Posts Tagged ‘body positivity’

Ignorance of Causality Meets Fear of Body Positivity

June 25, 2018 — The headlines are jolting. Body positivity causes people to think they aren’t obese, says Newsweek. It is a threat to public health, the reporting suggests. Unfortunately, many other publications came up with similar stories. A new study Friday in Obesity prompted this sensationalism. In her paper, Raya Muttarak does not make the claim of cause and […]

Can Weight Management and Body Positivity Peacefully Coexist?

May 31, 2018 — Kelly deVos is having a crisis of confidence in her beliefs about body positivity. Writing the in the New York Times, she says: The problem with today’s version of body positivity is that it refuses to acknowledge that no one approach is right for every person. One teenager might grow up to be healthy at […]

Roxane Gay: Beautiful Honesty for an Ugly World

April 28, 2018 — Beautiful honesty is a gift for an ugly world. And yet again, Roxane Gay offers us this gift with a well-crafted essay on her decision to have gastric sleeve surgery in January this year. Mixed Emotions About a Harsh Reality This was not an easy decision. Gay describes the final straw: After more than 15 […]

The Shame of Human Nature in Words and Images

April 27, 2018 — Human nature can be noble and it can be shameful. But how do you counter the shame of human nature that expresses itself in weight bias and stigma? Some very smart people (Rebecca Puhl of the Rudd Center comes to mind) have gone after it with academic rigor. Social activists and the internet named it “fat […]

Fat Acceptance Advocates Are Unhappy with Weight Watchers

February 11, 2018 — Social media gives power to intense emotions. And if you want to sample intense emotions, tune into a conversation between fat acceptance advocates and Weight Watchers. Well, calling it a conversation is probably inaccurate. It’s more of a one-sided torrent of anger. And it’s all about outreach to teens. Sparked by a Press Release Last […]

Living Large in France and Other Fashion Statements

September 12, 2017 — Fashion has long been a safe harbor for fat shaming – both subtle and explicit. Headlines from New York Fashion Week might make you think this harsh reality is fading fast. But a broader view would say not so fast. French culture prizes both style and cuisine, and according to Gabrielle Deydier, that puts a […]

Jessamyn Stanley Teaches Us About Loving Every Body

July 16, 2017 — Jessamyn Stanley, author of the Every Body Yoga, deals gracefully with passive aggressive trolls who ask, “what about your health?” What about your health? Why are you asking such an intimate question? I can google. I know about heart disease and diabetes. And so Stanley has more than 300,000 devoted Instagram followers and a book […]

Roxane Gay Offers Us a Difficult Memoir: Her Body’s

June 18, 2017 — Roxane Gay has given us a fabulous gift: the memoir of her body, titled Hunger. It took her through some difficult memories, just as it will take you there if you choose to read it. Gay told the Washington Post: I’d wanted to write about fat for a while, and I didn’t quite know how. […]

Coming to the Big Screen: A Real Barbie

December 4, 2016 — The Hollywood body positivity story for today has it that Amy Schumer may be coming to the big screen as a real life Barbie. It’s a perfect intersection of a minor hero for body positivity with a historical villain. Under a Washington Post headline declaring that “Schumer will be the most perfect (imperfect) Barbie ever,” […]

This Is Us: Working on Weight Loss Under Contract

November 21, 2016 — What could be worse than living with obesity and feeling like you’re invisible? How about having the whole world watch while you work on your weight under the terms of an employment contract? That’s a circumstance that actress Chrissy Metz is embracing. When she signed on for the role of Kate in the hit show, […]