Does the age of Ozempic and MJ jabs expose what a load of bollocks the ‘Body Positivity’ and ‘Health at any Size’ movements were

ODFOD. WLIs do not melt away fat. You have to diet and exercise whilst using them. There is effort involved. You just don’t need to feel hungry all the time any more.

I personally think the body positivity movement was one big conspiracy by the FDA to get everyone fat and then advertise fat loss injections to them and make a huge profit!

go on YouTube and TikTok. Type in “fat positivity”.

It’s not uncommon for so called fat activists to ridicule and deride formerly fat people for actually choosing to lose weight. Some of thinking is incredibly warped and dangerous.

As

I think you've misunderstood.

MT looks lovely and the point the poster was making is that most people look much better when they lose weight.

They don't look gaunt and haggard as if often claimed.

I’m in no such brigade. MT looks absolutely fine… just pointing out her hypocrisy

Yes, this is what the poster meant about the 'gaunt and haggard' brigade.

YANBU

I was reading a thread earlier where someone said they expect there'll be far fewer MNetters claiming they look 'ill and gaunt' or 'haggard' at a perfectly healthy BMI.

"I had to choose between arse and face" was always a well worn excuse from people claiming they could lose weight but just 'didn't want to'.

I do find it hilarious that Meghan Trainor was all “I’m bringing booty back, go ahead and tell them skinny bitches that” but as soon as the opportunity came to become a “skinny bitch” herself without actually having to put any work in she jumped right at it!

Totally agree OP. But you're not allowed to say it. And heaven forbid you are happy with weight loss on weight loss injections. We're nothing but great big cheaters.

The part of me that mostly irritates me now, is that sizes have been inflated to make fat people feel better, so now at 7st 7, I can't find any clothes in normal shops that don't just hang off me.

What happened to the body neutrality thing? That made sense to me, but I suppose 'let's just give less of a shit about other people's appearances' just didn't get the clicks.

It was always bollocks. I remember the model Crystal Renn gain a load of weight and went about making it her mission to get “bigger” models and “real” women into the industry - while wanging on about how toxic the industry was and how she was happier now with her new body - then a few years later shed all the weight (presumably didn’t work out as well as she’d hoped and she didn’t actually prefer being bigger after all) ?

as you say OP - It was mainly something bigger women used to try and normalise obesity rather than actually being about acceptance/being neutral and ensuring people were treated the same regardless.

I also agree there was a lot of nastiness to naturally thin women - a lot of “size zero aren’t real women”. I can assure you we are very real and trying to quietly get on our lives - just that we were disliked because we werent fat.

All of these women championing “body positivity” now have a way to loose weight that’s accessible and works for them and suddenly they don’t want to be bigger and body positive after all. So yes it did rather point to hypocrisy imo.

I do think it is important for anyone over weight to be able to get well fitting clothes that they feel good in, Doesn’t matter what others might see or think, people need to feel good. This is what body positivity was for me - feeling comfortable in my own skin. I was under no illusion it was unhealthy to be so over weight but I needed to get to a place I could tackle it successfully. I was allowed to look as good as possible in the interim!

Yeah the "only a dog wants a bone" comments were quite nasty but I always understood that it came from a place of insecurity. Ive never been overweight but I have empathy for those who struggle. Sometimes people dont realise how hurtful their comments were towards slim women because they were too wrapped up in themselves to give it much thought. I'm glad that ozempic is now available so that more people can feel good about themselves.

Yeah, I think you've said it very well. It's not saying 'No one should ever try to be slimmer' but it might help people for whom, for whatever reason, it's really difficult to lose weight. I had a friend who was trying to lose weight but overeating was really caught up with historic mental health issues for her and so it was incredibly hard for her. Body positivity was a good thing for her. I've lost touch with her, but maybe now she's on jabs for all I know and that doesn't make her a hypocrite - her weight issue was just really complex and 'diet and exercise' was not a simple matter, so a less fraught solution could be welcome.

I agree, OP.

I was in a body positivity fb group for a while years ago. The group was for everyone who didn't feel they fit 'Western Beauty Standards' for any reason.

I never posted, but initially, it was really supportive to those who did and it was uplifting just reading the support and kindness towards others regardless who posted or who responded. Women who had ventured to the gym despite feeling self conscious about their wobbly bits were championed. Women who had avoided being in photos with their children bravely posted a holiday snap and were loved for it. Women who didn't know how to eat healthily had tried a new recipe and shared it to congratulations.

No achievement was too big or too small. No woman was too big or too small.

I left when I realised it had morphed into something very different indeed.

Eventually, the only acceptable body size on there was obese/morbidly obese. The only acceptable level of exercise was none. Every common or garden overweight/mid sized women who posted was pilloried and woe betide you if you were slimmer and just lacked body confidence. I remember one woman who posted a few months post partum with a crepey belly and wobbly thighs who was clearly really struggling with the change in her body and early motherhood. But because she was a size 10ish, she was absolutely ripped to shreds and bullied from the group.

Eventually, no one was safe on there really, even the acceptably large women who posted that they wanted to go swimming or join a gym for fitness or to lose weight because they wanted to TTC or because they wanted to be able.to run around the park with their children or see their children grow up were attacked as traitors and mocked for believing the lies and propaganda.

Only a complete rejection of healthy eating and exercise was accepted. Only a complete rejection of self care was championed. Anyone sharing that they'd 'fallen off the wagon' diet and exercise wise was celebrated and welcomed back into the fold. Only complete submission to the bigger is not only beautiful but better in every way mantra was acceptable.

Nothing other than being very overweight was even represented anymore. No acne scars, no thinning hair, no disliked facial features, heights, nothing.

It was vicious and, tbh, irresponsible. I can't really convey how toxic it was in the end.

I don't think body positivity had been about actual body positivity for a long time.

Yes and no.

YABU - we needed to sort our attitudes out a bit. Bridget Jones diary really had us looking at Renee Zelleegger in a UK size 10 - 12 and believing she was actually fat.

YANBU - Megan trainer is a massive hypocrite and a size 30 is desperately unhealthy - not body positive messaging.

This.

body positivity start off as just celebrating bodies of all different shapes and sizes, it wasn’t about celebrating being morbidly obese as far as I’m aware

The problem is no matter how much we spin it being over weight just isn't healthy

Well, they do say nobody hates fat people like former fat people who have lost weight.

I am seeing so much vitriol towards people in slimmer bodies recently. Heroin chic / ozempic face / walking skeletons / Kate moss / nothing tastes as good.. / lollipops/ accusations of eating disorders. Body positivity should include all bodies, sure? As long as they are healthy. A healthy bmi goes down to 18.5 and up to 25, that’s a big range. If you get to the lower end people start making comments regardless of what your weight and bmi are. And it seems almost more accepted to call out and make comments on slim people?

Ive been obese, I’ve been overweight and now I’m a healthy weight. Aside from the “heroin chic” comments, I find life is much easier and nicer being slim.

Im grateful it was easier for me to buy a size 16 in recent years than in was in the 90s where Evan’s was my only choice. But I wasn’t healthy.

My original reply was deleted, apparently you can say what you like about fat people, but you have to be nice as pie to the newly thin.

Whilst some influencers were undoubtedly nuts, I think it's a shame if feeling good about yourself regardless of your size and not treating your weight as a moral failing. Also, that larger women can be and are loved. Even the 'Healthy at any size' can be read more than one way- obesity isn't healthy, but it's still healthier to be obese but swim every day or use the gym, than it is not to be.

I guess we're back to the days of fat women being the butt of all jokes, laughed at if they try to exercise, told no man would want them (because women only exist to please men), and generally thrown on to the scrapheap. And given the cost of WLIs we can add to the list of shaming insults that you're poor too. Fat, poor, net taker=deserving of hatred.

I think there was a lot of things claiming the very broad “body positivity” umbrella.

That ranged from the perfectly sensible and admirable “your worth is not defined by your size” through to the nonsensical “morbidly obese doesn’t mean unhealthy!!” and then onto the unpleasant “I wouldn’t want to be some horrible bag of bones anyway, ewwww. Men want real women, not someone with no boobs who looks like a boy!”

I’ve struggled with my weight for most of my adult life - am now a size 14-16 with an underactive thyroid and lipodoema - and could never see anything remotely positive about being unhealthily obese. I have even heard talk of a plus-size community. Ridiculous. I wish I could afford weight loss injections but am trying to think about “food noise” in the same way that the injections promote.