I wish people would understand that fat acceptance is about accepting that people are fat, not about condoning evil behavior. It isn’t saying, “OMG EVERYONE SHOULD GO OUT AND BECOME FAT RIGHT NOW.” It is saying, “Some people are fat. There is no reason to pass judgement.”

Some people are worried that if they don’t shame a person who is overweight, that person will have no incentive to change. In my case, my mother and sister, and several others in my family, were the types who would eat whole boxes of little debbie snack cakes by themselves, and yelled at each other about who was more overweight. They gained pretty much all their weight by really really bad eating habits and never exercising. I would assume that, at least on a subconscious level, those two have done more to keep me on a healthy diet than anything else.

It took me a long time to get over the bad feelings I had toward what being overweight that most definitely came from them. It didn’t matter that I had plenty of friends who were overweight and who talked about their struggles. I had nothing against them, and I understand how hard they were trying. But even though I always knew better and told myself to quit it, my brain still had this visceral reaction that ‘fat = lack of responsibility’ and ‘fat = horrible people’ (I should mention that my mother and sister were very abusive people as well.) The same thing goes for other types of prejudice that come from growing up in an all white, poor, Christian neighborhood – no matter how much I learn and talk with other people and fight against the nonsense which was given to me as a child, there is still some part of me that want to say, “You know what’s in appropriate? THIS PERSON IS A _____ AND THAT’S HORRIBLE.” So many people don’t want to examine those prejudices, and they don’t want to admit that they persist even after one knows better. This is why it is so important to get rid of them – because it will help everyone all around.

Fat acceptance is not about saying that morbid obesity is healthy and something people should strive for. It is about saying that being fat is not a crime, nor is it a marker of irresponsibility and unredeemability. Furthermore, I think it is a pronouncement that health trumps the typical modern standards of beauty.

On another note, my cat is very fat (20 pounds) and I’m worried about him, and we’re trying to get him at a normal weight. All the cat health advice I’ve read says pretty much the same thing that is considered sane for humans – take it slow, feed him good nutritious food, and give him enough exercise but not too much. Failure to follow these simple guidelines can lead to broken bones, hurt joints, liver failure, heart failure, and all kinds of things. And this is just in the case of a cat who ate too much and didn’t exercise enough (He is a very lazy cat, I have to admit that, and he’s in a small apartment – not good for kitty exercise.). There are lots of cats who have genetic problems or diseases that either make them fat outright, or else prevent them from exercising.

Since veterinarians and pet health experts seem a little less crazed about pet weight loss than human health experts, I thought this was worth mentioning. Even if someone is fat for non-genetic reasons and they are trying to lose the weight, they have to do it reasonably.

In accepting myself, I stopped being obsessed with food. I eventually had enough courage to join a gym, and for the first time in my life, I LOVED it. So fat acceptance actually helped me to change so that I could become more healthy.

What the fat haters refuse to accept is that it’s not as simple and “diet and exercise”. I have 3 chronic illnesses, and if those weren’t enough to keep me from doing more, the medications I’m on pretty much all have “weight gain” as a side effect. The illnesses I have affect my metabolism.

So I’m not giving up, but even when I’m thin, I will still accept people for who they are–not what size they are.

That usually puts an end to THAT discussion.

Furthermore, why do they think that exercising two hours a day makes them some kind of hero? How about volunteering two hours a day to actually benefit someone other than yourself, if you’ve got all that time, and you want people to think you’re awesome? Someone who expends all that energy for the sake of expending energy is just wasteful. Life’s too short for that crap :)

Oh, and sorry to everybody whose comments got caught in the spam filter for a while there. It was mighty picky today.

While on this topic then, I total Rah! to Yellowhammer. I wish my tax dollars would do MORE for schools, MORE for healthcare, MORE for vetrans, etc., etc. Since I pay it out, I want it to help others. I don’t mind paying taxes, I just wish that money wouldn’t go to all the wrong places, which I’ve just decided not to list because that one would be exhaustive and depressing.

I kinda bet our douchehound wasn’t looking for quite that much of an audience.