Fat Shaming

To start I am a fat person myself.  I weigh upwards of 300 lbs but have been working to lose weight so I believe I am uniquely qualified to talk on the subject of fat shaming. 

First.  I am sick of people talking about obesity and an unhealthy lifestyle like it is something to be proud of.  It's not.  Is anorexia something to be proud of? No it's not. I am sick of people trying to make obesity sexy or acceptable, that's no different than telling someone whose a suicide risk to be proud of their threats.

I am proud that we as a species come in all shapes and sizes but we should not celebrate sickness.  My obesity is due to laziness and food addiction and it is a constant struggle to fight this addiction, but it is just that.  An addiction.  We don't look up to heroin addicts or drug dealers we should not look up to or idolize someones poor lifestyle choices.

There are people in this world who have genuinely no control over the weight they gain due to physical or mental conditions but the vast majority of obese people are obese due to their own reluctance to make the changes necessary to live live a healthier more physically productive life.  Be happy with the skin your in and don't let the societal norms of the world control a healthy body image.  People are big and small, skinny and tall but once we begin to celebrate the illness of obesity we begin to create a society were we accept and idolize poor health.

I know there are many who may disagree with my opinions and they are just that. Opinions.  But lets look at this logically there is a far difference between loving the skin you're in and being complicit in your own neglect.  We need to stop idolizing people for the choice of being unhealthy.  Being obese is not equal to differences in skin color or religion or sexuality and the moment we begin to associate obesity with these things is the moment when we begin to deny what so many find to be obvious.  Obesity is most often a choice not a genetic defect.  Although genetics play a role in weather or not we have the potential to gain weight more easily than others it does not alleviate us of responsibility in how we handle those genetics.

We have now created a culture where people are trying to convince us that obesity is OK and even beautiful yet we shame the anorexic. If we are going to celebrate the illness of obesity should we not also celebrate the illness of anorexia or the illness of alcoholism?  No we should not, it would be considered insane  yet it seems to be accepted to celebrate obesity.

I must say that we should not shame these people but we should also not mistake genuine concern for their health for shaming either.  So with this post I am going to issue a challenge for myself.  Over the next year I am going to attempt to conquer my addiction in an effort to prove my point.  Together we will see if I am being wise or just blowing smoke about this addiction.  I will post status results of my weight weekly and will post before and after photos of my progress.  Wish me luck.