illbebetterwheniamable:

Just some things I’d like to say about the body positive, fat positive, body acceptance, fat acceptance movement…belief system….whatever it is that is going on:

• We are not trying to say that fat women or men are sexier or better than thinner bodies. We are trying to say that we are JUST AS attractive as the “norm” and can be considered hot. 
• We are not “glorifying obesity”, (which is one of my favorite terms because it incites an image of all of us lifting the token Golden Fatty on a platter above our heads as we sing the McDonald’s theme in unison), we are trying to put out there that fat bodies can be healthy bodies as well. Some of us like the taste of salad and enjoy going to the gym because greens are yummy and exercise produces endorphins and we love those. 
• We do not need your approval. 
• We are not going to change because you don’t want to watch us eat, we make you uncomfortable, you’re worried about our health (we can do that on our own, thanks), and all the other bullshit excuses. 
• Fat people have relationships and pretty awesome sex. Often. We are just as lovable as the next (thin?) person, and image would not restrict that if you actually loved a person
• There are many different types of bodies. It seems that if we do get a plus size role model in Hollywood, they are expected to be curvy with a big rack and ass,a bit of a tummy, but not a speck of cellulite and everything magically perky forever. We’re trying to lift this limit of how far the “fat look” can go. 
• We would really like it for fat people on TV and in movies to not have to constantly refer to the fact that they are fat and be used strictly as comic relief. 
• There are shitty fat people. There are great fat people. There are shitty thin people. There are great thin people. Everyone in between-shitty and not so much. The biggest goal of this movement: Decide what you think about people based off of what they have to say and the content of their character, not if they look good in a bikini. 

I love this, however, regarding your second point…What if we redefine what “glorifying obesity” means?

The word “obesity” comes from the Latin word “obesus” which means “one who has become plump through eating” according to Richard Barrnett from the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine. However, in Latin, “obesus” also means “coarse” or “vulgar”.

The word “obesity” first appeared in a medical context in a book titled Via Recta by Thomas Venner published in 1620, Barrnett notes.

Venner believed that obesity was an occupational hazard of the civilized class, and that their physique could be restored by following the concepts of Hippocrates of balancing diet, sleep, and other factors to create and maintain health.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, writers preferred the term “corpulence”, which means “excessively fat” and the pressure remained on individuals to treat themselves according to Barrnett.

“1959, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company first attempt to define ideal weight, weight, and hence to create medical criteria for intervention in obesity” says Barrnett.

[x]

“Obesity” was a word created for the sole purpose of turning fatness into a medical condition. From that point forward, the stigma heaped upon fat bodies and supposed health based on level of corpulence has driven our society’s perspective of fat health.

It’s a junk term, arbitrary, and holds no meaning to me once I strip it of its ability to correlate fatness with health, which in itself is an untruth.

It perpetuates this way of thinking wherein negative attitudes about fatness are more hazardous to our mental and physical wellness than excess fat ever had the potential to be. [x]

Surely I can’t be the only one who thinks this way, but perhaps it is too radical for some to swallow, I don’t know. We see the word “obesity” and, as a society, have been trained to literally recoil from it, make snap judgements. Just as we have been taught to recoil from and heap shame upon fat bodies in general.

The Radical Fatty series I’m working on is something I am using as a platform to pose these questions and spark critical thinking about the language we use when we talk about fatness. I don’t know where this thinking will take me, but I know that the power of language should be harnessed and never underestimated. There is something about the reclamation of words and phrases that feels so essential.