I’m going to post a couple links to sources for the next couple days to hopefully start a conversation in this space! These will fall in the area of Fat Studies and there’s some norms you should be aware of:
- “fat” is taken as a neutral descriptor, think of it as reclaiming the word.
- “obese” arbitrarily medicalises fatness and Others fat people
I’m a cis man and I have (had) body image issues (in the past)
https://humanparts.medium.com/my-journey-toward-radical-body-positivity-3412796df8ff
I’m queer and fat
https://www.dropbox.com/s/yeefpijtl4s7orv/Flaunting Fat – Sex with the Lights On.pdf?dl=0
I’m queer and not fat
https://www.bitchmedia.org/post/fat-liberation-is-totally-queer
The others don’t apply to me and/or I only have the energy/time to read one source
https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/everything-you-know-about-obesity-is-wrong/
:sankara-salute:
👉 Part 2 is up
👉 Part 3 is up
This quote from the first piece shows the harm that diets cause:
Weight cycling has been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular problems and higher mortality from all causes. Indeed some research indicates that weight cycling can account for all of the excess mortality risks for certain diseases associated with being in a larger body. One large-scale, long-term study followed more than 3,100 people over thirty-two years; it found weight cycling correlated with an increased risk of death from all causes and an increased risk of developing coronary heart disease, even after controlling for BMI and other potentially confounding factors such as preexisting illness and smoking. Not only that, but the relative risks attributable to weight cycling were comparable to the risks that typically get blamed on being in a larger body — suggesting that if all studies were to control for weight cycling, any excess risk from so-called ‘overweight’ or ‘obesity’ might disappear… Until all research can control for weight cycling and weight stigma, we can’t say that being at the higher end of the BMI spectrum causes any health conditions — even if higher weights are associated with these health conditions.
It’s more “(in the case of fat people) diets are harmful or impossible to maintain so it’s better to focus on your health rather than the number on the scale”.
