Thread by @thefatdoctoruk

This is actually a really good question and I had to think on it for a moment. I appreciate the way you asked it Josh.

https://twitter.com/Josh52182894/status/1437903166134050821

I don't believe in the concept of "ob*sity". The word literally means to be fat. It's only recently that we medicalised fatness. Which is kinda weird when you think about it. We didn't medicalise shortness. Or baldness. (Both of which are associated with heart disease btw)

Why fatness? The answer is western society's deeply ingrained hatred of black people. Please read "Fearing the black body: the racial origins of fatphobia" by @SaStrings for a more in depth understanding of this. I think it's really important to understand the timeline here.

First we decided that being fat was bad. Then we started doing studies to PROVE that fat was bad. It started with the BMI. A completely useless measurement that literally looks at the ratio of height and weight. It was NEVER meant to be used the way it is today.

We grouped people into "normal" and "abnormal". We assigned them a BMI range. And then we set about PROVING why abnormal people were "bad" and normal folks were "good". Ironically, recent studies show a BMI of 25-30 is actually healthiest. So abnormal is better than normal!

But we didn't know that back then when we started. Quite early on in the process of medicalising fatness, capitalism rejoiced! Do you have any idea how much money can be made by "treating" (fixing) the "abnormal" (fat) folks? And that, my friend, changed everything!

So you asked what my position is. Can we "do anything about ob*sity"? And that's a really good question. My answer is yes, we can. We can scrap it all together. It's a relatively new construct. Let's just do away with it. Let's stop telling people they are "abnormal".

Let's stop trying to "fix" them. Let's begin to accept that fatness, like baldness and shortness, is essentially controlled by genetics. And that trying to fix it is without a doubt making it WORSE. "Ob*sity" isn't a disease. It's a social construct. Like race. Or gender.

And social constructs simply exist so that one group of people can oppress and subdue the other. White people oppress black people. Cisgender folks oppress trans/non binary folks. Straight sized people oppress fat folks. This has NEVER been about health. It's about oppression.