Rant about weight, fat acceptance, obesity and health

[Ben Davis]

What's up with this fat acceptance movement?

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I'm not going to be politically correct on this and I'm not afraid to offend people, so here it goes:

My girlfriend is very thin and also fit, she is actually underweight on a BMI scale despite the fact that she looks pretty healthy and her medical checkups turn out fine - Everyone, whether it's family friends or family keeps telling her that she needs to eat and that only dogs go for bones, etc. Honestly, the reason why this bothers her and me is because she was underfeed by her biological parents as a child and they didn't take properly care of her, she has memories of her parents fighting and doing drugs while she was left starving and dirty (she was adopted later) - Everytime someone tells her how skinny bitches are annoying, and how skinny people need to eat, she is reminded of horrible childhood experiences and traumatic teenage year phases (like it happens with most adopted kids when they find out about being adopted) - I'm not the kind of person who supports shaming without constructive criticism, I'm not going to go near fat people and tell them to lose weight, or that they should eat less, just like I don't tell a horribly dressed person that they have poor fashion taste even if it is what I mentally think is true.

The worst part here, is that unlike smokers and alcoholics who are not only taxed on a very high rate (specially in Europe, just imagine paying extra 3.50€ for each pack of smokes and multiply it by 30 years or so of smoking and see how much money that is) but frequently admit that they made poor choices and have unhealthy habits, the fat acceptance movement is seeking to openly promote the idea that obesity and being overweight is fine and healthy, and a lot of their idealisms are based on the idea that people, specially straight men, must feel attracted to fat and frequently obese women. This is just idiotic and it's not going to work. I think the problem with eating is that everyone eats, so it's easy to eat too much, while smoking is something that is not necessary for survival and you can just quit. I still smoke a few cigs a day, and I think it's a terrible habit, I'd advise anyone to NOT smoke and I don't intend to promote non-smokers privilege - In fact, if the rhetoric used for fat acceptance was used for smokers it would be ridiculed right away - Why is body weight a special case?

I don't think not being attracted to fat people is that cultural as people say it is - The truth is we can find examples of art and beauty depicting thin people since the Romans, and even so the fat beauty has only been around when people were super poor and it was considered a sign of wealth. Even if we look at chubby chasers, the majority of these people are looking for folks (specially men looking for women) with a few extra pounds and frequently more fat on the ass, boobs and other body parts they find important - Very few people are actively wanting to date obese folks unless they're obese themselves and can't find a better partner.

I think obesity and fat are health issues that should be addressed and treated like any other public health concern by a matter of coherence, and so I find it idiotic that there's a fat acceptance movement kinda like if there was a smokers acceptance or alcoholics acceptance movement. I don't wish to control people's lives and I don't want to tell them what to eat, it's entirely up to you, but promoting an unhealthy lifestyle and then claiming those who don't agree are brainwashed, culturally restricted and oppressors is just stupid. Grow up.

I have 10 extra Kilograms (22 pounds on average) that I gained over 3 years and I plan to go back to my normal weight, which is less 10-15 kilograms (154 pounds, more or less 70kilograms) - The reason I gained weight is merely because I was lazy and to be honest I started dating, my girlfriend is quite hot and so I stopped caring about my body too much because I don't need to attract women. I'm going back and I know I won't regret it. I know being fat is complicated, there's many variables and problems people face - But to what degree is it really genetic, and how much can we influence our weight?

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I've not come across any 'fat acceptance' movement. I've encountered a 'body positivity' movement (which tries to encourage people to have self-esteem, irrespective of their physical shape whilst countering intolerance from people who criticise physical attributes & consider them as representative of a target's personality) but not 'fat acceptance'. Likewise, I've never come across anyone who's said "Being fat is healthy". Are you sure you're seeing what you think you're seeing?