Today, I read an article about how Lizzo is fat-shamed so often on social media, she has considered quitting music.
I don’t blame her.
The Tweet about her, which I will not link, was from a perplexed user who didn’t understand how Lizzo could move so much but still be overweight.
As if all people had to do was just try a tiny bit harder and I’m sure that weight would just melt off. Have you tried not being lazy?
Jillian Michaels got herself into a bit of hot water when she commented that we shouldn’t celebrate people like Lizzo’s weight because it “won’t be funny when she gets diabetes.” Oh, how kind of you to weigh in with such concern, Jill. We love that.
Here’s a little sample of wildly misguided comments about obesity from a video about the incident:
“Emotional eating, ADHD, medications, terrible foods, etc. are common causes for obesity. There’s no reason that deserves praise. ”
“Jillian Michaels is not commenting on bodies…..she.s commenting on HEALTH !!”
“Jillian Michaels is 100% correct and anyone who disagrees is DELUSIONAL. Obesity is BAD.”
“But she’s right though….. lol why glorify the unhealthy???? TRUTH HURTS.”
These were all extremely popular comments. Extremely popular, extremely misguided, stupid statements.
Why?
Let’s start with a fact:
Approximately 20% of overweight individuals are successful at long-term weight loss when defined as losing at least 10% of initial body weight and maintaining the loss for at least 1 y.
In order words, no matter how much you shame them and tell them how unhealthy they are and that the TRUTH HURTS, they aren’t going to change body sizes long-term.
Trust me. I once lost 90 pounds and kept it off for 10 years and still gained it back. I tried so fucking hard.
So what good is, “People need to hear this, obesity is bad.”
Yes, great what are you going to do about it. What’s your health strategy?
If your answer is, “Keep telling people to lose weight,” you are a fucking moron.
The thing people don’t understand about “health at any size” is that its about finding healthy ways to live our lives not as we wish they were, but how they truly are. Knowing that long-term weight loss might not be a realistic goal given everything we’ve learned so far, what can we do to help people be healthier?
Maybe we can encourage them to move their bodies more. That helps everyone. You don’t have to be thin to get stuff out of yoga. You don’t have to be fit to enjoy a stroll around the neighborhood or a bike ride through the city.
It’s about harm reduction. Understanding that the past 40 years of obesity shaming has worked about as well as Just Say No worked for drugs in the 80’s. It’s time to come up with a new strategy, dummies.
Enter: Body Positivity and Healthy at Any Size.
Exit: Useless Body Shaming
“Oh, but obesity leads to X, Y, Z.”
So? You think fat people don’t know that? You think what, they’re too stupid to understand the health ramifications of obesity?
Leave Lizzo alone about her body. Sorry, but fat people are sexy, too. Leave everyone alone about their body. They don’t need you to tell them how bad they should feel. Society does a grand job of that already.
Instead of spending another 40 years saying, “Here’s what’s wrong with you,” maybe, just maybe, we should try something else.