Okay, now I'm running into actual philosophical disagreement with you, because (as Ada can tell you) I'm actually a fairly big proponent of acceptance of one's own limitations as the route to happiness and inner peace and all that, but there's a critical difference between accepting your limitations and accepting your flaws. And being overweight is a flaw. It is objectively a bad thing. It is not the way our bodies are meant to work: we know this because our bodies work objectively better when they are not fat. "Being fat is bad" is not a matter of opinion.
Now, I completely accept that many people today become overweight without realizing it, because our culture and lifestyle frankly encourages it. That's a good reason for saying that nobody should feel bad about having become overweight. However, once you're there, it is actively dangerous to your health and lifespan to "accept" your new status as quo. If someone unexpectedly drove a nail through your hand, you wouldn't feel bad about *having* the nail in you, but it would be insane to suggest that you "accept" having it there.
Yes, there is a social stigma about being anything greater than a size 0, but the tremendous danger of the "Fat Acceptance" idea is that it attributes all of the negative aspects of being overweight to that stigma. It makes perfect sense to "come to terms" with society's negative view of you in general, but it makes no sense at all to "come to terms" with a curable medical condition.
I could deal better with the Fat Acceptance community if their attitude was, "You know what? We'd rather live less time and less healthily in exchange for not worrying about what we eat and how much we exercise." That would at least make conceivable sense. Instead, though, this movement is actively arguing that there is no problem with being fat, and that is toxic as hell.
I guess what I'm saying is, you know what, you should feel ashamed of being overweight if it is within your power to change that. I just think you should feel ashamed of your own lack of willpower, not of the mockery of others.
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-10 05:59 pm (UTC)Now, I completely accept that many people today become overweight without realizing it, because our culture and lifestyle frankly encourages it. That's a good reason for saying that nobody should feel bad about having become overweight. However, once you're there, it is actively dangerous to your health and lifespan to "accept" your new status as quo. If someone unexpectedly drove a nail through your hand, you wouldn't feel bad about *having* the nail in you, but it would be insane to suggest that you "accept" having it there.
Yes, there is a social stigma about being anything greater than a size 0, but the tremendous danger of the "Fat Acceptance" idea is that it attributes all of the negative aspects of being overweight to that stigma. It makes perfect sense to "come to terms" with society's negative view of you in general, but it makes no sense at all to "come to terms" with a curable medical condition.
I could deal better with the Fat Acceptance community if their attitude was, "You know what? We'd rather live less time and less healthily in exchange for not worrying about what we eat and how much we exercise." That would at least make conceivable sense. Instead, though, this movement is actively arguing that there is no problem with being fat, and that is toxic as hell.
I guess what I'm saying is, you know what, you should feel ashamed of being overweight if it is within your power to change that. I just think you should feel ashamed of your own lack of willpower, not of the mockery of others.