“Good Fatty Blog” and privileged voices

Longer treadmill run today: 4 miles in 53 minutes, nice and solid, no need for a walking break. Today actually would’ve been a nice day to run outside, but I neglected to plan ahead so I was stuck inside. Tomorrow I might just join J for a regular lifting day, or I might try HIIT again. I haven’t decided yet. I did get good sleep last night (thanks, bedtime yoga) so maybe I can handle getting up extra early.

Someone I follow on tumblr, fancybidet, made a tremendous post being critical of fat acceptance/body positivity and Health At Every Size for still focusing in on bodies that are compliant and able, the ‘good fatties’, while conveniently ignoring and othering the ‘bad fatties’ who, for whatever reason, aren’t following the cultural narrative of health-seeking. The trope of random weight loss after working on body acceptance is still huge in this space, and she does a great job of breaking it down as a person who instead has had weight gain as a result of disability.

We live in a culture that doesn’t know what to do with people with disabilities and health conditions. The intersection of weight and disability is blurry, misunderstood, and demonised; and many people within “body positivity” fail to comprehensively understand the nuances of living in a body that is fat and disabled (not to mention fat and not white/ poor/ trans or a combination of those!)

Ignoring my feelings is counter-productive and only serves to internalise shame when I need to draw attention to this shit many of us feel. Lots of people in body positivity circles are still trotting out the “good fatty” trope when it does harm. Some of us are bad fatties who are putting on weight and can’t control our disobedient bodies. And I want to be able to take up space physically and intellectually and have my body respected like it should be. When I am ashamed, I am quiet, and I am more inclined not to advocate for myself; I believe this only leads to negative medical (mental and physical) outcomes.

I want to talk about this here because, well, as a fat person who mostly writes about exercise and fitness, I might as well slap “Good Fatty Blog” up on this– my voice here is incredibly privileged. I want to recognize where I benefit and make sure I’m thinking about the intersection and demanding respect for all people in all kinds of bodies.

So go read her post! And let’s talk about how things can be better.

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