What is Body Positivity?| Wokeism#11

In the late 1960s, an organization named National Association to Aid Fat Americans (now known as National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance) (NAAFA) was formed to counter the discrimination against fat people. This was the beginning of the movement called Fat Activism. Over time the nomenclature of this movement changed, which is today known as the Body Positivity movement. It is said that this movement focuses on the acceptance of all body shapes and sizes and challenges the established beauty standards. This movement supposedly gives a voice/platform to the victims of fat shaming (criticizing or making fun of someone for being fat). The body positivity movement mainly focuses on women, but the activists say that this movement includes everyone irrespective of their gender (over 100 of them in the Woke world), ethnicity, religion, race, sexual preferences, etc.

 

 

 

As stated above, this movement started in the late 1960s in the USA. This was the time when the Critical Theory and Feminist movements were gaining momentum in the USA. These movements aimed to establish a new culture by destroying the established ideas and beliefs which were common among the people. The Fat Acceptance movement although started with a noble cause was captured by the radical Feminist movement ran by leftist ideologies. Over time, other offshoots of cultural Marxism like Intersectionality, Queer Theory, and the Critical Race Theory (all these three have been discussed in our previous articles) took control of the fat acceptance movement, repackaged it by adding cultural Marxism, and began spreading with a subtle nomenclature known as the Body Positivity Movement.

 

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In our previous articles, we discussed how a Woke person sees the world in a binary of perpetrator-victim or oppressor-oppressed. The idea of Intersectionality (multiple identities being more oppressed than a single identity) can be clearly visible in today’s body positivity movement. You are more oppressed if you are a woman and fat and most oppressed if you are a black woman and fat. You are less oppressed if you are straight and fat, you are more oppressed if you belong to LGBTQ and are fat, and you are the most oppressed if you are Black + LGBTQ + fat. Now let us come out of this ideological and imaginary world to the real world. Almost all the body positivity activists you see in the media (social/digital/print) are obese (having an excessive amount of body fat). The scientific term for being fat is obesity. How bad is the obesity problem in the world? Let us look at a few facts and statistics. Obesity is the leading preventable cause of death worldwide. The World Health Organization reports that worldwide obesity has tripled since 1975. In 2016, more than 1.9 billion adults, 18 years and older, were overweight. Of these over 650 million were obese. Most of the world's population lives in countries where overweight and obese kill more people than underweight. 39 million children under the age of 5 were overweight or obese in 2020. The main causes of obesity are excessive intake of food that is high in fats and sugar and an increase in physical inactivity (in simple terms, being lazy). The consequences of obesity are cardiovascular diseases (heart attack and stroke), diabetes, osteoarthritis (which happens because the joints cannot sustain the weight of the upper body), and cancer (ovary/liver/kidney/gall bladder/prostate, etc.)

 

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The Body Positivity movement ignores science/medicine/biology and enforces us to accept obese people as healthy. Consider this. In the year 2022, the women's health magazine SELF-put a photo of an obese woman as “the future of fitness”. Does this mean that the future of health is unhealthy? Next what? The future of two plus two is five. Or the future of cats is dogs? The body positivity movement also uses some jargon to promote obesity in the name of body positivity. Obese is considered offensive. Larger bodied is to be used. Gym trainer becomes fat ally and unhealthy become body positive. This is not only ridiculously stupid but also tremendously unscientific. These kinds of magazine covers are becoming rampant and fashionable nowadays with their emotionally appealing covers.

The body Positivity movement wants healthy people to accept obesity as normal. This movement wants obese people to play victimhood and not consult and good doctor/dietician to overcome their weight issues. This movement wants obese people to become social media warriors claiming victimhood 24X7 and not exercise. This movement captured by radical feminists and the Left has purposely mixed gender, race, religion, and sexual preferences movement which acts as a shield and makes the movement sensitive. So when you criticize these people, you are treated as an oppressor or a bigot. When you ignore scientific facts and statistics related to obesity, you automatically become a body-positive activist.

 

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No social movement is required to support obesity. It is because obesity is caused due to a lack of physical movement and not because of some kind of gender/race/sexual preference issue. Eat healthy, exercise, and consult a good doctor. Note: I do not support any kind of fat shaming of anyone. It is a moral crime that may have serious mental effects on obese people. But I also do not support the garbage that is being fed and spread regarding obesity in the name of body positivity. I oppose calling something unhealthy healthy. I oppose promoting laziness in a gift-wrapped package of body positivity. I also do not mean to hurt anyone whose obesity is due to any other medical condition.