The Fat Positive Lounge

[nycfem]

I listened to this again (Thanks LWF) and appreciate the scientific pov so much. We do much needless damage to our minds, bodies, and souls by focusing on dieting and weight loss instead of focusing on being healthy if we want to be healthy. Furthermore, fat is a feminist issue, and women spend so much time together critiquing ourselves and sharing exactly what we are eating to further our weight loss all day. I was reading this great article

http://www.oprah.com/spirit/How-One-...ve-Being-Fat/1

and thinking about how much time is lost to dieting, especially for women. This is supposed to be a feminist site and yet women are congratulated for losing weight, whether that method is healthy or not. Women, for instance, go long periods eating 800 calories a day or even eat 500 calories a day while injecting themselves with a pregnancy hormone. We "thank" them, as long as they are losing weight. One reason that I started this thread is because of how I see "weight loss" being substituted for "health," which may or may not have weight loss as a side effect. I find it easy myself to fall into the "thinspiration" perspective and all the petting that one receives confessing to being "bad" with eating and all the accolades one receives losing any amount of weight. I'm really trying not to these days. As a feminist, this is something I feel strongly about. I know this is not the prevailing view on this site and that this thread is not a popular one, but I deeply appreciate those who have read and contributed. It doesn't matter to me whether people who come here are thin or fat or whether they are on a diet or not on a diet. I just like that there is any interest at all in a perspective that even considers that in our patriarchal culture we perpetuate an anti-woman, anti-fat bias by focusing so much time and energy and celebration of weight loss which we all too easily equate with "health."

Originally Posted by LeftWriteFemme