Photo by Iyunmai on Unsplash
The latest celebrity gossip
In case you haven’t been keeping up with the latest celebrity gossip, I have some tea for you! Fitness trainer Jillian Michaels was heavily criticized for a post on social media. This had nothing to do with her workouts, but it had everything to do with her body shaming musical artist Lizzo about her size and insinuating that she’s at risk for diabetes.
There was a lot of backlash on social media for this inaccurate statement. Let’s get one thing straight: Lizzo plays two-hour shows while singing, dancing, twerking, AND playing the flute...in heels. That woman has got some serious stamina!
Health at every size
Michael’s comment is a reminder that a lot of the world still needs to catch up with the progressive Health at Every Size (HAES) movement, pioneered by the brilliant and courageous Linda Bacon. If you’re not familiar with HAES, please keep reading because the following information could be life-changing. It sure has been for me.
Negative word association
Our culture has stigmatized folks in larger bodies for decades. Think of the word “fat”... what comes up for you? Did you get a little spike of anxiety? Maybe a mental image of a larger-bodied person eating a super-sized meal? What words do you associate with “fat”? If you can only think of negative words and images, you’re not alone.
Our culture has long taught us that fatness is associated with laziness, gluttony, grossness, and overall badness. It is easy to gloss through these words and carry on as if they don’t have an impact. Except they do. Take a moment with these words: Laziness. Gluttony. Grossness. Badness. There’s nothing good about these descriptions.
Fat people are often treated worse than people who are so called, “skinny.” Society tells us that fatness always equals unhealthiness. This belief is perpetuated by misinformed medical/wellness professionals who use illegitimate measures of health based on weight.
The BMI myth
The labels most commonly tacked onto fat folks are “obese” and “overweight,” which both originated from the Body Mass Index (BMI), an algebreic calculation used as an indicator for health risk based on height and weight ONLY.* It does not account for a lot of other variables to make our bodies different: water, hormones, bone density, muscle mass, activity level or other factors. By this measure, Lebron James would be flagged as overweight. If medical professionals are only using the BMI chart as a reference, they’d let him know that his knees might stop hurting if he dropped some lbs. Even though the medical field knows better than to actually apply this measure to athletes, it is still often applied to the general public.
Taking back the label
HAES proposes that if the BMI measure is BS, so are the labels. The words “obese” and “overweight” have implications of poor health, which isn’t an accurate experience of every larger-bodied person. We’ve all seen this: some larger-bodied people can run a half marathon while other “model-looking” individuals have trouble climbing a small hill. Someone’s size does not tell us the whole picture about a person’s health and capabilities!
Because of this, people in large bodies are reclaiming the word “fat” as an identifier and working to end the stigma. Just as someone can be neutrally tall or short, they can be neutrally fat or thin…and all of it is okay.
Learning to be okay with your body
If you’re struggling with living life as a person who identifies as fat, I see you. Maybe you’re struggling with living life as a perfectly imperfect-bodied person, I also see you. When I think back at a comic of a young average-sized woman in front of a mirror, asking, “Which bit would you alter first?” I really liked the response of the woman across from her, perhaps it’s mom or someone from the medical profession: “The culture.”
Come on in if you’d like help learning to be okay with your body. Let’s help you love your body for all that it has to offer you!
Abby Erickson is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor at People Bloom Counseling, a Redmond psychotherapy practice. She helps people with anxiety and social anxiety learn ways to better manage their angst. She also helps people struggling with low self-esteem and body image issues be comfortable in their own skin. She longs to help create a world where women and men learn to love their bodies.