2. It’s not about real self-acceptance!
Most of the time, behind this story of „why is everybody so abnormally obsessed with health and fitness“ lies a great deal of unacceptance of their own lack of discipline and motivation to change their way of life. It’s a rather common thing to project your own inner conflicts to another person or group of people who have something you’re not able to reach yourself. It’s true that most of the people involved in the fat acceptance movement have struggled with weight loss more than once in their lives. So it’s a lot easier to say that you didn’t even want it in the first place than it is to admit you failed at getting it.
Let’s be clear – the goal is not to point a finger at people who are having a hard time losing weight. We should all have sympathy for their struggles and support them in any way we can. But health should always come before identity politics. Not to mention that it’s really hard to be empathetic with someone who has developed diabetes because of being overweight but considers you a moron for being on a healthy diet. Saying “ok, this is too hard, let’s just find a way to make obesity cool and being fit crazy“ is not the psychologically healthiest way to start feeling good about yourself – it’s not sustainable, it’s not real and it can be downright harmful to you and others. Everyone is in need of constant improvement. Convincing yourself that you’re ok the way you are is a good way of self-nourishment only as long as you don’t lose the drive to become better.
Ask yourself this: if fat people really feel empowered and don’t care about how others view them anymore, where do these public statements about their self-esteem and hateful comments towards anyone who disagrees come from? They seem to have a constant need of proving themselves worthy to others (rather loudly), which doesn’t really prove a great level of confidence. If you have truly succeeded at accepting yourself, you probably won’t feel like telling the whole world about it over and over again. I’m sorry, but there are some more crucial social issues to which you can employ your raging sense of justice than the oppression of fat people. If anything, the people who’ve lost their limbs in a car accident deserve to get the “body acceptance“ that fat activists are fighting for more than the people who sit on their a*s all day long eating junk food.
If you look at it closely, the sad truth is that the fat acceptance movement of today is nothing more than a pathetic excuse for not having to take care for yourself, instead of gaining more control over your body and the way it’s being perceived. We all have a thing we feel ashamed of or a certain characteristic that has drawn negative attention from other people around us, but that doesn’t mean we have to make up a whole movement in order to make it look more positive.
If we want to change it, there is always a way. And if we don’t consider it a problem, we shouldn’t care what others have to say as long as it doesn’t hurt them. We are all individuals but we live in a society as well, so we’re bound to receive some criticism once in a while. There will always be some asshole who makes fun of the flaws of others, so just get over it.
Choosing to be loud and proud of your unhealthy (and that’s a proven fact, again) lifestyle instead of being realistic about your issues is a terrible way to contribute to a better world. If you want to feel in control of your life, how about taking it in your own hands and putting that energy into self improvement instead of using it to perpetuate more hate?
There will never be a world in which everyone thinks fat is beautiful, and there shouldn’t be. Just take the responsibility for your choices and try to make the best of what you have instead of selfishly shoving your imperfections down our throats under the disguise of equality.
