who gets to be considered a fat activist

[firecat]

I distrust most conversations about who gets to be in [whatever] camp and who doesn't, and what's the "real" way of doing something and what isn't. Mostly I think they cause more harm than good. So I feel uncomfortable with the comments I'm going to make, but I'm going to make them anyway.

http://www.ficklefingeroffat.com/ is a new blog by a person who was a famous spokesperson for fat acceptance. The person is now blogging about her attempts to lose weight. This has caused some controversy at shapelyprose and among some other fat-acceptance bloggers.

There are various takes on the subject, and I'm not going to list them all here. I'm going to discuss just one of them that came up in a friend's locked post. It was said that size-acceptance is about "live and let live," and suggested that it was hypocritical for size-acceptance advocates to criticize "a personal decision."

My comment was:

Thing is, it's not just "a personal decision" when it's undertaken in a public blog by a famous spokesperson for fat-acceptance.

The person has every right to do what they are doing, but writing a blog about their deliberate weight loss attempts discredits them as a spokesperson for fat-acceptance, in my mind.

therotund put it better here (emphasis mine):

A lot of the comments I have seen, both here and at Shapely Prose, seem to want to define Fat Activism as doing whatever the hell you want to do with your body. But that isn’t Fat Activism. That is body autonomy, which is a component of Fat Activism.

and

Does this mean [people who are dieting] cannot work toward changing social perceptions of fat people? No. But if you are a fat person who is publicly dieting, that is going to inform your message and reinforce the idea that fat people can and should lose weight by just trying hard enough. Does this mean you cannot appreciate and love other fat people? No. But it does send a message of “fat is okay for you but not for me” which kind of undermines the message of acceptance.

Comments

[firecat]

Back in the mid-80s I lost weight in a spirit of inquiry (executive summary: I could do more kinds of exercise and buy less expensive clothes, but I wasn't happier or any more well-liked), but I wasn't a fat activist or playing one on TV at the time.

[auntysocial.livejournal.com]

I never dieted without believing it was going to help me in some way. I maintained a much lower weight for a considerable period of time. I never stopped thinking I ought to lose at least ten more pounds. I went around saying I felt better at a lower weight, but actually I always felt hungry and a little bit worried about what I should be eating.

[firecat]

I never stopped thinking I ought to lose at least ten more pounds....I always felt hungry and a little bit worried about what I should be eating.

Ditto. Although I thought (when I weighed 160) that I still needed to lose 50 pounds. When my mom said no, I looked fine, I was flabbergasted (since the last time I had weighed around 160, in my teens, she had told me I looked six months pregnant).