Separating fat from fiction
Fat is not a feeling. We often associate fat with negative emotions like lethargy, laziness, and discomfort, but this tells us more about society's attitudes towards people with larger bodies than it does about our own bodies and their size.
But what this stuff can show us is where these judgments have got under our skin and become a habitual way we berate ourselves. Because you cannot criticise your size without adding to the overall stigma. You are platforming it.
When we say, “I feel fat”, quite often, what we mean is that we feel bloated or uncomfortable or lethargic or sleepy or lazy or tired or like our bodies should move or guilt.
Let's just have a little pause and reflect on what you really mean when you say, “I feel fat”.
Because none of the things I have just listed are nice. They're not even neutral. And when we list them out like this, we can get a pretty good view of where we have internalised fatphobia and what we think of those people. Even if we are one of “those people”.
You've probably listed quite a few characteristics you would like not to have if you were given the choice. And this is a problem. Because we often think that people being fat is a choice. They have not put the effort into exercising enough. Or do not have enough willpower to just stay on a diet.
Which completely ignores the fact that diets don't work long term or that genetics, societal, socio, economical and health factors all play a role in people's size, and completely ignores that we're not all meant to look the same. Imagine how weird it would be if everyone was exactly the same height. The fact that we ostracise people in fat bodies for not fitting into a very narrow mould, quite literally, defies evolution.
So if you consider yourself to be the kind of person who wants to create a more fair and more just world for all people, this is going to have to include the way you speak to yourself. And you're probably going to have to shove along a bit and make some room for us fatties.
Are you bored of not applying your politics to your own body? You're feminist to the core, but you keep catching yourself saying mean things to yourself in the mirror? This is exactly why I wrote the Better Body Image course. It's a live coaching course with 4 lessons, 4 workbooks and 4 live coaching calls. It's 4 weeks to give you tools for life for you to be able to navigate the way your body will change throughout your life. If you want to bring more kindness to your body and more compassion to folk who look a bit like you, join us this March.