I get a lot of questions about set point theory – the idea that each person’s body has a genetically determined set point that is difficult to go above or below. I think it’s an interesting theory and not implausible – I do think that bodies come in varied sizes just like everything else in nature. I think the evidence also pretty clearly shows that dieting messes with our bodies, since at least a year after dieting studies have shown that the mechanisms the body has for the express purpose or regaining and maintaining weight are still different than in someone who didn’t diet.
While I think this is interesting to think about, I also think that when it comes to size diversity and acceptance it’s important that we keep our eye on the ball. We have to be careful that we’re not making it sound like you have to prove that your fat is “not your fault” in order to deserve to be treated well. It doesn’t matter what size someone’s body is or why it is that size, it’s absolutely none of anybody else’s business, and everybody deserves to be treated with basic human respect. (Those wishing to make a “won’t somebody think of my tax dollars fatties are so expensive blah blah blah” argument can head to this post. )
Too often I see people try to espouse not that we should treat every body with respect but that we should do a better job figuring out who deserves abuse, stigma, and shame from society. Let me help out: NOBODY. Nobody deserves to be treated the way that fat people are treated in this society and it doesn’t matter why they are fat. The idea that this is about behavior or personal responsibility is utterly laughable – there are plenty of sedentary thin people whose diet is based in fast food (which is fine and also nobody’s business) but people don’t scream epithets at them from their cars or argue that they should lose their civil rights until they exercise or try to calculate their “cost” to society. Nope – this is about bullying a group of people because of how they look – and when has that ever gone well?
Imagine if we were honest about the fact that whatever size we are, and regardless of why we are that size, the truth is that we are unlikely to ever be significantly smaller in the long term and that it’s completely ok to be fat. Maybe then we could stop talking about if our fat is our fault consider that the size we are is the size we’re supposed to be and start building an amazing life with the bodies we have now.
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Every time I hear ‘it’s important to remember that SOME people have illnesses or are taking medications that make them gain weight’ as a reason against anti-fat bias, I want to scream.
“…people try to espouse not that we should treat every body with respect but that we should do a better job figuring out who deserves abuse, stigma, and shame from society.”
Beautifully put. Thank you.
Yep, I shouldn’t need a note from my doctor to exempt me from abuse and ridicule.
I think of it this way: Bottom Line – No one should be treated badly for any reason whatsoever. (And if I catch myself treating someone else badly, it is a reflection of a problem with me, not with them.)
Well said!
THIS: “Nobody deserves to be treated the way that fat people are treated in this society and it doesn’t matter why they are fat. The idea that this is about behavior or personal responsibility is utterly laughable…”
Yes. Yes. Yes. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, recently, I’ve begun to suspect that North Americans (especially) cling to this oppressive rhetoric of BLAME THE INDIVIDUAL for weight and weight stigma (and, increasingly often, blame individuals for personal health outcomes, too)–in spite of all evidence suggesting otherwise–because the dominant weight loss/weight stigma discourses so effectively parallel and reconstruct our sacrosanct religious and political discourses of BLAME THE INDIVIDUAL for her or his economic and material outcomes. These political and religious discourses, which idealize individualism (individual *control* and personal responsibility), have been crafted over centuries as tools of domination that serve to maintain the status quo of power relations.
Clinging to blame (of one self) and blame of other individuals for outcomes determined by complex social forces (or by circumstances present at birth) allows people to maintain their illusions of individual power and control–illusions that are especially terrifying to give up as we watch our social safety nets continue to unravel–and as we observe more and more blame (and personal responsibility) for material outcomes being dumped, oppressively, on the shoulders of individuals.
We all feel the need to place blame, to think we understand causation. It makes us feel way less vulnerable. Just did a whole post on this so please check it out. thanks for another great post!