As a fat socialist, I believe fatphobia and weight discrimination are enabled and perpetuated by capitalism, just as other forms of discrimination are. Fat people are systematically discriminated against, but it's rarely discussed and is viewed as normal and acceptable even by many leftists.

Fat people are treated horribly by the healthcare industry, so why not include fat folks in the fight for universal healthcare? Why not point out the ways in which marginalized communities are mistreated in the healthcare system, including fat people?

The diet industry exists solely to portray fatness as unacceptable in society and as unhealthy, and to subsequently profit off of the insecurities of fat people which the industry itself creates. Why not criticize the diet industry as a great example of how the system abuses working people in order to enrich the richest few among us?

Commercial airliners are designed to shove as many people in as possible to maximize profits, disregarding passengers' comfort in the process. Fat people obviously face the most discomfort squeezing into tight spaces on airplanes. Often, fat people are forced to buy multiple seats, or even forced off of a plane for the crime of existing as a fat person. In 2012, a 400 pound woman named Vilma Soltesz was turned away by three different airlines and was unable to fly back home to the United States and receive life saving medical treatment. She died in Hungary two days later. Is that not an example of how profits are more important than people in this system?

Fat people are often paid less than thin people, is that not an example of a marginalized community being mistreated in the name of profits?

Fat people are often even fired for being fat. In 2013, twenty-two waitresses sued Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa for weight discrimination. They were regularly weighed in at work and if they gained more than seven percent of their body weight, they were fired. Between 2005 and 2010, twenty-five women were disciplined for failing to meet the weight standard. Over the same period, not a single male employee was disciplined for it. Despite this blatant discrimination, a New Jersey court ruled that the business can fire workers for gaining weight, allowing the business to continue to discriminate. Is it acceptable for businesses to reject a job application because an applicant is "too fat" or fire an employee because they've "gained too much weight", openly discriminating on the basis of weight?

Many surgeries or medical treatments have arbitrary weight limits. As a trans person, I can also tell you that this is true for many aspects of gender affirming care. Is it really okay to deny someone healthcare because they're fat, and to encourage rapid weight loss to meet a weight limit?

Fat people are discriminated against in regards to policing as well. In 2014, Eric Garner was killed by police in New York City when officer Daniel Pantaleo put him in a prohibited choke hold. Approached on suspicion he was selling cigarettes, after he told the police that he was not selling cigarettes and asked them to stop harassing him, Pantaleo arrested him and placed him in the choke hold. Garner told police he couldn't breathe eleven times while he was choked. Garner then lost consciousness, and was pronounced dead at a hospital an hour later. Pantaleo was only fired five years later, and despite the death being ruled a homicide, a grand jury refused to indict him or anyone else at the scene. Stuart London, the NYPD union attorney defending Pantaleo, said in an administrative hearing that "He died from being morbidly obese. He was a ticking time bomb that resisted arrest. If he was put in a bear hug, it would have been the same outcome." When fatness is used as a justification for police brutality and the killings of innocent people, is that not an example of discrimination?

Why is it that so many leftists advocate for marginalized communities, but not for fat people in particular? Why is fatphobia one of the only forms of discrimination that is seen as acceptable by society as a whole? Why does media often portray fat people as gross or lazy? Why does every TV commercial break try to sell people a diet plan? Why do doctors treat fat patients differently, often not even bothering to look into potential health issues and instead simply telling patients to lose weight? Why do fat people get harassed and mocked on social media? Why do people treat weight loss as a victory worth celebrating and weight gain as a moral failing in need of correction?

Why would you rather use fat people as caricatures for all of the worst things out there than advocate for fat people? And why do you often use fatness as an insult towards the worst people out there? There are so many constructive ways to criticize Trump, for instance. He's a fascist, an insecure loser, an idiot, a racist, a sexist, a rapist, an incompetent leader of an idiotic movement, a rich kid who failed upwards his whole life, a failed businessman, a con artist, an unpopular failed president, the list goes on. So why insult his weight? Does doing so hurt him, or does it hurt your allies who are fat? How does it feel, do you think, for a fat leftist to watch their allies characterize fatness as a moral failing or as something repulsive?

If you're a leftist and you don't consider yourself a fat activist or fat liberationist or fat positive or body positive or whatever label you wanna use...why is that? Have you reflected on why people over a certain weight are treated differently? Have you wondered who stands to profit off of fat people hating their bodies and being desperate to lose weight? Have you wondered whether being fat is actually inherently unhealthy? Have you thought about whether or not, even if someone is fat and unhealthy, they deserve respect and fair treatment? Have you ever considered that many people like being fat? Do you think it's acceptable for someone to decide to stay fat?

I would argue that anyone who claims to be against discrimination and oppression, anyone who claims to be against the exploitation of working people, anyone who claims to want revolutionary change...should view fat liberation as a cause worth fighting for. Fat people are just like anyone else. Fat people face the same issues anyone else does based on wealth or gender or race or religion or immigration status or orientation or what have you. And we also face weight discrimination on top of whatever else we may face. So if you don't believe fat people deserve respect, or that fatphobia is a genuine problem...do you really believe that people shouldn't be discriminated against based on their appearance? And if you think fat people shouldn't be protected because "you can just lose weight"...first of all, that's not true for everyone, most diets fail, but second...so what? Is it okay for fat people to be discriminated against if it's "their fault" they're fat? Is being fat inherently wrong?

I hope that reading this will encourage some people to rethink their biases, or perhaps inform people of instances of discrimination they weren't aware of. It's tiring and frankly hurtful to see an aspect of who I am treated as an insult or caricature by the same people I ally myself with. Fat people deserve respect, and a part of the change leftists aspire to create should be an end to systematic discrimination towards fat people.