Body shaming, and "My Big Fat Fabulous Life"

[CapnAwesome]

The show is not about "celebrating" obesity.  It shows her path to losing weight.  The show is about NOT accepting that a person is "less than" because they are overweight.

I remember standing in line, waiting at my black belt test, when an obese woman walked by.  I poked my friend and said "Eww . . . can you imagine ever letting yourself get that gross?"  I didn't know her name.  I didn't know anything about her.  I just reveled in the obvious fact that I was BETTER than she was. 

A few years later, life happened.  I won't whine about the details.  I gained quite a lot of weight. And yes, I did it to myself.  Walking is difficult now, but I go a little further every day.  People judge you.  I've had cars follow me on my walks with the people inside loudly making animal and retching noises.  One driver threw a soda at me as they passed.  People literally assume that you are stupid - - you are less than human.  You are disgusting.  

It's not about celebrating fat.  It's about celebrating a human being who has their own path and their own story.  It's about combating judgmental attitudes and stereotyping someone because of their looks.

I think on a certain level a lot of this is made up in the minds of fat people who feel bad about themselves. I don't know any of my friends who have ever said anything to the extent of fat people being stupid or less than people. I only hear this from overweight people who are talking about what other people think about them. Since you can't really know what other people are thinking, I infer a little that they feel this way about themselves.

Again, if they show is about losing weight it inherently is not about body acceptance.