To wonder if ‘body positivity’ has gone too far?

Does anyone using phrases like 'glamorising obesity' and 'promoting obesity' really believe that people watching fat-positive influencers will deliberately gain weight to attain an obese body size? I highly doubt it! No one actually thinks it's glamourous or aspirational to be obese and no one is striving to attain obesity - the way that people do glamorise thinness and struggle to achieve it. This content just exists to make fat people feel a bit better about themselves, more confident and happier in their own skin.

By the way, feeling good about yourself is more likely to help you live a healthier and happier lifestyle. I know there are people who believe that shaming fat people is the only way they'll lose weight and that if we deny them nice clothes and a chance at self-esteem, they'll be motivated to get thin but truly it works the opposite way. If you hate yourself, you don't treat yourself well. Increased feelings of shame in fat people have been shown to increase weight gain. It makes the problem worse, not better.

So no, body positivity hasn't gone too far- a lot of people are still severely lacking in empathy and understanding so I'd say it hasn't gone far enough.

Yes totally. Being obese is not a positive thing and we shouldn’t encourage it.

There's a lot of overly defensive people on here.

I know what you mean OP. Morbidly obese curvy women who promote the idea that there's nothing wrong with their size under the guise of body positivity.

It's unhealthy and unproductive.

Do you remember posters everywhere in the 80s about smoking, imagine that about overeating and being overweight.

Well yeah, it’s challenging for anyone to meet all those health standards perfectly. I think the goal should be about encouraging healthier habits rather than creating unrealistic expectations. It’s more about finding a balance and promoting wellbeing within the context of each person’s life and circumstances.

I agree but isn’t acceptance a part of that?

I think you're onto something @WildUmberScroller

there's a dichotomy and dividing line between body shape acceptance (a good thing) and the converse of minimising the health risks of being significantly overweight (diabetes being one example, as once you get diabetes you can't reverse it, you can only control it).

https://www.liveoakcommunications.com/post/why-dove-s-real-beauty-campaign-was-so-successful

https://www.dove.com/uk/stories/about-dove/breaking-down-narrow-beauty-stereotypes.html

She has indeed got a nice face, and is quite attractive, but objectively she is too big/too heavy, and THIS is the kind of thing some of us are on about on here. Celebrating being obese. She may look OK, and feel OK, but I don't believe she is 100% healty. Same with Lizzo, and other women/people who are obese.

They say 'DOVE is for REAL women' and then most of the women are size 18, or very obese. WTF, so you can't be a real woman unless you're fat?!

Some actual Dove photos..

The messages normalise overweight and obesity as being 'ok' though

We are getting bigger and bigger as a nation, not smaller. The more of something you see around you, the less unusual it seems.

Im quite surprised when I see people smoking now. Although Ive always been a non smoker who hated cigarettes around me and in society, in the 70s, it was hard to find someone who didnt smoke. It was expected/normal/ an every day occurance.

Now it is socially unacceptable.

So the message should be 'beauty comes in all shapes and sizes" but equally, "don't celebrate beauty in bigger bodies, because that's unhealthy, and promotes obesity".

A PP said, had everyone stopped trying to lose weight?
That's interesting, I heard that ladies in the fifties were on laxatives etc...
How about not getting to an unhealthy size at the first place, then there would be nothing to promote.

But do you think those discussions have to happen in the comments of every post a fat person makes?

The vast, vast majority of body positivity content I see on social media says “hi, I’m me and this is me being happy”. It doesn’t say anything about the relative value or health status of fat people. And the comments are full of people raging about “promoting unhealthy lifestyles” which seems to be code for “fat people deserve to be miserable”.

And as for the Dove campaign ... They say 'DOVE is for REAL women' and then most of the women are size 18, or very obese. WTF, so you can't be a real woman unless you're fat?! Do me a favour! How rude!

Thats not what they are saying though & they don’t only use obese women. I used to model, most people don’t look like me, are the same height or the same body type as me in the wider population.

Yeah, but people aren't celebrating how fantastic it is to smoke, and take drugs,

The users themselves tend to though, isn’t that the same for an obese influencer? Or are people getting inspired by these videos and deliberately gaining weight?

Have you never heard the tag line 'big is beautiful'

Yes but so what? What are we defining big as? Ashley Graham is a bigger model & I think she has a stunning face. I’ve also heard “thin is in”, “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” but I don’t pay much attention to sound bites.

I also believe there should be space for discussing health risks associated with extreme obesity without it being labelled as fat-shaming.

There is such a place though; any doctor’s office, hospital etc. What other kind of space should there be?

Has everyone stopped trying to lose weight? Interesting question. Until the advent of weight loss injections I saw a LOT of people online who had consciously given up on trying to lose weight because "95% of diets fail" "intentional weight loss is fat phobic and we have to unlearn internalised fatphobia" and "living in a larger body is just how I am" so yeah, many people have either used fat activism as an excuse to stop trying, or have intentionally embraced being fat as a community thing, or genuinely believe the fake news about obesity not impacting health etc. I know someone who I was friends with for 15 years and always, always struggled with her weight, always on one diet or other. Now I see from her social media that she promotes herself as a fat activist and asserts she has loved her fat body all her life (total lies). ETA this person used to be around 15/16 stone when I knew her. She's more like 22 now. So accepting fat acceptance rhetoric is actively harming her health. At least when she was 'failing' at diets she kept her weight to a more stable and less harmful level. Giving up on controlling weight, for a person with obesity, almost always leads to significant weight gain.

interestingly though a lot of online fat activists are now being berated for using weight loss injections and betraying their community by losing weight. I think the movement may be over 🤞🏼

Yeah, but people aren't celebrating how fantastic it is to smoke, and take drugs, and get high on caffiene or eat 10 Mars bars a day, and drink a bottle of gin a day. Or putting out campaigns and creating websites and putting ads on TV, about ciggies and booze and drugs and how they are all amazing, and saying we should all get them are they?

(Some) people celebrate being obese like it's a wonderful thing that we all need to embrace.

It's not!

And the way (for example) DOVE push obese women into their ads, and say THIS is a real woman is just a disgrace really. Because they're suggesting you are not a REAL woman if you're slim!

Fat activism/fat positivity/ Health at every size activism is culty, anti reality nonsense. I assume that's what you're talking about? Look up the fat doctor uk, virgie Tovar and Melissa Matthews as examples of this kind of activism. It's absurd.

Have you never heard the tag line 'big is beautiful'

I fell for that one for a while, its used in a plethora of ways.

That isn’t what I did though…

I responded to another poster who made the wider point “very few people are following health guidelines (and in the past much of the health advice was pretty rubbish) and as a result diabetes and other chronic illnesses are increasing. Perhaps the answer needs to be dealt with at a societal level.”

I agreed with her & replied. Not sure why that confused you?