Size acceptance at every size

In recent years, the size acceptance movement has blossomed from a tiny academic circle into a burgeoning force set to demolish standards of beauty and stigma towards the fat body. However, it seems that a lot of people are still struggling in regards to what the idea of “acceptance at every size” means.

Combatting sizephobia and fatphobia is much more than patting Tim Gunn on the back for saying that there should be more clothing in a size 10.  If you support the movement, you do it at every size, even when it stops conforming to what’s conventionally attractive, heartwarming or “sexy.” If someone is 400 pounds or 90 pounds, you accept the way their body is because, for goodness sake, it’s their body and they can do whatever they want with it and it’s none of your damn business to begin with.

As Amy Farrell notes in her book Fat Shame: Stigma and the Fat Body in American Culture, in the early 19^th and 20^th centuries the fat body was (and still is) linked to inferiority and considered a mark of an uncivilized and barbaric human being. Many folks today try to preach in favor of the “civilized body,” but at the same time cannot seem to stop flailing their arms about in fear of the so-called “obesity epidemic” that’s sweeping the nation as we speak (hide your children!). We rant and rave about obesity, but in the end you have no idea about someone’s health habits and lifestyle choices from what they look like. We all know someone who is tall, thin and eats a ton of junk food yet never gains weight. We also know someone who is short, fat and exercises daily, but doesn’t lose a pound. Body size simply does not equal health.