Does the age of Ozempic and MJ jabs expose what a load of bollocks the ‘Body Positivity’ and ‘Health at any Size’ movements were

[Lardychops]

I was always very clear in my own mind as a very overweight woman, that the body positivity moment was far less about inclusion and moral neutrality around body size (including when seeking healthcare, and waaayy more about trying to persuade/pressurise men into include larger/very fat women in their dating pool. It seemed to wholly focus on fat being seen as sexy (‘real men actually want meat not bones’ etc) and also included a lot of thin-shaming/highly derogatory language about men and women who have/prefer slim or smaller bodies
With the wide availability of Weight loss jabs, however, as far as I can see many of the movement’s most ardent activists and celebrity advocates appear to have done a complete U-turn and are literally unrecognisable as half (or even a third) of the person the used to be!!
From Megan Trainor proving that it wasn’t ‘all about the base’ after all, and to Lizzo who would at one point only hire plus size dancers and backing singers; to the plus size influencers Gabby Lascano and Sophie Goodman who literally built their careers reaching 1000’s of followers, on the ‘big is not only beautiful but BETTER ’ mantra -they are all literally shrinking in plain sight!!

I have lost stacks of weight on WLI’s and am no longer fat. It’s fabulous and a game changer.
I make no bones about the fact that I would crawl through a mile of shit for my weekly dose/pay double for them if I had to. Same for many of my friends. We hated being fat when we were fat and made no secret of it.

I feel that the (now very slim) previous proponents of the body positive /fat is beautiful and healthy (see also: slim, fit attractive men should date us or they are evil shits ) movement are total
hypocrites given the numbers of people that buy their music/watch their films/ consume their content follow them on SM etc etc - many of which can’t access these miracle cures for financial/health reasons etc.
The knots these women tie themselves in trying to justify their weight-loss while not looking like a total twat ( they do - just be honest love ) to satiate their larger bodied fans is utterly galling and I think exposes the whole moment for what it was.

I’m overweight and on the jabs.

I think it exposes that body positivity was actually the opposite. It advocated for abuse of your body and for being really unhealthy.

I always thought body positivity was meant to be about not bullying people for their size, rather than encouraging them to be fat.

Originally it was.

But if you look online now it’s morphed into something totally different. There’s a whole breed of UK “influencers” that make a living from being obese, eating very badly and encouraging others to do it because it’s “their life” and they’ve not got any ill effects.

I never thought that body positivity was about persuading men into dating overweight women.

Apart from anything else there are plenty of slim men very happily married to overweight women so I’m not sure why they would need “persuading”.

I always assumed the movement was about helping overweight people feel better about themselves. That’s not a bad thing. Overweight with good self esteem is much healthier than overweight and hating yourself.

If you are a successful artist in the public eye, what else are you meant to say? You can’t say, “I’d love to lose weight but haven't managed it yet” or “I don’t care how I look”.

These people are in presentation focused industries. They can’t say “caring about looks is shallow and I don’t care”. They have to say “being beautiful is important but you can be beautiful at any size”.

Apart from anything you don’t know what else is going on in their lives, perhaps heartbreak has lead to weightloss, or another health condition has made it imperative to lose weight or they are finally in a good place mentally and able to dedicate their headspace to focusing on their Heath.

It seems to me if you are an overweight woman in the public eye you are damned.
if you do and damned if you don’t.

Perhaps we could just value you them for their professional skills and talents and stop commenting on their bodies. Might be healthier all round.

Of course no-one wants to be fat. But people wanted to feel better about themselves and there’s nothing wrong with that. Why should people feel miserable about themselves. And it’s good to encourage people to be kind etc. But yeah these people would still be slim at the flick of a switch.

Yes it was partly/initially - about fighting fat phobia and discrimination
But also that being fat was not necessarily through overeating or making poor choices that there are other reasons this could happen.
Also HAES- that health can be at any size and should not be a barrier to accessing fertility treatment, for example

BUT ultimately in my view, the whole purpose was to redraw the societal definition of attractiveness in order to get men to include fat women in their dating pool- but never the other way around strangely…For anyone who has seen some of the images promoting this you will know what I mean; usually a black and white shot of a very large women in her underwear draped around an adoring sexually attractive tall muscly man, who’s totally into her and they are definitely a match. He’s never overweight too (or short or bald or plain of face with no jawline )

and waaayy more about trying to persuade/pressurise men into include larger/very fat women in their dating pool.

YAWN.

Women who are male-centered will never understand those who are not.

Oh crikey it wasn’t meant to read like that
( but I think you know that )

But it does also present significant health risks and to pretend it doesn’t is just wilful ignorance.

and waaayy more about trying to persuade/pressurise men into include larger/very fat women in their dating pool. It seemed to wholly focus on fat being seen as sexy (‘real men actually want meat not bones’ etc)

😂😂😂😂
I always find this utterly laughable - risible, in fact. All the fat women around me are in relationships- good relationships where the men have loved them at every size.
One of my young cousins, 20 something, has recently brought home a beautiful young girl that's as fluffy and as cute as a button and he loves her. And I love her too, because she's just a wonderful young woman.

There are literally cultures where they fatten the women to marry them off.
I'm forever amused by the narrow mindedness of the 'weight' conversations.

And never mind that some women are neither fat nor slim for men, and are JUST COMFORTABLE BEING THEMSELVES. The absolute gall of them 😱.

Now, back to read the rest of what you've typed.

I'll take your post in good faith and say you didn't mean it to read like that.

But it does to me.

I think several things can be true all at once.

As an overweight person myself, I know from first hand experience that people treat others who are fat in a less respectful way because being obese is still associated with laziness, lack of intelligence, low energy, lack of fitness and self discipline etc.

But I also think the body positive movement has made significant and hopefully lasting changes in the way women of all sizes and ethnicities are portrayed in public life, on stage, in the media, in advertising, and that’s a really great thing that we have moved on from admiring other forms of beauty and not just the stereotypical white, slim, blonde women in a dress.

I also know from personal experience that individuals rarely make positive changes in their lives from a position of self loathing or societal disdain. So the fact that overweight people like myself can now buy clothes in larger sizes and remain as fashion conscious as the next person, to use one example, is only a good thing imho.

Sadly a lot of the campaigns by companies like Victoria’ Secret and Nike to use plus size models and ‘real’ looking people are being carefully and quietly pulled as they negatively affected sales and it is clear heroin chic/ ozempic skinny is back in fashion.

This weirdo obsession with body positivity and a movement that encourages people to understand we come in all shapes and sizes and that fat women and fat men don’t need to hate themselves is baffling to me. And I would argue precious few people were ever part of the body positivity movement.

As for Dove and Nivea using models of different heights, skin tones, shapes and sizes…so? That literally is what society looks like.

And can people stop with the faux health concern. People don’t care about fat people’s health. They simply don’t like the way they look. Especially if they are female.

Source for this claim?

I’m a fat woman.

I know all too well the health issues that come with being overweight. I couldn’t care less about how you look. What I do care about is people pretending it’s healthy and promoting it to others.

Telegraph online Oct 18 2023

For me, body positivity really helped my self esteem and wellbeing and - ironically - helped me lose a bit of weight! It helped me to take care of myself. I never saw anything in it about pressuring men to include fat women in the dating pool and it would never have worked to make anyone who was not attracted to larger bodies become attracted to them. I never saw any less negativity from men about women's bodies. I personally didn't care about that because I've been married twenty years and my husband has loved my body whatever size - I have never been less than overweight since we got together except briefly when I did a self-hating soups and shakes vlcd that wrecked my metabolism.

Body positivity spaces that I was in online were entirely female, and they existed for women. It was never about what men would find attractive. It was about finding clothes that made us feel great rather than only looking at them with a criteria of 'will it make me look thinner/hide my belly rolls/disguise me'. It was about feeling free to go in the pool, to wear a bikini at the beach - NOT to attract men, but because it's comfortable and because everyone deserves to feel the sun on their skin. It was about not sweating in cardigans, afraid that people would scream in horror at the sight of our wobbly upper arms. I love that I didn't deny myself those experiences any longer once I found body positivity. I'm glad that I went out, comfortable and happy, and lived my life - having spent my teens and 20s too ashamed of my body to do so.

Now I'm on Mounjaro, because I never LIKED being fat. I just didn't want to hate myself for being fat. The lessons I learned in body positivity serve me well. I feel that I am worth taking care of, and that losing weight is a bonus now for my health but that it doesn't make me a more worthwhile person than when I was fatter. I was worthwhile then too - that's what body positivity taught me.

I still could not care less whether or not random men want me in their dating pool! The only pool I am interested in is for swimming, thanks very much.

I think women’s bodies are sexualised no matter how we look. Perhaps having lost weight you are seeing it from a different perspective?

Just to add, I still follow body positive accounts on Instagram that are all about women in larger bodies having fun with fashion and being creative and self-expressive with their clothes. Never are they putting together outfits to look sexy or saying anything about trying to appeal to men. It's all about freedom, boldness, sustainability, making items work in multiple outfits.

There is plenty on social media that is unhealthy. That could be plus-size influencers or it could be 'thinspiration' accounts, both of which can go too far or have a skewed perspective. But it's easy to find true body positivity on there, and it's very much a female space focused on healing. I absolutely disagree that the purpose of body positivity has been to coerce men into dating fat women. That relates to nothing I've ever seen. Certainly, I have seen plenty of influencers (body positive or not) posting examples of the vile filth that men inundate their accounts with - from graphic sexual comments to breathtakingly cruel insults. I rather imagine that having a platform and being a woman would put most people off men and seeking male approval altogether.

I don’t have words for how uninteresting and tedious this take is.

I think it’s a pity they built their career on this as people change and they should have known getting famous they would have had access to help to look a certain way that they hadn’t previously. I am not overweight but I find wli sad for this reason, my friends who are overweight are seeing it as you do and not thinking as long as I’m healthy (which they are), it doesn’t matter

Although I felt the body positive movement was a pile of online rubbish, I don’t think it’s fair to put all body positive advocates in the same bucket.

I believe that for a huge percentage of them it was really about coping. However, I do think some were genuinely ok being large.