The Fat Acceptance Movement

I just watched this segment on the Today Show and while I initially took umbrage with the title, because I don’t need other peoples acceptance to accept myself, I loved the way this discussion progressed

For one, it confirmed my love for Emme.

She continues to remind us that our worth does not come from the scale.

I actually don’t even own a scale and even when I am weighed I don’t give it much thought in the “traditional” sense.

Being from a family with multiple familial health issues, I think of my body more in terms of what it means to my health.

Most people can not look at me and guess my weight because of my height and the way my weight is distributed.

And I have worked out a lot during my life and have quite a bit of muscle mass under this lush plusness..

But I can honestly say that I love my curves and I don’t just say that to psyche myself into feeling good about myself.

I say it because I mean it.

I love the way my girls look in a nice v neck and the way my butt looks in jeans.

I work out (semi regularly at the moment) and I currently eat mainly a raw diet and not because I was trying to lose weight because I had an “issue” with my body but simply because I have medical issues that can be improved by eating better and releasing weight.

And those two things are not exclusive to fat folks’ health.

As Dr.Snyderman pointed out, fat people can be healthy and skinny people can be unhealthy.

One of the things that stood out that really wasn’t explored was the statement made by Dr.Snyderman that some “doctors don’t like taking care of obese people”

I mean really! I had to rewind that and take that in again.

How much more ridiculous can this bias be?

That now even doctors, the people we entrust with our medical care, are on some fat hate ish too!

WOW!

Anyway, the person who really hit a home run for me was newsweek.com’s Health and Lifestyle editor, Kate Dailey.

She spoke about the obvious. “The way you look in your jeans is not a good measure of how healthy you are”.

Sounds simple enough that you would think people would understand it but alas..if they did, there wouldn’t have been a need for the segment or this post..

She summarized the “real fat acceptance movement” and how its about accepting yourself and doing the things that make you healthier and happier and essentially give you a richer life.

Not about if your weight meets others standards and thereby gives them carte blanche to judge and define what it should be.

When will people learn that degrading and denigrating does not make people into what you want them to be.

She also cowrote a great must read article titled “America’s War on the Overweight“.

It speaks partially to the “psychological phenomenon known as the fundamental attribution error, a basic belief that whatever problems befall us personally are the result of difficult circumstances, while the same problems in other people are the result of their bad choices”

Which is huge.

Because I completely believe that it is one of the main components in this so called “war”.

She said that they are going to post a gallery of people who are “fit and fat” later today. (I will add it when its up)

UDATE: The Fit and Fat feature is up!

Lastly, there is a another great article on newsweek.com (i need to spend more time there) titled “Who Says Americans Are Too Fat?” that questions and offers some responses to the whole idea of being fat equating to an increase in the risk of death, to the validity of the BMI and provides information related to the fact that a person can be fat and healthy.