To wonder if ‘body positivity’ has gone too far?

[WildUmberScroller]

While I fully accept supporting everyone for who they are, sometimes I feel like the body positivity movement is promoting unhealthy lifestyles. AIBU to feel like there should be limits?

You have a point, but I'm inclined to believe that most supersized people eat a lot and most superskinny people eat very little so I found that part of the programme totally believable. The portions weren't totally unbelievable either. A large person having a plate with food piled high on it and a skinny person forgetting to eat and just having a drink are both things I've seen happen in real life.

Binge eating disorder is as hard to overcome as any other ED though.

Fat people eat more than thin people is hardly some kind of groundbreaking revelation, is it? That show was first referenced on this thread by a poster saying it demonstrated how thin people 'eat right, work hard and exercise' but that programme did not demonstrate that at all. It presented people at extreme ends of the spectrum, showing indications of disordered eating (fat and thin alike) and presented them as a freak show while intervening in their lives in a way that could only be harmful. There was a 'superskinny' contestant who was hospitalised with anorexia. There was one who drank ten cups of black coffee a day to suppress her appetite. And on the supersize side, there was extreme bingeing behaviour presented to shock people at the greedy pig they were watching, who was a human being that was seriously unwell and struggling. And then they'd inflict the diets on the other person - the whole point of them was to torment them for the cameras. Nobody actually trying to help an obese person would force them to eat a the diet of someone who barely ate at all for a week - there is no legitimate purpose to that, and certainly not the other way around either. There was no support, only gawking. And absolutely zero insight into people's eating habits beyond the crushingly obvious 'fat people eat too much and underweight people don't eat enough' - no one needs a tv show to learn that. What made them eat that way? How can they be supported to adopt healthier habits? What's going on medically and psychologically? It wouldn't make for dramatic tv, so we didn't get any of that - just televised suffering.

I’ve read the comments and agree with them.

Body positivity in its original mission was not about saying everybody who is obese/morbidly obese is healthy, it grew out of the fat acceptance movement of the 60’s. This was initially created to fight against discrimination black and queer women.

Health at every size doesn’t mean fat people think that everyone is healthy at every size, it was about every size being able to access healthcare.

Medical weight bias is harmful. General weight stigma is harmful.

It makes me laugh when people say bopo is ‘glorifying obesity’…no it fucking isn’t..how many times have people looked at someone fat and thought, ‘fuck me, I’m gonna eat shit loads of big macs just so I can be like them’….it just doesn’t happen.

What it should and does do when it’s done in the original context is promote treating our bodies with love and care, nourishing it (where possible as it can be a privilege), moving it in good ways (illness and disabilities allowing). And not being ashamed of our bodies.

That's my understanding of what body positivity is too @HÆLTHEPAIN and that makes it impossible for it to 'go too far' - and it's totally laughable for people to say it glorifies obesity, like you say no one is out there getting obese on purpose because they think it's an aspirational body shape. But heaven forbid a fat person might have a bit of self esteem and think they're allowed to wear nice clothes or be entitled to healthcare, right!

"That show was first referenced on this thread by a poster saying it demonstrated how thin people 'eat right, work hard and exercise"

No, I did not say that, I referenced the show only in regard to the amount and type of food the two groups ate. I said the following:
You're right. The amount of times I have heard overweight people say they think slim people are lucky, they can eat whatever they want, etc. Utter crap. Maybe that's the case for very rare people. Most slim people eat right, exercise and work hard at it. The TV show Supersize vs Superskinny was very telling in the amount and type of food each group ate.

Well it didn't show people who were 'eating right' so I don't know how it was 'telling' in supporting your point that this is what slim people do @Skyrainlight - all we learned is that very underweight people don't eat much and very overweight people eat a lot, which is not news to most people.

It is actually news to people. As I said in my post I have been told MANY MANY times how lucky I am which is utter crap. I work hard to stay slim and eat right. It is not my genes because my family is fat. My point is that people eating enormous portions of unhealthy food saying it's their genes that makes them fat and thinking thin people are lucky is rubbish, which is one of the things the show highlighted in quantity of food eaten to size of person.

I’m fat. I don’t eat enormous portions.

Exploiting people with disordered eating for a massively irresponsible tv show doesn't highlight anything about people's lives.

"all we learned is that very underweight people don't eat much and very overweight people eat a lot"
Agreed. I didn't say the show highlighted anything about people's lives other than the above.

Here's the thing. Nobody actually consciously wants to be obese at any age. Nobody . There are some theories that for some it's a subconscious way to be fat to protect themselves from sexual abuse, but no one actually enjoys being heavy. It's not an aspiration in First world countries in the 21st century. It might have been aspirational once pre-industrial revolution when food wasn't mass produced and people went hungry on a large scale. It might also be an aspiration for women to be fat brides in some developing countries. But not here, not now.

It's probably really pedantic to labour it, but the first comment really suggested to me that you were linking the 'eating right' to the show which feels wildly off base since absolutely nobody on it ate a healthy diet - and also to bring a show that existed solely to shame and ridicule people for their bodies up on a thread discussing body positivity rang an alarm bell in my head. There is nothing that could be further from acceptance or understanding or genuine representation on something like that. It was so toxic and unpleasant and I can't agree that there is anything in it that tells us anything useful about how fat or thin people eat. It was vile and fake and damaging in every way I can think.

Yep. And just because those thin people eat little, doesn’t mean they eat well, so it’s a complete non point really.

I help my mum care for my gran. I love her to pieces, & am happy to do that. Unluckily, she is pretty overweight. She's a v sweet person & does her best to help, but sometimes has brief attacks where she forgets who we are (not dementia, something w similar symptoms in bursts). In these, she's v reluctant to move, it's like trying to drag an unwilling sumo wrestler.
I do wish she hadn't kept the weight on for so long, my mum & I can't work out how it happened, as in photos from he'd 20s she's not overweight, but my mum can never remember her being a normal weight. It doesn't run in the family that we know of, but maybe there is a metabolic reason, I'm not sure. Her weight also contributed to crushing arthritis which has ultimately left her mostly bedbound. It makes me really sad.

This.

Also, the constant focus on being slim and dieting to be slim and negative connotations about being overweight has actually helped make people obese (by creating starve/binge cycles, causing people to not be nourished enough due to fad diets, increasing stress about body image which releases cortisol which is a hunger trigger…).

It's bullshit. Nobody, literally Nobody wants to be fat. But it's easier to tell them that they are beautiful and healthy, regardless.

So get on your high horse and tell slim women that they're not 'real women'.

You tell yourself that you love it and you absolutely would not enjoy buying clothes off the peg. I'm not validating this shit anymore.

At the start of this year I was 3 stone overweight, but have lost 2 stone over the course of this year..No injections here, just reframing the feeling of hunger as being a positive thing am aware that the body positivity movement is meant to encourage people like me, but I am conflicted.
I am still very aware that I still have a stone to go.
I am still dressing to hide my body and to avoid drawing attention to myself, and I still avoid getting my photograph taken.
Part of me wishes that I could get on the body positivity train, but I have used the self hatred as a spur to make changes. I keep a photograph of myself at my fattest on the fridge and in my purse to remind myself of what I used to look like and use the shame to help me make good choices