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Sunday 11 December 2016

Fixing Bad Fatty Memes

Bullshit FairyThere is a concept in Fat Activism called the “Good Fatty Bad Fatty Dichotomy.” Basically, it’s the idea that fat people should be treated differently based on health status or performance of health (foods eaten, exercise undertaken etc.)  There is a more complete discussion here.  The end result of this is to create hoops that fat people have to jump through in order to be treated with basic human respect.  It’s bullshit, of course, but it’s ingrained in our culture and it comes out often in memes that are well meaning, but messed up.  Here are some that I’ve corrected:

why-would-you-make-fun-of-a-fat-person

And while we’re on the subject –  fat people’s bodies are not “problems” to be “fixed.” Extra shame on the person who created this for besmirching the good named of Captain Picard.

Original pictures is a fat person on a machine at the gym, photographed from behind with the caption "Making fun of a fat person at the gym is like making fun of a homeless person at a job fair." This image and caption are crossed out, the image is copied on the right with the new caption "Making fun of a fat person or a homeless person is a shitty thing to do no matter where they are. Don't be an asshole."

Another version of this compares fat people in the gym to sick people at the hospital, which is ridiculous since it pathologizes fat bodies and suggests that they have some special need to go to the gym to “fix” themselves that thinner people don’t. Super extra shame on the person who created this for using homeless people as a tool in their bullshit good fatty argument.

goals-based-on-size

This person took the popular meme “confession bear” and turned him into “stereotyping, patronizing bear.” As Fat Activists and Health at Every Size practitioners who have been asked intrusive and clueless questions by perfect strangers at the gym (like “how much weight have you lost?”) can attest, this is crap. Don’t make assumptions about people based on their size – not at the gym, not anywhere else.

run-or-dont

Ugh.  People who are running are not morally better than people who are sitting on the couch. People who run faster are not morally better than people who run more slowly.  We do not have to be “better” than someone else in order to be happy with ourselves.  I blogged more about this one here.

As always, think before you meme and when you see memes that put some people down as a way to prop other people up you can remind the people who post it that it’s not necessary and, in fact, it’s extremely harmful. No more good fatty bad fatty BS please. If you know of questionable memes you are welcome to link to them in the comments and I’ll be happy to take a stab at fixing them.

If you’re struggling with celebrating your body, consider joining us for the 2017 Body Love Obstacle Course!

This year we have two separate options – the BLOC Power Circle – an intense course that includes a series of live calls and is limited to only 10 people, and the BLOC e-Course which is self-paced and utilizes recordings. Both include the same curriculum and are coached by me, Jeanette DePatie, and amazing guest coaches.

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Super Early Bird pricing is available during the pre-sale until December 15 so
get the details and register here! 

Note:  if you are a Danceswithfat member be sure to check your e-mail and/or the member page to get your $50 and $30 discount.

Like this blog?  Here’s more cool stuff:

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Book Me!  I’d love to speak to your organization. You can get more information here or just e-mail me at ragen at danceswithfat dot org!

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