To think the body positivity movement is a disgrace

[gendercritter]

I know this is an emotive subject so I'd appreciate if you read what I actually have to say about this before responding.

The body positivity movement has been gaining pace for some time with more and more people building quite profitable businesses out of it and getting a lot of media attention. (E.g one women has an Instagram account with 1 million followers)

I absolutely love its central message that diet culture is harmful and makes you bigger as well as its emphasis on 'you have worth and value whatever size you are.' And for the record I know several bigger women who are absolutely drop-dead gorgeous. You can absolutely be beautiful at any size.

But more and more I think aspects of the movement are incredibly damaging. It's changed from saying 'you matter' to saying 'it's absolutely ok to be extremely overweight. If you are gaining, don't worry. Keep eating.' I see this exact message on social media on a regular basis.

I think this is profoundly anti-woman. We live in a capitalist society where it's fair game to make money just about any old way. Food companies pump their food full of sugar and sweeteners directly knowing that makes people eat it compulsively. Men (generalising but most big companies are headed by men) make an absolute fortune from people getting bigger. As someone who has lost nearly 7 stone in my life I can say that life, at worst, is much harder when you're big, as a general rule. If you are very large and healthy then that is great (really), but you most likely haven't hit 60 yet. Bodies begin to break down very quickly if you are large at that age. I can't begin to say how cross it makes me that companies exploit this when people could be looking forward to a healthy old age. I don't believe being overweight is an individual failing - it is these companies' fault.

I really hate gastric bypass surgery for several reasons but evidence exists that your rate of getting several cancers drops by 87% for losing a significant amount of weight after surgery. 87%! Cancer is grim. It is completely irresponsible to spread the message that getting very big is fine. Instead it should be that whilst you should love yourself first and foremost, loving yourself involves feeding yourself nourishing healthy foods so you can have as lovely and healthy a life as possible. (Eating nourishing healthy food does not equal dieting, to clarify once more). Knee replacements, cancer and diabetes in old age does not make for a lovely life. I am in my 30s but have spent a lot of time in hospital and believe me, there are a million other things to do with one's time that are better/more fulfilling/more pleasurable

If anyone criticises this movement they generally get rounded on and told they have 'faux concern.' It shuts down the debate very successfully. This movement is also heavily pushing the 'some women have penises' line too which is another debate but the whole thing just feels so cultlike.

I think this is profoundly anti-woman.. Please tell me there’s more to the qualification of your statement, other than food conglomerates being largely run by men.

I think there is a fine line between being happy in yourself; no bullying etc. and tackling obesity. We shouldn't be mean to people and make people feel terrible for being overweight, but the associated health risks of being overweight should never be minimised to save peoples sensibilities.

Urgh, I don't know where the equilibrium is!!!

I think for the younger girls who starve themselves etc it would help. Seeing adverts like the flat stomach company and the appetite suppressor lolly makes me sick. If it gets to my head and I’m a 43 year old lady imagine what it does to a 15 year old.

I also think for people who are a healthy weight but have stretch marks etc than it is good.

Not sure about the over weight people though. I think promoting a healthy life style is a more forward thinking.

I have to agree with you in certain points.
It's great to help people feel that they are worth something no matter what size. However, I agree that it looks like it turned too far.
I am size 20 and hell, I know I need to lose weight before my health goes.
The messages should be more about healthy body, because when you reach certain size, the health goes to hell.
All this "Keep eating you are perfrct" have really great effect on people with eating disorders but at the same time they massively contradict what doctors are saying.
You just can't be size 30 and be healthy in a long term.

I have some sympathy for what you are saying. I strongly disagree with fat shaming but I do have concerns about fat normalising. My BMI is well over 30 and my weight does affect my health. My weight shouldn't make me fair game for comments and criticism but I would be a fool if I thought that my weight doesn't carry risks.
I am taking steps to address my relationship with food as it is stopping me being healthy.

100% agree with you OP. Being slim doesn’t automatically mean great health and happiness. My DP is very slim and has an appalling diet and a few health issues because of it.
But these ‘influencers’ on social media who preach about how it’s great to eat whatever you want, whenever you want, even if you’re a size 30 with health issues are dangerous and should be stopped!

I mostly agree with you OP. As someone who suffered disordered eating for over 10 years, I really wish the bopo movement had been around when I was a teenager. I absolutely love the fact that stretch marks are being celebrated, women are enjoying their bodies, and sticking two fingers up to the diet industry. What I don't like is the fact that many of the bopo movement are obese, and as you said, if you mention that then they shut you down. Fucking tricky.
Bodies come in all shapes and sizes, and we need to celebrate our differences, but being obese isn't healthy. It's a dangerous message. Where the hell do you draw the line though?
Fuck it, whatever size we are, we women can never get it right.

Definitely agree you can be thin and massively unhealthy. When I was about 8.5/9 stone pre child, I smoked like a chimney, drank excessively every day, purged and vomited regularly. I most definitely was not healthy. Now I am 12.5 stone (and need to lose a few of those!), but I am far healthier. I run three times a week, am finally relatively fit for the first time in my life. I still drink too much (probably), but my eating is far healthier. I walk loads, my waist is shrinking, I am getting toned. I love and accept my body far more now.

Accept your body and feel comfortable in it at any size. But if you are overweight you have to also accept you are having a negative impact on your health. Your body, your choice.

I think you've got it in one there user Your body, your choice.

Well, being very thin isn’t healthy, being tanned isn’t healthy, drinking any alcohol isn’t healthy, but people have far more tolerance than these things than they do for obesity.

Why not just leave people the fuck alone to make their own choices. I bet you don’t tut and pearl clutch at every tanned person/person with a drink in their hand.

This is what the body positivity movement is about, who the fuck are you to judge overweight people?

I disagree. In the fashion industry, my size is considered plus size and I am not massively overweight. I think something is wrong there. I think the body positivity movement rejects those norms and that is healthy.

Agree with you, OP, though I don't know how well this view will go down on this particular website.
Of course no one should be abused to being overweight, and it's fantastic that nice fashionable clothes now come in larger sizes (unlike when I was a teenager/young woman) but the facts must be put out there. Things are going too far when people protest against a cancer research body presenting known facts about the connection between obesity and some cancers. Obesity is a risk factor in many health conditions, especially as we get older and it's wrong to deny that.

There should be a way that the obesity crisis can be discussed without shaming of individuals and also without individuals stifling the reality of obesity with the constant buts.

Honestly though, I have yet to meet a very large person who genuinely thought it was a good thing and wanted to stay that way. In my experience, people who are very large (myself included) are ALREADY full of self loathing, know that they are being unhealthy and are trapped in a vicious cycle of being unhappy, hating themselves and comfort eating. Being constantly told that they are wrong only reinforces this feeling whereas what the body positive movement does is to take the focus away from food and weight and say "yes you can be attractive, healthy and happy it doesn't all revolve around size and weight loss" it takes the pressure off. Then once a person starts to feel good about themselves and love themselves their relationship with food can start to heal and become more normal. It's a long process so no it doesn't promote quick, noticeable weight loss. Rather, it's playing the long game, enabling people to move away from an emotional over reliance on food.

I partly agree with you.

Being very over or under-weight has terrible consequences for someone's health.

However I see the body positive movement as celebrating those of us who don't look like models. Such as people like me who are short (5 foot 2). I don't think it's about celebrating unhealthy behaviours.

But maybe I've misinterpreted the movement?

To be honest I think there is far to much focus on image in our lives these days. Facebook/instagram/other just feeds insecurity

being healthy and happy is what is important. Being overweight or underweight (or maintaining normal weight through unhealthy means) is not ideal.

Oddly going from being a staunch body positivity supporter to now I somewhat agree with you. Not entirely but the ethos of what you say I agree with.

Honestly I've equated this change to Orwell animal farm....its not that the movement changed it's that the people applying it did.

Don't forget they are often instagrammars and to stay relevant they have to push the boat out and become more and more militant in order to stay recognized and profitable (I don't have an issue with the profitability...its their job ultimately but the excesses they need to go to are dangerous)

I struggled with it at one point...i need to lose weight,I had a stroke and was very unwell...it isn't safe for me to stay overweight and I started to believe I was against the body posi movement.

In reality I am a grumpy af 39 year old who's bolshy so was able to tell myself to get over it and understand I can love myself and appreciate diversity and beauty everywhere whilst still doing right by my health

However...i am old and grumpy..if I was 18 thats a lot harder

It's a pity you have to couch your comments by blaming men and using the old obesity crisis bit...this issue is so much more complex and relevant for societal development and mental healththat it's a shame you need to book it down to buzzword based causes that actually really aren't relevant

It's far more sexist to assume man are in control of everything than to accept we as women sometimes come off course and are fully able to recognise and resolve this

The idea of body-positivity is good, but only if it recognises and accepts that the extremes are dangerous . You can be body-positive and self-loving, and still be over/underweight and still make the effort to get yourself to a healthy weight. It's not an either/or situation.

When people consider this statement to be unacceptable fat-shaming, then there is something seriously wrong with their perspective:

The body positivity thing is all well and good, however, normalising obesity is an entirely different thing.

Stick thin models referred to as 'plus size' is shocking, but the problem in the 'normal' is this sort of thing.

www.expressandstar.com/news/local-hubs/wolverhampton/bilston/2018/05/21/revealed-shocking-figures-behind-wolverhamptons-childhood-obesity-problem/

Whole families are now beyond morbidly obese and see nothing wrong.

I think it’s generally a good thing. The message is still everywhere that being obese is bad for your health, If people want to lose weight they should do it for health reason not because they have been shamed in to doing so by the media.

What I did find shocking was the ‘outrage’ towards that nhs ad about obesity causing cancer stirred up by Sofie Hagan online. There’s body positive then there is straight up denial.

One of the things is that shame and criticism have absolutely no ability to motivate people.

I have only been able to begin to successfully lose weight by following the one key mantra; I'm doing this because I deserve it. I deserve to able to put my body first, rather than my work or my social life.

The problem is that obesity is so normalised now that it’s hard for people to even recognise what overweight, obese and morbidly obese look like. I was listening to some colleagues have a conversation recently and someone said they were obese and everyone else was completely shocked by this fact. They weren’t just being nice either! They just couldn’t get their heads around the fact that this lady was more than ‘a bit overweight’. I think it’s fine to encourage women to make healthy lifestyle choices rather than crash dieting and obsessing about weight but let’s call a spade a spade.

Well, being very thin isn’t healthy, being tanned isn’t healthy, drinking any alcohol isn’t healthy, but people have far more tolerance than these things than they do for obesity

Why not just leave people the fuck alone to make their own choices. I bet you don’t tut and pearl clutch at every tanned person/person with a drink in their hand.

This is what the body positivity movement is about, who the fuck are you to judge overweight people?

I knew I would get at least a few responses like this one. I know it quite probably comes from a place of someone being overweight and being sick to death of being made to feel worthless. I don't think you really read my op though in all fairness. I am absolutely not judging overweight people. I am judging the food industry and the bopo people who are helping to line their pockets.

I will just reiterate that I have been very overweight and that period of my life lasted for a long time.

Again I have a problem specifically with the fact the bopo movement goes beyond telling people to love themselves as they are. If that was all it was doing I would say it was fantastic. It has moved to a more sinister place. It is now doing a disservice to people and a very strong part of the message is 'it's completely neutral to be very overweight so if you are gaining, don't worry.' At the extreme end of that is the (very beautiful) Beth Holliday whose feet are looking deformed because of her morbid obesity and who can't get up off the floor without assistance. She's still telling people there are absolutely no negatives to being the size she is. She has influence.

One of the things is that shame and criticism have absolutely no ability to motivate people
That's not true actually, it just depends on how it's presented. Shaming smokers as anti social works quite well, same with binge drinkers and drug addicts. Of course it's more difficult to shame people out of obesity but there will be a way to do it. I suspect we will see an increase in fatshaming, in the sense that it will be seen as socially undesirable.