The media has been shaming fat people for years now. While it’s becoming less and less accepted, people are trying to find a way around it. The excuse that body shaming is okay when they’re ¨concerned for their health¨ is going around among people, and it’s getting bad. 

Recently, there have been several anti-fat campaigns, which all shame anyone who isn’t thin enough for societal standards. 

Nobody benefits from shaming fat people. Even if you really did care about that person’s health and happiness, comments on their body or how much they eat is extremely harmful, and in many cases can cause eating disorders, like anorexia and binge eating disorder, which are more common for someone experiencing fatphobia. 

Language also plays a huge part in body positivity. Phrases like ¨I feel fat today¨ or any other form of a thin person telling others that they ¨feel fat¨, even though you can’t feel like a body type, and saying it in an inherently negative tone can harm fat people very much. This pushes thoughts like ¨I’m actually fat, so what does that mean people think about me?¨

While companies now are getting more backlash for not including plus sized bodies in their collections, and leaving plus sized models out of billboards and advertising, there are still many that get away with not even having clothing sizes over large, and making their stores only comfortable for thin people. 

¨Intent does not negate impact. You cannot wage war on obesity without waging war on the people who live in those ‘obese’ bodies.¨ said in the article  Fat Is Not the Problem- Fat Stigma Is. ¨Moreover, the dignity of a group should not be contingent on whether its members are deemed healthy, eating “right,” or exercising regularly. It should be obvious, but weight stigma does not reduce ‘obesity’—and health care should be about self-care and promoting the health of the person in all its forms.¨ 

Not only does the stigma of weight not help anyone feel motivated to lose weight healthily, it can actually cause many more dangerous outcomes for those on the receiving end of said stigma.

“I don’t think anybody but plus sized people will understand how scary fatphobia is,” said a Parkdale student who wished to remain anonymous. “There have been so many people who body shamed me for doing simple things, people always compared me to thin people and told me I should stop eating, or “Just go out and exercise.  What people didn’t know was that I suffer from depression and crippling anxiety, on top of a binge eating disorder. Losing weight has been the hardest thing for me lately, but people don’t know how to mind their business. “

Being fat should not be only acceptable when the person is mentally ill, or suffering from a physical disability, etc. People are allowed to exist in a body that they love. Society needs to drop this whole “you’re only socially acceptable when you’re skinny” idea. It’s not realistic and will never be. Fat bodies are absolutely beautiful.