Hi friend,
There's a pattern I'm seeing in organizations and companies, particularly those that might want to appear diverse or inclusive in a way that includes body size diversity. However, the organization hasn't done its own work around weight stigma, and its members' discomfort with fatness shows in one or more of the following ways:
☢️ The inclusion of fat bodies and people is treated as an afterthought
☢️ Rather than show a full range of bodies, websites and social media avoid bodies entirely
☢️ Size diversity is hinted at on the org's website in a way that's as inoffensive as possible to those with thin privilege
☢️ The company/org uses palatable, very smallfat or average-sized bodies as a replacement for the voices, lived experience and representation of fat people
☢️ When fat people give feedback, they are asked for continuing labor without compensation
☢️ When fat people give feedback, they are asked to volunteer/become part of the organization (without compensation) to create diversity
☢️ Rather than build in size diversity from the beginning, the response when asked is always, "We'd love to see more fat people get involved!" without further action
In this framework, it is the duty of fat people to insert themselves into a system in order to represent people like themselves, rather than the system proactively expanding to include them. To put it bluntly, that's crap.
It's not fat folks' job or duty or responsibility to rescue you -- particularly your for-profit company -- and it's not our duty to keep our mouths shut so as not to mar your public presence and marketing.