If you are very overweight

[0rangesandlemons]

Do you find people like Lizzo empowering?

Do you think it's good to have bigger people represented and do you think that body positivity around being over weight is a positive thing generally?

No. How would being associated with a loud & obnoxious sleb be empowering?

No.
not at all.
So far removed from actual real life.

Nothing inspires or makes me feel better about being overweight.

i'm a 14-16 so not hugely overweight but no i don't find her empowering she makes me feel sick i think she's horrid. sorry regardless of size- if she was stick thin i'd feel the same.

No idea who Lizzo is. But I do love the lady on GBBO, she's fab! I'm enormous and wish I could dress the way she does and look fabulous too.

People like megan jayne crabbe (on Instagram and other places) remind me that there's more to life than how I look. I've heard her speak and she's inspirational.

I've just googled images of Lizzo. Wow! I wish I had the confidence to pull off her outfits! But, at her age, I was a size 8. At 52 and a size 20, I'll just carry on as I am...!

It's not something I think about. I'm not inspired by people based on their weight.

I’m about 23 stone and no. I don’t find it inspiring, I don’t want to be this size. There is nothing worse than being the fat woman who everyone stares at. The fat woman who can’t fit into the shower when she stays the night. The fat woman who can’t always do up her seatbelt in the car. The fat woman who everyone around her thinks it’s acceptable to judge, mock or berate.

I’ve been a big girl since I was 6, never felt beautiful, just felt like a joke to most people and in my mind, constantly terrified my weight is going to kill me.

Being grossly overweight is horrendous and exhausting, it’s suffocating when you lie down and normal life like going for a walk to the shop becomes impossible as you’re clinging onto walls fighting for bloody breath.

Celebrities are privileged and I’ll never understand why if you have that sort of money, why you wouldn’t be slim - surely they of all people can afford to eat the right food and can afford to treat the underlying shit that gets you that big - if I had all that money I’d pay for long term therapy, a personal trainer and a dietician to support me to lose the weight properly. Or I’d pay for weight loss surgery.

Other than knowing who she is I don't know anything about her, so she doesn't do anything for me.
I'm fat- I think I'm probably 17 stone at nearly 6 feet tall- but I like my body and I'm not trying to lose weight.
I run, I do aerobics, I swim. What other people do with their bodies doesn't empower or affect me at all. They're not me so why should it.

ive just looked her up

She certainly is beautiful and looks amazing but no, not empowered. I can only repeat what others have said about how being morbidly obese is.

Most big celebrities carry their weight in ways that look sort of ok. They seem to be fairly firm, often without huge double chins or multiple rolls, nice skin etc.

The majority of very overweight people are really wobbly, with celulite, hanging rolls/multiple rolls etc so they look nothing like fat celebs.

In terms of the health needs and mobility, often they're quite young so the impact isnt as great but they wont be 'healthy' as such

So no, its not empowering, its a bit like heroin chic and glamourising drug use or anorexia, no one thinks thats empowering if a celeb is an addict or has an eating disorder the talk is about getting treatment and help, not staying as you are.

No one should be mocked or shamed for what they look like but neither lauded for carrying too much weight

We're not all one big group you know? We have individual thoughts feelings and opinions.

If you are very underweight do you find Kate Moss empowering?

Stupid question isn't it?

I really pay no attention to other people's weight. I might search for fashion ideas etc but I don't need another person to make me feel empowered about being overweight. Do you think it's a lifestyle choice?

Nope. I think that trying to deny the health risks, by embracing obesity and claiming 'fat fit' does none of us any favours. You can be confident in your own skin, but also need to logically accept the risks and problems inherent with being very overweight. And I say that as a wee fat middle aged woman

Do you think it's good to have bigger people represented and do you think that body positivity around being over weight is a positive thing generally?

Being overweight is not a good thing.

In a population of people, you will statistically get some people Lizzo sized. They are probably biologically determined to be Lizzo sized and not morally deficient and greedy.

Lizzo herself seems to be very fit on tour playing her flute and I believe she's vegan so prob has a decent diet.

I am so fed up of the moral panic about fat. If people genuinely cared about health of others they would recognise that pointing the finger at the bad fatties doesn't do anything to effect change. It might make you feel better about yourself but at least own that response.

As a person, I think there are some rumour about Lizzo that aren't 100% positive but you can't deny she has a lot of talent and I do like her take on fashion.

If you are fat and you don't like it, change your diet and exercise. If you are fat and you don't mind it, exercise and eat well. If you are thin and don't like it change your diet and exercise. If you are thin and don't mind it, exercise and eat well. If you like to judge others to make yourself feel better, shut up and mind your own business.

Fat celebrities saying it is great to be fat and posing in photo shopped images or dressing in a way that keeps them in the public eye. Deny the reality of life for most people

When the reality of obesity starts to show in pain in their joints etc unlike everyone else who struggles to get fit and healthy they will probably bring out a fitness and weight loss programme and tell everyone how easy losing weight is and being slim is the thing to be
It is easy if you have a personal chef and trainer and a team of doctors, surgeons, make up artists, hairdressers and personal shoppers as well as nannies, cleaners, and gardeners etc doing everything for them

Then all the people who celebrated their obesity then part with more money to get slim but without the army of people taking care of every aspect of their lives then it is just lining the pocket of the celebrity again and these peoples health is screwed

They stay fat despite the money because overeating is a seriously difficult addiction to break.

You can have no alcohol for the rest of your life but food.... it's the addiction that if you completely cut out you die.

I'm sorry, but there's nothing positive about being fat. I'm a size 16/18 and it's so uncomfortable and even painful at times. I was always a size 14, so never a small size, but this extra weight feels horrible. I don't think it's good to promote being morbidly obese as a positive thing. These influencers might feel reasonably okay in their 20/30s but wait until they're 50, Type 2, in constant pain, breathless walking up hills, sweaty all the time, full of intertrigo and unable to exercise. They're fooling themselves if they think they can avoid it as well. I'm now addressing my excess weight as I'm just fed up with feeling so uncomfortable.

Wonder why @0rangesandlemons never came back to her fat shaming thread?

I'm about 22 stone at the moment. I'm also strong and fairly fit. What's empowered me is lovingly taking care of the body I have, even if I wish it was smaller. Wearing clothes that are comfortable and make me happy, taking care of my skin, getting regular exercise, trying to think about the quality of the food I'm eating rather than calories or carbs or whatever.

At 48 I don't really look to celebrities or influencers to help me do that, but I can imagine that for some people Lizzo being out there is very encouraging.

I don't find fat celebrities like Lizzo inspiring or empowering.

While I admire her confidence and fuck-it attitude I think she and others often look quite ridiculous in clothes which just don't suit them with lots of flesh hanging out.

I prefer someone like Laura Addlington who encourages body acceptance and confidence without pretending that we should all be out in bra tops and hot pants pretending we look hot.

HOWEVER there is no denying that what celebrities like Lizzo have done is allow fat people to be represented, and have helped push away some of the stigma. There are a lot more visible fat people now and I think being fat is less of a hidden shameful thing than it was. Which for those (like me) struggling with their weight, is a positive thing.

I had to google her too but recognised her. She is not empowering at all - didn't she have complaints against her for fat shaming her dancers or something? I think she's too aggressive - like if you don't automatically like me it's because I'm fat. That's the impression I get as I don't think I've seen anything about that doesn't reference her size.
I've always like Ashley Graham though - I think her being a successful model and how beautiful you can still be at a (frankly not very) larger size. Especially in her industry where everyone is very thin.
But mostly women who are larger who are successful without their size being an issue. Like it's as irrelevant as their hair colour. Those people are more empowering.

I think that if you’re misinterpreting body positivity around being overweight as fat people encouraging other people to get fat and stay fat, then of course it’s not a good thing. But it strikes me that that’s not what the majority of them are doing. The majority of them seem to be saying ‘yes I’m fat. Whether or not I’m struggling with that is actually none of your business. I’m not obligated to tell you how much I hate being fat, just to make you feel superior. I’m not going to shut myself away in a cupboard just so you don’t have to look at me. I’m not going to apologise for existing. I have a life and I’m going to live it and I’m not going to hate myself or think that I’m unworthy of anything because you don’t like my shape and size’.

I think that extreme obesity is an eating disorder in the same way that anorexia is. You wouldn’t tell an anorexic patient to eat more cake, so telling someone who is extremely obese to eat less and move more is equally as pointless. I don’t think either person is someone to hold up as something to aspire to. But neither of them deserve to be treated with disgust or be made to feel like they don’t deserve to exist.

I also think that your thread is goady and that you already have very firm opinions on this issue.

I am a fat size 14 and no I do not find her empowering at all. I genuinely cannot see anything empowering about being obese.

Fat haters want fat people to go into a room a starve ourselves until we are thin enough to come out and meet their approval for participating in life. So any fat person living their life unapologetically gets my vote.

Fat hatred is a form of ableism. It's also very sexist and ageist - 11% of women get lipoedema, most diagnosed in their mid forties or later. So basically 10%+ of women will never be good enough for the fat haters and should be locked up until they show they can conform to thinness. Except that they can't because it's a fat disorder, it doesn't diet off.

Ten percent. That's a huge number of women that don't get considered because they are older and fat. And I really hope that when some of the fat hating munsnetters find their bodies are exploding in size complete unrelated to what they eat or how much they exercise that the universe looks kindly at them because I don't think I will be able to.

I was a size 16/18 up till recently and I was shocked at how negatively effected my health. It hurt to walk in the morning, my feet/ ankles/ knees just felt awful. I'v lost about 8 kilos and am back down to a 14 and it's made a massive difference. Much less bloating/ pain on lower limbs am able to exercise more too.