Hey all,
So, I just read an article in Nature that I was somewhat pleasantly surprised to see. Basically, it's the first time I've seen a major scientific publication acknowledge that a growing number of studies are challenging the medical consensus on the general badness of being fat. There are plenty of problems with the article and the arguments it makes - they don't want anyone thinking it's ok to be too fat, and they warn against the risks of glorifying obesity (not their words) - but it seems like a baby step in the right direction.
The specifics of this article aside, it made me think more generally about how, exactly, we make the world a place less hostile to fat people. Over the years, what I've taken away from Dims and other SA-related outlets online is a model of activism that focuses on changing attitudes and representations: by calling people out on their casual, anti-fat bigotry, by pushing for and lauding more representations of fat people in the media, and so on. But attitudes are inevitably bound up and produced by wider institutional arrangements. I think that the article's mentioning that the "consensus" on obesity is rooted in insurance company studies from the 1960s is illustrative there. Medicine and business and families and all sorts of institutions produce and reproduce a world hostile to fat people and from which other people benefit, often materially. It strikes me that the solution to that cannot be just yelling louder and louder about anti-fat oppression - or not only that, at least. It would take an active, organized effort that puts pressure on and counters the normal operation of these institutions.
If those sorts of efforts and organizing are going on right now, I'm unaware of them. I really wonder what y'all think are good ideas for pursuing this fight. What do NAAFA and other existing organizations do to advance this cause? (If there are already threads about that, feel free to point me to them.) Is it better to organize this as an independent fight for and by fat people and their allies, or does it make more sense to group it under the larger banner of broad movements like feminism? (The problem with which, of course, is that it would leave out the ways that fat men are oppressed, but you see what I mean.) I realize that Dims brings together people of pretty broad political backgrounds and that some might take issue even with the way I've framed the question, but I wanna know what y'all think! All opinions are welcome!
So, I just read an article in Nature that I was somewhat pleasantly surprised to see. Basically, it's the first time I've seen a major scientific publication acknowledge that a growing number of studies are challenging the medical consensus on the general badness of being fat. There are plenty of problems with the article and the arguments it makes - they don't want anyone thinking it's ok to be too fat, and they warn against the risks of glorifying obesity (not their words) - but it seems like a baby step in the right direction.
The specifics of this article aside, it made me think more generally about how, exactly, we make the world a place less hostile to fat people. Over the years, what I've taken away from Dims and other SA-related outlets online is a model of activism that focuses on changing attitudes and representations: by calling people out on their casual, anti-fat bigotry, by pushing for and lauding more representations of fat people in the media, and so on. But attitudes are inevitably bound up and produced by wider institutional arrangements. I think that the article's mentioning that the "consensus" on obesity is rooted in insurance company studies from the 1960s is illustrative there. Medicine and business and families and all sorts of institutions produce and reproduce a world hostile to fat people and from which other people benefit, often materially. It strikes me that the solution to that cannot be just yelling louder and louder about anti-fat oppression - or not only that, at least. It would take an active, organized effort that puts pressure on and counters the normal operation of these institutions.
If those sorts of efforts and organizing are going on right now, I'm unaware of them. I really wonder what y'all think are good ideas for pursuing this fight. What do NAAFA and other existing organizations do to advance this cause? (If there are already threads about that, feel free to point me to them.) Is it better to organize this as an independent fight for and by fat people and their allies, or does it make more sense to group it under the larger banner of broad movements like feminism? (The problem with which, of course, is that it would leave out the ways that fat men are oppressed, but you see what I mean.) I realize that Dims brings together people of pretty broad political backgrounds and that some might take issue even with the way I've framed the question, but I wanna know what y'all think! All opinions are welcome!
