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“Weight does not dictate your health or your worth.”
By Haley Querro
Well this thing actually broke through over 7,000 notes and there are at least 5 replies I could find within the last couple hundred reblogs that try to refute the “health” aspect of this message. I wish I had time to connect with these people and have a discussion that might change their minds, but there are not enough hours in a day.
I find comfort in the fact that for the most part, this thing is spreading like wildfire because it resonates with people. They can see the truth in it. I’m so glad for that.
Stay tuned…
“Weight does not dictate your health or your worth.”
It doesn’t dictate your health? So someone who weighs over 1000 lbs. and is unable to move on their own has no health concerns?
Yeap, obesity is SO healthy for you.
… not.
To be fair, some heavier people are healthier than thin people, most glaringly people who suffer from addictions and eating disorders. But the fat positive movement seems to me to be coming from the direction of a particularly first-world privilege.
Perhaps a more honest first part of that slogan should be ‘weight does not necessarily* dictate your health,’ but I do think the centralmost issue is whether weight dictates your worth, because it most certainly does not.
YES to the bolded bit.
I love all these conclusions and interpretations of the phrase. Well, most of them anyway.
I AM ALL FOR POSITIVE BODY IMAGE
and i’m not saying that you can’t be healthy with some extra weight
but to an extent - you have to take care of your body bc it’s the only one you have. I’ve lost 60+ pounds and i feel better than ever
ok, first things first… saying “i’m all for [xyz] but they shouldn’t [abc]” basically means you’re not all for those things. some examples using other marginalized groups, for effect: ”i’m all for feminism, but women really need to remember to be ladies,” “i’m all for equal rights, but gays really need to not throw their ‘gayness’ in my face.” see where i’m going with this?
i get where you’re coming from, katie, and i’m not attacking you, just pointing out where your thinking is unintentionally shaming/othering. what YOU do with YOUR body is YOUR business; what i do with mine is mine, period. i don’t have an obligation to anyone to be pretty or healthy or anything else. i’m glad you lost weight and you feel better about yourself. but just the same way you don’t get to decide what i wear, who i sleep with, whether i abort a fetus, or which god i worship, so you shouldn’t also decide what i do or do not eat.
yep, this is the only body i’m given, and you know what? i’m going to do with it exactly what the fuck i please. i encourage everyone else to do the sam
okay you did not understand me.
i am all for loving yourself no matter what your weight is but in reality you also need to take care of yourself and try to be healthy because that is really loving your body.
I never said anything about hiding your body or rubbing it in my face, but that you’ll feel great if you take care of yourself. I do not have a thyroid and weight gain comes easy but I try actively to be healthy but I never hate myeslf even at 180 lbs
just that you should also try to be healthy and take care of your body. wow
but you misunderstand me: I DON’T HAVE TO DO ANY-DAMNED-THING WITH MY BODY. if i don’t want to, i don’t have to take care of this shit. i could sit and fester and it’s no one’s business but my goddamned own. folks who come from a perspective of thin privilege ~ which you do, whether you reject it or not ~ generally feel it’s ok to tell fat people what they should do for their health.
did you read that photo up there? do you understand what it means? it means that i can’t dictate your thyroid issues at 20 paces, and you can’t tell shit about my health based on my body size. you telling me that i have to be healthy is the problem: it has nothing to do with weight or hating oneself ~ i didn’t mention those things for a reason.
you telling me i have to be healthy is akin to pro-lifers telling women whether they can/should have abortions. it has to do with folks “within the range of ‘normal’” feeling it’s ok to tell other people what they can and cannot, should and should not do with their bodies.
truthfully, i’d rather have someone scream “fat bitch!” at me then come up with all that faux concern about “my ‘health’”.
you can’t diagnose someone if you are a) not a doctor; b) not THAT PERSON’S doctor; and c) just casually observing a person’s weight. that’s the whole point of the above jpg, and it went straight the fuck over your head. which is what i was attempting to point out.
Way to be a total babe.
(Added some bolding and spacing for emphasis, btw.)
I need to write a post about the reactions I’ve been getting from the latest message I shot out into the interwebs:
“Weight does not dictate your health or your worth.”
I chose my words carefully with this one. I was anxious to see how others would react to the “health” aspect of the message, to see if it would come across as a challenge or a threat that “must be corrected” - And I must say, while there has been a ton of people supporting the design and the message behind it, I find it most fascinating that some people were compelled to reblog the image just to simply shoot it down.
This piece was spontaneously put together, but it came to me naturally. It’s the thing that was the hardest for me to understand for the longest time.
Weight does not dictate your health.
Think about it carefully.
Yes, sometimes excess weight is a symptom of unhealthy living and/or illnesses, but it is not the cause. You certainly can not determine a person’s health by simply looking at them.
Your eyes are not my doctor. Your eyes can not see through my exterior to examine my everyday habits and lifestyle choices.
Your eyes can not take enough into account to correctly asses another person’s health, no matter how much or little they weigh.
This type of response has been quite typical:
“I can understand the ‘worth’ part, but weight not dictating your heath is the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard. Someone being morbidly obese isn’t any less worthy, but they’re extremely unhealthy. Being fat is just not healthy, and those are the facts of it. If you want to be healthy, you work for it. You exercise, eat well, and take care of your body. You don’t sit on your couch, watch tv, eat and gain weight. That’s unhealthy.”
What’s unhealthy is assuming that a “morbidly obese” person is extremely unhealthy because all “morbidly obese” people are couch potatoes who can’t stop themselves from shoving an endless supply of food into their mouths.
When in reality, that person is 100% capable of being healthy - but you wouldn’t know that by simply LOOKING at them.
Everyone has an underlying story. No one is as they appear.
Some women appear perfectly healthy and happy, maintain a “normal” weight and pass society’s VISUAL standards for what a healthy woman is SUPPOSED to look like. But you can’t tell simply by looking at her that she may binge and purge on a regular basis, starve herself or involve herself in other acts that are equally as unhealthy.
It is also entirely likely that she may be totally healthy.
Regardless, in no situation is it okay to assume one’s health based on appearance. By doing so are encouraging the kind of ignorance that fuels negative body image and eating disorders.
It’s not hard to see once you start questioning the way you respond.
Also, it helps to remember that your body is no one else’s business - So best not to make other bodies your business.
That is all.
“Weight does not dictate your health or your worth.”
By Haley Cue
Latest photo submitted for my project by miss anorable and some choice bits from her narrative.
- - - -
Mostly when I was younger I got told, “you should be a model, you’re gonna be so tall!” and now that I am and I’m not skinny too, I don’t get told that anymore.
The things that people have told/tell me in regards to my body don’t really phase me. I know that it comes from a bigger pictures of societal problems and issues with other peoples’ self-esteem more than my own worth. When people assume that I’m insecure about my body because of most peoples’ reactions, that’s what really bugs me.
At some point I guess I just decided it wasn’t worth it to stress about anything beyond OR within my control.
The worst thing that people say to me is, “You look great, have you lost weight?” and it really makes me sad to think that those two things are synonymous for a great portion of the population. I get the “you have such a pretty face,” “you’re just curvy,” “it’s not like you’re FAT or anything,” and it’s ridiculous because even if any or all of those things are true, it really, really shouldn’t matter if they weren’t.
I love my back dimples and big lips, my weird baby ears and scarred knees.
The things I dislike are mostly things that are easier to change, but that gives me more of a reason to accept it for what it is.
Visual culture is the biggest reason anyone has any issue with anyone else’s body, and presumably why this blog exists. I wish nobody had to make it a point to love their bodies, and others’ bodies, and unconventional body types and representations and genders and whatever people identify as.
The times that I’m most uncomfortable with my body are when I’m with someone who’s criticizing theirs or comparing themselves or me with someone else.
Up until I was about 13 or 14, I had this strange mark of skin on my upper cheek close to my eye. It was actually a blood vessel up close to the skin that I developed at a pretty early age, but it had the appearance of a pimple or blister or sore that was just under the skin or waiting to sprout. It looked natural though, like a birthmark. My parents always told me it was a “beauty mark,” and that some people even go to extra lengths to get ones like that on their own body. My dad told me it was just like having a bindi on my cheek. So I always accepted that as fact, and when people asked me about it I made up different stories of how I got it each time, and it was a fun game and I never even considered that it could be anything other than beautiful. There’s a real medical name for it, but I’ve always refused to call it anything but my “beauty mark.” My doctor had told me that it was likely to go away by the time I was an early teen, and I had been dreading that day because of how much I liked it, and I liked the story behind it, and the idea that it made me more beautiful in a mysterious way. One day, I was outside at a spring break day camp in probably the third or fourth grade, and this nasty girl who liked to pick on everyone came up to me and started to push me around. She actually physically pushed me into a corner of the building and started yelling at me, calling me names, all of which I could handle, until she started talking about my beauty mark. She was about a fifth-grader, so it makes sense that she couldn’t really come up with the best insults, but she said it was disgusting, made me ugly, it was like an ass on my face, someone should chop it off, etc. I immediately broke down and it just destroyed all of the self-confidence about it I had. I hated it. It was disgusting and I didn’t want it on my face. I told my dad I couldn’t believe he had lied to me about it being beautiful when no one else thought so. I asked my mom if I could get laser surgery to remove it. I felt like a mutant and I hated it and I hated looking at it in the mirror and in pictures and I hated looking at myself and I hated myself. When I got to middle school, it was still there and I hated that fact. I started piling makeup over it and not responding if people asked me about it. Finally a few years later it faded and disappeared, and I was incredibly glad. I wish I wasn’t so naive as to believe it made me any less of a person, or that I wasn’t so weak as to let one person break me down to the point of destroying my self-esteem about one blemish that really was beautiful. If that happened now, I still don’t know what I’d do, but that person might walk away with a couple of bruises.
I miss my beauty mark.
!!!!!!!!!! THIS PROJECT IS OFFICIALLY CLOSED !!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!! WILL BE STARTING A BRAND NEW PROJECT SOON !!!!!!!!!!
- Haley Cue July 9, 2012
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Redefining Body Image // Project Two // Poster Series
I am in need of more photo submissions for a poster series I am working on for the next step of my project!
All bodies, all shapes, all genders, all ages - Anyone and everyone - I want your body!
Want to submit? Follow these steps (and READ CAREFULLY, otherwise I won’t be able to use submission!):
- Either locate already existing photos or snap some new shots of your fabulous body. The photos must be as high quality as possible (high resolution, low grain or blurriness, no mirror shots where you can see the camera and no webcam photos please.)
- Keep in mind when selecting or taking photos that the idea is to accentuate your body shape, so please wear close-fitting clothing, a bathing suit, or something similar.
- On the other hand, if you’re a fashion-forward individual and wish to submit some photos of you in your favorite outfits, that is also welcome. The idea is not only to accentuate your body, but your personality.
- Feel free to submit as many photos as you like and as many poses as you like - There are no limitations. Get fun and creative! It’s all about representing you.
This time, I am asking that all submissions include answering the following questions in order to create your body narratives and better help me portray your unique essence in my work.
I’m looking to take little parts of what you say to create a narrative about who you are, how you feel about your body and why. So keep that in mind.
So.
- What are things people have said to you about your body?
- What do you think about that, or how have you responded?
- What did you think about your body in the past, versus now? Why?
- Think of little things people used to say to you, what they say to you now, how you feel about that.
- Think of the little things you love or dislike about your body, what you think about when you look in the mirror and why.
- Has visual culture impacted your body image? If so, how?
- Tell me a story about one of your body parts, a scar, a patch of stretch marks, a roll of fat, your belly button, absolutely anything.
- Feel free to go off on tangents, get angry, get emotional, get real.
Got questions? Ask.
Otherwise, submit away my dears!
(Side note: If you have already submitted for the first digital installation project, I still have your photos and will definitely put them to use, however it would be helpful if you could resubmit and answer the above questions so I know who you are and what your story is. And of course feel free to submit more photos!)
As always, if you would like to reblog and spread the word that would be lovely. <3