Anyone who has been on social media, TikTok, YouTube, or Instagram, in the last year, you have probably seen these claims that if you go to the gym, you are fatphobic. If you care about your health or the way you look, then you also apparently hate fat people. I am not saying that I agree with the claims. Since the pandemic, there has been articles from news outlets such as MSNBC “Pandemic fitness trends have gone extreme — literally” (msnbc.com). This article claims that researchers have reported that there is a network of “fascist fitness” online chats as of March 2022. Now as I was writing this blog, I began to question how much information I could put in without the blog getting “flagged” for inappropriate keywords. So, I am going to just recommend you read the article from the link above and see how the claims that going to the gym promotes violence and hyper-masculinity.
There are more and more people making anti-fat videos on TikTok and YouTube. They all seem really angry. These videos state that gaining muscle so you can look toned and have less fat on your body strictly for the reason of appearance, you are fatphobic. Some of these videos are quite comical stating that “Actively not wanting to be fat is fatphobia and therefore you are fatphobic.” “Fatphobia should make you uncomfortable.” For some reason, these content creators believe that it is ok to be overweight and glorify obesity.
But now, books are being written where authors like Virginia Sole-Smith, claim that the desire to be skinny promotes white supremacy and the patriarchy, according to the NY Post. I found another article from the Daily Mail where Virginia claimed that “the desire to be thin stems from the end of slavery” and “Americans sought ways to demonize black and brown bodies”. The book is focused at parents, “with the book titled “Fat – Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture.” I can’t believe that it states that there is an explosion of the myth of the “childhood obesity epidemic.” So apparently it is only a myth that there is a problem with obesity in children. The fact that this information is coming on a daily basis in the form of parenting books makes it seem more legitimate when it’s published by reputable publishers.
There have been so many articles about the growing number of obesity rates among U.S. children and teens. Doctors have started prescribing meds to children to lose weight because these children are so fat. Instead of unlearning biases as the book claims, let’s focus on correcting the problem. Let’s focus on cutting down our intake of processed foods and sugars. We should always aim to better ourselves, striving to be healthy and independent.
