The internalization of fat-hatred

3rd August 2007

The internalization of fat-hatred

posted in Body Image, Fat Bias, Health/Nutrition, Personal, Vegetarianism |

A few weeks ago, I wrote about an idiot editorial by fat-hater Jamie O’Neill. Despite the fact that I referred to O’Neill as an “imbecile” and called his piece an act of “sheer ignorance” and I might have even called him on the jackass he is (maybe I only thought that), the post seems to have attracted at least two people who left comments that suggest to me they think I want to have this man’s baby.

In the second comment left only the other day, commenter Sharon Johnson commends O’Neill for “simply stating the truth” about America’s “obesity problem.” She offers her own story of gaining weight (she weighed 208 pounds) and of her efforts to reach 125 pounds (she now weighs 188 pounds).

It’s the same old drivel echoed by those who’ve internalized society’s hatred of fat people and now project it on both themselves and others. But what caught my particular interest was this line Sharon wrote:

“Jamie (if I may refer to you by your first name) your article was honest, interesting and hopefully changed a few people’s mind about eating fried greasy and fattening foods.”

It’s the tired old assumption that fat people are fat because A. they eat too much and B. they eat horribly unhealthy foods. Both are vastly presumptuous and both have been proven to be erroneous.

Both the husband and I are vegetarian and I’m nearly vegan. Nearly vegan, I say, because while I refrain from most dairy products, I do make exceptions for the no-calorie spray butter made with whey and low-carb yogurt. We don’t eat fried foods, eat sugar-filled products sparingly and for the past few months, we’ve even cut down our consumption of the one junk food item we do eat: Lays’ Light Doritos.

Because I am vegetarian, I probably get more than the recommended five servings of vegetables a day. And because I have blood-sugar problems, I tend to eat foods that are low in carbohydrates, which effectively rules out anything fried, greasy or starchy.

So, this might just explain why my body went into near-shock after our first dinner on our honeymoon.

Both the boy and I were famished, after driving for hours and hit up the first pizza parlor we saw. We ordered an appetizer of deep-fried portobella mushrooms, shared an order of fries and split a small pizza. It was nice - we both love pizza but don’t eat it all too often simply because well, we try to eat healthy most of the time.

Almost immediately after, I felt sick - the kind of nausea that I imagine one might get after eating a tub of lard with a spoon. For the rest of the night, I was chewing Tums and trying to stave off the waves of queasiness overcoming my body.

I don’t eat greasy and fried foods and yet I’m still overweight compared to those restrictive BMI standards. Maybe eating these kinds of foods is the way Sharon gained weight, but it certainly isn’t representative of why others gain weight.

It’s this same sort of self-loathing amongst fat people that keeps us from banding together to fight against the marginalization of fellow fat people in society. After listening to others tell us how our bodies are wrong and detested for so long, some fat people not only believe it, but project it onto others.

Any great movement requires strength and solidarity in numbers. I think the greater problem looming in America than that of obesity is: not only is fat the last bastion of acceptable discrimination, it’s often perpetuated by the very people it adversely affects.

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 3rd, 2007 at 3:03 pm and is filed under Body Image, Fat Bias, Health/Nutrition, Personal, Vegetarianism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On August 3rd, 2007, Meowser

said:

Damn, Rachel, I’ve been thinking the same thing. I get the, “Well, *I* eat lots of junk and don’t exercise and I’m fat, so if you claim you’re eating healthy and exercising and you’re fat, you must be lying,” quite a bit. Such people also tend to assume that if they did eat “right” and exercise regularly, the “extra” weight, every ounce of it, would drop off them forever. They don’t want to hear that I probably consume half as many calories as I did five years ago, exercise twice as much, and my weight hasn’t budged.

The reason to eat better and exercise — assuming you care about health, which I think you have the right not to as long as you’re not screwing up anyone else’s health — isn’t to be thin, and if that’s the reason you’re doing it your healthy habits will go straight down the tubes if you don’t lose all the weight you think you “should.” Thinness is a possible side effect of better eating and exercise habits, not a given.

posted on August 3rd, 2007 at 4:27 pm

2 On August 3rd, 2007, Cynthia

This is an excellent article. Many fat people, myself included, have internalized fat hatred. I projected it in the form of sympathy and pity for all the other “second class” people like myself, but it was still fat hatred. One of the problems I now face is that I find myself caught between the fat acceptance people in learning how to rebuild a broken body image self esteem and the diet people as I’m learning how to eat healthier. For me, some of the poundage is coming off, and I like it. Previously I didn’t live off fatty, greasy foods, though I did eat more of them then than now. I’ve just reached a stage of life where I have to work harder to be healthy. The diet people get upset because I talk about loving the body I’m in. The fat acceptance people think I’m a sell out because I talk about changing my eating habits and I’m enjoying losing weight. Well, no matter how you slice it, it’s no fun weighing over 300 pounds, and I’m glad I don’t anymore. I’m still well over 200 pounds and as of yesterday’s lab result, cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugars, thyroid and triglycerides are all wonderful. I need to make the eating changes, and I need to accept myself for the abundant woman I am. I’ll never be thin. I’m just not built that way, but both sides of this complicated issue often make it harder for people to find a healthy way to live.

posted on August 3rd, 2007 at 4:54 pm

3 On August 3rd, 2007, Moderndayhermit

Excellent post! I am an overweight person who eats primarily vegetables, legumes/beans, chicken and fish. People in the office are constantly commenting on how healthy I eat, because I’m sure they are shocked due to my being over-weight.

I rarely drink soda or eat snacks. Greasy and/or overly sweet foods make me physically ill.

Being a salad eater I used to get asked all the time, “Are you on a diet?”

No, this is how I eat.

posted on August 3rd, 2007 at 5:12 pm

4 On August 3rd, 2007, deja pseu

“It is hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head.” –Sally Kempton

posted on August 3rd, 2007 at 6:10 pm

5 On August 3rd, 2007, Harriet

Great post. That little voice gets planted in your head so early on–it’s hard to root it out. Its tentacles run deep. For me, accepting myself as I am has been a loooong road, and I ain’t done yet.

posted on August 3rd, 2007 at 6:12 pm

6 On August 3rd, 2007, wriggles

Part of the reason these fatties believe in all this is because they are completely on the diet treadmill/merry-go-round, so their eating is often profoundly disordered.

Dieting is turning out to be one of the most seductive ideas in the history of ideas, even though obvious in it’s flaws doctors, scientists, dieticians etc cannot let it go, hell I couldn’t let it go for 20 years, even though it failed me time and time again. Tiresome though they often are, I still cannot get as mad at ‘em and others who are not suffering for their beliefs as fatties ARE.

posted on August 3rd, 2007 at 6:26 pm

7 On August 3rd, 2007, Rachel

Cynthia- You’ve echoed the frustrations I too have with many in the fat activism crowd. I don’t see weight loss as tantamount to anti-fat like some others very vocally do. The way I see it is that one’s weight and health are one’s own business. Why should anyone’s body be held up to public scrutiny or be seen as a litmus test of one’s activism? Just because I’m white and straight does that mean I can’t advocate for minority rights or fight for civil rights for gay people?

I am unabashedly anti-diet, but I don’t see weight loss as a selling out. Of course, I think before embarking on weight loss, one should examine the forces behind it - it is because thin is seen as a better aesthetic, is it cultural pressures, or is it out of concern for one’s health, amongst other reasons.

Although I don’t buy into “fat = death sentence” rhetoric espoused by those who stand to gain financially by making obesity a classifiable disease, nonetheless many people have health issues that are made better with weight loss. It all comes down to individual choice - a choice that should be made devoid of societal pressures.

Thanks to all for the insightful comments. It’s so reaffirming to see others are of like minds.

posted on August 3rd, 2007 at 6:32 pm

8 On August 3rd, 2007, Meowser

Rachel, weight loss =/= dieting. It is possible to lose weight without dieting. It’s not “selling out” if that happens. What I think is “selling out” is picking a number of pounds, saying, “I”m not going to rest until I lose that amount,” fixating on that number like it’s the Holy Grail, and eliminating foods you love from your diet entirely, solely because you think they’re standing between you and the Magic Number. You know, like we’re all told we’re “supposed” to be doing, over and over again, if we want to be Good Attractive People and Citizens.

I’m not going to tell you that I would hate it if I became smaller. So many things in my life would be easier for me if that happened. But I like to think that if that did happen to me, I wouldn’t be bragging about it like I’d just gotten a Ph.D. (No, Cynthia, I don’t necessarily think that’s what you’re doing, but when we get hammered with I-did-it-so-can-you stories practically every hour on the hour, I can’t blame people for reacting badly to weight-loss talk.) I don’t expect that my FA/SA friends would reject me solely because I lost X number of pounds, or even because I was quietly enjoying thin privilege. If they do, then they’re not who I think they are. I really think it’s a matter of framing in the vast majority of cases.

posted on August 3rd, 2007 at 7:34 pm

9 On August 3rd, 2007, BStu

Yeah, its so awful that some people don’t cheerlead weight loss. We better keep guilt tripping them and telling them to know their place. How tragic that dieters need to endure the indignity of a small number of people pursuing and advocating for a different path. How dare we think we have a right to think differently. Shame on us! Its so darn rude to challenge the status quo. We better just shut down fat acceptance. Why, if we keep asking people to accept fat, they just might and we can’t have that now can we.

Well, I’m sorry if I don’t accept “But I don’t wanna” as a refutation of fat acceptance. You don’t wanna? Then don’t. Its not like fat acceptance has power to enforce its will on the masses. I’m tired of this notion that fat accpetance needs to abandon itself every time a dieter discovers the movement and says “Well, you don’t mean me, right?” We do. We should. If we want to stand for anything, we need to stand for something. And we can’t make exceptions whenever anyone demands that we do.

I’m not anti-dieter. Dieting isn’t “selling out”. But it is NOT fat acceptance. Annoucing how intolerable it is to be fat is NOT fat acceptance. Ascribing all manner of wonder and joy to weight loss is NOT fat acceptance. Fat acceptance does not exist to be everything to everyone. It can’t be everything to everyone. I don’t think of dieters as traitors no matter how often dieters want to ascribe that belief to me or others in fat acceptance. Its not fair and frankly its just manipulative. I just recognize that they don’t support fat acceptance. That’s their right. Its my right to not accept whatever rationalization they come up with. They don’t need my approval and it be dishonest and frankly disrespectful of me to exult dieting in the name of one-way politeness.

Fat acceptance is not endangering anyone’s desire to try to lose weight. Dieting IS endangering my right to accept my body. That’s what this all comes down and I just cannot accept the notion that fat acceptance has to bend to the will of people who don’t believe in it. We want to sway other people to our views. That’s different than swaying our views to other people. Fat acceptance needs to advocate for itself and needs to recognize that we pose no threat to people’s right to disagree with us. I just wish they would spend an iota of this concern worrying about my right to disagree with them.

posted on August 3rd, 2007 at 8:55 pm

10 On August 4th, 2007, CutiePoots

Alright, I understand your argument and I agree; not all fat people are unhealthy. I fact, by reading some of the blogs i realized that most of the readers are bery healthy large women (and some men). BUT…not all fat people are healthy. There is a good percentage that are. I have no statistics, so I cant say whether they are the minority or majority. But is it a coincidence ethat Japan has had its first incidence of obesity rates after McDonalds came to Japan? Or that the growth of large fast food chains have a direct relationship with the expanding waistbands in America? I don’t think you can deny it. I sympathize with you and most other readers because you all seem very healthy and you eat great. But not all obese and overweight people are that healthy, and i am willing to bet that those who are genetically predispositioned to obesity and who follow healthy lifestyles is the minority.

Just my two cents I think the first step to lowering obesity rates in America is shutting down McDonalds.

posted on August 4th, 2007 at 11:01 am

11 On August 4th, 2007, Rachel

I totally agree Meowser. Perhaps what I should this clarified this stance better in my reply. It sounds as if what Cynthia is doing is not a diet, per se, but simply making better food choices. While I don’t think good health is a moral imperative, I do think eating healthy foods is optimal for good mental and physical health, conducive for sustainable living and is altogether more friendly to the environment we all inhabit temporarily and leave behind for others.

For some people, making the switch from processed foods to healthy, fresh foods leads to natural, unintentional weight loss. A friend of the family discovered his food allergies to be the result of gluten, a compound found in wheat, barley and rye. Now, he eats a gluten-free diet and has seen weight loss simply as the result of his diet substitutions.

Several years ago I lost a lot of weight via an eating disorder. After I resumed eating normally again with no foods off-limit, I naturally gained back some of the weight. But for the past four years, I’ve maintained a weight loss of more than 100 pounds through really no effort at all other than my now-changed diet. And as the statistics show, maintaining a weight loss is often harder than the initial loss for many. My diet pre-eating disorder consisted mainly of fast food and processed food. Now, I’m vegetarian, avoid most processed foods, sugar and fructose and I find my weight has stabilized naturally. The fact that I am still overweight leads me to believe this is simply my genetically pre-destined body size and type.

BStu - Perhaps you and I took Cynthia’s post differently. From reading it, I took from it that she is NOT dieting, but rather making healthier food choices. From your post, it sounds as if you might have take an entirely different meaning from it. I don’t want to be judgmental and make the overarching statement that all dieting is anti-fat acceptance, for there are myriad reasons why people diet some of which have nothing to do with physical aesthetics (granted, this is rare). But I do concur that dieting, in its most common cultural context, is vastly unhealthy, both mentally and physically and appears to directly contradict the tenants of the fact acceptance movement.

CutiePoots: I don’t deny it, actually. There is a dismally large percentage of Americans who eat very unhealthy. But the erroneous assumption is that they are all fat. There are just as many thin Americans who eat unhealthy foods as there are fat Americans. Just as there are genetic variances for height and skin, hair and eye colors, so too do people’s bodies metabolize and react to unhealthy foods in differing manners. Some people eat unhealthy and gain weight while others remain thin, but perhaps have unhealthy cholesterol levels or develop high blood pressure.

The point is: you just can’t tell simply by looking at someone what their diet is. The sad fact is all too many people do, and then make moral judgments based on how one looks.

posted on August 4th, 2007 at 1:59 pm

12 On August 4th, 2007, CutiePoots

Oh yeah, i agree with that: many thin people eat SOOOOO unhealthy because they think its okay they don’t look the part. But I think that the fact that a focus is suddenly on a healthy lifestyle may be influence people of all sizes to look at what they are doing to their bodies and health. I know that for myself, I was a a very unhealthy sedentary person with an unhealthy diet, but I did remain fairly thin. I since have takin up cross country running and I shop at whole foods and farmers markets and try to buy foods that fill healthy requirements; not necessary calories, but less fat and cholesterol and sodium. And I think that EVERYONE should be doing small things to make their bodies healthy. I am still trying to convince my brother that Arbys everyday is disgusting, but in cigar yet :p but we’ll see.

Again, if they just shut down that godawful McDonalds, I would be so happy

posted on August 4th, 2007 at 6:54 pm