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

I think you need to look at the age range of these people. When we were younger we shrugged it off but then we had children to run around after or run up the stairs and realised we were out of breath. There is also the health risks of being over weight mainly morbidly obese that people are looking at as well as quality of life. We have now become focused on being fitter and stronger and being around to old age. We are also looking at the way we eat and going against the grain of medicine where everyone is now looking at alternatives after problems with health. I would say the shift in the media is more about health then weight

I was never remotely positive about being fat. I dont know anybody who was .

I don't agree. Now you're slimmer, do you think fat people should be treated badly? If so, that's definitely a you issue.

I think the root is actually the same - a recognition that weight is not a marker of women's value, because women's primary purpose is not to be a sexual object.

And a recognition that staying slim is harder for some than others, and woman aren't lazy or useless if they struggle with their weight.

Yep, it was a load of shit. A marketing scheme. As soon as fat people could get their hands on anything to lose weight - they did

Oh absolutely. Many of the militant fat activists have now lost significant amounts of weight. It’s sickening as many tried to demolish the very basic idea that being obese is inherently unhealthy. Who knows how many people they’ve done actual harm to. Many people were taken in by the “health at any size” agenda. Sickening really.

I had a conversation about this last week and my friends said “it’s back to the nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” and I sadly think she is right.

Im far from skinny but I’m fit and healthy and personally that’s my goal.

I'm on WLI after trying to lean in to body positivity for years, and succeeding to some degree.
But then, being slim felt like it wasn't really an option before for me. I had tried and failed at diets for twenty years. Body positivity felt like a truce even if the desire to be naturally thin never left me.

Now that I can be sustainably and almost naturally slim and not obsess over food, well that's a game changer. Now, given the choice, yes I choose being slim, over being fat and body positive. Simply put, the goal posts have shifted.

Having said all that, and even accepting that I might be on WLI forever more, I am challenged when I think of my children for example. They likely have my disposition to weight gain and being on the bigger side (unless they starve themselves). Do I want a lifetime of WLI for them?

Actually I would love for them to be body positive. And even better at it than me where they don't value thinness as much as me. So then I do feel hypocritical.

I think its just an example of a culture war for those that want to indulge.

One group or community or type has to be seen as 'better', more fun, more interesting, in order to do that, you have to criticise and shame and berate a different group

It was seen and still is seen in the fat vs thin discourse. Slim people, women more often being seen as ripe for shaming or criticising
The same narrative has been going on for years about women being 'better' than men, years ago there were comedy adverts showing how inept men were, how incapable.
Same narrative around the trans issue, trans people are apparently more interesting, more fun, more open than boring old non trans people, particularly women who arent even proper women compared to transwomen, they can 'outwomen us' apparently
Same narrative Ive started to see creeping in around neurodivergence, a thread was shut down yesterday which had a whole host of how awful NT people are and not as clever, interesting, havent contributed to development of society and Ive just spotted something similar on another thread although not quite as bad.

Its great to be positive about yourself and proud of who you are, but not at the expense of putting down others.

Although I felt the body positive movement was a pile of online rubbish, I don’t think it’s fair to put all body positive advocates in the same bucket.

I believe that for a huge percentage of them it was really about coping. However, I do think some were genuinely ok being large.

I think it’s a pity they built their career on this as people change and they should have known getting famous they would have had access to help to look a certain way that they hadn’t previously. I am not overweight but I find wli sad for this reason, my friends who are overweight are seeing it as you do and not thinking as long as I’m healthy (which they are), it doesn’t matter

I don’t have words for how uninteresting and tedious this take is.

Just to add, I still follow body positive accounts on Instagram that are all about women in larger bodies having fun with fashion and being creative and self-expressive with their clothes. Never are they putting together outfits to look sexy or saying anything about trying to appeal to men. It's all about freedom, boldness, sustainability, making items work in multiple outfits.

There is plenty on social media that is unhealthy. That could be plus-size influencers or it could be 'thinspiration' accounts, both of which can go too far or have a skewed perspective. But it's easy to find true body positivity on there, and it's very much a female space focused on healing. I absolutely disagree that the purpose of body positivity has been to coerce men into dating fat women. That relates to nothing I've ever seen. Certainly, I have seen plenty of influencers (body positive or not) posting examples of the vile filth that men inundate their accounts with - from graphic sexual comments to breathtakingly cruel insults. I rather imagine that having a platform and being a woman would put most people off men and seeking male approval altogether.

I think women’s bodies are sexualised no matter how we look. Perhaps having lost weight you are seeing it from a different perspective?

For me, body positivity really helped my self esteem and wellbeing and - ironically - helped me lose a bit of weight! It helped me to take care of myself. I never saw anything in it about pressuring men to include fat women in the dating pool and it would never have worked to make anyone who was not attracted to larger bodies become attracted to them. I never saw any less negativity from men about women's bodies. I personally didn't care about that because I've been married twenty years and my husband has loved my body whatever size - I have never been less than overweight since we got together except briefly when I did a self-hating soups and shakes vlcd that wrecked my metabolism.

Body positivity spaces that I was in online were entirely female, and they existed for women. It was never about what men would find attractive. It was about finding clothes that made us feel great rather than only looking at them with a criteria of 'will it make me look thinner/hide my belly rolls/disguise me'. It was about feeling free to go in the pool, to wear a bikini at the beach - NOT to attract men, but because it's comfortable and because everyone deserves to feel the sun on their skin. It was about not sweating in cardigans, afraid that people would scream in horror at the sight of our wobbly upper arms. I love that I didn't deny myself those experiences any longer once I found body positivity. I'm glad that I went out, comfortable and happy, and lived my life - having spent my teens and 20s too ashamed of my body to do so.

Now I'm on Mounjaro, because I never LIKED being fat. I just didn't want to hate myself for being fat. The lessons I learned in body positivity serve me well. I feel that I am worth taking care of, and that losing weight is a bonus now for my health but that it doesn't make me a more worthwhile person than when I was fatter. I was worthwhile then too - that's what body positivity taught me.

I still could not care less whether or not random men want me in their dating pool! The only pool I am interested in is for swimming, thanks very much.

I’m a fat woman.

I know all too well the health issues that come with being overweight. I couldn’t care less about how you look. What I do care about is people pretending it’s healthy and promoting it to others.

Source for this claim?

And can people stop with the faux health concern. People don’t care about fat people’s health. They simply don’t like the way they look. Especially if they are female.

This weirdo obsession with body positivity and a movement that encourages people to understand we come in all shapes and sizes and that fat women and fat men don’t need to hate themselves is baffling to me. And I would argue precious few people were ever part of the body positivity movement.

As for Dove and Nivea using models of different heights, skin tones, shapes and sizes…so? That literally is what society looks like.

I think several things can be true all at once.

As an overweight person myself, I know from first hand experience that people treat others who are fat in a less respectful way because being obese is still associated with laziness, lack of intelligence, low energy, lack of fitness and self discipline etc.

But I also think the body positive movement has made significant and hopefully lasting changes in the way women of all sizes and ethnicities are portrayed in public life, on stage, in the media, in advertising, and that’s a really great thing that we have moved on from admiring other forms of beauty and not just the stereotypical white, slim, blonde women in a dress.

I also know from personal experience that individuals rarely make positive changes in their lives from a position of self loathing or societal disdain. So the fact that overweight people like myself can now buy clothes in larger sizes and remain as fashion conscious as the next person, to use one example, is only a good thing imho.

I'll take your post in good faith and say you didn't mean it to read like that.

But it does to me.

and waaayy more about trying to persuade/pressurise men into include larger/very fat women in their dating pool. It seemed to wholly focus on fat being seen as sexy (‘real men actually want meat not bones’ etc)

😂😂😂😂
I always find this utterly laughable - risible, in fact. All the fat women around me are in relationships- good relationships where the men have loved them at every size.
One of my young cousins, 20 something, has recently brought home a beautiful young girl that's as fluffy and as cute as a button and he loves her. And I love her too, because she's just a wonderful young woman.

There are literally cultures where they fatten the women to marry them off.
I'm forever amused by the narrow mindedness of the 'weight' conversations.

And never mind that some women are neither fat nor slim for men, and are JUST COMFORTABLE BEING THEMSELVES. The absolute gall of them 😱.

Now, back to read the rest of what you've typed.

But it does also present significant health risks and to pretend it doesn’t is just wilful ignorance.