If I had a dollar for every- time I saw someone say that the body positivity movement and loving yourself if you fat is promoting obesity, I would RICH. It’s one of the biggest issues people have with whole-body acceptance. This is the message I get from all of that, “It’s cool to love yourself If you are skinny but if you are fat? Please tone that shit down so you don’t encourage other girls to want to be fat.”
Wait, what? That sounds a little ridiculous don’t you think?
Teaching people to accept and love their bodies right now has everything to do with mental health and very little to do with actual physical health. The body positivity movement itself doesn’t have anything to do with health at all, it was started as a way to get under-represented and unrepresented in the media or anyone who doesn’t fit the thin, white narrative of beauty we’ve been sold for the entire lives.
“My health issue is none of your business”. Just because my body is larger doesn’t mean I don’t exercise or eat healthily. Being healthy shouldn’t be a prerequisite for getting respect from other humans. Fat people shouldn’t have to justify their size with medical tests and workout videos. I deserve the respect to live my life without shame and discrimination even if I am not healthy.
Hate is not a motivator for change. If you could hate yourself thin, I would have been a size 2 a long time ago. For some people hating themselves might help them change their bodies but I think for the majority of people hate isn’t going to drive you to long-term changes. Not to mention, losing weight doesn’t automatically mean you’ll love your body. If you don’t do the mental work of learning to accept your body you’ll hate it no matter what size.
Body size isn’t a good indicator of health. You can’t judge someone’s health by how their body looks. There are plenty of fat healthy people and plenty of skinny unhealthy people. Body size alone is not a good indicator of how healthy someone is, because you can engage in healthy behaviors and not lose weight.
Lastly, I would like to end with a quote-