Why have people shifted their opinions to be an absolute disdain for fat women?

[ForTealBee]

I’m not talking about Mumsnet, but places like Reddit.

im fairly active on weight loss subs on Reddit. I find they have some great tips and a good community. But the second you mention it outside of those communities you get bombarded with comments and messages about being fat. I just don’t understand why the message has shifted so much in the last few months it seems? And it’s only ever towards women

I think the ‘heath at any size’ movement is being criticised a lot more on YouTube and maybe that has helped the backlash gather speed.

But sooner than later there’s a backlash against most ideas to do with weight - it’s a very touchy subject.

The next one will be weight loss jabs when it’s long term effects/efficacy become apparent,

I’m nearly sixty and can’t remember a time when people weren’t ridiculed or bullied due to being overweight.

I can’t understand why this is new to you really.

Maybe it's marketing by the weight loss injection companies! Pushing people into buying them.

I think several things have shifted. The injections make it possible for people that have previously struggled to lose weight and the general feeling around our struggling health care and some of that is because people are bigger than they were before and it’s leading to conditions that would maybe not exist were people not overweight . Obesity has been seen as the norm and it’s not and people are starting realise that.
I say all this as someone who is just entering the overweight category on bmi charts and has been obese for around four years. Although I’m not using injections I have been motivated by them because I don’t want to be last fat one. But being unkind and nasty is absolutely not the way we should treat others

This. Fat people are always shown so much hate. It’s nothing new. It’s a completely accepted mainstream hate.

I think there’s much more acceptance these days than previously, tbh.

It is getting worse.
You can see the shift in mainstream media also.

We had a time of not only fat acceptance, but somewhat positivity. The pendulum always swings back and with the rise in the average person taking ozempic etc it has had a big impact.

I have been fat (size 18) my whole adult life. It was absolutely brutal until about 2018. We've had about 6 years of it being not as bad but I've noticed the comments and insults starting back up both online and offline.

I've also seen a shift here in MN. People are being much, much more "honest and blunt" and the competitive undereating and body checking threads are increasing.

I don't for one second believe that obesity is healthy, but negativity and bullying has never helped anyone. In fact I am most able to stick to healthy eating when happy and feeling supported.

The distain was always there IMHO - it’s just now people have more ways of showing it.

I m naturally thick and curvy my ex is not slim was out for the day. Two of his friends teased him about the weight but said nothing to me. But he was paying their wages for the day.

The NHS and mainstream love blaming fat for everything. So people take on those views.

I’m not saying it didn’t exist, but I’m saying it’s changed.

to the point that if you even mention that you’re on the jabs, you will now get an immense amount of negative feedback

Yes it’s as if it’s ok to say that men not to women

I’m not clear what you’re saying.

Are you saying people are more likely to be nasty to fat people?

Or are you saying you have been criticised for being on WLI? Different problems to be honest.

If it helps, there’s a WLI board here full of lovely people.

Fat people are not trying to convince the world it is normal - they just don't need vitriol spat at them on the regular.

I think that reading the weight loss injections boards reveals a lot of misconceptions on both sides.

I've read lots of things about how slim women are jealous now, hate them etc. I don't really give much headspace to other people's weight. This might apply to those with eating disorders but its the other side of the same coin and I don't think applies to most of the population.

Similarly the view that because MJ removes your hunger, that this is how others feel all the time. That those who are not overweight do not wish to eat, wouldn't like the slice of cake, don't crave sugar and that it's all luck and no willpower is required.

I didn't realise there was this level of animosity. I think in essence those who have disordered thinking around food obsess over it (and therefore other people's weight or weight loss) and that feeds into unhealthy views whether it is over or under eating.

For those who don't feel like this they don't care either way unless it's the very extreme examples.

Oh come on. The late Margaret Miles Bramwell started Slimming World after being made to put on a pig mask at a slimming club. In the 70s. I was bullied for being a 5’7” size 14 for years, and a size 16 or above was only found in ‘outsize’ stores.

My mother was nicknamed Fatty Patty in the 1930s

It’s nothing new at all.

Well yes but men are socialised from day one to believe that the women they look at should be nice to look at and in our culture that’s slim. So not confirming to that confuses and angers them as they (however subconsciously they think it) see it as them not getting something society has told them they are entitled to. That’s why “women don’t owe you pretty” resonates. Men also have been told that women should look happy, hence the cheer up love, we are causing them distress by not conforming as they have been told we would do. We are faulty in their eyes and we need to sort it out!!

Both.

the hatred seems more blatant and the reactions are so much worse

I think you are unreasonable to think it's a recent shift. Fat shaming is something I've been aware of all my life (born in 1950s) and my mother used to tell me it was a thing when she was young (1930s). I would say it's been a thing women, in particular, have had to contend with for centuries.
You're doubly unreasonable to say it doesn't exist on Mumsnet. It absolutely does.
You're further unreasonable to use Reddit and not to have been aware that it's where the dregs of society go to spill their poison.

Reddit is an incredibly misogynistic place.

Banned thousands of female users and any discussion of eg male competitors in women’s sport.

Abusing women for their looks / weight is fair game though.

If they just started using models who are not always very very thin that would be helpful. I get that they want to have beautiful and very tall people showing off their clothes beautifully - but why not have tall fit women who are a size 12 and a healthy weight or who look a bit sporty. Models have always been slim but they were not really, really thin until the 1960s. And male models are allowed muscles, they don't seem always quite so very thin.

I find Reddit almost impossible to use correctly as all the boards have their own specific rules which seem often so arcane. So I just read things when they come up in a search and ignore it otherwise.

The hatred was always there. Anonymous internet forums just fuel it and allow people to say much worse things than they would dare say out loud in public.

I don’t think I’ve put my point across very well.

I’m aware it has always happened. I’ve been a victim of it. But all of a sudden it feels so much more vitriolic and bitter. It feels like any mention of being fat just gets you vile abuse.

The best thing is to NOT tell people - randos - that you are on WLM.

IT IS NONE OF THEIR BUSINESS.

I've lost 4.5 stone on WLM, and until now have not told anyone, I'm now 'coming out' as it were and being more honest about it. I think I have been on them for long enough to show they work, to show the difference it has made to my life and is still making

I know enough to counter the bollocks about 'the diabetic' medication crap, and the wont you just put it all back etc etc shite, and I am motivated to never go back to how i was. I am so ridiculously fit atm, i feel wonderful and not like the old before my time mid 50s woman i was. HOW i maintain this loss when i have hit target is on me, i have already done quite a lot of work in terms of change, but i will have to do more in future. But i will come at it from a healthier starting position, my pre-diabetes has gone, blood pressure down, it's all good

The anti woke movement means that anything goes. People are utilising their free speech and have a right to their opinion.

You'll hear racism, bigotry, abelism, ageism, misogyny and so on under the guise of free speech. Even encouraging people to burn people alive is free speech.

What's strange is that they often don't like it when you use your right to free speech.🤔