Thoughts on body size positivity movement?
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Oversimplification: people shouldn't be shamed for being overweight and it's important to love yourself regardless of your physical body. With that said, we shouldn't sweep the health problems that come being overweight under the rug.
As someone who was once 340 lbs, I never liked it when someone shamed me, encouraged me to lose weight, judged my eating, etc. Never once did I say things like "I'm living the best version of my life" or "I'm so healthy!" because those were just lies.
Ok question, maybe you can help me out based on what you just said. You did not like it when ppl brought it up or encouraged you to lose weight …. I have a family member I’m very concerned about, well over 400lb, getting bigger by the week, very picky eater, he cannot help himself, doesn’t know how or have the tools, and my family enables him. I want to help, I’m concerned, but have wasted a year being afraid to broach the subject. What is the ideal way to offer help or express concern? Just don’t? Or help?
As a women who was a teenager in the 90s and late 2000s, I love the representation and inclusivity we’re seeing now. Its not perfect, but it’s progress.
I’m glad people see more bodies and body types represented unapologetically. I didn’t see many women who looked like me growing up, and that was hard.
I’d like to find a middle ground where we can accept that bodies are different, and peoples worth and value isn’t tied to whatever shape they might be.
Like any “movement”, the loudest voices are often the most extreme. I think there’s some middle ground the body positive movement can find between encouraging healthy behaviors for people (which looks different for different people), and idolizing or demonizing certain body types. Ex: just because someone’s “overweight” doesn’t mean they’re unhealthy, but there are very real health risks that come with added weight - we shouldn’t ignore it, but also shouldn’t shame people for it.
That’s kind of a heavy topic.
I know we’re talking about the US context, but just want to juxtapose this with other countries and beauty standards. I’m a dual citizen and live both American and African cultures. Much of the body positivity movement comes from the American lifestyle and so many people being fat from poverty/fast food, lack of health education, healthy food actually being weirdly unaffordable, sedentary jobs…
In other (developing) countries, being curvy and having some fat is good thing, because you have enough money to afford enough food/nutrition.
And in the US, being thin is a function of a healthy lifestyle, health education, and money for healthy foods.
Sometimes the whole body positivity movement seems like a red herring and we should really be addressing the root problem of unhealthy American lifestyles and poor health education.
Please tell us what is slightly chubby? How would you quantify that? Because being over weight is unhealthy we know this from so much science
I want to say it probably helped more individuals with body issues and/or eating disorders than it helped encourage morbid obesity. However this is just a quick assumption and not at all rooted in facts/figures
I think it has both great and dreadful consequences : hear me out
As an obese women myself, I hated my body for almost a decade, I suffered from depression and everything around me made me feel like I was a monster, especially TV and celebrities.
When plus size models started trending on Instagram it gave ideas of outfits and I realized that Being fat didn’t mean being ugly and especially that being fat wasn’t a good reason to be despised or dispected. No one had ever even tried to make that point before. And so trying to look like these plus size models (who aren’t always realistic either) I gained confidence and motivation to take care of myself. I also didn’t feel the need to diet. Diets are the worst trigger for eating disorders. So after gaining confidence and losing the stress from diets I started eating better and lost 40 kilos. These movements are problematic when they deny the consequences of obesity. But people used to assume it was okay to disrespect people based on their weight and if it’s a way to put an end to that I say go for it
Aw love this. Thanks for sharing your perspective
Why should anyone have to feel bad about themselves because they put on some pounds? Women can gain plenty when pregnant, certain medical conditions cause weight gain/retention, depression, everyone’s metabolism is different, etc. And if someone has consistently not made healthy choices and they become overweight - so freaking what. That’s their problem and they can seek to lose weight or not. But they shouldn’t feel like they have to hate their body to lose the weight. I appreciate all shapes and sizes but someone being overweight and happy about it will never motivate or influence me to intentionally gain weight or not take care of myself. I don’t know. Maybe I don’t understand how being overweight/obese and happy or content “promotes” being overweight or obese…who do you know that aspires to be obese?
LC1 that’s fair and that’s why my first comment on this post is that I think it helps a lot more than it harms. However the harmful part is that there are a lot of people who are influenced and there are a lot of people who probably have gained additional weight because it’s not considered as unattractive in society as it was say a decade ago. However beyond a certain weight you can not deny that it has encouraged weight gain. The line between healthy and unhealthy is gray and can be argued all day
Wish I had it growing up… so I could’ve focused less on going through extreme lengths to be a specific size and more so just on living my life/appreciating my body for what it is.
Also I’m not a doctor or public health official. Other people’s body sizes don’t concern me. The moral outrage over who is healthy or not/promoting obesity makes me feel weird. And I think we forget about social determinants of health in the convo (food policies that contribute to unhealthy diets/increasing body weights). Just let people live their life and love their bodies.
YES.
Honestly, we need it. GenZ is on tiktok asking some crazy questions... "Have you always been on a diet." It hit me hard in the face.
As many here have stated, there are positives and negatives here. The positive here is that we can start to think of more than one body type as beautiful.
I have struggled my whole life with the fact that I’m not the stereotypical thin, petite woman. I have always had an athletic, muscular build and it makes me insecure. Played sports in college and workout regularly. Some people could view me as being overweight at points (nothing extreme -10-20 pounds) but my overall functional health is great (strength, aerobic) in comparison to the general population.
I still don’t love my body but I think seeing different body types has helped. Agree with not promoting morbid obesity.
Moderation is key. I think it's fantastic we're not idolizing a size 2 as the best body type anymore but also don't think we should normalize being grossly obese.
You should never judge someone based on their weight/body type, that is inhuman. But if you want to spread your version of “healthy” while fully knowing that you are putting garbage in your body, that’s wrong. There is a scientific definition of what is “healthy”
Obesity is a disease.
We should not shame ourselves or anyone for being overweight.
We have to acknowledge that it is a disease and should therefore be treated.
Celebrate the progress you make and the effort you put into your health instead of focusing on how you look.
If you are 400lbs and managed to lose 10 lbs, thats awesome. If you are 180 lbs and finally shredded to get that 6 pack, good for you.
All that matters is that you are taking care of yourself. We should all strive to do that.
Rising Star
By disease, I think you mean it belongs in same category as alcoholism, and I agree. It requires treatment - both medical and behavioral
Brands are absolutely try hard on this one. All of a sudden all the models on there webs are XL sized and it’s extremely cringey imo
Rising Star
I do like that brands are now showing the same item of clothing on different sized models - important for online shopping- but I don’t care for it as a headline look
Love it! Things that are said of and to bigger people tend to scar them for life.. even after losing a bunch of weight
A lot of people are equating body positivity to “promoting” obesity which has never been a thing. Body positivity is about loving your body no matter what size you are at (body positivity also applies to individuals with disabilities keep that in mind). Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t choose healthy lifestyle choices (and we also have to think about people who may not have access/ do not have a choice in the matter due to societal circumstances). Also some of y’all need to look into the history of BMI (which determines who is obese and who isn’t) and how archaic it is. I’ll also add there are a lot of examples of fat shaming and fat phobia in this thread and it’s quite sad.
Yes to loving your body. No to saying obesity is healthy.
This thread just makes me sad. Is there any place people don’t argue anymore ?
Mean! But also really funny!
Its the one "movement" that doesn't require any movement at all.
Spartans vs not Spartans