Around the holidays, it’s extremely commonplace to hear any number of comments, conversations, justifications, and judgments about weight, food, and diet. While these interactions are normalized and frequent year-round, they are often uncomfortable to one or more people in the room.So many bodies are harmed and marginalized by the anti-fat bias and diet culture permeating our society. We can all do our parts to dismantle these damaging forces by ensuring that focus stays on celebrating the holidays rather than on scrutinizing the bodies of the people we care about.
The topics of weight, size, food, health, exercise, and diet become nearly unavoidable as the new year approaches. Let's unpack the anti-fat attitudes and diet culture that can show up as unwanted guests at your table this time of year, and work to create inclusive, safe, and caring environments for everyone we celebrate with.
BASIC DEFINITIONS
Anti-Fat Bias: negative attitudes about fatness or becoming fat. Refers to both individual biases and exclusionary or oppressive institutional policies, both of which maintain the social systems that marginalize fat bodies.
Diet Culture: a set of social expectations that assert that one is a better, more attractive, and more worthy person if they actively pursue patterns of eating and exercise that are culturally defined as healthy in order to be thin.
BEHAVIORS TO AVOID
1. Body Talk
Examples:
"you look great, have you lost weight?"
"can't stay away from those muffins, eh?"
"such a pretty face! imagine if you lost a few pounds"
"i could never pull that dress off" / "sweater's a bit tighter this year"
Abstain from commenting on body shape or size in general, specifically those about weight gain or loss.
Praising weight loss reinforces thinness as an ideal. This can be harmful for anyone present who lives with body dysmorphia or an eating disorder (at present or in remission), and can be insensitive for those who may have lost or gained unwanted weight due to medical conditions, food scarcity, or finances.
Someone's size or shape not only has no bearing on their unique value, but also is irrelevant to why we’re happy to see them. Be mindful of how you judge bodies, internally and externally, based on size.
2. Moralizing Food.
Examples:
"I'm eating another cookie. I'm so bad"
“I was good all week with my diet so I can eat anything I want today”
“saving my cheat day for the holiday party”
“please don’t gift my kids any junk food this year”
Avoid categorizing foods as ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ Reconsider your use of words like cheat, treat, healthy, clean, “guilt-free” or indulge. All food is an energy source, and what or how much food we eat does not define our character.
Moralizing food creates the belief that eating a food item that diet culture labels ‘unhealthy’ or eating ‘in excess’ is ‘bad,’ and conversely, that avoiding eating the item, or eating ‘healthily’ is something that a ‘good’ person would do.
Everyone deserves to make food decisions for themselves, and to have their personal choices, context, and preferences be respected. Judging, shaming or stigmatizing people for their food choices can ignore the real concerns of those with health issues, low income, or who come from marginalized cultural or religious backgrounds.
3. Assuming Weight = Health.
Examples:
"have you talked to your doctor about losing weight? that might help you feel better."
“I heard you started cycling, how much weight are you trying to lose?”
Avoid assuming someone’s health or their health goals just by looking at them. Losing weight is not a cure-all, and thinness doesn't always mean health. Health is holistic and includes physical, mental, financial, and relational well-being, as well as opportunities for joy and rest.
BMI is a biased and inaccurate measure of health not made for all bodies, which are built and programmed differently.
Bottom line: Weight is not synonymous with health, and a person's health can't be determined by looking at them.
WHY IT MATTERS
Anti-fatness and sizeism are equity issues. These forces contribute to discrimination by healthcare providers, employers, public areas, schools, clothing stores, and gyms. For example, people of size are hired less, promoted less, and paid less - and sizeism intersects with other forms of marginalization based on race, class, age, gender, sexual orientation, and ability.
Anti-fatness has roots in anti-Blackness. Racist beliefs about Black inferiority were used to justify the trans-Atlantic slave trade, including stereotypes casting Black people as prone to sexual and dietary excess in contrast to white Protestant values of temperance. By the early 1900s, fatness was correlated to immorality and racial inferiority. There’s more to parse apart, but anti-fatness still feeds into anti-Blackness today.
Everyone you have gathered to spend time with deserves to feel valuable as a whole human. Condoning anti-fatness at home ignores the devastating impacts of diet culture, which excludes and harms so many bodies in pursuit of glorified thinness. This feeds into systems that marginalize real people, and impacts the quality of their lives.
Anti-fatness and body talk don’t belong at your dinner table. This year, commit to shifting the focus towards celebrating the holidays and showing care for the people you are close with. Celebrate them for who they are, not what they look like.
SOURCES
https://www.fromthesquare.org/strings-blog/?utm_sq=g3yuv7xg33&fbclid=IwAR2_ju6qfMrXSD2sN2lRAPxhPejj1O48yKAu318EAhPHdtQEuaNOa9BVpZ4#.XTtOc-hKiUn
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/fat-is-not-the-problem-fat-stigma-is/
https://medium.com/@kivabay/glossary-of-a-fat-activist-fadec8091220
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20161130-fat-people-earn-less-and-have-a-harder-time-finding-work
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