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?

Yeah you are right fat people don't deserve nice clothes. They should all be forced to wear potato sacks!

I think it’s about both too light and too heavy. I think it’s wrong to say you’re healthy with a high bmi and also I’ve seen a lot recently about these ‘volume eaters ‘ who look emaciated and eat vats of kale and 75 pineapples a day or something ridiculous and have a bmi of about 14 . It goes both ways

I’ve seen some of these videos, usually extremely obese, young American women showing off what they eat in a day and telling their followers how it’s perfectly healthy, and then having a rant about queer(?!) sized clothing not being available enough and how that makes them oppressed. Oh and sometimes they throw in how it’s racist to lose weight/not be attracted to fat women (these women are all white). It’s utterly ridiculous, self indulgent and irresponsible. Several of these women have passed away. In fact I came across a video by an ex ‘fat influencer’ talking about how toxic and harmful the community is, so hopefully the tide is shifting. I assume it’s this type of extreme view you’re talking about and not general body positivity?

You do mean you think people shouldn't be celebrating being obese. I doubt you meant people shouldn't celebrate/be content with being slim. At least own it @WildUmberScroller

Just messin' with ya!

For what it's worth, I actually agree. I am pretty fed up of seeing obesity celebrated, with 'BBW' websites, promoting how 'beautiful' these often 10 stone overweight women are. And then women who are clearly very overweight calling themselves 'curvy.' I am quite 'curvy' myself and find it annoying and ludicrous.

And as for the Dove campaign ... They say 'DOVE is for REAL women' and then most of the women are size 18, or very obese. WTF, so you can't be a real woman unless you're fat?! Do me a favour! How rude!

I’m a fatty .. when I was a teenager it was hard to get clothes over a size 14 - it made me feel shit, and did nothing to make me lose weight.
It’s good that young women now don’t feel the same shame. I like that they go out, dressed however they like.

Most lifestyles have some element of risk to them.

I think they best thing to do is refrain from judging those whose lifstyles are different to mind, and concentrate on those I love and who love me, much better for mental health. Good mental health will keep you healthier than anything else.

I completely agree! It can be frustrating when promoting health is labeled as size-ist, especially when the health risks are downplayed. It’s important to have open discussions about these issues without fear of backlash. I remember reading a post here a while ago where the OP mentioned she doesn’t like eating takeout and didn’t understand how others could eat it, and that it made her feel like crap. The comments quickly turned into a pile-on, accusing her of ‘food-shaming.’

Why? People can make their own minds up we can't remove stupidy out of society just because people don't want to use the brains they were born with

We should be encouraging healthy lifestyles independently of body size. Severe obesity shortens lifespan by 10 years which is the same as smoking. Moderate obesity around 1/3 at 3 years. Anorexia has high rates of mortality.

Clearly health wise too thin or severe obesity is a health issue but as a population I suspect very few people are following health guidelines (and in the past much of the health advice was pretty rubbish) and as a result diabetes and other chronic illnesses are increasing. Perhaps the answer needs to be dealt with at a societal level.

Read the comments and don’t make assumptions.

Perhaps the bigger issue is people believing any old drivel they see on the internet and not being able to think critically.

@ResultsMayVary because it isn’t just about the outside. I know plenty of healthy looking people who overindulge in alcohol or drugs etc. I’m healthy but as I’m getting older I know I need to be mindful of stress as I’m a bit of a workaholic & take too much on.

I think you’ll find many people have an issue with that too and consider it unhealthy, they aren’t cheering on drug users and telling them to do another line.

This. No one should feel ashamed or embarrassed about what shape or size they are, at any shape or size.

But that is very different to promoting unhealthy lifestyles and weights, of either end, as positive and ok.

And while people are quick to jump on 'I hope this is about people that are too skinny as well' - the reality is that the majority of the population in the UK/US/Australia are too big, not too skinny so therein the problem lies, not with people who are underweight promoting a lifestyle/look that encourages this.

Maybe it’s unrealistic though to expect the whole of the population to not smoke, not take drugs, exercise but not over exercise, stay at a healthy weight, cook from scratch, limit sugar, caffeine & alcohol & reduce stress? I don’t think I know anyone who ticks all these boxes & my circle includes GPs, nurses & surgeons!

I think the confusion often arises from the way some messages are interpreted. It’s important to celebrate beauty in all forms, but I also believe there should be space for discussing health risks associated with extreme obesity without it being labelled as fat-shaming. Ultimately, everyone deserves to feel valued regardless of their size.

@Naunet who is cheering on obesity?

Exactly. No point in bringing whatabouttery and 'yeah but what about X, Y, Z' into the thread. This is about people celebrating being fat, and how it shouldn't happen. No idea why anyone had to mention drug users.

I don't know. Do you have evidence to suggest that people are deliberately becoming obese because the BP movement has convinced us all its desirable? Are slim women hating their bodies and eating unhealthily in order to emulate larger women? Has everyone stopped trying to lose weight?

That isn’t what I did though…

I responded to another poster who made the wider point “very few people are following health guidelines (and in the past much of the health advice was pretty rubbish) and as a result diabetes and other chronic illnesses are increasing. Perhaps the answer needs to be dealt with at a societal level.”

I agreed with her & replied. Not sure why that confused you?

Have you never heard the tag line 'big is beautiful'

I fell for that one for a while, its used in a plethora of ways.

Fat activism/fat positivity/ Health at every size activism is culty, anti reality nonsense. I assume that's what you're talking about? Look up the fat doctor uk, virgie Tovar and Melissa Matthews as examples of this kind of activism. It's absurd.

Yeah, but people aren't celebrating how fantastic it is to smoke, and take drugs, and get high on caffiene or eat 10 Mars bars a day, and drink a bottle of gin a day. Or putting out campaigns and creating websites and putting ads on TV, about ciggies and booze and drugs and how they are all amazing, and saying we should all get them are they?

(Some) people celebrate being obese like it's a wonderful thing that we all need to embrace.

It's not!

And the way (for example) DOVE push obese women into their ads, and say THIS is a real woman is just a disgrace really. Because they're suggesting you are not a REAL woman if you're slim!

Has everyone stopped trying to lose weight? Interesting question. Until the advent of weight loss injections I saw a LOT of people online who had consciously given up on trying to lose weight because "95% of diets fail" "intentional weight loss is fat phobic and we have to unlearn internalised fatphobia" and "living in a larger body is just how I am" so yeah, many people have either used fat activism as an excuse to stop trying, or have intentionally embraced being fat as a community thing, or genuinely believe the fake news about obesity not impacting health etc. I know someone who I was friends with for 15 years and always, always struggled with her weight, always on one diet or other. Now I see from her social media that she promotes herself as a fat activist and asserts she has loved her fat body all her life (total lies). ETA this person used to be around 15/16 stone when I knew her. She's more like 22 now. So accepting fat acceptance rhetoric is actively harming her health. At least when she was 'failing' at diets she kept her weight to a more stable and less harmful level. Giving up on controlling weight, for a person with obesity, almost always leads to significant weight gain.

interestingly though a lot of online fat activists are now being berated for using weight loss injections and betraying their community by losing weight. I think the movement may be over 🤞🏼

I also believe there should be space for discussing health risks associated with extreme obesity without it being labelled as fat-shaming.

There is such a place though; any doctor’s office, hospital etc. What other kind of space should there be?

Have you never heard the tag line 'big is beautiful'

Yes but so what? What are we defining big as? Ashley Graham is a bigger model & I think she has a stunning face. I’ve also heard “thin is in”, “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” but I don’t pay much attention to sound bites.