Get Addicted to This

dabi when he thinks about his family:

Do they think that all the sudden people who were thin are going rush out to pack on the pounds, or that across the country school kids will be fixated on fat and compete amongst each other to see who can become the fattest, that it’ll show up on the 6 o’ clock news as the latest alarming trend in our nation’s youth?

I mean, do they think that if people see pictures of fat folks looking nice and smiling and being happy and not hating their bodies that everyone who was about to eat a salad is gonna toss it out in favor a cheeseburger (even the vegans!) and cancel their gym memberships?

Are they scared that a $20 billion dollar weight gain industry is gonna crop up and magazines are going to talk about “packing on those last fifteen pounds before summer”. Do they think suddenly there’s gonna be a flood of ads saying, “Gain belly fat using this one weird old tip” on people’s computer screens?

Do these people think positively presented fat bodies are so powerful and persuasive that it will convince thin people to utterly abandon thinness and dedicate themselves to getting as big as they can?

Or are they upset that people who were already fat will go around continuing to be fat without being punished for existing. Perhaps what they fear is that if we “glorify” obesity, that fat hate will make less and less sense to the world in general and that eventually, weight will become a neutral property. Thinness won’t be so valued that it can sustain industries, nor held as the perfect way to have a body but be seen as one among many valid body types. 

#girl help i wish there was a $20b weight gain industry. maybe a doctor would take me being under weight seriously#← fucking sick of doctors thinking i’m healthy because i’m thin#pro tip: it’s the undiagnosed illness and gastroparesis

This matters. This here. Even if you’re not fat.

It’s important for us to realize that systemic oppression is not just about one group saying “help! help! we’re being oppressed”, it’s about some fundamental part of our society being thrown off by greed/power/hate that it warps logic.

We literally have a society where the paradigm that fat = sick = bad and thin = healthy = good that doctors, as these tags show, will let that guide their professional actions above what actual science and medicine would dictate they should do.

The same thing has been increasingly happening with diabetes type II. It’s known as a “fat” disease, so thin people who are displaying all kinds of symptoms don’t immediately get tested and fat people who are displaying no symptoms get tested even if there’s no reason.

We deserve care from doctors and professionals who listen to us and apply evidence based medicine. If you keep getting ones who don’t, try pushing back against fat hate. Even if you’re not fat.

This is, I think, a thing people have trouble with. They think fatphobia is just “calling fat people mean names” or something.

And, like, you should also not do that, because it’s shitty and being cruel to people about their bodies is BAD, but it’s also frequently not what we’re talking about.

I care if my doctor can deny me medical treatment - or provide substandard medical treatment. I care if a fat person is paid less than a thin person doing the same job. I care if I, as a disabled person, can be denied paratransit services. (Actually a thing in my state! If your disability is “due to alcoholism, drug addiction, or obesity” they can refuse to provide paratransit services.  Which - in practice - just means if you’re disabled AND fat, they can decide it’s “due to obesity” regardless of what your disability actually is.)

I care about those godawful “Workplace Wellness” programs, where fat people end up paying more for their health insurance than someone with a “normal” BMI.*

*You’d think if you were actually concerned about “wellness”, and “We’re just worried about your health!”, they’d want to make sure that the people they view as “unhealthy” have access to medical care.  Of course, you’d also think that if they were, exercise equipment for heavier people would exist, or not be ridiculously expensive.  That’s because it’s not really about “health”, and never was.

It’s the difference between being denied housing or a job because you’re a member of [minority group], and some rando on the street calling you a slur.  They shouldn’t do that! They’re assholes! It’s shitty and upsetting! But it’s not the kind of structural oppression we’re talking about.

baby toya