The subtle art of only being somewhat overweight

Something that has been on my mind lately is how Tess Holiday, model and author of "The Not So Subtle Art of Being a Fat Girl," has been all over my Facebook feed. She has been getting a lot of attention for just openly being happy about her size, and how goals to loose weight are just not her priority. I do believe she doesn't care about the concept of "health" as a priority in her life either. Her common mantra is being "unapologetic" with her fatness in order to love the skin you are in and I think that's a good cause. So I plan to articulate how I support that, and I want to deconstruct a lot of the argument's that are anti fat positivism.

I want to preface this with the fact that I haven't read the book, reading is a very stressful activity for me but it is on the infinite list of books to read.  However, I feel I have the authority to talk about this subject because #1 I have (because of reason #2 as well) taken a course on fat stigma in society, which was quite a crash course in fat studies. and #2 I am overweight and while I am not obese (well, by some definitions, such as BMI, I qualify as obese), and because of that I have lived life as a fat person. Not just a fat person, a fat person who is denied having that label. "Oh honey, you aren't fat! You're gorgeous." As if the very expression of my anxieties when it comes to my health should be silenced because that would also admit that I am a damned fat person. Which equals an ugly person, and since the womanly goal in this world is to be beautiful that just isn't allowed.

I live in this world, where even if I were to care about my health (which I do), expressing that I am fat is an admittance into something. And it is important that we understand that.

Now lets direct our attention toward the common arguments against fat positivism.

We all know it, and to some extent - it sounds reasonable.

"Why are you putting unhealthy standards on a pedestal? Won't you just inspire people to be....

Unhealthy?"

Since the normal demographic to make this criticism is usually not overweight (if they are, this sentiment just becomes nuanced); I have always seen this statement as one of an outsider. Perhaps this person has loved ones who are overweight or obese, perhaps they share this sentiment or perhaps they are a hypocrite. That doesn't matter. The idea that fatness is being somehow glorified by the act of fat acceptance still seems like a stretch. The dominant cultural idea of beauty and health is and is going to be for awhile - thin. Except for the rare exception (usually as the result of a counterculture anyway), people are going to still want to be thin or thinner even if fatness is put on a stage. The vast majority of fat people would be happy having less weight. Fat acceptance really doesn't have anything to do with fat except for the fact that our society just hyperfocuses on fat to create a social order where certain body types are hated and ridiculed, dehumanized even. Fat acceptance is about a body not denoting the worth of the individual who has that body.

A supremely obese person deserves to exist, have their needs met, and be happy. Their life matters and they are valuable intrinsically. That is the essence of fat acceptance. This is rooted in an ideology that separates the individual from the body. Besides the brain that encases every human thought and emotion

Let us refocus on that connection between fatness and ugliness, after all, I know critics of this are going to pick at that. "But the issue with fat acceptance is that bodies that are literally unhealthy are glorified." I see you boo. We getting there.

My argument is that I want to be seen as beautiful not because i'm fat, but because I am worth existing. I am more than my body.

But also, fatness is not unhealthy in essence. I am a healthy person, not hyperhealthy but I subsist off a nutritious, low fat and medium carb diet. Focusing on high protein and vegetable intake. I go to the gym, I do not engage in common reckless behaviors and I have no addictions other than caffeine. My biggest sidetrack to full health is occasional tobacco indulgences, budget limitations, and some bingish drinking.

But that is just me, what about other fat people?

Well, why should their priority be health?

For all those eyerolls back there, hear me out. I truly think that this attack on fat people and their health is quite rude and intrusive. If you aren't their doctor then their health is not your business. The only other reason to care about the health of strangers is if you are studying the impact that has on a society. And that means going through academic channels and using academic lenses which require a certain amount of higher education to effectively use. So for those of you non-sociologists: Shush! - you aren't their doctor.

Furthermore, let me give you some insight. Because I am one of many many people who are overweight, or even of a normal size who have body image issues. I can very much trace this back to the obsession our society has over the body, one that has been exaggerated. Fatness is seen as indulgence, excess, taking up space. And the lense of understanding the social understating of fat as "out of control" is one I find both fascinating and personal. My main insecurities do not come from not being beautiful, although that is an aspect of fat. The main insecurity surrounds this idea of discipline.

Biologically, body shape has more to do with genetics than personal action - but we fat people know very well how the judgement of our weight, of our shape, of our habits, of our indulgences are seen with the keenist of critical eyes. One single ice cream cone doesn't equal 100 extra pounds, but when a skinny person and a fat person stand next to each together, sharing the same size cone in hand, it might as well be so.

Every action is scrutinized, and judged before the social world in a way that people outside the fat box could not know unless they've been there before. And that doesn't prevent us from getting ice cream, the shame of our bodies isn't a magical cure to whatever blockade society thinks is in the way of our minds path to the hot bod. We are aware of how we look, we are aware how we are seen.

So when we hear "Are we glorifying an unhealthy weight with fat positivity?" it sounds bonkers to us. How can something hated be glorified? All we want, is to be seen as normal. Not healthy, normal. Part of life, worthy of existence.

The jump to conclusions is not lost on us, and knowing the difference shouldn't be this hard.

However, that is not all. The thing about fat is it's not something we choose to have. It is a natural part of our bodies. Adipose tissue our ancestors used to store the extra nutrients for another day. Of course, our ancestors did not purposefully do this - it was genetics that decided when the pounds packed on. But the social understanding of fat is basically, anything not skinny. And both skinny and fat are these objective markers that are determined not by empirical measure, but word of mouth. Even the thinnest of people can relate to "Being fat" somewhere on their body.

For me, what this means is I am fat. Because I am 'just overweight enough' to not be skinny to most eyes. But not all eyes. And not fat in the way of "Discourage this person from existing"

When i proclaim I'm skinny, it is wrong. When I proclaim I'm fat, I'm corrected - "you're body is fine!" They tell me. Meaning fat is not just a state of being, it's derogatory. It's profane.

But to us, it's a fact of existence. This clash of what fatness is to society clashes with the worth of people who happen to be fat. And acceptance, shouldn't that just be recognizing that fatness is more than just medical. It's a forced aesthetic with negative consequences.