Huron Expositor, 2015-07-29, Page 5Wednesday, July 29, 2015 • Huron Expositor 5
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Fat Shaming and Body Love: Two Sides of the Same Coin
Since I was young I've
been hearing that
obesity is an epi-
demic. The amount of
overweight people in
North America is climb-
ing every year and some-
thing needs to be done
about it. It's been many
years since I was a kid
and it doesn't seem like
anything has been done,
but our attitudes have
definitely changed.
One needs only to
check Statistics Canada
to see that the countries'
national waistline is
expanding. The numbers
show that as of 2014, 14.2
million adults over the
age of 18 are obese.
That's roughly 40% of the
country, an increase of
8.5% over 4 years. So
what's the solution?
Increase the national
awareness of healthy eat-
ing habits? Institute
Column
Matt Recker
stricter phys-ed require-
ments in school? Lower
the price of nutritious
food, or raise the price of
the opposite? I'm not
going to pretend I have
the solution, because I
don't think anyone does
yet, but one trend that's
arose in the past few
years isn't helping, or
is it?
"Fat shaming" is a term
that has made it into our
lexicon fairly recently. It's
essentially mocking or
dehumanizing someone
for their weight. It's a
common form of bullying
that has existed for as
long as bullying has, but
has recently sparked a
strong backlash. I think
most of us can agree that
bullying is wrong and
should be eliminated if at
all possible, but some are
of the opinion that fat
shaming can be a good
thing.
The argument is that if
overweight individuals
are "shamed" enough it
will motivate them to lose
weight and ultimately
benefit them. The sad
reality is, that this doesn't
solve the problem and it
makes it worse. Maybe for
some it can be a short-
term motivation, but
since when is shaming
and personal attack ever
going to have a positive
effect in your life? More
than likely it'll just make
the person more
depressed, lower their
self-esteem and cause
them to eat more.
To be fair, people that
think fat -shaming is a
good thing seem to be
pretty rare. Earlier this
month, popular internet
site Reddit banned a
number of their pages
(known as subreddits)
including one called Fat
People Hate. The page
was a dumping ground
for anti -obesity posts,
some of them being
pretty cruel. While many
users claimed the site was
stifling free speech, many
also claimed that it was
benefiting the over-
weight, at least in a
roundabout way.
On the other side of the
coin, the "fat acceptance"
movement has sprung up
to counter this trend.
People flock to sites like
Tumblr and Reddit to
support the overweight.
Their message being that
being overweight is fine,
that society is wrong to
tell them they're
unhealthy and that you
should love your body no
matter what. While the
message of loving your
body is good I think it
goes too far when it says
that obesity isn't
unhealthy, and it should
be a perfectly acceptable
thing to be.
The reality about obe-
sity is undeniable. Being
overweight is unhealthy.
Be it diabetes, heart dis-
ease, hypertension, high
blood pressure, gall-
stones, there are plenty of
maladies that target the
bigger folks. Being told
that you're a lazy, fat slob
isn't the right answer, but
neither is being told
there's nothing wrong
with weighing as much as
a piano. The frustrating
thing is that both sides
have the answer, at least
in part. Having a realistic,
honest view of your body
is a good thing, and lov-
ing yourself enough to
want to change for the
better is the key to
improving your health.
You shouldn't feel bad
about your body, but you
should be able to recog-
nize when it needs help.
Speaking as an over-
weight person who is los-
ing weight, that was the
key for me. When you
finally get to a place
where you have no delu-
sions about who and
what you are, and have
the confidence and self-
esteem to change, that's
when the treadmill seems
less scary and the plain
chicken and salad seem
much more tasty.
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