The more the bear identity is mainstreamed, the more it gets sanitised. The more you get people insisting it doesn't mean what it means, that it's just for "buff and mayyybe a little chubby" "dad bod" "strongman build" whatever euphemism they can to deny fat men a place in their own community.

Fat hairy gay men built this place for themselves and now you're barging in and pretending they never belonged there.

do other fat people worry they look weird in pretty clothes outside so they wear more toned outfits and less colorful ones too or is it just me

Thing is, I'm not just anti-fatphobia as in "I don't want people to be mean to fat people"

I am pro fat liberation as in "I want to dismantle the systemic biases against fat people and the diet culture and medical industrial complex that feeds into the very real systemic oppression that fat people face"

I don't see fatphobia as a mere interpersonal issue where if you are being nice to fat people or saying things in a polite way to them you're automatically free of fatphobia. I see it as essential to challenge every bit of diet culture myth that we might encounter and break the unscientific ideas of "health" as defines by weight, fat, calories, bmi, and other nonsense. I see it as essential to view fatphobia as the political issue it is and take it seriously as such, and to unlearn and help others unlearn oppressive baseless ideas we have assumed to be true and natural.

If you’re able to ask the question “what if I have body dysmorphia?” in response to my claim that no one needs to or should call themselves fat in pejorative way when they are not in fact fat, then you’re already acknowledging that you don’t belong to the class of people who are fat and who experience all the attendant abuses and discrimination. You know, at least in this moment, that what you have is a mental disorder, not a fat body. So I’m gonna go out on a limb and suggest that you practice saying “my body dysmorphia is really bad right now” instead of “I’m so fat.” You’ve already proven you can do it—the question is whether you care enough about other people to stop saying that their bodies are your living nightmare

Fat culture is being weirded out every time you go shopping cause the sections are "women, men, plus size"

fat culture is

Fatness really is (often) treated like a form of gender failure. Fat women are viewed as too chunky, too heavy, stereotyped as hairy, not cute or dainty enough to be feminine. Fat men are viewed as soft and limp, as having "man boobs", not being visibly muscular enough to be masculine. And the stereotypical image of androgyny is also a lanky thin person with sharp cheekbones. Fat people are lowkey told we don't fit into any gender expression.

Fat culture is being weirded out every time you go shopping cause the sections are "women, men, plus size"

fat culture is

Fatphobia cw :) Saw a video of a fat girl dancing and smiling and looking so cool and made the mistake of reading the comments and I am so fucking angry it has to go somewhere so!!

Yall just CANNOT let someone that size be happy for one goddamn minute without opening your mouths can you. You think fat people don't hear all that shit every day? They. Know. You have no goddamn right to run your mouth about other people's health and the entitlement yall feel to judge and comment like your cruelty is original is STAGGERING. cringefail. Pathetic. Fucking PATHETIC. Get fucking real and learn basic respect. Take your "health advice" and, genuinely, print it out on some paper in times New Roman and shove it up your ass ❤

This has never been about "caring" about people. If you cared you'd know that fat people can have anorexia. You'd know that thin people can be unfit. You'd THINK before participating in a socially-encouraged game of Let's Be Cruel and Condescending to a group of people and act like it's for their own good.

No. Fatphobia is lazy. It's trendy. You've turned your fucking brain off. I have genuine sympathy for people who have been hurtful in the past and do their bit to learn better. The rest of you have work to do. I have zero respect for fatphobia and the people who drag ass participating in it because it boosts their ego and they have the audacity to be like wha?? 🥺 but it's just common sense, but telling someone things about their own body is such normal behavior, how else will they know that being healthy is a concept that exists 🤔 🥺 we HAVE to keep making them So Aware all the time about how much we are looking at their bodies and care about their bodies and need to tell them how to live their lives and what we think of them and their slovenly--i mean!! Unfortunafe habits!! Poor babies!! 😓 we just can't accept this as a society 😤

How about. Shut the fuck up.

The takeaway: fat joy is beautiful and fun and epic and fat people are cool and deserve good things always. Bye!!

People of any body type, and especially fat people, are allowed to love food and openly talk about how great it is, there is nothing wrong with that and you have no right to shame them for finding joy in food

Fat bodies are mentioned most often in terms of the negative space left behind by the pounds lost, the dress sizes dropped, the inches shrunk—fat bodies are only valued for their absence.

There's a phrase you may have heard, that 'inside every fat person, there's a thin person waiting to get out'. It makes fat bodies sound like a prison, like the grotesque carapace of Kafka's beetle, with the real self like a trapped and frightened Gregor Samsa inside. Society is deeply permeated with the idea that my fat body isn't my 'real' body, and that I need to dig and excavate and starve out my true self, rescuing my inner thin princess from the imprisoning tower of my body.

This idea taught me not to feel fully connected to my body—after all, so much of my body is dead weight, it's not really me, my fatness isn't who I am, so why bother fully inhabiting it?

For years I didn't embrace my body. I was like someone squatting in a few rooms of a mansion, pretending that I was living in a condo and ignoring the three wings, twenty-four bedrooms, ballroom, bowling alley, and the entire library from Disney's Beauty and the Beast that make up my body.

—‘Where Are the Fat Girls? The Absence of Plus-Size Characters in Fantasy Literature’ by Charis M. Ellison [video]

Shoutout to people who got comments and judgements about being unacceptably fat when they were young, grew up considerably fatter and now feel like they're unacceptable times ten

I gave my soapbox speech about how weight loss is mostly bullshit to two different patients in a row yesterday and so help me I’m pretty sure one of these days someone is going to say “but SURELY you agree I’d be HEALTHIER if I lost weight!” bc you can see the disbelief in their eyes. And like. Sure, maybe! You might see some improvement in biomarkers like LDL and A1c, and your knees would probably feel better. But you would be amazed at how much more good you can do for yourself by focusing on things you can actually meaningfully change without resorting to making yourself miserable. Eat more fresh fruits and vegetables—it’s hard bc they’re more difficult to prepare and more expensive per calorie and go bad faster than other foods, but they’re what we evolved eating the most of so they’re what our bodies need the most of. And walk around more; sure, cardio is great for you, but if it sucks so bad you don’t do it, it isn’t doing shit for you. And we evolved to walk very very long distances, a little bit at a time, so our bodies respond actually very well to adding walks into our schedules, which is vastly easier than adding workouts that are frankly designed to be punishing when the definition of punishing is “makes you less likely to do it again in the future.”

You get one life. It is shorter than you can begin to imagine. Don’t waste it hating yourself because somebody is going to make money off that self-hatred. You deserve better than to be a cash cow for billionaires who pay aestheticians and dermatologists to make them (or at least their trophy wives) look thin and beautiful no matter what they actually do.

My absolute hottest take is that, from a culturally relative perspective, no food is bad. None of it. It's an expression of culture, art, history, ecology, material conditions, subjective taste. It's all inedible pap to somebody and the taste of childhood for someone else. Americans be eating cheesed burger. Pea wet is as good as gravy in Wigan. The French eat snails and the Inuit eat seal, the Germans eat sauerkraut and the Russians drink kvass, the Inca ate cavy and the Romans ate flamingo. People around the world have been eagerly awaiting their serving of simple bread or thin porridge or fermented milk product or pickled whatever-the-fuck since we learned to cook food over fire. We all love the slop we grew up eating. Food is a reflection of millennia of culture and loving human artistic expression. Attempting to extrapolate largely harmless online food banter into actual serious comparative rankings or half-baked critical analyses of cultures based on how much you subjectively don't like what they eat is a miserable way to live. Live a little. Peace and love on the only planet with food.

[Image ID: Text that reads “’Thin privilege’ is constantly being accused of having an ED because you’re naturally thin even though you are well within a healthy BMI and eat healthy.”]

This fatphobe has apparently blocked this blog, so I can’t reblog their post. So instead, I will write my response to their post here:

Thin privilege is having an eating disorder be cared about and not encouraged by your family, friends, doctors, and society as a whole. Thin privilege is actually being able to be considered anorexic and not labeled with “atypical anorexia” just because you’re not thin.

Thin privilege is living in a world that caters everything to your body, from clothing to exercise equipment to chairs all designed to fit you and no one bigger. Thin privilege is not having to pay extra for the same goods and services. Thin privilege is actually being seen as beautiful by general society and not being told your body is only capable of being loved as a fetish.

Thin privilege is not being constantly subjected to medical neglect. Thin privilege is a doctor actually doing tests on you to find a tumor instead of telling you to lose weight for years until someone finally listens and finds the tumor when you only have two days left to live.

Thin privilege is being represented in every single piece of media. Thin privilege is not having your body relegated to only villains, ugly characters, and characters who symbolize evil things.

Thin privilege is being able to go to the grocery store and put a melon in your cart without someone else taking it out with a “You don’t need all that sugar, I’m doing you a favor.” Thin privilege is being able to eat in public without scrutiny.

Thin privilege is not having your children taken away from you and put into the foster care system purely for their weight. Thin privilege is not being kept from adopting children because the adoption agency thinks your weight is a sign of bad parenting.

Thin privilege is automatically being viewed as healthy and thus not facing the social repercussions of the opposite. Thin privilege is having your problems taken seriously. Thin privilege is being able to go to your elementary school’s swimming lessons in 4th grade as an 8 year old instead of willingly choosing to do the written assignment to keep others from seeing your ostracized body. Thin privilege is being 5 years old and not comparing your body to your smaller friend who has the same name as you and you pretend to be twins with but know that you will never be the same as her.

Thin privilege is not being recommended to starve by every person on this planet. Thin privilege is being able to find clothes in any store and not cry in a dressing room. Thin privilege is being allowed to go trick or treating. Thin privilege is even being able to find a costume in your size to go in the first place. Thin privilege is being allowed to eat as much as you want on Thanksgiving.

Thin privilege is not being put on diets as early as 8 years old. Thin privilege is not being categorized as a disease. Thin privilege is not having the government wage a war on your body. Thin privilege is not having the first lady consider your body an epidemic and make ridding the country of you her goal during her husband’s presidency.

Thin privilege is not having everyone refer to your body with a literal slur. Thin privilege is not having the most basic word for your body type treated as a taboo insult to the point that being called that word is most people’s greatest fear.

Thin privilege is being chosen over fat people for everything. Thin privilege is not facing a wage gap for your body type. Thin privilege is not facing workplace harassment and job discrimination. Thin privilege is not being harassed in a Discord server for suggesting the developers of a supposedly diverse video game make more than one character out of thirty have your body type.

Thin privilege is everyone learning how to draw your body from the get-go and not forcing themselves to learn how to draw you years later after they’ve already learned how to draw everything else. Thin privilege is being represented in more than one of the three hundred works on someone’s art blog.

Thin privilege is being allowed to participate in society and culture. Thin privilege is not having to learn how to sew in order to have any clothes to wear. Thin privilege is not having people smaller than you take clothing in your size from a thrift store and make it into a full outfit, severely depleting the miniscule amount of clothing that poor people with your body type have available to them.

Thin privilege is being able to be successful without everyone and their mother constantly commenting on how unhealthy they think you are. Thin privilege is not having your mother put a sign that reads “Nothing tastes better than how skinny feels” on the refrigerator that you’re forced to see whenever you want to nourish your body.

Thin privilege is not having your rape dismissed by not just society but even the actual judge of your case because “You should be grateful someone wanted to have sex with a body like yours for once.” Thin privilege is getting to be the prom queen. Thin privilege is not being controversial when Disney makes a two minute animation of someone with your body type in a neutral way.

Thin privilege is actually being able to see people who look like you while you grow up who are not ridiculed or cast to the side. Thin privilege is having every aesthetic blog on Tumblr feature only your body type. Thin privilege is not having to scavenge for representation and rely on a handful of blogs to find pictures of people with your body. Thin privilege is not having to use a euphemism for your body type when searching for pictures of people like you online because not doing so will only give you bigoted and fetishistic search results.

Thin privilege is being able to have a blog that isn’t constantly followed by thinspo people so they can use you as inspiration to throw up and starve, so they can find other people like you to abuse, so they can send you hate, so they can steal your selfies to post and laugh at with their friends. Thin privilege is not being screenshot and put on the Reddit thread r/fatlogic. Thin privilege is not having documentaries made about children who look like you and how them existing is a problem. Thin privilege is people not then using those documentaries as starvation porn when they want something to watch instead of eat dinner.

Thin privilege is being able to fly on a plane. Thin privilege is being able to go on any amusement park ride and know that it was made to fit you. Thin privilege is not having to use an app to figure out if a place is accessible to you. Thin privilege is not enduring barrages of hate on YouTube for simply posting a video of you trying on clothes. Thin privilege is people making videos about your struggles and not having enormous amounts of downvotes on those videos because they “promote ob*sity.”

Thin privilege is being able to post a picture of yourself without being hassled for it by strangers, friends, and even family. Thin privilege is being able to see your parents who have your same body type not hate themselves and constantly try to make themselves smaller throughout your childhood and the rest of your life. Thin privilege is not having invasive, deadly surgeries pressured on you and oftentimes even forced on you to be able to receive actual life-saving healthcare.

Thin privilege is not having the worth of your life debated in a pandemic. Thin privilege is not having the worth of giving you an organ transplant debated. Thin privilege is not having to change your weight in order to transition because things like top surgery are not gatekept from you and your body type is seen as inherently performative of whatever gender you transition to.

Thin privilege is not being forced to top and be dominant. Thin privilege is not having your asexuality, aromanticism, and any other queer identity dismissed because “You’re only that identity because men/no one want to be with you.” Thin privilege is not being misgendered and degendered because people with your body type are seen as “real women” and are not forced into masculinity. Thin privilege is not being gatekept from even androgyny and thus not leaving you with a body that is more of a thing than a person.

Thin privilege is not fearing PE in school. Thin privilege is not being turned away from a gymnastics club because they don’t believe people with your body type are capable of doing sports. Thin privilege is having your disabilities taken seriously and being able to use a mobility aid without being ridiculed even more than other disabled people are.

And thin privilege is so much more.

-Mod Worthy

So I watched Jacob Sharpe's new video "the strangest workouts on tik tok" (and this post is not about to be a dig at him; I like him and I generally appreciate his attitude in the video). There are clips shown of people working out in groups and the workouts are unorthodox activities like drumming, trampoline jumping, swinging in the air and so on, and the videos are captioned something like "white women will do anything to avoid a regular workout". First of all, I resent shaming people's exercise preferences regardless of who they are. It's inevitably harmful towards people who struggle with EDs and the like, and also - who fucking cares. I congratulate anyone who's found a form of exercise that's genuinely fun and enjoyable. The idea that working out should be super hard and painful and boring and some kind of heavy duty is pointless. Why not make stuff fun if it's an option? Why have your day suck more than it needs to? This is also Jacob's conclusion to the video. But also, I keep seeing "White women" used as a cop-out to shame people for the wildest things. Yes, the clips in the video show primarily white women, but is that really all there is to know? You know who might have trouble going to a regular gym and doing "regular" workouts? Disabled people. Fat people. Injured and chronically ill people. Neurodivergent and mentally ill people. Elderly people. Gender-nonconforming people. Because the exercises and equipment doesn't accommodate all bodies. Because of harassment, staring, rudeness, non-consensual filming. Because it feels unsafe or IS unsafe. And guess what, sometimes thin able-bodied neurotypical cis white women also feel unsafe at gyms. That's valid too. Like, by all means criticise white women when it's prudent. We frequently have it coming. But let's not use "white women" as an easy path to ignoring other oppressive structures in the world. Are you giving valid criticism? Are you doing meaningful satire? Poking harmless fun? Or are you actually shitting on people for no good reason, but you think it's okay because it's "white women"?