New York’s Fat Beach Day gives plus-size people a space to be themselves
theguardian.com
Jacob Riis Beach hosts the day of body positivity and fun, in the city at the heart of the fat acceptance movement
Fat Beach Day events are springing up across the US in an effort to fight back against fat-phobia, reclaim safe spaces for the community and honor plus-size culture. Today, one of these celebrations is being held to coincide with Pride month at Jacob Riis Beach in New York, a location deeply ensconced in the city’s activism space.
Is normalizing obesity really a good thing?
No, but neither is body shaming, and fat people get a lot of that at a beach.
Yup. They just want a single day to enjoy the beach and feel safe and not be judged.
The internet loses its damned mind
A lot of people seem to think that you can shame people out of obesity, which is nonsense. We live in a country where processed foods are cheap and easy when people barely have enough time to relax, let alone cook. Those processed foods are also designed by everything from scientists specializing in creating new flavors to psychologists to get people to buy them, so they do. We also live in a country where a lot of people are expected to just sit in a chair for eight hours with maybe a couple of short breaks and a lot of them end up doing regular overtime (and that doesn't count commuting time, when they are also likely sitting).
Of course there's an obesity epidemic. Why wouldn't there be? But shaming people for being fat when they don't have time to cook or the energy to exercise and are forced to spend large portions of their lives sedentary is not the solution. You need to attack the problem at the source, not the terminus.
That's also without going into how shaming someone can easily send them into a spiral where it's even harder for them to motivate themselves to improve (this isn't just regarding fat people, but rather shaming anyone for something that requires lifestyle changes to remedy)
Happy people tend to make less self-destructive life choices
Well said, and thank you. I agree that shaming doesn't work. Fat people have the unfortunate disadvantage that their personal problem is so visible to others. The social dynamics would radically change if other types of problems were equally visible. Say you have a gambling problem and your skin turns green, or you cheated on your spouse and you grow a third eye on your forehead. Things like that. People love to judge and not be judged.
I hate this line. "Processed foods are cheap and easy."
Theyre easy, but they're not cheap.
You can eat much more cheaply if you spend a little bit of time cooking. There's no fast food meal that beats the price of a simple pasta with some chicken, or rice and beans with bacon, or a beef stew. You can get per serving portions of those for less than $2 USD and all of them use meat. You can get vegetarian dishes down to less than a dollar per portion.
None of those require anything more than a single pot and pan, and a half hour of actual cooking.
Besides, the vast majority of obese people are drinking 1000+ calories a day. Thats not about cheap or easy, water is the cheapest and easiest drink available. They just choose not to.
I say this as someone who drinks coke every single day, and has a BMI under 20. Weight is about portion control. Health is about nutritional balance and exercise.
Now, the lack of education around cooking and nutrition, that's a problem.
I'm not someone deep in the throes of poverty, I'm decently middle class and I work an office job but 12 hours of my day is dedicated in service of my job. My alarm goes off at 6 so I get up, washed, and dressed in the morning, leave by 7 for about an hour drive to work, I have an 8 hour work day with an unpaid hour for work, and an hour drive back home which brings me to about 6 pm. I'm already tired from the day and by the time I've made dinner, eaten and cleaned up it's easily close to 8:00. Before I'm too tired to go much further past 9:00 or 10:00.
And before you say, "why not move closer to your job" Gee I wish I thought of that but I live at home with my parents because homeownership is quite a bit beyond my economic ability at the present moment and rent is even more expensive than having a mortgage.
I do not think that life will change for the better without an assault on the Establishment, which goes on exploiting the wretched of the earth. This belief lies at the heart of the concept of revolutionary suicide. Thus it is better to oppose the forces that would drive me to self-murder than to endure them. Although I risk the likelihood of death, there is at least the possibility, if not the probability, of changing intolerable conditions. This possibility is important, because much in human existence is based upon hope without any real understanding of the odds. Indeed, we are all ill in the same way, mortally ill. But before we die, how shall we live? I say with hope and dignity; and if premature death is the result, that death has a meaning reactionary suicide can never have. It is the price of self-respect.
Revolutionary suicide does not mean that I and my comrades have a death wish; it means just the opposite. We have such a strong desire to live with hope and human dignity that existence without them is impossible. When reactionary forces crush us, we must move against these forces, even at the risk of death. We will have to be driven out with a stick.
Since you cut critics off before they could tell you to move closer to your job, let's see if they move on to "get a better job."
"Work from home"
Fuck I'd love that if I could WFH at a restaurant job.
I already have a hybrid schedule, so the days that I am worming room home gives me so much time back, but that also still doesn't help me budget my way out of living with my parents.
I had this problem. How I solved it was signing up for the planet fitness near the office. I was always too tired after the commute to work out at home, but found that if I go straight from work to the gym, I could get an hour workout in, while also skipping some of the heaviest traffic. Even if you show up, put on your gym clothes, and free-spin on an exercise bike for 30 minutes, it's more than you're doing now, and will add up.
I'm lucky enough that I don't have a huge weight problem, and the bit of pudge I do have would probably be pretty easily solved by drinking less sugary drinks. But I'm also speaking from a place of empathy because I get that there are basically no options that cover the healthy, quick, and cheap requirements people want from their food.
Empathy in all things, friend! When I originally posted my comments, I was all full of piss and vinegar. I was fresh from my city's pride parade festival, and as per usual, there were a bunch of protestors, hucksters, and others trying to scream at, ridicule, and scam everyone in attendance. What should be a safe space, gets turned into something else. I guess that's what happens when you try to be extra inclusive, you end up welcoming everyone who would also try to ruin the event. It upset me. Particularly this article, where it seems like now even just being overweight gives people the entitlement to steamroll what should be a celebration of gay culture.
That being said, I do have empathy for people addicted to sugar and carbs. When I'm extra sad, I let myself splurge on calories because it's better than the two alternatives, booze and suicide. And when I'm sad for long enough, I gain weight, and then that becomes another thing to be sad about. It usually culminates in my becoming so upset that I say "EFF IT" and start working out/eating better. Losing weight ALWAYS helps me feel better again. The process of taking control of what I eat and how/when I exercise is fundamental to tackling my depression.
and one of the best tips you can give to someone just starting out, is how to find fast food that's healthy. Pro-tip, get the wheat bread at subway. The Sweet-onion chicken teriyaki sandwich is only 360 calories and tastes amazing.
You could probably take a 50% pay cut and still be better off if you took a job that can work from home (or much closer)
You may want to run the actual math and think outside the box for options.
I already have a hybrid schedule, so the days that I am working room home gives me so much time back, but that also still doesn't particularly help me budget my way out of living with my parents.
I addressed this already. Many people barely have enough time to relax and de-stress from their horrible job possibly plus their horrible commute. Expecting everyone to be able to have the psychological fortitude to take the time to cook a meal regularly is asking a lot of a lot of people. Ingredients for cooking may be cheap. Energy for cooking is not a purchasable commodity.
They’re also compeltely ignoring food deserts
This can't be overstated enough. There are huge swathes of the USA where the only stores within half an hour are dollar general or gas station convenience stores. You literally can't eat healthy on those sources, and the nearest actual grocery store could be an hour or even more away.
Kinda hard to eat well when just getting the ingredients would take half a days time.
Hell, I'm in a city and if I didn't have a car my only options in walking distance are a convenience store and a couple fast food places. Nearest grocery store is a 12 minute drive or a 3 hour bus ride if the bus even shows up.
I'm just arguing that it's not BOTH cheap and easy. It's only one of those.
Also, don't cook every meal. I cook 10 portions at a time for my family every time I make dinner and put leftovers in the fridge (or freezer) which reduces the total time to cook per week quite significantly. It barely takes longer to cook 10 portions compared to 2 portions, which drops the per portion cook time down to single digit minutes.
If you think it is easy to have the mental and physical fortitude to cook, you are not working a job that grinds you into the dirt like so many others.
The biggest problem is the lack of planning. If you come home after working and don't know what you have or what you're going to make of course it's going to feel difficult.
So spend 15 minutes on the weekend making a plan for all your meals for the week. Do a single grocery shop for everything you need to reduce trips to the store.
The when you get home on Wednesday, you already know you're going to cook up some grilled cheese with soup (that's in your freezer from last week when you made 5 portions) and you can pull it together while you watch an episode of your favorite tv show on the tablet you prop up on your counter.
No, the biggest problem is, as I keep saying, the lack of energy. You can plan to do whatever you want before work. By the time work is over, you won't have the energy to do it. That's why I at my last job I got up at 5:30 am to exercise, because as tired as I was, I knew I wouldn't be able to do it after work no matter what sort of exercise I was planning to do.
If your job is so physically demanding as to make it impossible to stand, cut, and stir things, then why the fuck are you working out on top of that? Not to mention how much harder it should be to get fat in the first place...
You can eat ultra processed meals at that point, just don't have four potions of them per meal and you won't gain weight.
You seem to think mental weariness isn't a problem when it's a huge problem. Maybe your job doesn't wear your out psychologically. Many people can't say the same.
All of that can be true (and is) and it still doesn't mean you can't stop dinner before the fries are gone or cut your sandwich into pieces to eat and then don't eat them all.
If you're eating to destress you're choosing your psychological health over physical health and that's it's own problem to address.
And, again, body shaming causes stress, which will result in stress eating, which is why one day a year fat people can go to one of the eight public beaches in New York City without being body shamed is not a bad thing.
I didn't think anybody is arguing it's a bad thing to avoid / reduce body shaming. Instead, the argument is that overeating is not predestined and out of people's control and it's also not a blameless activity.
By all means go to the beach every day, and fuck anybody that says anything negative. Not everybody has to like the look of your skeleton or your furry suit or the look of you spilling out of your bathing suit though: that's preference not shame.
What people are arguing is that this one day a year shouldn't happen, while ignoring the issue that fat people, especially fat women, face a lot of body shaming when they're at the beach. Many fat women can tell you stories.
Also, on top of just random people giving them shit, they also have to deal with things like this when not even near a beach, which make them not want to go to the beach at all because of the shame being forced on them.
So, again, I think giving them one day a year on one beach in one city with eight beaches where they don't have to walk around in a bathing suit and getting shamed for it is a good thing.
Treating a fat person poorly is just not going to do anything about the obesity epidemic. I am seeing a bunch of posts here talking about reasons why people are fat and what they should do to not be fat, but they are fat right now even if they are now taking that advice and losing weight, so maybe a little compassion is needed.
All fine and good, and agreed on all fronts.
I still don't think it's a great perspective to normalize or justify obesity because people cope poorly with stress / only have access to fast food / really like French fries / have a back injury / etc. It's not (generally) an unchangeable destiny, and everyone at every moment is the caretaker of their own bodies.
I don't see any normalizing of obesity. I see a lot of empathy for people whose circumstances have led them to this point. I see a lot of explaining why someone may actively choose foregoing physical health for another reason.
You can support people who are in a position, even by "their own hand" without saying it's cool, or normal, or anything. You can give just a little back to these people, to hopefully help move them back towards an actual normal living without saying where they are now is good or healthy. That's what I'm seeing.
I don't think I was normalizing or justifying it. I was saying that people are living in a country that actively encourages it and that is where things need to be attacked if we want to solve the issue, just like you're never going to end smoking while tobacco is still being sold.
Time is a cost too. When people say processed foods are cheaper, time is part of that. If you spend an hour grocery shopping, you can buy a processed meal for each day of the week, and take whatever time it is to microwave it. That's a lot less than the 30 minutes minimum to make a meal from ingredients. That time becomes important when you have obligations past the 'regular' 40 hours a week job.
When we say cheaper we mean dollars. The easier part of the statement covers the time.
If it takes you 30 minutes to make a single meal, it takes you 35 minutes to make 5-10 portions and freeze them. Then you can do the same as the processed meals and pull a different one out each day.
The amount of refined sugar and high fructose corn syrup that the U.S. allows in our foodstuffs is so much that it'd carry criminal penalties in European countries. That shit can be just as addictive as heroin, and is in EVERYTHING. It's also been shown that sweet but sugar free substances that let your body taste sweet without receiving any glucose, increases your craving for the real thing. So while eating sugar free stuff can help satisfy a sweet craving, it can also exacerbate it.
When I see an overweight person, I don't think "oh what a lazy POS," I think "There is someone in the throes of addiction."
There's a reason Jenny Craig modeled her weight watchers club after AA.
There are many reasons that someone could be overweight and that is definitely a big one. We shouldn't assume anything. We shouldn't even assume someone is overweight.
I didn't want to make this personal until now, but I was overweight and I've lost a ton of weight due to an illness, so I'm actually at the average weight for my height now. But I still have a big belly, which will probably never go away. So I look fat, but I'm of average weight.
I'm sure plenty of people would not have a second thought about telling me I need to eat less and exercise more even though this illness means I literally can't eat and haven't for almost a year now and I am getting most of my calories and nutrition from Ensure and V8. I cannot possibly eat less.
[Please no medical advice or suggestions. I already have doctors.]
You're always going to be judged. If you base your own happiness on the collective opinion of society about you, you will never be happy. You can't control how other people feel, so you need to focus your mental energy on controlling your own feelings.
Sure, but that doesn't address harassment and bullying. If you think they just "need a thicker skin" you haven't been bullied in any meaningful way by a large group of hostile people.
yeah, I get that.
But here's the thing.
Everyone feels judged at the beach.
You're in a state of undress, in public. Bright sun illuminating everything, where the main activity is sitting and staring.
If you're fat you feel judged for your belly.
If you're a woman you feel judged for your attire.
If you're a man you feel judged for your lack of muscles.
If you're a teen you feel judged (I'm pretty sure this is just a permanent state of feeling judged between ages 13-23).
If you're alone you feel judged for being alone.
Everyone feels judged at the beach.
But that's OK because who cares what they think anyway? fuck'em, enjoy the feeling of sand between your toes. See how far you can punt that child. Collect a seashell.
Don't remove seashells from the beach, or else you'll be judged for taking them from wildlife that need them.
I don't really want to get into it, but, we have campaigns that actively target people who smoke and/or drink. Two other things that people can indulge in that can and will eventually lead to negative health effects and kill you, much like overeating will.
Again, that is not attacking the problem at the source. Unlike smoking and drinking, you have to eat to survive. And corporations have taken that necessity and twisted it so that people are not making healthy choices.
And there is still the problem of having the energy to cook when you're a wage slave.
No amount of "stop overeating and exercise" campaigns can solve those issues. You have to attack them at the source.
Except you don't need to stress eat or eat when you're bored. At some point you're eating over the calories required just for living. To act like what you're eating is the only problem is disingenuous.
More often its why your eating and how much.
Stress eating is a much smaller problem compared to the issues I was discussing- companies using science to make processed food very difficult to resist and many people finding it hard to get the energy- both physical and mental- to cook in this modern oligarchical world.
Also, if fat people are stress eating, body shaming them would make that worse. And my original point was about body shaming.
Sure, you don't need to stress eat while you're bored. But eating is already a thing you do, it makes you feel good, and it's there.
Imagine if you actually had to smoke a cigarette 3 times a day. The smoke is a requirement for your body. It makes you feel good, but you can go to excess and it's bad for you. This is MUCH closer to food.
You HAVE to eat. You eat daily. Not doing so is a disorder. So you can't just not eat, you have to develop a healthy relationship with food. With this thing that tastes good, makes you feel good, and you have to do anyway. Well, that's okay. We can have a healthy relationship with it!
Oh no. You're sad. Something bad happened. You need something to help you out. Well, how about some food? It's usually pretty enjoyable. You eat every day anyway, so like... It's not a HUGE deal, surely, and you're fuckin SAD man. Fuck it, whole pizza it is! Let's get happy!
Rinse and repeat, because life is inevitably a big series of bad things (and good, but we're not focusing on those) happening. Now your emotional coping is tied to food. It's not as addictive as nicotine, but it is a requirement for life. It's a lot harder to change THAT than it is to just say "don't smoke." It's like going to a smoker and saying "smoke, but only 3 times a day."
Which is what they said in their comment.
"If we can attack the problem at the source..."
And the issue can be spun in many different ways, but it always comes back to a single simple source, overeating.
That is all there is to it. Not if you can cook or exercise. Not if you buy fancy feasts or a bag of carrots and dip. It is only about overeating.
Exactly. We don't need to bully anyone smokers or fat people, but normalizing and "accepting" either is not an option. These people aren't just killing themselves, they are also heavily impacting our healthcare system.
Gotta eat to live. You can do without smoking or drinking. Big difference.
I'm not porposing or defending any approach here, where do you draw the line between the decision to address the underlying issues and catering to creating isolated environments to shelter the marginalized groups, tho?
I get that taking a breather in a safe environment to help with self-esteem and love is critical so as not to sink below that threshold of constantly feeling overwhelmed that is different for everyone, and I'm in no way seeing a one-day thing as anything else, but as public coordination events, how do you draw the line between the two I mentioned above? First example of going beyond giving breathing room to making a segregation comes to mind as the "pink buses" in which only women are allowed to be feel safe from men that some right-wing politicians bring up from time to time as a similar topic on addressing the cause vs treating the symptom or even causing different problems under such intention.
You draw the line at places where they are getting body shamed for no reason when they're just trying to have fun.
I keep saying this- This is one day a year on one of New York City's eight public beaches. Why is that beyond the pale?
For the afflicted? No.
For us as a species? No.
For capitalism? God yes.
Thin people consume the least. Once we stop growing we stop needing new clothes. Obesity changes this. Clothes wear out faster, you need new sizes. Obesity leads to depressive states where people buy more to feel better. Speaking of more: eat more! Have some sweets to feel better!
Be bold. Be beautiful. Be you (for us!)
Clothing stores and food chains done with you? Guess you are broken now...
Welcome to the medical system you will now need to rely on to function and stay alive! Till death do we part.
Obesity is an epidemic and it's too profitable to actually do anything about. They don't care about you, your feelings, or your health. You are literally livestock to these corporations that you think are caudling you and your way of life. This is a wake up call.
Obesity is difficult to conquer. It requires change and persistence. It requires support. Not everyone can achieve a 'healthy ideal' but everyone can do better.
NO
I have a family member with Hashimoto’s disease. Hormone treatment, regular exercise, and a healthy diet keep her as healthy as she can be, but still very obese.
Some people have no control over their weight. Is it fair that they are criticized for having a medical issue? Are you going to ask someone why they’re overweight before judging them?
Does Hashimoto's disease actually cause obesity? Feels like a lot of people blame thyroid diseases for issues that are actually mostly under their control.
In the grand scheme of things, weight is a physics problem. I seriously doubt that outside of extreme cases that someone would be obese solely from hyperthyroidism.
Hashimoto’s disease is a form of hypothyroidism. Hyperthyroidism is an overactive thyroid.
No, it doesn’t always result in substantial weight gain. Eating less results in rapid energy decrease. Consistently fighting through that exhausting exercise still hasn’t resulted in weight loss for her.
She’s gone to several endocrinologists and nutritionists seeking answers. She was also on dexadrine at three years old, because doctors were medicating energetic children in the 90s. She’s been given plenty of advice and speculation, but still hasn’t received a definitive answer to the problem.
The details of the problem don’t change my point though. Someone could be doing everything they can to address the issue, and will be judged just the same. It’s all the more reason that we shouldn’t criticize others for their weight.
You're right there are so many things that are not in control and it's not easy. It might not just be a thyroid issue that is causing it, but it doesn't help matters any. Many people have hashimoto's and are thin.
If only fat people KNEW they were fat!! We have to fuck with them. If they could just realize they're fat and hideous, then they would all be skinny!
Man, if feeling like shit that you're fat was a solution to being fat, there would be no fat people.
I have a friend whose a professional trainer. Mostly for people trying to lose a fair amount of weight. She says the biggest problem is getting clients to care about themselves and love their body enough to work on feeling better and making progress. She is entirely against fat shaming. It's only bad for everyone.
Yes it is, because quite a few people are obese, and they deserve to feel normal too.
They are nearly normal already but that's just a measure of how many people are obese.
People in this comment section being shining examples of why some fat people would feel uncomfortable at the beach.
Too many of them think protecting these folks from bullying and harassment on one beach for one day is some kind of threat to civilization. Typical moral panic.
Too many of them think that you can bully a fat person into losing weight.
They’re all completely in control of their weight, and clearly waiting for just the right arrogant condemnation to make a change. /s
Definitely not an environmental problem at all.
Fat-shaming is definitely an issue across the political spectrum, unfortunately.
May well be, but I saw comments like "This is how the left loses voters", and generally the pointless mean-spirited bigotry does come from the right
This users left Reddit but Reddit never left the users.
The Venn diagram between people commenting here and people going to beaches is probably just two circles not touching at all.
Pride is for people who were routinely ostracized, beaten, disowned, and murdered because they were different in a way they couldn't change.
Being overweight is something you can change.
Being fat has always been accepted. It's just not celebrated, because it's not healthy, indicates that you don't take care of your body, and/or you don't have control over your eating habits. There are rare circumstances when weight is influenced by a medical condition, but generally it's people eating too much and not moving enough. Being fat is looked down on the same way as being un-showered, wearing dirty torn clothes, or smelling bad. It's not the person, but the way this person presents themselves, and it can be changed. It's like if a guy wears offensive slogan t-shirts every day, and gets upset when people aren't especially nice to him. It's your own doing, my guy.
Were you kicked out of your family because you're fat? Were you fired from your job because you were fat? Were you denied healthcare because you were fat? When was the last time someone targeted fat people for a mass shooting?
Fat acceptance is just an attempt at finding victim hood within habitual self-flagellation.
But also, I've never fat shamed anyone, I've never picked on someone because of their weight, or "judged" them. People who do that are assholes. I'm just upset that pride is being routinely co-opted by other movements like furries, fat acceptance, and all this other nonsense that, again, nobody was ever actually hurt over. I'm sorry you feel judged at the beach, but gay people are routinely murdered because they're gay and pride is a protest.
Do you have any idea how many medical conditions keep people from not moving enough (thereby causing people to eat more calories than they need)? It's NOT rare. Hell, lower back pain is one of the most common reasons people go to the doctor, and guess what's a lot harder to do when your back is screwed up? Exercise.
I am a bicyclist. I love riding. I ride any chance I get. I also currently have chronic problems in my upper, middle and lower back, including a herniated disc in my low back, and it's aggravated by bicycling more than anything else. I've been seeing doctors for 20 years for my back problems, since I was a teenager. I had back problems when I was a size 2, and I have back problems as a size 12.
People will probably want to respond to my comment by saying that diet is a bigger factor in losing weight than exercise, or that people should adapt and find other ways to be active if they can. What I am saying is that weight, medical conditions, and eating more calories than a person can burn -- they're all connected and it's a very common problem.
Not being extremely mobile or having chronic pain does not require you to eat more calories than you burn. I have a torn disc and take nerve meds so I obviously don't lift weights or run like I used to, but Im allowed to moderate my calorie intake.
Age and a slowing metabolism are more pernicious, but even those things don't "force you to eat more calories than you need". Nothing is forcing anybody to do that.
Exactly, I think people eat way too much, too fast. Since a year I've reduced my portion size, it had a great effet on my weight.
But I never brought up the idea that people are being forced to eat more calories; you did.
I explained how medical conditions, health, and mobility are intertwined with calorie intake and expenditure and that it's a common problem.
Have you tried recumbent bicycles? they are a lot easier on my lower back, and there are some real fun designs out there like trikes that could make bicycling a reality again. Or swimming, when I hurt my knees and couldn't run/bicycle without pain, I started swimming laps, and holy cow is that a lot of exercise if you're not used to it.
Additionally, refined sugar is addictive. I know my previous comment might lead you to believe I have no sympathy for wider folks, but I truly do. I've lost 100lbs over a year once. I gain back when I go through periods of depression, and then I force myself to lose weight again. Over last holiday season I was separated from my family and spent it entirely alone. I gained about 25-30 lbs. Since then, I've restricted my calorie intake to around 1200-1500 calories a day, with around an hour of exercise also each day. I've lost ~25 lbs since starting that in March. I know how hard losing weight can be. I'm also a (former) addict, so I know how hard quitting something that's ubiquitous throughout society can be (alcohol). But it can be done. Sugar is addictive just like alcohol is, which is why Jenny Craig modeled her fitness groups after AA.
The problem is that losing weight is uncomfortable at first. You're hungry because your stomach is all stretched out, despite taking in enough calories for the day. It takes time for your stomach to shrink to the proper size, so for the first couple weeks, you'll be eating all your body needs, but it will feel like you're not. and it's uncomfortable. Weigh this discomfort against all the discomfort that being overweight has constantly provided, and decide which one you'd rather live through. The temporary discomfort of feeling hungry and not knowing what to do with your hands after you're done eating for the day (and only for the first couple weeks of dieting), or the constant discomfort all over your body and in your own mind, every day that you're overweight.
Just because something is harder to do, doesn't mean not doing it is okay. Overeating when overweight is abuse, full stop.
There are people that have a harder time quitting smoking, there are people that struggle not to cut themselves.
Nobody should look at an 8 year old with a cigarette and say "it's probably just genetic." Nobody should look at a junkie passed out in an alley and say "yasss, they're just living their truth!" Nobody should be incensed when they go a hospital complaining about abdominal pain and the doctor recommends they remove a piece of rebar they fell on.
We also extend some sympathy to the cigarette smoker, to the self harmer. Quitting smoking is HARD. It takes a ton of effort, nicotine is literally addictive. Self harm is indicative of any of a number of mental and emotional issues. Those are a nightmare to address
But at the end of the day, they should just grow up and do it, right? Just don't smoke. Just don't cut yourself. Just don't eat to excess. Simple.
Never mind the literal good deserts some people find themselves in. The decades of misinformation from lobbying groups. The fact that everyone has their own one weird trick,so you don't know who to believe. The fact that the cheapest food is often the least nutritious. The fact that, increasingly, people have to work more hours to get by, leaving less time for things like cooking a proper meal.
There are real societal factors that play into the obesity epidemic. We didn't get where we are because everyone was collectively like "let's just get fat, yeah?" - we were all brought to this point by the influences of the world around us. Personal responsibility is all well and good, but it's also not the whole game.
I think we are in many ways talking past each other. Of course it's hard. Of course there are tons of things that make the right choices more difficult. Of people deserve support in making the right decisions. Of course making major societal changes to address the risk factors for obesity is a noble goal.
Movements like this are just cheering people on while they put a gun in their mouth, and it's fucking disgusting.
Cool, now I'm a self abuser. Good to know.
Your comment is abhorrent and misses the point completely.
As someone who also struggles with weight gain... yes, it is a form of self-harm.
You don't have to exercise to lose weight, you don't even have to drastically change your diet.
Eat. Less.
You can lose weight on a diet of pizza, donuts and laying on the couch if you simply eat less calories than you burn.
You quite frankly sound like one of the many enablers that wants to make every excuse possible about why it's impossible to lose weight rather than taking responsibility for the countless poor eating decisions that lead to obesity. No one is born fat and no one wakes up fat, take responsibility.
You also completely ignored the point I was making so that you could tell a stranger to eat less.
It should be separate from pride, but on the "it's a choice" aspect: How is weight gain different from many mental afflictions? It's a mental issue that causes detrimental effects to your lifestyle.
I agree with you, being someone who has fought with his weight my entire life. The excess calories are there to fill a need, with mechanisms similar to substance abuse or gambling addiction. "Just stop eating too much" can feel like an unachievable goal.
Any weight loss of an obese person should be combined with psychiatric care, because if you don't identify WHY you are eating so much, you might just trade one addiction for another one.
You're gatekeeping the word pride, lol. Try just not being a dick.
Whats wrong with being a dick? None of us would be here without dicks. Say no to dick shaming. Dick pride.
Having a dick is all well and good, but I don't think I'd want to interact with a person who was entirely 100% a penis. Big difference between having and being.
A) that's just like, your opinion, man.
B). You against GMOs too?! Like, someone worked hard to breed him (and me) at near 100% dick. We bananas wouldn't even be edible if not for selective breeding to increase phallusy-ness!
I may be ignorant of this, but weren't plus-sized people already allowed on beaches? I've been to beaches along the Gulf of Mexico all of my life and have seen plenty of fat people there, and gone with my friends who are fat and never seemed to have any trouble.
It's not about being allowed or not. It's about creating an inclusive space for plus size people to comfortably sunbathe without being oggled and judged for their size, a privilege that others have more frequently.
Great in theory, but fat people will always be oggled at and judged for their size. All this will do is make a big spectacle and draw attention to those who really just want to be left the fuck alone to live their lives.
It also adds to the HAES bullshit. Being obese is unhealthy, that's not up for debate.
Imagine if they had a smokers acceptance day where we all had to give them a pat on the back for damaging their lungs. It's so stupid.
No one has to accept or celebrate your lifestyle they just have to tolerate it.
And as you're saying, if you want to be super fat, good for you, but people are going to look and that's not their problem.
I agree with what you've said here.
At the same time, encouraging obese people to go outside and get some exercise without worrying about how they look to others seems like something to encourage.
If they can go out to the beach and it wasn't so bad, maybe they can go out to the gym on another day.
This wouldn't happen for everyone, but if it helps a few people, then I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing.
My city has one or two trans bars. Cis people are allowed of course. But most of the clientele is some flavor trans or nonbinary.
It makes me feel so much less conspicuous when I look out at the crowd and realize I don't stick out at all. I imagine this could serve a similar function to fat people who want to go to the beach.
That makes sense and works because it's in an enclosed and private space. Fat day at the beach will quickly turn into a zoo exhibit for cruel people because the world is horrible.
Again, correct me if I'm wrong, but that's the price that ANYONE pays going to the beach? Generally, you are wearing more revealing clothing, or more accentuates your body parts (wet swimsuits do not hide much). So everyone can be ogled, in fact in my experience from my youth having lots of teenage boy friends, the more slim or conventionally attractive people tend to be ogled much more than those who are not.
On second thought, I shan't got to the comments section. T'is a silly place.
Really putting that tolerant left on display lol
oh look it's one of the three conservative jokes.
Should probly identify as an attack helicopter that hates his wife, make this comment the trifecta of dumbfuck.
I'm an anarchist, and something has scratched you, liberal.
congrats, you identify as the only thing dumber than a conservative
This isn't even a "tolerance as a social contract" moment, because avoiding reading the comments section on a controversial topic is in no way intolerance anyways.
This actually makes me sick. People on average are fatter than they used to be AND THAT'S NOT A GOOD THING! Do people really want to let the corpos win by shoveling slop in our mouths without care to the effects on our health?
I get that it's hard to lose weight, and not feasible for everyone atm, but it's not something to celebrate.
Why does it necessarily have to be a celebration? Are quiet hours at shopping centers celebrating sensory disorders?
It's not about celebrating, even if some people will use it as such. It's about allowing different people the comfort to experience a thing that most of our society takes for granted.
I've never met a fat person who doesn't want to change their lifestyle. Sure, there are a few who claim that, but in my experience, that's a defense mechanism from all of the people who look down on them daily. Something like this is only a good thing, offering encouragement at no significant cost.
I'm a larger person. I definitely want to lose weight and get in shape, but it's that hurdle of getting over your own self that's the hardest part for me.
I know that once I get into a rhythm and habit, it'll be fine and I'll even like it at some point, but I can't really get myself to start, even though I know I need to.
Also, I actually like that Walmart has the "sensitive" shopping hours.
It's like giving up smoking. A huge amount of smokers wish they didn't, but they don't stop until they say "enough is enough", draw a line under it and commit to quitting instead of making 101 excuses about how hard it is.
I hope you get to your "enough is enough" point soon.
One of my close friends from college went deep down the fat acceptance rabbit hole shortly after college. I had to unfollow her on social media. She went from being a slightly overweight girl to a morbidly obese woman. She had a podcast she'd promote saying things like it's ok to eat cake for breakfast if you want it; weight is just a number and all kinds of asinine things.
My weight has fluctuated over the years, but any time I'm putting on weight, I know it's unhealthy and I need to start going to the gym and eating better. Seeing her posts would drive me up the wall. She had one where she said something about how the gym is toxic, and you're just fine the way you are, and you can be healthy without exercising. She also was selling some plus size clothing pyramid scheme and claimed to be a model for the company. I don't think it was a defense mechanism, just another ridiculously bad side effect of echo chambers on social media.
I mean, it is. I don't think eating cake for breakfast is so much worse than eating it after dinner.
I lost a lot of weight with basically calorie counting. I ate whatever I wanted until I hit my limit. If I wanted more, I'd do some exercise to burn off the extra calories.
It taught me a lot about portion sizes and nutrition though (entered everything into a nutrition app, not just calories).
But I'm pretty sure there were some occasions where I had some cake for breakfast, lol
(Also...a muffin, waffles, or pancakes and syrup for breakfast are probably no better than cake)
John Stuart called it in 2004.
He styles his name as Jon Stewart, unless that's a picture of a book by the 17th century English philosopher John Stuart Mill.
The phase "My body my choice" springs to mind.
Is being fat unhealthy? yes. does it give you the right to decide what another person does with their body? no. "But the corporations are-" yes, I know. but it is entirely possible to campaign for better nutrition standards without treating fat people as subhuman.
I'm not telling anyone they have to force themselves to find fat people attractive or anything, but for gods sake they are still people. and what they do with their body is their business, not yours. That should not take away their right to be human.
I just wish we (as in I'm a trashy Americans) had the 100g (3.5oz) nutritional fact. Keeps the fucking bullshit "tic-tacs are sugar free" bullshit.
It's become an epidemic though, and IMO it's like saying do what you want with your body, do drugs if you want to. Then let corporation market drugs as they wish.
The last part of your comment is a mystery to me. Where exactly did I imply the industry should be allowed to do whatever it wants?
My post isn't about you, it's about "my body my choice" proponents, like you.
We need to teach people, like in school, the basics of nutrition.
That will go a long way.
Sigh, way too much to unpack here
Why not have smoking days where smokers can smoke inside of restraunts? Why are we not inclusive of smokers?
Because second hand fat isn't a thing.
It kinda is for the children of fat folk
C'mon 😹. Sorry about this.... 4 people rescued several people who apparently beached themselves. Fortunately they all survived and happily swam into the open ocean.
We should try socialism. Then we wouldn't have any fat people since there wouldn't be any fucking food for anyone. Am I doing this right?
Ah yes all the European countries are starving
Compared to America, Europe might look socialist. I assure you it's not.
Far more than the US in every way
Please note that nowhere have I pointed out or implied Europe lol
.
"I was going to vote for Democrats this year, but then I heard that one of the eight public beaches in New York City had one day a year for fat people and now I'm MAGA all the way!"
Lol yeah idk what the hell they're on about.
Oh come on, stop it with this perpetual culture war.
You voting for beach days?
Don't tell idaho, their bars will have a "Super awesome straight skinny guy beach days" every Saturday...