In her collection of essays What We Don’t Talk about When We Talk about Fat, Aubrey Gordon (she/her) covers some familiar (to me) ground. And yet, she writes in such a clear, straightforward way that I struggled to finish her book. What were the more challenging parts? The extent to which being fat not only leads to bullying that the majority of people not only approve of but encourage, but also civil rights issues surrounding employment, housing, and health care.

Firstly, both Gordon and I use the word “fat” instead of something . . . more gentle? Gordon writes:

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Fat stands in contrast to an endless parade of euphemisms — fluffy, curvy, big guy, big girl, zaftig, big boned, husky, voluptuous, thick, heavy set, pleasantly plump, chubby, cuddly, more to love, overweight, obese — all of which just serve as a reminds of how terrified so many thin people are to see our bodies, name them, have them.

As she moves forward, Gordon includes both studies and personal examples of what it’s like to live in a “very fat” body, and even tells her weight. This is in direct opposition to what I’ve read from other fat activist authors. Sharing weight takes away opportunities for thin, straight size, and “Layne Bryant fat” people to say, “I support fat people. Wait, just not that fat.”

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What I mean is that there is a subgroup of folks, many of them part of the Body Positivity Movement (which I do not condone), who upon reading a weight higher than a certain number, abandon ship on fat people. Smartly, Gordon says she is 350 pounds, or was 400 pounds (depending on which point in her life). In order to keep reading, folks who feel squirmy about the very fat have to realize they’re part of the problem.

The problem is that fat people are one of the last groups that can be legally discriminated against for their bodies, a topic that Gordon covers so well that I started to feel sick. Only Michigan, Washington (the state), and San Francisco (just the city!) have a law against discrimination based on a person’s size. In 48 states, a potential employer can reject an applicant for their size, or fire a current employee. A fat person can be refused service in a restaurant or a room in a hotel. It’s even legal to keep a fat person from housing. When I say that I am against Body Positivity, what I’m saying is that B.P. is a turn inward, a search for self-esteem, whereas fat activism, closely linked to disability rights, is about the law and justice.

Even more frightening is Gordon’s research into doctors who refuse to take on patients who are fat, the most common cutoff weight being 200 pounds. What I didn’t know about before are the weight shaming campaigns against children. Rather than teaching children to cook, what are nutrient-rich foods that will give them energy, and to enjoy physical play, the surgeon-in-chief for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta launched a billboard campaign. Pictures of fat children with their faces blurred our dotted the state, each one with statements like, “WARNING: It’s hard to be a little girl if you’re not.” The effort to shame adults using fear for their loved ones look like a direct warning, but it misses the big picture:

Rather than initiating parent trainings, advocating for increased funding for school nutritional education, changing the contents of school lunches, or alleviating the poverty that relegated so many low-income students to highly processed, low-nutrient foods, [the campaign] opted to rent billboards.

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I know that many of my readers are not in the U.S., so perhaps your situation is different, but in my own childhood, I remember the lunches served by the school consisted of hamburgers, chicken nuggets, pizza, hot dogs, and taco boats. In fact, in middle school the most commonly eaten foods were pizza slices or a bag of bread sticks, both from Little Caesar’s, suggesting the company had a deal with the school. Even if you don’t have children or haven’t seen the billboards in person, What We Don’t Talk about When We Talk about Fat will strike a nerve with readers because we’ve nearly all experienced poor quality public school food and fat shaming. Shaming and bullying don’t work. Environmental factors, such as lack of choice and food deserts, can be part of a teachable moment.

That’s not to say that the Gordon argues fat people will achieve thinness. Using several convincing studies, she persuades readers that fat is often a permanent body shape the result of genetics. Equating thinness with health not only harms fat people, it harms thin people, too. Case in point, when I was teaching in a correctional facility, every day the inmates were given baloney sandwiches at lunch. Although no single student of mine was fat, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone to convince you baloney is nutritious.

As horrible as this book made me feel — and I did feel ill, even considering whether I should finish — I did learn that there is much more work to be done for fat rights. How might you help? Change other people’s mindsets through a change in your own thoughts and actions:

1. Stop assuming a certain body size is healthy.
2. Don’t sign up for workplace weight loss programs.
3. Advocate for furniture that can hold all body sizes (also good for disability accessibility).
4. If someone makes a fat joke, act dense and ask what they mean. If they have to explain that the joke is funny because they’re just making fun of fat people, they come out looking cruel — and then they feel bad.
5. Disengage from diet talk that centers on weight loss (people may want to talk about food allergies or a cool new recipe they found; food talk is not “off limits.”)

Once you’re comfortable shutting down bullies and have changed your own mindset, know that a single positive interaction during which you listen to and do not judge a fat person can change their whole outlook. Gordon ended her book with an anecdote about an experience with a doctor’s office that sends readers off renewed. Challenging yet educational.

CW: verbal, physical, emotional, sexual, and mental abuse; eating disorders; fat shaming.

Source: https://t-tees.com
Category: WHAT