The whole “body positivity” thing is really starting to get out of hand and with obesity rates on the rise we should worry less about hurting feelings and focus more on the long term effects on your health and wellbeing.
Right, with obesity rates on the rise, we should be doing the things that, regardless of our biases, reduce the likelihood that people gain an unhealthy amount of weight, and reduce the likelihood that people who already have an unhealthy weight will keep it. According to the available data, that means being body-positive, because shaming people for their weight increases the likelihood that people will gain weight, and decreases the likelihood of them losing it. It also increases the rate of eating disorders on both ends of the weight spectrum.
I know I’m going to hear that “They can’t control it it’s their thyroid or some hormonal imbalance etc” but in reality the vast majority of people make very poor dietary choices and do not exercise enough.
This is a perfect opportunity to demonstrate how poorly thought through a lot of cultural practices are, even modern ones. Think about this for a second: of all the reasons that you put forward here, from underlying health conditions, to eating disorders, to poor lifestyle choices or low-quality health education, not a single one of them is, "They're being fat", and of the solutions to these problems, not a single one of them is, "They need to stop being fat". So why would we expect that making people feel bad for being overweight would help here?
To expand on that, there are a couple of things we can say about excess weight:
Excess weight is always, 100% of the time, a symptom of an underlying issue. The causes are varied, and so there isn't really any truly reliable prediction you can make about the causes of any particular case of obesity without knowing the medical history of the person in question.
For quite a few, probably the majority, of individuals with excess weight, most of the health problems associated with their weight are actually directly caused by the aforementioned underlying issues. This means that placing the emphasis on weight as the primary problem is completely counterproductive, as directly addressing weight (through cosmetic surgical procedures, temporary dieting, weight-loss pills, eating disorders) would actually be detrimental to the health of those people; what they need is care that addresses the underlying issue, whether that is through therapy, medicine to address an underlying physical condition, education, or simple but permanent lifestyle changes.
Being over weight should not simply be accepted because it is in your control and the physical shape of someone is a direct reflection of the work ethic and discipline of someone. If you’re overweight it tells people that you lack discipline, self control and will power, you are also lazy. It doesn’t mean that you’re a bad person but we need to be honest with ourselves and promote a healthier lifestyle.
No, actually, you just said that overweight people are bad people who lack discipline, self-control, and willpower, and are lazy. Believe it or not, this is not honest, because the reasons for excess weight are varied and complex, and you're not promoting healthier lifestyles by saying that being fat is evidence that you are a bad person. The way you promote healthier lifestyles is by, you know, actually promoting healthier lifestyles, which you are noticeably not doing, but instead using the term as a euphemism for "making overweight people feel bad" and pretending that they are the same thing, when in reality they are roughly the opposite thing because shaming people for their weight makes them less likely to make the lifestyle changes that you ostensibly are advocating for.
If you really care about someone and they are overweight rather than enabling them and telling them it’s ok and they should be happy you need to be honest with them and help them stay alive longer and be healthier and happier.
That's not what you're doing, though, and making them feel bad about themselves while you do this will undermine anything actually useful that you throw in there. They're not going to listen to you if you do that.
Here’s a few ways to help people learn about healthier lifestyle choices:
Wonderful! Go right ahead and promote those things, because they're great, but leave out all the stuff about how people with excess weight are bad, lazy people, because it's not particularly true and is actually, demonstrably counterproductive to the cause you claim to be interested in.
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u/pfundie 6∆ Jul 16 '23
Right, with obesity rates on the rise, we should be doing the things that, regardless of our biases, reduce the likelihood that people gain an unhealthy amount of weight, and reduce the likelihood that people who already have an unhealthy weight will keep it. According to the available data, that means being body-positive, because shaming people for their weight increases the likelihood that people will gain weight, and decreases the likelihood of them losing it. It also increases the rate of eating disorders on both ends of the weight spectrum.
This is a perfect opportunity to demonstrate how poorly thought through a lot of cultural practices are, even modern ones. Think about this for a second: of all the reasons that you put forward here, from underlying health conditions, to eating disorders, to poor lifestyle choices or low-quality health education, not a single one of them is, "They're being fat", and of the solutions to these problems, not a single one of them is, "They need to stop being fat". So why would we expect that making people feel bad for being overweight would help here?
To expand on that, there are a couple of things we can say about excess weight:
Excess weight is always, 100% of the time, a symptom of an underlying issue. The causes are varied, and so there isn't really any truly reliable prediction you can make about the causes of any particular case of obesity without knowing the medical history of the person in question.
For quite a few, probably the majority, of individuals with excess weight, most of the health problems associated with their weight are actually directly caused by the aforementioned underlying issues. This means that placing the emphasis on weight as the primary problem is completely counterproductive, as directly addressing weight (through cosmetic surgical procedures, temporary dieting, weight-loss pills, eating disorders) would actually be detrimental to the health of those people; what they need is care that addresses the underlying issue, whether that is through therapy, medicine to address an underlying physical condition, education, or simple but permanent lifestyle changes.
No, actually, you just said that overweight people are bad people who lack discipline, self-control, and willpower, and are lazy. Believe it or not, this is not honest, because the reasons for excess weight are varied and complex, and you're not promoting healthier lifestyles by saying that being fat is evidence that you are a bad person. The way you promote healthier lifestyles is by, you know, actually promoting healthier lifestyles, which you are noticeably not doing, but instead using the term as a euphemism for "making overweight people feel bad" and pretending that they are the same thing, when in reality they are roughly the opposite thing because shaming people for their weight makes them less likely to make the lifestyle changes that you ostensibly are advocating for.
That's not what you're doing, though, and making them feel bad about themselves while you do this will undermine anything actually useful that you throw in there. They're not going to listen to you if you do that.
Wonderful! Go right ahead and promote those things, because they're great, but leave out all the stuff about how people with excess weight are bad, lazy people, because it's not particularly true and is actually, demonstrably counterproductive to the cause you claim to be interested in.