The Fat Acceptance movement has two faces. The public face it shows to open audiences when at a TV interview or interacting with the world outside of the fat o sphere, and then there is the true face, that we only see on size acceptance blogs, especially in the comments sections. From what I can tell, this isn’t done purposely or consciously. When Fat Acceptance steps out on the public forum it sounds completely reasonable and justified. However when a Fat Blogger makes it back home to her blog, she turns into something quite different.
FA’s public message is one of “acceptance” of fat people. “Acceptance,” by FA’s definition means discouraging name calling, and stopping fatty bashing. More importantly they want to challenge prejudices against fat people, like the presumption that the obese are gluttonous and lazy. The public face of fat acceptance is hard to disagree with. The “Fat but Fit” message is stretching it, but with the majority of Americans sporting some extra lard it isn’t hard to sell.
Back home on their HEAVILY censored blogs and forums, the true face of fat acceptance comes out. Thinly guised hatred toward thin people seeps out around the edges. Acceptance of fatness turns into a glorification of obesity. There is a lot of anger in the Fat o Sphere. One can only be accepted there if they are fat and want to stay fat. All this is sprinkled with healthy doses of cherry picked studies, and paranoid delusions of persecution, including diet industry conspiracies.
The “public” face of fat o sphere, accepts that women of every size should be comfortable with their body. A Real Woman is any woman that is comfortable in her own skin no matter what her size. But, back on the blogs we see an emphasis of the sexiness of fat women. A Real Woman means a fat woman. In the comments of my “What is a Real Woman” post, on this blog, the FA cult clamored to clarify that a Real Woman didn’t necessarily have to be a Fat Women. However references to fat = real women are found ALL OVER the fat o sphere. Denying this amounts to outright lying.
When there is a doctor present during a TV interview Fat Acceptance bloggers go out of their way not to contradict the medical professionals. Back at their WordPress base camps they constantly tell adherents not to accept obesity as a cause illness, from their physician. If a doctor insists that their health problems are a result of being too fat, the FA sisterhood tells them that they should find a different doctor.
Out in the open, HAES advocates make sure to clarify that they aren’t jealous of thin people and have no resentment toward the skinny folk. They consistently maintain this statement both in public and on their blogs. This doesn’t stop Fat Bloggers trying explaining the existence of unfat people as purely the result of lucky genetics, or an eating disorder.
The “We don’t hate skinny people” statement really seems like window dressing. Comments are tinged with resentment. If you read FA blogs long enough, you will find a lot of underhanded deriding of people who are fit and beautiful, such as describing thin people’s faces as having a “…drawn, gaunt, skull-faced look” … so much for Acceptance.
I could continue this rant with example after example. With the existence of literally thousands of blogs, how could the mainstream media be missing this? Maybe the real question is how long it will be until the mainstream media discovers this? I’m not sure how long it will take, but I’m doing my part!
The Fat Acceptance movement will always have 2 faces just like any other civil liberties movement in America. With blacks, MLK Jr. was for equlality, while folks like Malcom X and the Black Panthers hated whites and pused for “Black Supremacy” in some cases. THis is not new. Being overweight myself, I do not hate skinny people nor do I pride myself on being fat. However, I see no problem whatsoever in people who choose to remain obese.
Bobby
That’s a pretty simplistic understanding of the civil rights movement. I’m not trying to be a dick, but maybe read more before you publicaly make statements like that?
I agree with parallelsidewalk
I think fat women are downright unattractive, if not, even ugly! However, a slim, attractive woman with a crap attitude is even uglier, to me. Nevertheless, that personal observation doesn’t in any way support the bizarre fat = real women argument.
Fat is an epidemic that, after a modest start in the 1970s appears to have kicked in for the general population at some time during the late 1980s. Check out movies and documentaries for the data about the precise dating, which will illustrate that many people no longer possess any animal grace but look like walruses, instead.
That’s it, there’s the new catchphrase for the Fat Acceptance movement: Accept Your Inner Walrus!
ADG
P.S. I’m unsure about whether this comment has any relevance to the post but I’m so goddam angry that I’m not thinking straight. Fat Acceptance? My God, what next?
As a feminist who feel a lot of sympathy for society’s unfair treatment of overweight people, during the nineties and most of the current decade I accepted FA tenets. After three years of being in China I am no longer so accepting. Ironically, many there have adopted our fast food culture and child/adult obesity are on the rise. This from cultures with glorious, painstakingly exquisite and sensible culinary traditions!
I came back last summer and have been aghast ever since. The diabetes, the self-inflicted semi-disability of most of the obese (those who do not have a prior medical condition, are not incest or rape victims, etc.), the obsession with food…I am rambling, but you see what has shocked me.
There are societal changes that have contributed to this global epidemic, but we can no longer use them as excuses. Let’s start by telling fat people that we don’t want to see them die, and that accepting them as fat apparently has done nothing except accelerate their collective headlong plunge towards an early death. Wake up everyone!
Well said, Margaret! I have strong feminist sympathies myself, and to me one of the most infuriating aspects of the FA is the waving of the feminist banner.
The FA-ideal would take us right back to long-bygone eras, when women were not expected or even allowed to be strong, active and fit. Their message is that it’s somehow unnatural for a woman to enjoy exercise and seek physical challenges. Their view is that women in general are mentally so weak and impressionable that a weight-loss program and life-style change is overwhelming and even dangerous, and will inevitably result in all sorts of disorders.
Personally I fail to see what this could possibly have to do with feminism.
Hi all!
I love your site! I guess what I have to say is I’m sorry you’ve been stuck dealing with people who use size acceptance as an expression of their personality disorder.
That being said, I am a naturally large person who works out 4-6 times a week rather intensely and eats mostly vegetarian. I’m pretty healthy… and I tend to stay about my same size. I likely will not get larger (see healthy lifestyle above). If my body got smaller, that would be fine. I have no investment in controlling size. But I doubt my body will ever get smaller. And no, I have no eating disorder.
And I do not diet.
In addition, I support the gender equality movement which is not always the same as the so called “women’s” rights movement. And no, that does not mean I have anything against lesbians.
I enjoy relationships with people of all sizes who do not have personality disorders.
I actually have read pretty extensively on the black civil rights movement and I can say I do think there are strong similarities between the two movements. (The black civil rights movement is based on something real and also filled with people, some of whom had serious personality disorders.)
Hope things get a little better on the fat blogs. I honestly stay away from whole elements in the fat community. People of all sizes are responsible to get treatment for their personality disorders and not barf all over the genuine aspects of their respective civil rights advocacy.
Hope you all have a better day.
Nicole
Hey, I actually came here through the related posts mechanics on something tangental I wrote related to fat acceptance and body image. (ie. that women who aren’t rail-thin can be sexy too) It’s nice to see a counterview to fat acceptance that doesn’t rely on pejoratives, normative standards of beauty, and name-calling.
Nicole- thankyou for making that point about the civil rights movements, you saved me some time.
All movements have extremes, and some of them are ridiculous. Tuning out the ridiculousness is kind of an essential skill on the internet.
I agree with the general thrust of your post in some senses. On the one hand, there’s some really great social and psychological wisdom coming from the FA community, such as non-normative beauty, holistic health and HAES, acceptance dignity and respect as helping people get fit regardless of their size, etc… Regardless of what you think of the rest of the fatosphere, I think that’s really
The trouble, however, is that it’s easy to conflate some of this “love yourself” and “accept fat people” imagery as anti-thin. Saying “Fat women are real women, too” should be taken inclusively in general. Criticising unhealthily standards of beauty with “these aren’t real women” is a bit iffier- but given that thin women have long been the tormentors of fat women, I think people who are careful and open to criticism should be given the benefit of the doubt.
That said, I think you are a bit out of line, too. People have a right to say “People like you are the ones who have been making this psychologically hard for me. Why should I engage with you?” It’s your responsibility when you’re in someone else’s space to prove you can provide a reasonable critique. Calling out women who support FA for contradicting doctors, but not showing how their contradictory claims are unscientific or unsound isn’t a reasonable critique. Swinging in guns blazing about how their language has a few implicit insults to people who have long benefitted from the privilege of conforming to society’s standards of attractiveness when you’re talking to people who have been vilified for trying to bring some hope to women who are killing themselves with depressive dieting or worse is misguided at best.
I think your post is in the middle of these two extremes- ironically, much like most of the posts and comments from the fat acceptance movement can be. Those of us who critique the general wisdom and other critiques here on the internet tend to be inexpert writers in some senses, so it’s to be expected. It doesn’t, however, mean that we don’t do more good than we do harm. Hopefully too, as we go along, we’ll bring the more mainstream thinkers along with us and encourage academics to follow up on what we’re thinking, which will mean the good parts of FA are likely to become more persuasive, and the bad parts (I’m sure they’re there, but I’d have trouble finding them myself as someone with little skill unpacking fat-related issues) will hopefully be debunked.
I’ll probably pop in now and then to see how this blog is going. I’d really like to see you provide some positive alternatives to some of the problems you see with the FA movement in addition to your critiques. Thanks for the interesting read.
I’m a size 2 and my good friend is a size 18/20 and she is downright bitter & mean when it comes to women smaller/skinnier than her. She always finds something to tear down the other women.
I’m no saint either, I constantly talk about working out, eating healthy, and wishing I could be skinnier when I’m around her. It’s amazing we’re still friends.
I am happy to see that others are exposing the sham that has been fat acceptance. In the late 80’s the movement was hyjacked by a bunch ugly looking and ugly acting women who hated men for not wanting to screw them because they were fat. It was not because they were fat. It was their ugly and crazy personalities.
Men like fat women. There is a huge fat porn industry. Fat women who are mean to normal women have a lot more issues than being fat.
I recently gained some unwanted weight & was having difficulty losing it. Thought I’d write a blog to help me hold myself accountable. Then I thought I’d wander into the blog-o-spere to talk with others about my difficulties, successes & whatnot.
Made the mistake of stumbling onto the blogs you mentioned above. At first I was confused, then I got kinda upset. I am amazed at how mean & defensive most of them were to the comments I posted. The comments that didn’t get jerked off immediately, of course.
I went there to talk about the misinformation on the web & in the media. I went there to find others who were struggling, so we could compare notes and try to find a real solution. I was polite, accurate with my information, and friendly- in my mind. You know, considerate, PC and understanding.
They did not want to welcome me into their world. Which turns out to be ok, because I don’t think I fit. See, I’m not fat enough. & I haven’t suffered long enough. And I’m a bad person, because I want to lose my excess weight.
Thanks for writing this blog. I appreciate it. I will visit you all again.
Veronica
http://veronica7.wordpress.com/
[...] FA, from my perspective. This post is just a guy talking about why he is bothered by FA blogs: http://unfatblog.wordpress.com/2008/05/19/two-faces-of-fat-acceptance/. He does a better job explaining things than I do. This next blog kinda highlights the anger [...]