“First, no one owes anyone a specific appearance or an appearance to “please” anyone else. No one owes anyone else an explanation for their existence or body size.”
Yes, I agree.
“Second, there’s no “obesity epidemic” and to say that there is only discredits you. To say so is to imply that fatness in and of itself is an infectious disease. Stop it!”
This is a term commonly used to describe the trend in body size by the medical community, which I am criticising. Of course it is alarmist and inaccurate. Perhaps the quote marks didn’t convey the point adequately.
“Using terms like “overweight” (over what weight exactly?!) and “obesity” only furthers the othering of fat people into that category of non-humanness it appears you’re trying to combat with this article. Very confusing.”
Again, these are the terms commonly used when making a judgement about someone’s weight. In terms of over what weight, it’s usually classified as a BMI > 25 (which is a whole other story, oh boy).
I do take on board your comments, and I’m going to make some minor linguistic changes to clarify. I acknowledge that language is important, so I’ll try my best to retain my criticism of the terms but with more emphasis on where these terms come from. But also note that this article is for a general readership that is familiar with the terms you’ve highlighted; hopefully it will reach those who would make some of the hurtful/thoughtless comments that accompanied the original tweet.
“Why not explore the real lives and obstacles fat people live and face everyday? Why not talk about what all of this fat hate does to people? Children? Teens? Relationships?”
Because that’s not what this article is about.
“The fact that you use “pretty dress” as something not at all associated with a fat person is absurd!”
What? How did you come to that conclusion? I’m talking about buying a pretty dress as a means to fulfilling an internal desire to achieve the image that virtually no-one can realistically attain.
“I want to see more fat bodied life related topics addressed, but this was a disappointment.”
No problem. Have you thought about writing one that does cover what you say you want to see on this platform?
