Their Opinion is not Your Problem

Their Opinion is not Your Problem

Fatphobia (not formally recognised)-Irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against obesity or people with obesity. In this article I take the definition of Fatphobia to include people who are overweight as well as people who are obese.

Fatphobia stems from the idea that being skinny, even underweight is normal, it is even encouraged by the fashion industry and Media, therefore if you are a person who is fat you are not ‘normal’. Fatphobia makes people who are overweight or obese think they do not hold the same worth as a skinny person and that to be successful and loved you have to be skinny.

I often hear the argument that being overweight or obese is a burden on the taxpayer and the NHS, but does this excuse the verbal and physical abuse that people who are fat receive and the social anxiety that comes with that? What about the assumption that any ailment of an overweight or obese person is related to them being overweight? The mental effects of a person coping with fatphobia can exacerbate problems and lead to complex mental health problems. Many people who are fat develop eating disorders that are not diagnosed and are even encouraged because it is seen as a good thing that they are losing weight; but there is no focus on how to do this in a healthy way.

Fatphobia’s effects are most cruel for overweight or obese people but it is an issue that is felt by many. About a year ago a boy in my history class returned after being sick for two weeks. He’d had a stomach bug that had caused him to throw up whenever he ate. His weight loss was so extreme it was noticeable from the moment he sat down. The girls on the table asked him what had happened; the joke was that he had lost so much weight he would not need to worry about his ‘summer body’. This is a symptom of fatphobia, the girls had internalised the idea that losing weight in an unhealthy and potentially dangerous way was better than being fat and that their worth was only equal to how much they weighed.

The best way to tackle this problem is to address your own fat-phobia, do not talk about your body image in any way around other people if you cannot guarantee the way they will react, you might not see it but you may be harming others around you simply by talking about your body image. Confront your own bias around fatphobia and try to educate yourself and the people around you on it. Never compare your body to others, your body is yours not theirs. It is YOURS! It is also important to be respectful to others and so do not make negative comments about their body, their body is not your business in the same way that your body is not theirs.

Fatphobia has affected people, especially women, for decades. You will not find it in the history books but there has long been a policing of women’s bodies and how they look. We have always been valued by our looks and thinness rather than the merit of our minds and personalities.  Society doesn’t want you to take up space, it wants you to be small and frightened, it wants you to sit in a corner and let the men drive, but we can change that by changing the way we think. Do not buy into the patriarchy, you are beautiful at any size.