A Fat-shaming Trend That Wasn’t
Salon staff writer Dan D’Addario published a piece on Tuesday that asks, “Is the ‘fat acceptance’ movement losing?” It’s a nicely written work that gives space to fat acceptance supporters to speak about what they see as an incremental crawl toward ditching American culture’s tendency to equate fatness with badness. But overall the story reads as a bunch of random examples mashed together—the old “three makes a trend” journalism adage—in an attempt to make the case that, despite what those supporters say, our society is backsliding in its efforts to stop hating on overweight Americans. Thankfully, that attempt doesn’t succeed.
Fat acceptance, or “health at any size,” is the view that weight and health are not necessarily correlated; while it’s possible for someone to be obese as a result of a sedentary and junkfood-filled lifestyle, it’s just as possible for someone to be lazy, have poor eating habits, and remain thin. (I owe Kate Harding a debt of gratitude for introducing me to the idea of fat acceptance when I became a regular reader of Shapely Prose, the stellar group blog she kept from 2007 to 2010.)
D’Addario’s thesis is, “It would seem that it’s never been safer to be cruel to fat folks.” The word “seem” should trigger all sorts of warning bells in a reader’s head, since it basically means, “I’m jumping to conclusions and hoping I land someplace solid.” Here is some of the evidence he offers that fat prejudice is…expanding:
•Tweeters made fun of a photo accompanying a New York Times story about Paula Deen supporters flooding her Savannah restaurant after the Food Network fired her for using appalling, racist language. (Coarse commentary is a Twittersphere staple, and it’s valid to point out that Deen, who is diabetic, peddles unhealthy food whose consumption carries health risks.)
•New York tabloids “included almost gleeful coverage” of what James Gandolfini ate shortly before his fatal heart attack (the tabs were inappropriate?! I’d be shocked if they weren’t).
•There’s a new novel out with an obese protagonist. (New idea? Not really.)
•Chris Christie had gastric bypass surgery. (His former girth didn’t impede his success in politics, and the fact his weight increased his health risks doesn’t mean that everyone’s does—his operation was to make him healthier, not to avoid fat shaming.)
I could posit just as many random, pop-culture examples showing that fat acceptance is ascendant, or at least enduring—sixty-nine percent of adults in this country are overweight; Melissa McCarthy is—finally!—a bona fide movie star (this long-time Gilmore Girls fan went to a movie a few months back and she was in at least two of the previews); The lack of plus-sized fashion gets coverage; Adele. And so on.
I can offer counterexamples because America’s “new” fat-hating “trend” is really just a confluence of pre-existing stuff finally bubbling into more mainstream awareness. Paula Deen apparently was using racist slurs long before someone called her on it. Haters have made ignorant statements about weight in private; now they have a news hook, Twitter accounts, and, if they remain anonymous, no accountability. And fat acceptance activists have been pushing for incremental improvements. Noticing something doesn’t make it new.
Now, stepping away from a fabricated zeitgest, lets all agree that: Even if someone has unhealthy living habits, she may outlive the vegan pilates instructor beside her on the subway, because life is random and crazy and doesn’t have an overriding fairness principle. This may be an unpleasant concept, but it isn’t a complicated one. And we never know what that subway neighbor is dealing with,so we might as well go ahead and treat her with respect regardless of her weight. After all, the important word in the phrase “fat people” is the second one.
