Thursday, 24 January 2013

Health is not superficial.

There is a facebook page called Voluptuous Vixens, the admins there decided to post a status saying the reason they would discuss exercise, but not dieting (or was it vice versa?) is because that (by no definition other than their own) was "fat shaming." VV banned me for making this statement.
"Exercise makes you loose weight just the same as dieting. Ill-logic to discus one without the other. Big is beautiful but there is a stage where it's not healthy. And It's not "fat shaming" to put a value on health."
^Typical VV girl.^
^Me 2 weeks into motherhood.^
The truth is I'm not one of these big girls, I know big girls, I'm friends with big girls, but I'm hardly a humanoid stick insect either. I have been largely blessed in the metabolism department most of my life, but that isn't to say I ever took that for granted. I've never been a fan of junk-food, and I have a healthy appetite for fresh air when the weather allows. Even if I'm stuck inside I usually get up and boogie to the radio without thinking and only realise I've done this when the song ends. I got to the end of my pregnancy more or less similar size to what I was before. But now I'm waffling. In summary I'm not your typical VV girl. The funny thing about the truth is that it will remain the truth whether you believe (or just want to believe) in it or not. A correlation between weight and health exists. BMI can lie, someone who is heavy may not be unhealthy, but that doesn't mean obesity is a myth. Stating the obvious is not being superficial, hating on yourself (or others) and it is not "sizeist".
The sad thing is if I had been a typical VV girl chances are my comments of concern and care would have been seen in the context it was meant and not be seen as an attack. Instead my comment was deleted and I got the instant "OMG U SKINNY BIAAATCH" banhammer of doom.

"Hate to be the one to say it, but when a fat girl discriminates against a slim girl because the slim girl advocates a healthy lifestyle and healthy body image, that's not healthy body image; that's a fat chick searching desperately for outside validation. Woman of all ages and sizes, please, please, LEARN THE DIFFERENCE!" (Thanks to a friend for this quote!)
At the end of the day "be how you like as long as you are healthy", is some of the best advice anybody can give you. If you wander into the realms of body extremes and look like this:

You have a problem, NOT a lifestyle.

And you should expect people to call you up on it, sometimes it's not even to be bitchy, in fact more times than you know it's because they care.
Obesity and Anorexia are not beautiful, not healthy, and certainly nothing to be proud of.


1 comment:

  1. Haha I love it! Some of those quotes are remarkably familiar :-P

    But yes, absolutely right! There's a big difference between being fat and being unhealthy; I've recently discovered many areas of the gym that my fitness-freak boyfriend struggles in that my size 18 ass can excel in without breaking a sweat. Similarly, there's a big difference between body acceptance and self love (what VV and groups like it pimp) and a realistic view of yourself. Yes, you can be fat and love yourself. Yes, you can be unhealthy and love yourself. And yes, you can love yourself and want to change yourself for the better. Loving yourself doesn't give you a free pass to defend your short comings.

    We encourage abused women to leave the abusive men they love, we encourage drug addicts to give up the substances they love...why is it unreasonable to express the view that unhealthily sized people should consider parting ways with the fat they love?

    That said, I don't actually care one way or the other. You can eat yourself to death as far as I'm concerned, or starve yourself in the hopes of some day being light enough to float to heaven on a single helium balloon (the goal of one pro-Ana girl I've spoken to), but ultimately if someone shoves an opinion down my throat I'll shove one right back at 'em!

    ReplyDelete

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