The Problem with Fat-Shaming
By: Julianna P.
Tags: Body Positive, Health, Fat Shaming, Body Image, Fat

It seems acceptable in our culture to shame fat people, and I’d like to push back on that. In Facebook comments and tweets, I’ve seen people list various reasons for why they should be able to shame fat strangers, and I’m going to debunk four of the most common arguments.

Argument 1: Being fat is unhealthy.

First of all, this is sort of true and sort of not. Being obese does come with health risks, and being morbidly obese comes with more health risks. But people, women especially, are often shamed for their entirely healthy weight and forced to strive for unhealthy levels of thinness. Conversely, folks struggling with disease, grief, and eating disorders receive callous “compliments” on their weight loss [1]. Our society idolizes thinness, and that is the animus behind most fat-shaming comments (and thin-praising compliments), not concern for health.

Second, what business is it of yours? Fat people know they’re fat. Unhealthy people know they’re unhealthy. Why do you think your comments are needed? In fact, your hurtful comments could be having the opposite effect. Fat people are less likely to go to the gym if they feel ashamed or embarrassed, and if they are prone to disordered eating, the depression associated with public shaming can result in binging [2]. So if you really cared about their health, you’d keep your mouth shut.

Third, out of all of the unhealthy habits we see people partake in, why is being fat the one you feel comfortable to comment on? I doubt you feel the need to comment when you see a thin stranger eating way too much salt or when you see someone drinking way too much alcohol. When you see someone overdoing it with exercise or exercising in a way that could lead to injury, you probably think their body is none of your business. So why do you feel the need to shame fatness?

Argument 2: Fatness drives up insurance rates and/or the cost of medical care.

There are two problems with this argument.

First, do you feel the same about other unhealthy attributes or habits? For example, in 2011, the Welsh government released a report documenting the costs of obesity and alcohol-related health problems [3]. The report states that alcohol-related health problems account for ~1.3% of total health costs, and obesity accounts for ~1.4%. If you shame fat people but don’t go yell at people in bars, then you don’t really care about this. You just hate fat people.

Second, how does shaming help? It doesn’t. It doesn’t do anything to reduce obesity rates [2], so it doesn’t do anything to reduce costs. But here’s what you could do to reduce medical costs overall: Help the poor. Help them so that they have more time to exercise (i.e., don’t need to work multiple jobs to make ends meet), more money to afford healthy food, space to exercise near where they live, reduced stress (which can exacerbate obesity [4]), and safe and healthy housing away from industrial waste. Essentially, instead of shaming people, do the useful work of combatting the ways our society and institutions perpetuate ill health.

Argument 3: Fat shaming is natural because we’ve evolved to hate fat bodies.

In order for this to be true, all cultures in all time periods would need to have hated fat bodies. Fat-shaming, however, is not universal. In fact, some cultures are “fat positive”, meaning their beauty standards revere plump bodies over thin ones [5,6]. If humans evolved to feel innate disgust at the sight of fat bodies, fat positive cultures wouldn’t exist.

Argument 4: I don’t want to have to look at fat bodies.

This argument is both the most vile and the most honest. This is what fuels most fat shaming, and it’s horrific. This argument stems from the idea that other people’s bodies, especially women’s bodies, exist solely for your pleasure, and if the body does not bring you pleasure, it should not exist. Let’s get this straight: Other people’s bodies do not exist for you. You are not entitled to them, and you are not entitled to control them.

So if you engage in fat-shaming, honestly examine why you do so. What are you trying to accomplish? Do you think your shaming is genuinely helpful, or does it just make you feel good at someone else’s expense? Perhaps it would be best to remember: “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”