I used to be a size 8 and held that size for about ten plus years through insane exercising and dieting. (All thanks to fat shaming coming from every direction.) It caused huge health problems so I get a chuckle out of the notion thin = healthy. Anyway, I’d get comments all the time that I was fat at a size eight. When I shrunk to a size 4 due to stress from a divorce there were still fat comments.

A size four being considered fat was quite the eye-opener. And having left that size, and an 8, ten, 12, 14, etc… far behind continues to open my mind. It’s really astounding the ugliness of people in their treatment of others just by their weight. There’s no pleasing them. Thank goodness I finally got off that pleasing others wagon. Or is that on?

Anyway, kudos to the post/comments!

2. This was just my 2 bit since Tasha has aired her views on a rather forum. It’s a comment not a critique.

3. I do not have an intellectual grasp on HAES, frankly I know it as it’s spelled out- Health at Every Size. And I did not equate being fat with an eating disorder, it was JUST an example!

Health shaming (the easy-to-use replacement for fat shaming! No assembly required!) is a very easy place to go, because it’s so compatible with our society and the Protestant Work Ethic/ Bootstrap Mentality philosophies that many of us grew up with. As a bonus, there are environmental angles, too (eating processed food uses more resources! Heavy bodies take more gas to transport!)

But I think the main reason it exists, even when it’s separated from a false conflation of size with health, is that a lot of us (myself included) have internalized fat shame, and it’s ‘ok’ to be fat as long as we’re not ‘that kind’ of fat. If we all show how Good we are, no one will ever be mean about fat any more! Yeah, right.

So I guess it all boils down to echoing B. Miller – “I don’t need your slack, jerkfaces!”

Shorter version:
A comparatively lazy/less healthy lifestyle =/= poor health/lead to poor health outcomes. People who are being fat at you will continue to be fat at you. The reasons why they are as fat as they are are not your concern.

Whether or not they are attempting to be less fat, or eathing healhfully “enough” or exercising “enough” is not your concern.

Tasha Fierce is just putting forth the idea that her lifestyle, like her health, isn’t anyone elsé’s business. That the need to separate the “good” fat people from the “bad” fat people is bullshit.

She isn’t advocating that anyone follow her lead.

You’re conflating being fat with being unhealthy. You said “choosing to be fat” instead of “choosing to diet and exercise the way she is.” And then you compared a comparative lack of exercise/healthy food with an eating disorder. Nice, mate. Nice!

Personally, my weight stays around the same, regardless of what I eat or how often I exercise. I imagine lots of fat people would be in the same boat.

What Tasha is saying is that her choices about her own body are no-one’s concern but her own. Even if she is fat.

She’s not living the way she is – diet and exercise, mind – because she has a point to prove to other people. That would imply that her weight is anyone else’s concern. She’s living the way she is because she wants to.

I’m curious about your grasp of FA/HAES. You still conflate fat with unhealthy, and reserve the right to critique other people’s lifestyles as if they are your concern, yet you claim that everyone should be accepted the way they are, regardless of size?
So we should draw imaginary lines through the movement?

Fat, healthy, “healthy” lifestyle
Fat, healthy, “unhealthy” lifrestyle
Fat, unhealthy, healthy lifestyle
Fat, unhealthy, unhealthy lifestyle

Not fat, healthy, healthy lifestyle
Not Fat, healthy, “unhealthy” lifrestyle
Not fat, unhealthy, healthy lifestyle
Not fat, unhealthy, unhealthy lifestyle

You can eat chocolate or lollies everyday, exercise rather sparingly, and still have excellent health readings and status. I do. But I’m not fat, so I suppose that if I were to increase my BMI/weight, my cholesterol count, BP, blood sugar readings and all the rest of it would magically increase, right?

Granted, I don’t have an thoroughly unhealthy dietand lifestyle. I still eat vegies, whole grains and fruit like they’re going out of fashion. But my point is that I am not concern-trolled about my choices the way a fat person with the exact same lifestyle and health status would.

They would be told that they are choosing to be fat, and fat=unhealthy, even though they are not unhealthy.

People believe me when I tell them about my diet and health status. People don’t demand that I discuss, justify and modify my choices. My lifestyle is not seen as anyone else’s business. Fat people are often not granted the same courtesy. And that’s the the problem.

Also, fat people can have eating disorders too, you know. They just might be diagnosed as EDNOS because of their weight.

Thanks for posting this, I feel liberated. YAY!