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

I don't know. Do you have evidence to suggest that people are deliberately becoming obese because the BP movement has convinced us all its desirable? Are slim women hating their bodies and eating unhealthily in order to emulate larger women? Has everyone stopped trying to lose weight?

Exactly. No point in bringing whatabouttery and 'yeah but what about X, Y, Z' into the thread. This is about people celebrating being fat, and how it shouldn't happen. No idea why anyone had to mention drug users.

@Naunet who is cheering on obesity?

Maybe it’s unrealistic though to expect the whole of the population to not smoke, not take drugs, exercise but not over exercise, stay at a healthy weight, cook from scratch, limit sugar, caffeine & alcohol & reduce stress? I don’t think I know anyone who ticks all these boxes & my circle includes GPs, nurses & surgeons!

This. No one should feel ashamed or embarrassed about what shape or size they are, at any shape or size.

But that is very different to promoting unhealthy lifestyles and weights, of either end, as positive and ok.

And while people are quick to jump on 'I hope this is about people that are too skinny as well' - the reality is that the majority of the population in the UK/US/Australia are too big, not too skinny so therein the problem lies, not with people who are underweight promoting a lifestyle/look that encourages this.

I think you’ll find many people have an issue with that too and consider it unhealthy, they aren’t cheering on drug users and telling them to do another line.

@ResultsMayVary because it isn’t just about the outside. I know plenty of healthy looking people who overindulge in alcohol or drugs etc. I’m healthy but as I’m getting older I know I need to be mindful of stress as I’m a bit of a workaholic & take too much on.

Perhaps the bigger issue is people believing any old drivel they see on the internet and not being able to think critically.

We should be encouraging healthy lifestyles independently of body size. Severe obesity shortens lifespan by 10 years which is the same as smoking. Moderate obesity around 1/3 at 3 years. Anorexia has high rates of mortality.

Clearly health wise too thin or severe obesity is a health issue but as a population I suspect 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.

Why? People can make their own minds up we can't remove stupidy out of society just because people don't want to use the brains they were born with

I’m a fatty .. when I was a teenager it was hard to get clothes over a size 14 - it made me feel shit, and did nothing to make me lose weight.
It’s good that young women now don’t feel the same shame. I like that they go out, dressed however they like.

Most lifestyles have some element of risk to them.

I think they best thing to do is refrain from judging those whose lifstyles are different to mind, and concentrate on those I love and who love me, much better for mental health. Good mental health will keep you healthier than anything else.

You do mean you think people shouldn't be celebrating being obese. I doubt you meant people shouldn't celebrate/be content with being slim. At least own it @WildUmberScroller

Just messin' with ya!

For what it's worth, I actually agree. I am pretty fed up of seeing obesity celebrated, with 'BBW' websites, promoting how 'beautiful' these often 10 stone overweight women are. And then women who are clearly very overweight calling themselves 'curvy.' I am quite 'curvy' myself and find it annoying and ludicrous.

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!

I’ve seen some of these videos, usually extremely obese, young American women showing off what they eat in a day and telling their followers how it’s perfectly healthy, and then having a rant about queer(?!) sized clothing not being available enough and how that makes them oppressed. Oh and sometimes they throw in how it’s racist to lose weight/not be attracted to fat women (these women are all white). It’s utterly ridiculous, self indulgent and irresponsible. Several of these women have passed away. In fact I came across a video by an ex ‘fat influencer’ talking about how toxic and harmful the community is, so hopefully the tide is shifting. I assume it’s this type of extreme view you’re talking about and not general body positivity?

I think it’s about both too light and too heavy. I think it’s wrong to say you’re healthy with a high bmi and also I’ve seen a lot recently about these ‘volume eaters ‘ who look emaciated and eat vats of kale and 75 pineapples a day or something ridiculous and have a bmi of about 14 . It goes both ways

Yeah you are right fat people don't deserve nice clothes. They should all be forced to wear potato sacks!

Do you mean people like.Lizzo?
Because people always get this mixed up.
She was always eating vegan and clean and you have to excercise hard to have her stamina on stage as a bigger woman.
She has always talked about loving yourself regardless of size. She loved herself just as much when she was bigger because her ability to be loved as a human is not about her clothes size.
So many commentators stating that Lizzo has done a u turn, she hasn't she is just losing weight(probably from weight loss jabs) which re enforces that her genetics are at play when it comes to her weight.
I cannot see anybody saying anywhere. Eat until you are morbidly obese, your value as a person is determined by you getting fatter.
It's just people saying. I am fat but I am still a beautiful person.

yes I agree. I've seen a few clothes adverts recently with extremely morbidly obese people in them. The sort of weight problem which often results in death before 30.

I think this is yet another fat bashing thread.

this

Completely agree. There are people promoting morbid obesity minimising or denying the associated health risks which is just dangerous misinformation. Did you watch BBC Around the World in 80 Weighs? The one woman was completely into promoting healthy at huge sizes and if you called her out on it you were size-ist.

I agree with you OP. There’s a lot of glamourising being obese under the guise of “body positivity”, yes it’s a good thing to love your body, but it’s naive and harmful to pretend that being morbidly obese doesn’t come with health risks. Those health risks don’t disappear by loving your size.

There’s equally the same for the other end of the spectrum, glamourising massively under eating and over exercising to maintain that “perfect” body. One particular quite famous influencers (who have a large young female following) posting videos describing how she had eaten a lot the day before so she was having a “punished day” doing 2 hours of cardio and essentially eating nothing.

I don’t anyone is under the illusion that being too big or small is healthy for you long term though?

And pp is right that mental health also comes into play.

Body positivity also promotes that it’s ok to nip tuck, tweaks, it’s free choice etc but I don’t think that’s healthy.