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Ok last thread before I do actual paid labor today. I can’t engage in debate with someone who elsewhere said they do put not stock in #HealthAtEverySize research bc it could be paid for like alcohol & tobacco industry research, as if #bodyposi is an industry not a movement.
Further, the #dietindustry IS actually an industry that funds research & profits off #fatphobia. But that’s not what I’m here to discuss. Let’s engage with the idea that size is 99% in one’s control.
So this #thoughtexperiment ignores research showing the links between size & genetics, purely engaging with the idea that size is within our individual control & therefore cannot be about marginalization, oppression, privilege & social systems. Let’s begin:
If size is within everyone’s personal control with diet & exercise alone let’s explore what would then allow for everyone to be thin. First, in terms of diet this means financial & physical access to low fat, low calorie, nutritious food.
This also means access to nutritional education specific to your personal bodily needs, especially for folks with illnesses & diseases which limit certain foods as well as folks who choose to restrict certain foods for religious or ethical reasons.
This would also mean every person has the time & ability to cook food well at home or the financial means to purchase prepared food regularly. This would mean improving food access, income & housing (kitchen space) for especially working families, single parents & disabled ppl.
In terms of exercise, everyone would need to live in spaces where exercise can easily be accomplished. Places with running paths, parks, bike trails and affordable, accessible gyms esp. in cold climates where outdoor activity is limited for much of the year.
People would also need financial access to exercise attire (proper shoes at minimum) & even if gyms are cheap or free, decent public transportation to these recreational spaces.
Further, folks would need time to do this. So people who work multiple jobs to pay the rent or have families to care for would need better pay and/or assistance to make time for regular exercise in addition to time to cook, eat, & clean up.
Returning briefly to gym spaces, these spaces would need to be accessible to people with disabilities and free from verbal & sexual harassment, especially for women & trans folks. There would need to be equipment & classes for a variety of skill & physical ability levels.
Childcare would also need to be provided in these spaces as well as ways to clean up afterward that are safe, accessible & free (many places have locker and towel fees)
So this covers a few of the barriers that would need to be abolished for everyone to have the idealized diet & exercise regime. But what about emotional & intellectual barriers?
When we say folks should “just” eat better & exercise (within this thought experiment where size is 99% NOT genetic), we also are expecting people to prioritize nutrition & exercise over emotional wellbeing. We demand folks to use their time for this not therapy, not romance...
We ask folks to defer pleasure in a world that is full of pain in the name of meeting a physical ideal. We decide that thinness is more important than dealing with your trauma or tending to your chronic pain or spending time with loved ones or making art or relaxing.
So if indeed size is within our control, if anyone can be thin, what are the things that are preventing thinness? It seems to me that, as I’ve suggested elsewhere, one’s size is partially shaped by larger systems like class, race, gender & (dis)ability.
If then you are invested in making people “healthy” by making people thin, then perhaps you can focus less on shaming individuals & more on changing social systems that work people to death & give them little time or ability to tend to their health until it’s urgent.
Perhaps instead of critiquing fat folks online, you could critique the diet industry or the cutbacks in food stamps & Medicaid, or city planners that put nice parks only in wealthy white neighborhoods.
Perhaps instead of blaming individuals for what you perceive as their personal failures, you could control what larger social systems shape all of our choices including choices about our bodies.
This ends my thought experiment. Of course I don’t believe size is 99% choice, I think a lot of it is genetics but even if it wasn’t genetic, there are so many factors that prevent us from living our best lives & I refuse to blame individuals for that.
In the end, I always suggest we ask “Who does this belief I hold hurt and who does it help?” I’m telling you, fat folks aren’t getting rich & powerful for being fat but the diet industry makes millions off the belief that everyone can be thin(ner).
So I’d argue your belief that fatness is a choice harms fat people (and average or thin folks who have been convinced they are fat) and helps the diet industry. If that’s who you want to help, then do be it, but recognize that as a choice you’re making not “common sense.”
I’m seriously going to go write a lecture & a midterm exam now. No more unpaid educational & emotional labor on social media for me today.
