Being healthy isn’t a one size fits all.
Is sizeism the new sexism? With bodies being shamed online for being too skinny, too fat and too strong, it seems like women cannot win against the media’s rudimentary definition of health and body size. But what if I were to tell you that there are more important indicators of health than just one’s weight. Is it possible to be healthy at any shape or size?
The sizeist perception that you are only healthy if you have a cookie-cutter body type is simplistic and haphazardly perpetuated by the media. Body shaming in advertisements, news media, magazines, movies and TV shows contribute to our narrow perceptions that health is only attained if you fit within the ‘standard’ ideal of beauty.
Body shaming occurs across the media, condemning the health of skinny and large people based on their outer appearance without considering the less visible indicators of health.
Katariina Kyrölä’s book highlights the derogative representation of overweight women in the media where ‘fat’ characters in films and TV shows are often the centre of criticism and stereotyped as lazy, gluttonous and unlucky in love. Think of Rebel Wilson’s ‘Fat Amy’ character in Pitch Perfect, for example, who was the butt of many fat jokes for comic relief.
News media perpetuates this problem with numerous, dehumanising portrayals of the ‘headless fatty’ in images that accompany news stories. A 2011 study found that 72% of images displaying overweight individuals in news stories were depicted in a negative and stigmatising light. Then, of course, there is the onslaught of celebrity fat shaming on social media, including those seen from Lady Gaga’s 2017 Super Bowl performance.
Body shaming in the media also occurs at the other end of the spectrum where celebrities are thin shamed for being too skinny. Stars have been accused of being anorexic, criticised for their body type and ridiculed for their lack of curves in social media comments and tabloid headlines. Such celebrities have hit back, highlighting how assumptions about one’s health cannot solely be surmised from an image.
Indeed, these celebrities are right. There are many more important indicators of health that dig deeper than one’s surface appearance that measure cholesterol and blood sugar levels, cardiovascular fitness, nutritional status and mental health. It is ignorant to assume that health is merely associated with weight status and dismiss the multitude of other factors that the World Health Organisation declares contributes to size: stress, diet, environment, hormones, and socio-economic status, to name a few.
These other factors indicate how body diversity needs to become a cultural norm in the media. Acceptance of body diversity can help to decrease body shaming and expand our perceptions of health beyond the narrow bandwidth of the ‘standard’ beauty ideal. The time has come to shift our discourse away from weight and hate towards the language of Health At Every Size (HAES).
HAES is an alternate approach to wellbeing that believes health can be achieved at any size when one adopts a healthy lifestyle and stops focusing on weight loss. By engaging in enjoyable physical activity, sustainable nutrition and other healthy behaviours, the science behind HAES says your health is more likely to improve regardless of your size. It refutes the notion of fad diets and believes that everyone has a different healthy body weight range that is tailored to their individual metabolism and genetics. The HAES movement breaks down body shaming by challenging the media’s narrow perception of body size and health. Instead, it promotes the idea of health and body diversity.
I know this is a bit controversial, but yes, you can be healthy if you are fit and ‘fat’ if you are eating nutritiously, exercising and looking after your body. There is a theory known as set point theory that proposes everybody has a natural, biologically predetermined weight range in which your body functions at its best. Sometimes this happy weight range falls outside of the standardised beauty ideals pushed by mainstream media. But that’s okay! It is better to be fit, ‘fat’ and healthy than be a sedentary, fad dieter who happens to fall within the ideal size perpetuated by the media.
Of course, it is important to note that higher body weight, excess fat and unhealthy behaviours are risk factors for many chronic diseases such as Type II Diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Professor Michael Cowley, the head of department for Physiology at Monash University, says that being fit and within a healthy weight range is the gold standard. However, it is nice to know that size does not make you exempt from the health benefits of adopting an active and nourishing lifestyle.
Perhaps this paradigm shift from a weight focus to a health focus can improve body image culture and reduce body shaming in the media. Body diversity needs to be normalised and respectfully represented by the media for whichever end of the spectrum that body sizes fall. Maybe then, bodies will be celebrated for their health, which come in many shapes and sizes.
