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

108 replies

Lardychops · 17/01/2026 13:14

I was always very clear in my own mind as a very overweight woman, that the body positivity moment was far less about inclusion and moral neutrality around body size (including when seeking healthcare, 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) and also included a lot of thin-shaming/highly derogatory language about men and women who have/prefer slim or smaller bodies
With the wide availability of Weight loss jabs, however, as far as I can see many of the movement’s most ardent activists and celebrity advocates appear to have done a complete U-turn and are literally unrecognisable as half (or even a third) of the person the used to be!!
From Megan Trainor proving that it wasn’t ‘all about the base’ after all, and to Lizzo who would at one point only hire plus size dancers and backing singers; to the plus size influencers Gabby Lascano and Sophie Goodman who literally built their careers reaching 1000’s of followers, on the ‘big is not only beautiful but BETTER ’ mantra -they are all literally shrinking in plain sight!!

I have lost stacks of weight on WLI’s and am no longer fat. It’s fabulous and a game changer.
I make no bones about the fact that I would crawl through a mile of shit for my weekly dose/pay double for them if I had to. Same for many of my friends. We hated being fat when we were fat and made no secret of it.

I feel that the (now very slim) previous proponents of the body positive /fat is beautiful and healthy (see also: slim, fit attractive men should date us or they are evil shits ) movement are total
hypocrites given the numbers of people that buy their music/watch their films/ consume their content follow them on SM etc etc - many of which can’t access these miracle cures for financial/health reasons etc.
The knots these women tie themselves in trying to justify their weight-loss while not looking like a total twat ( they do - just be honest love ) to satiate their larger bodied fans is utterly galling and I think exposes the whole moment for what it was.

OP posts:
ScholesPanda · 17/01/2026 13:43

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JHound · 17/01/2026 13:37

and waaayy more about trying to persuade/pressurise men into include larger/very fat women in their dating pool.

YAWN.

Women who are male-centered will never understand those who are not.

Lardychops · 17/01/2026 13:34

ThatWasMyLastFatFreeFrush · 17/01/2026 13:23

I always thought body positivity was meant to be about not bullying people for their size, rather than encouraging them to be fat.

Yes it was partly/initially - about fighting fat phobia and discrimination
But also that being fat was not necessarily through overeating or making poor choices that there are other reasons this could happen.
Also HAES- that health can be at any size and should not be a barrier to accessing fertility treatment, for example

BUT ultimately in my view, the whole purpose was to redraw the societal definition of attractiveness in order to get men to include fat women in their dating pool- but never the other way around strangely…For anyone who has seen some of the images promoting this you will know what I mean; usually a black and white shot of a very large women in her underwear draped around an adoring sexually attractive tall muscly man, who’s totally into her and they are definitely a match. He’s never overweight too (or short or bald or plain of face with no jawline )

OP posts:
Disturbia81 · 17/01/2026 13:34

Of course no-one wants to be fat. But people wanted to feel better about themselves and there’s nothing wrong with that. Why should people feel miserable about themselves. And it’s good to encourage people to be kind etc. But yeah these people would still be slim at the flick of a switch.

LaundryScales · 17/01/2026 13:27

I never thought that body positivity was about persuading men into dating overweight women.

Apart from anything else there are plenty of slim men very happily married to overweight women so I’m not sure why they would need “persuading”.

I always assumed the movement was about helping overweight people feel better about themselves. That’s not a bad thing. Overweight with good self esteem is much healthier than overweight and hating yourself.

If you are a successful artist in the public eye, what else are you meant to say? You can’t say, “I’d love to lose weight but haven't managed it yet” or “I don’t care how I look”.

These people are in presentation focused industries. They can’t say “caring about looks is shallow and I don’t care”. They have to say “being beautiful is important but you can be beautiful at any size”.

Apart from anything you don’t know what else is going on in their lives, perhaps heartbreak has lead to weightloss, or another health condition has made it imperative to lose weight or they are finally in a good place mentally and able to dedicate their headspace to focusing on their Heath.

It seems to me if you are an overweight woman in the public eye you are damned.
if you do and damned if you don’t.

Perhaps we could just value you them for their professional skills and talents and stop commenting on their bodies. Might be healthier all round.

dialdrunkforyou · 17/01/2026 13:24

ThatWasMyLastFatFreeFrush · 17/01/2026 13:23

I always thought body positivity was meant to be about not bullying people for their size, rather than encouraging them to be fat.

Originally it was.

But if you look online now it’s morphed into something totally different. There’s a whole breed of UK “influencers” that make a living from being obese, eating very badly and encouraging others to do it because it’s “their life” and they’ve not got any ill effects.

ThatWasMyLastFatFreeFrush · 17/01/2026 13:23

I always thought body positivity was meant to be about not bullying people for their size, rather than encouraging them to be fat.

dialdrunkforyou · 17/01/2026 13:15

I’m overweight and on the jabs.

I think it exposes that body positivity was actually the opposite. It advocated for abuse of your body and for being really unhealthy.

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