Body Positive: Why I Endorse Fat Acceptance
In my blog I use Fat Acceptance and Body Acceptance interchangably because to me they mean the same thing. But I’ve heard the term Fat Acceptance specifically criticized for a number of reasons (mainly based on ignorance of what it actually means – e.i. associating it with feederism or thin bashing).
The reason I associate myself to Fat Acceptance specifically, however, is because it goes a step further than many media generated Love Your Body type Campaigns. These will tell us that it’s okay to maybe be bigger than a model and that every body can be beautiful. (Even if they don’t necessarily SHOW us that – I’m looking at you, Victoria’s Secret) They’ll tell you to love your curves and that it’s more important to be healthy than to be skinny. But they won’t tell you it’s okay to be fat. That, they would say, is too far, is promoting obesity, unhealthy lifestyles, etc.
People say fat acceptance is “too extreme”, but it’s exactly as extreme as it needs to be. It shocks a lot of people and frankly they need to be shocked. They need to be made uncomfortable. They don’t deserve to be coddled into thinking their old paradigms about weight and health and beauty are acceptable because they aren’t.
Fat acceptance is a branch of the body acceptance movement that includes ALL body types, yes but says with clarity exactly who that includes. It says if you’ve got a BMI requirement on your type of acceptance then it isn’t acceptance at all.
