Overweight America and Body Positivity

I was going to write an article about this, but my formal writing has become quite rusty and the voice I want to capture it isn't coming to me at this moment. I've brought this up multiple times on Facebook, but in this day and age everyone is ready to jump on the "Offended" train and start ignorant name calling whenever there's something said that they don't agree with. I'm not here to make anyone feel comfortable. I'm here to get you to think. I had a ball this past election playing Devil's Advoate for both sides and keeping my political views hidden until the end of the election (I'm a Socialist, firm Bernie supporter and Gary Johnson voter).

But now again I propose to you: How healthy is the "body positive" message we are sending when we say a size 16 is a healthy weight and it's just important to love yourself?

While I think it's great for people to love themselves, I think this movement is going at it in a completely wrong way. True: the average woman in the United States is a size 16. Also true: 2/3 of United States adults are overweight in 2016.

I have been met with a lot of cries that so-and-so is healthy at a size 16 and that so-and-so has thyroid problems. If you're healthy at a size 16, you have a great BMI, you have a healthy lifestyle, you're active, you love yourself, perfect. I'm happy for you. But 2/3 of US Americans are not all athletes. They do not all have thyroid problems. Saying to someone that you look great at an unhealthy size is not helping the problem, it is causing more problems. You are encouraging them to be unhealthy.

Let's look at it from the opposite side of the spectrum. In high school I developed an eating disorder. In middle school/elementary school my mother would "fat-shame" me because I was overweight. So I stopped eating. And while my doctor expressed concern that I was miraculously losing weight without dieting as I told him, everyone else was telling me how beautiful I looked and how I had a hot body. They were encouraging me to lose weight without even knowing. They were encouraging my unhealthy views on food. It's the same thing, just coming from the other end of the spectrum of weight.

I'm concerned how this view will effect future generations as well. Being skinny wasn't always a trend. It became a trend in about the 60s when models like Twiggy came onto the fashion scene and super thin models became all the rage. In another few decades having an overweight BMI may become all the rage and people will be body shamed for not being a Size 16. Everything we do now will have some repercussions in the future.
December 17th, 2016 at 04:14pm