Sarah Thompson, founder of Resilient Fat Goddess, writes about body positivity, body liberation, and fat liberation at the intersections of gender, sexuality, and eating disorders.
I know you are working your hardest to provide the best care possible. I know you are working to improve people’s health, so that they can enjoy their lives longer. I know that you have to work within a rather broken system with short appointment times, insurance requirements, and have to work with the resources that you have available. I know that not every clinic, agency, hospital, or practice has the same resources as others.
Read MoreThe dominant culture in our society favors those who are thin and dehumanizes those who are fat. We are constantly reminded of this on a daily basis. There is an entire 150 billion-dollar industry worldwide that exists because of faphobia and weight stigma. Add in approximately $3 billion for stomach amputation or stomach alteration surgery otherwise known as weight loss surgery globally. There is no escaping that people are afraid of fatness. Fatphobia: Fear of fat, fat people, and/or fatness.
Read MoreIn my graduate school classes, sizeism is mentioned once in the entire five years I’m a graduate student. Every single class is required to talk about marginalized identities and how whatever topic the class is focused on impacts those who are more marginalized or oppressed. Fat people are never mentioned except in the one class one time. I know from my lived experience that fat people are oppressed and I began studying feminism and learning about the history of size oppression in college. Eating disorders are covered one day in my “abnormal psychology” class and never mentioned again. Even in my “psychology of women” class eating disorders were never mentioned and diet culture wasn’t talked about.
Read MoreI really did think that each time would be different. I really thought that I would fall into the 5% of people that would be able to maintain significant weight loss long term. I wanted to be anyway. I did NOT want to accept that I was just your average person who couldn’t maintain weight loss over time.
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