Hi friend,
Here’s one concrete action you can take to help end weight stigma: Stop saying that weight loss doesn’t solve anything. And I’m going to need you to read alllll the way to the end of this letter before you @ me, because I am not jumping on the diet wagon here.
Does intentional weight loss (by any means whatsoever, including “lifestyle changes” and weight loss surgery) work for most people in the long term? No. Will losing weight make you a better, happier, more confident person? Probably not. (See Kate Harding’s life-changing essay The Fantasy of Being Thin.)
But there are benefits to living in a smaller body, including:
👉 All the benefits of thin privilege
👉 A wide range of clothes that fit you
👉 The ability to navigate public infrastructure
👉 Sitting down in waiting rooms
👉 Being respected and valued
And there are benefits to losing weight in the short term:
👉 Access to both quality-of-life and life-saving surgeries
👉 Access to joint replacements
👉 Access to gender-affirming surgeries
👉 Being respected, accepted and considered worthy
👉 Among others
Should the world work this way? No! But it does, and telling your followers that a smaller body won’t fix anything is toxic in a few ways:
☣️ It gaslights your larger-bodied followers about the oppression they face every day, that they can clearly observe thinner people not being subjected to
☣️ It assumes that all your followers are in bodies small enough to take full advantage of thin privilege as they are
☣️ It shows that you haven’t done the thought work around fatphobia, oppression and weight stigma
So give it some more thought and nuance before you make these kinds of claims, please.
