kropotkin_fan
Well-Known Member
From what I can gather, many in the size acceptance movement agree that we have not always disdained fat the way we do today. Rather, for most of our history fat represented wealth and prosperity, and we considered an abundance of fat a source of beauty. Then at some point our attitudes toward fat experienced a sea change, a transvaluation from wealth and beauty to disease and ugliness. I haven't seen any particular dates given for this shift, but most accounts I've heard seem to imply the early twentieth century or so. Assuming this genealogy of sizism holds water, then it raises some important questions.
First of all, what drove this transvaluation of fat from wealth and beauty to something ugly? One could attribute it to advances in medical knowledge showing the harmful effects of fat. But you believe most critiques of sizism, our belief that fat causes bad health didn't emerge until after it had fallen from grace. Indeed, it emerged as a consequence of the cultural denigration of fat, which made the thesis that fat causes bad health something scientists would take seriously.
Second, when did this shift in attitudes occur, and how long did it take? When it happened would probably give us a lot of clues about why it happened, since it likely reflected some change going on elsewhere in the world. And in any case I do wonder how long it took to reach completion, since it would seem kind of funny to me if people went to sleep loving fat only to wake up condemning it. Such a profound shift must surely taken a fair amount of time.
First of all, what drove this transvaluation of fat from wealth and beauty to something ugly? One could attribute it to advances in medical knowledge showing the harmful effects of fat. But you believe most critiques of sizism, our belief that fat causes bad health didn't emerge until after it had fallen from grace. Indeed, it emerged as a consequence of the cultural denigration of fat, which made the thesis that fat causes bad health something scientists would take seriously.
Second, when did this shift in attitudes occur, and how long did it take? When it happened would probably give us a lot of clues about why it happened, since it likely reflected some change going on elsewhere in the world. And in any case I do wonder how long it took to reach completion, since it would seem kind of funny to me if people went to sleep loving fat only to wake up condemning it. Such a profound shift must surely taken a fair amount of time.
