat person in question.

Definitely. You have no idea how many years I let my mom and various stylists talk me out of cutting my hair short because ~long hair looks better on fat girls~. Fuck no. I have loved my short hair the entire time I've had, and I've been the fattest I've ever been with short hair.

Good article.