Warnings about losing weight in time for “swimsuit season,” harmful food and body comments around the holiday dinner table, “New Year, New You” diet ads.Think of this barrage of toxic messages. And it’s totally understandable that you might feel frustrated with your body shape and size. “Ugh, I’m so fat!” I say out loud.
Being fat myself, I fully understand that the word “fat” can be shorthand for so many negative emotions. It’s not the words, it’s the way my body exists in the world.) But it’s worth re-evaluating your use of the phrase “I’m fat.” accessibility issues.
If you use the word “fat” to express your dissatisfaction with your body, please know that I am not saying that you are not feeling right. , tells us if we just lost X pounds or dropped y Clothing size, all problems are solved. But in a game of body-sized cat-and-mouse, the goalposts are constantly changing. There’s never a size small enough or perfect enough. we Not enough. But what I’m trying to say is that using “fat” to describe sensations only reinforces our culture’s pernicious body ideals and weight biases.
Overweight people face a myriad of limitations and prejudices on a daily basis. Treating being fat as a fleeting state of mind is another way of overlooking and ignoring these very real issues. As part of a larger project to reframe how we think about obesity in a more neutral and inclusive way, it’s important to recognize the difference between “feeling” fat and actually being fat. to be obesity.
Whether or not you’re actually fat, rather than just “feeling fat,” is based on how you’re accepted by the world.
It may seem strange, but but who actual Fat, Amanda? How can you tell the difference between saying “fat” to accurately describe your body and self-talking about not being overweight? Good question! Of course, there is a wide range of body sizes, and it makes sense to think that being fat is a matter of opinion, but for me, it’s actually clearer than that.
I’m thinking of something like a chair test.Do I need a different seat in a public or private space, or is the seat something I don’t have to think about? If you don’t get squashed or crushed, you probably aren’t fat.In other words, it doesn’t matter how you do felteither the world is excluding you based on your obesity, or it isn’t. That’s why claiming to be fat when you aren’t is a big deal.