Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia
Within fat studies, it is common to address negative attitudes towards obesity alongside racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, disableism, and imperialism, even though there is strong evidence that obesity is a result of consistently consuming more calories than are needed and carries significant health risks.
Helen Pluckrose • Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity—and Why This Harms Everybody
Fat studies’ claim to be an independent discipline was strengthened in 2012, when the journal Fat Studies was founded. The journal explicitly likens negative opinions about obesity—including concerns about possible health implications of being overweight or obese—to prejudice against people for their immutable characteristics, claiming, “Fat Studie
... See moreHelen Pluckrose • Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity—and Why This Harms Everybody
Above all, this form of fat activism is potentially dangerous. People who find it very difficult to manage their weight and suffer from low self-esteem as a result can be motivated to reject the medical consensus that obesity is a serious health problem of epidemic proportions. If fat activism succeeds in attaining the status currently assigned to
... See moreHelen Pluckrose • Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity—and Why This Harms Everybody
Central to fat activism is the belief that obesity is only considered unhealthy because of fat hatred and because we put too much trust in scientific discourses. This view is highly seductive to many dangerously obese people, particularly women, who have found it very difficult to lose weight. Rather than seek medical or psychological support, they
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