In case any one arrives here and wonders why we need a Body Acceptance movement in particular or a Fat Acceptance movement in general, let me tell you about the comment I just spammed.
It was from an anonymous commenter, of course. No name, no valid email address, no website. The trolls never do leave names or valid email addresses because they aren’t here (or in any FA blog) to actually talk. They’re just here to try to make us feel like deluded and pathetic people.
This particular troll told me I am going to die (of a heart attack) diabetic, blind, and paraplegic.
But, you know, like the tag line says: Thin people die, too.
We need a Body Acceptance movement and a Fat Acceptance movement because total strangers feel it is their right to inform us, with as much vitriol as possible, that we’re going to die. We need a Body Acceptance movement and a Fat Acceptance movement because a lot of people, when they hear from these trolls online or in real life (because this sort of thing isn’t limited to online anonymity), believe the hate. We need a Body Acceptance movement and a Fat Acceptance movement because hating ourselves is a form of self-injury that doesn’t do anyone any good.
ETA: For people objecting to “The BMI is crap” and insisting it a useful diagnostic tool to determine one’s obesity-related disease risk…. Correlation is not causation. The BMI was made up by insurance companies. It’s an arbitrary and meaningless number that has no relation to one’s actual health. Doctors use it to deny care, insurance companies use it to deny coverage, and countries are beginning to use it to deny adoptions and immigration. Yet, still, it is not an indicator of health. THAT is why the BMI is crap.
22 Comments
Hi folks, I just read about this from NY Times. And even though I am not fat, I just wanted to let you know that I think it is great that you are all doing this. And that thin people could take a leaf from your book and also accept themselves! And their body. There is too much emphasis on the perfect body type that we see in Hollywood and everywhere. I really think that this honesty, and this ability to accept ourselves applies to everyone. In all spheres of their lives.
And I am totally with you: that it is actually the genes and the luck of the draw.
Take care you all.
Thank you, Melissa.
And, you know, body acceptance really IS for everyone. *grin* You’ll find people of all different sizes here, at all different stages of the self-acceptance game. Fat acceptance is not anti-thin, you know?
I just read the article from New York Times. I think this site is great! I’m classified as overweight by the BMI, but I still consider myself pretty healthy.
This body acceptance is very important. My brother is over 400lbs and wants to go to the gym and go out on fridays and weekends, but is constantly afraid of what the public with think of him. I wish others could see his amazing spirit and stop giving him dirty looks just because he wants to enjoy the same activities like simply going to the theater or a restaurant.
Amen, TR.
I’ve been assured by a troll that I’m going to bitterly regret not becoming un-fat by the time I’m old, in desperate need of a hip replacement and hobbling about with a walking stick. Which is really interesting since no-one, but NO one, in my family, has ever needed a hip (or knee) replacement or employed a walking stick in later life. A couple fractured their hips on account of osteoporosis – something I’m most unlikely to get if my maintain my succulent plumpness into my 70s, which I fully intend to do. My great great grandmother was one of the two who broke her hip and even then it didn’t kill her. She died as a result of falling out of bed while confined to it resting said hip. She was 107.
Sing it, sister.
To the anonymous troll:
I’m going to die????!!!!!
Gee, thanks for informing me
A coworker of mine just went through an insurance trial. She was in a bad car wreck two years ago that led to multiple surgeries, fused discs/vertebrae (I’m not a doctor), and chronic pain. The insurance compay’s lawyer (Progress1ve) was trying to assign some of the liability for her chronic pain to her because “she wouldn’t be in so much pain if she didn’t weigh so much.”
This is a woman who is healthy in every way except for this back injury. Despite the back injury, she walks and works out at one of those Curves gyms. Even if she didn’t, the whole fact that an insurance company would try to deny payment for an injury because of weight, well, that tells me that we need a fat acceptance and a body acceptance movement, as well as a revolution of some sort. Now.
Well, trolls are going to die alone and unloved …
Yup, I’m a little mean today.
Ariel, your brother sounds really sweet. I hope he can get the confidence to do the things in life he wants to do, without worrying about stupid judgmentalism.
Oh, Ariel, that’s so sad about your brother — and so common. And it’s easy to tell someone to just ignore it, but much harder to actually do so.
I hope he finds the courage to exercise and go out, regardless of what small-minded people think.
Trolls are just slimy little toads (oh, I really shouldn’t be insulting toads, toads have a useful place in nature), slimy wastes of DNA who live in their parent’s dank, dark basements and spew their crap to try and bring everyone else down to their pathetic levels.
As the saying goes, no one gets out of this life alive
BMI is ridiculous. My 17-year-old daughter is a gymnast. She is thin and EXTREMELY fit. She also weighs way more than she looks like she would, due to all the muscle. Her BMI puts her in the obese range.
the whole fact that an insurance company would try to deny payment for an injury because of weight
Yan, I work in insurance, and I can tell you that this kind of crap happens way more often than ought to be legal. I can’t tell you how many workers comp claims involve back trauma or repetitive motion injuries, with denials (or attempted denials) because the claimant is a fatty. It’s heartbreaking, and I wish it was criminal. Exactly why Fat Rights are so important.
This is a totally unrelated comment- but thank you so much for the linkage to my blog, it tis greatly appreciated (not to mention the fact that I love your blog! Just makes it even more awesome!). Thank you so much agian!
(and now I will make a relevant comment) – I agree with everything you said. Last night I was trying to explain to my dad why I believe in the fat acceptance stuff- he said that I was obsessive about it and that I’m acting like it’s my mission to be fat and strong. He thought I was overracting to this stuff because “there isn’t anything you can do about it”.. I pretty much said that I’m not going to settle for that, and I don’t believe the crap that people spew. Atleast he seems to be more on my side that my mother. All she does is talk crap about her body and how she looks awful. I can’t stand when she does that. It just needs to stop.
Wow i just went on forever, I think I’ll stop now lol. Thank you so much agian!
I’ve never noticed your tagline before and it is hilarious. It is true that all of us will die. And some of us will die in our mother’s basement after a vein pops in our forehead from the horror of realizing teh fattiez are less miserable and alone than they are.
Ariel, I hope your brother can find the confidence to get out and enjoy himself and let others enjoy him. I’m sure a lot of us can think of times when we didn’t do something we really wanted to do because of fear of our own bodies and the judgment of others. And the same is true of my 110 pound friend with disordered eating. He’s lucky to have a loving sister. That’s a good place to start.
well put rotund. i’m glad to see “big media” getting it (sort of) for once. keep up the great work!!
Ariel, it is so true and so sad about your brother. I remember doing something so simple as trying to ride a bike with my children, only to have a big gulp thrown at me by a group of young men who mooed out of the car window as they threw it. It knocked me down. Fat-haters, contrary to their rhetoric, do not want fat people to exercise and get healthy or fit – they want them to disappear and die.
I wish there were an easier answer to all this, but short of a LOT more revolutionary press to counteract the entire fat-hating culture, I don’t know what it will be. I wish your brother all the best. Maybe he could find a group of fat acceptance people to go out and enjoy activities with (cowards will seldom attack an entire group, I think.) At least, I hope you can go with him sometimes. He deserves to enjoy his life.
I feel like I should make sure I’ve wiped my feet and washed my hands before commenting on a blog that was mentioned in the NYT. *clears throat and attempts to sound smaht*
I’ve been going thru this blog and the others mentioned in the article and I’m really loving reading it all. I’ve long struggled with how I feel about my body, even when I was a lithe young thing. Now I’m not so lithe and realize that I do need to tone things up and lose some weight, but I’m trying really hard to accept that I’ll never be 117 lbs again, just like I’ll never be 21 again. The rational side of my brain knows that, but that asshole voice in my head won’t shut up long enough to let the rational side win. I’m slowly getting there, but man, it’s a long, often-infuriating journey.
To LJ and others-
The BMI is horrible. I have weighed what I weigh (a very proud 185lbs on my 5′5″ frame) for years. I have moved from overweight to obese, with no doing of my own! Lovely. Being a former gymnast, I am NEVER going to weigh what I am supposed to by the BMI charts (144lbs or less, give me a break!) I broke a 100 by 12, and I was a size 3 at the time! Doctors repeatedly tell me to lose weight, it will effect my BP and health. All of this before checking my BP (which is nicely below normal).
The best thing to do is exercise, eat healthy, accept your body and realize that healthy is WAY more important that that number on the scale.
….now if only I could take my own advice…
You won’t see any support for the BMI from me, that much is certain.
But I do want to take this opportunity, though I think your comment is well-meaning, Brenna, to remind people that health is not a moral issue. HAES advocates a very individual approach to health and while I am a big fan of HAES, I’m an even bigger fan of body autonomy – if health is not one of your concerns, that is still okay. The “healthy” fatty is not the only acceptable fatty.
And, Brenna, stick around. We might be able to help you out with that since it’s the same advice many of us are trying to follow regardless of weight or body size.
Now……….Thats what I call a great web site with some wonderful posts…………Keep it up!!!
Ok, I am not fat by any connotations of the word but I absolutely agree with people accepting their bodies. I hate the fact that America has made the skinny person the model for what everyone should look like. It truly disgusts me. Not to be mean, but I HATE looking at skinny people, especially women. I feel women should be curvy and soft. And when you’re skinny, you’re neither. HOw can that truly be attractive? Why would God make women with naturally more fat than men if that wasn’t how we were supposed to be? AMERICA IS SICK!
Caitlin, the Fat Acceptance movement, as a specific interest within Body Acceptance, is focused on the acceptability of ALL bodies. There are naturally thin people and there are naturally fat people and they are both just fine. “Real women have curves” and other statements of that kind of damaging and divisive and, especially here where I moderate the comments, that sort of thing doesn’t fly. We respect people of all body types.
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