Fat Acceptance Movement

[The Right Honourable Mlle Antéchrist]

^^ Susan Eman is the one I was thinking of. I saw a clip of her on Dr. Oz a while back -- even when confronted with her children fearing for her life and medical evidence that she's extremely unhealthy, she absolutely refuses to acknowledge that she has a problem. It's incredibly frustrating to watch.

You can see the episode here: http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/dying-be-fattest-woman-pt-1

[Kat S.]

^^ Susan Eman is the one I was thinking of. I saw a clip of her on Dr. Oz a while back -- even when confronted with her children fearing for her life and medical evidence that she's extremely unhealthy, she absolutely refuses to acknowledge that she has a problem. It's incredibly frustrating to watch.

You can see the episode here: http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/dying-be-fattest-woman-pt-1

She was even on Dr. Phil, and Dr. Phil and concerned family talked to her about her weight and health.  She eventually agreed to go to a bariatric clinic to lose weight and lost about 7 stone, but her fiancé kept sabotaging her along the way and eventually broke off the engagement with Eman because she was losing weight.  Eventually Eman went back to gaining weight and her original goal of becoming the fattest woman ever.  I wonder if Eman actually learned about the life of Carol Yager and the life she lived.  Either she never had or has a serious case of "Itcan'thappentomeitis".  Either way, if she doesn't stop, she will end up having a life like Yager if not dead.

[rageaholic]

Feedism is pretty sinister, as it often involves a "feeder" -- someone who fetishizes overeating and extreme obesity, usually a man -- enabling an over-eater, or "feedee" (usually a woman) to gain hundreds of pounds. I recall one woman who has a goal weight of something like 1700lbs, who ran a fetish site and denied that she was unhealthy. She'd often post on Twitter about how she was still too skinny at 700+lbs. There were tons of men lining up to send her money for videos of her eating and egging her on to continue gaining weight, none caring that she's slowly killing herself. It's pretty fucked up.

You know, I admit that heavier women can be attractive.  BUT THAT IS FUCKED UP!!!!!!

[Witchyjoshy]

Feedism is pretty sinister, as it often involves a "feeder" -- someone who fetishizes overeating and extreme obesity, usually a man -- enabling an over-eater, or "feedee" (usually a woman) to gain hundreds of pounds. I recall one woman who has a goal weight of something like 1700lbs, who ran a fetish site and denied that she was unhealthy. She'd often post on Twitter about how she was still too skinny at 700+lbs. There were tons of men lining up to send her money for videos of her eating and egging her on to continue gaining weight, none caring that she's slowly killing herself. It's pretty fucked up.

You know, I admit that heavier women can be attractive.  BUT THAT IS FUCKED UP!!!!!!

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqzUI5t9qJ4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqzUI5t9qJ4</a>

Maybe something to rekindle people's faith in humanity a bit.

[mellenORL]

Found a TED talk video that demonstrates the primary molecular/chemical functions of metabolism in a simple and fun way.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGKLpYtZ19Q" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGKLpYtZ19Q</a>

[MadCatTLX]

I agree with almost every post on this thread.  I believe that the reason the Fat Acceptance movement has trouble gaining traction in the mainstream is that the good, bad, and ugly of the Fat Acceptance movement is really conflated.

It's so conflated that:
1.) The loud bad and ugly aspects of the Fat Acceptance movement greatly overshadow the more reasonable demands from the Fat Acceptance movement, and people think that is all the Fat Acceptance is about because of the "squeaky wheels".
2.) Whenever an overweight or obese person is harassed or discriminated against for being overweight, people don't take the allegation as seriously because of point number 1.

Like I said in the "Worst of Social Justice" thread, the bad parts of the Fat Acceptance movement cannot get all of society to conform to their viewpoints to such an extent that they never feel emotionally hurt or uncomfortable ever again.  That is unreasonable.  If the person has had traumatic experience(s) happen to him/her which affects the person's daily life activities, they should not go to Tumblr, they should go seek professional help.

Feedism is pretty sinister, as it often involves a "feeder" -- someone who fetishizes overeating and extreme obesity, usually a man -- enabling an over-eater, or "feedee" (usually a woman) to gain hundreds of pounds. I recall one woman who has a goal weight of something like 1700lbs, who ran a fetish site and denied that she was unhealthy. She'd often post on Twitter about how she was still too skinny at 700+lbs. There were tons of men lining up to send her money for videos of her eating and egging her on to continue gaining weight, none caring that she's slowly killing herself. It's pretty fucked up.

Donna Simpson was one such woman.  She aspired to be the world's heaviest woman until her fiancé dumped her.  After getting dumped, Donna did some soul searching and realized that her goal would be a terrible burden to not only her health, but also her children.  From there she began to get professional help in dieting, and weight/image issues. 

Sadly, there are other challengers like Susan Eman and Tammy Jung who aspire to beat the record set by Carol Yager, a woman who died at age 34 weighing 1200 lbs (over 545 Kg).

When the subject was first brought up I tried looking for the clip of the woman from Worlds Dumbest Record Breakers. You finally reminded me of the name, Donna Simpson, but I still can find the video posed anywhere.

It's not important as I remember most of it anyway. She was encouraged by her first husband and more so by her later fiancee in the whole thing. She set the record for gaining weight the fastest on her way to the goal of becoming the heaviest woman ever. Starting in 2010 at 602 pounds she planed to reach the goal 1000 pounds in two years. Her normal diet was 20,000 calories per day with her 2010 christmas dinner consisting of  "two 11kg (25lb) turkeys, two maple-glazed hams, 6.8kg (15lbs) of potatoes - 4.5kg (10lbs) roast, 2.3kg (5lbs) mashed, five loaves of bread, 2.3kg of herb stuffing, three litres of gravy, three litres of cranberry dressing and an astonishing 9kg (20lbs) of vegetables", and the dessert consisted of "a 'salad' made of marshmallow, cream cheese, whipped cream and cookies." (from her Wikipeia page) According to the Worlds Dumbest clip she regularly ate a whole package of bacon as a snack and if I remember right would drink the grease(I think, I might be wrong). To help speed up the gain of weight she limited her movement. In the video clip her daughter was cheering when she was able to stand up.

Some time later she gave up the record attempt when her fiancee left her. She is now on a diet to get her weight down to a slightly more sane level. She is also an advocate for the fa acceptance movement.

Info from memory of the World's Dumbest clip, Wikipedia page, and a section on Listverse in a list of the most dangerously stupid records.

[TheUnknown]

So, I just came across this:



The source is Men's Health (so possibly considered NSFW due to ads?)

So, is this accurate?

[Sigmaleph]

Seems accurate. The BMI is fundamentally a statistical tool designed to be simple to measure, which it is. By necessity it cannot take into account every relevant factor, because then it stops being a simple statistical tool (there are also other competing statistical tools, like the Ponderal index which is more commonly used in paediatrics).

So yeah, it's more accurate when applied to populations than to individuals. It can still give meaningful results when applied to individuals, though; imperfect is not useless.

[Ironchew]

It's unfortunate how much thinsplaining is going on in this thread.

Fat people getting bullied is a thing. We know being fat is unhealthy, but evidence-based medicine has not yet developed a comprehensive theory of the mechanism of obesity or a statistically successful treatment for it, so there we are.

Some people have the willpower to starve themselves. Most people, thin or obese, do not.

[guizonde]

Some people have the willpower to starve themselves. Most people, thin or obese, do not.

tl; dr: guizonde mocks this 1st world problem that is body-image and body-acceptance.

(click to show/hide)

i'm one of those people, but it's not willpower, it's plain forgetfulness because i don't feel hunger. i haven't felt hunger in about 10 years. i've got alarm clocks to remind me when to eat.

sounds great doesn't it? it's not. i can litterally not do the one thing needed to survive, yet i can't kick a habit like smoking. to boot, i have a lot of trouble gaining mass. muscle doesn't develop correctly on me, despite a very healthy diet (since i don't eat much, i spend it on quality food thanks to being in an agriculturally rich part). i'm 178cm for 55 kg (5'10 and a bit for 120 lbs). i look like a corpse, and i like it that way. when people tell me to fatten up, i tell them to can it because i don't like people parroting each other.
i am by no means anorexic or fatphobic. i am happy in my body and wouldn't change it for the world (well, maybe more earrings, but i digress). i voted that the fat acceptance movement is stupid, because just as pro-ana and other "body image" movements they are a) not needed because no one should force others into different diets and no one should form a lobby for a type of "standard", b) they're flame bait and encourage the creation of a false dychotomy (fat vs thin isn't the issue: it's those who care vs the rest of the world) and finally c) it's a non-issue. there are much bigger problems to solve to make the earth a better place before trying to pander to a 600lb++ person. i'm not against their anti-bullying. i'm against the fact that people care more about this than, say, the rampant corruption in governments, or the epidemics raging through the different continents. you want to make a difference? eradicate malaria before eradicating fat-shaming.
it's all about balance. why this is stupid is because it tips the scale to a non-problem, thus creating it. i'll never feel pity for those people who rage that they're getting bullied with an attitude to make a tumblrite humble. i'll feel pity for those who think whatever they say to bully matters in any way.

edit: case in point: http://thisisthinprivilege.tumblr.com/tagged/thin-privilege
why do i bring this up? because i didn't get what "thinsplaining" means. oh, so because there is thinsplaining there must also be fatsplaining? look at what the internet has become. a world of bright, harsh, lights. no gray-areas, no degrees of acceptance. privilege creates a sensation that everybody fundamentally has or has not. the gray area i'm looking for is: "does it matter?" "does anyone care?" "is this truly a social justice issue for the future?" and of course, my personnal favorite: "why is everyone getting on their high horse about this? don't you have energy to spare elsewhere?"

this isn't thinsplaining. this is being shocked at how people are obnubilated by futile and trivial matters disguised as issues of the highest importance. in other words, if you care about this enough to make a fool of yourself, you could probably stand to take a look at your life and figure out why you got angry about this and not about taxes.

seriously, this social justice thing is starting to look like team sports, and tumblr is the pub with the most violent hooligans.

(oh, and so we're clear: pro-ana are fucking idiots, just like the metric-ton club)

[Katsuro]

Like many other forms of social justice, I think it's a good idea within reasonable parameters.

Yeah, basically this.  I mean there's no justifcation for treating a fat person like they're scum but if they're unhealthily overweight then they should be encouraged to change their lifestyle (and being assholes to them about their weight does NOTencourage them to do that it can actualy just make it worse - I know 'coz I used to be 27st).

[Sleepy]

I think it's kinda dickish to call anorexics idiots. It's a condition accompanied by a psychological disorder, it's not like people just decide one day to stop eating for the sheer fun of it. That's like calling someone who has depression an idiot for experiencing frequent sadness.

[guizonde]

I think it's kinda dickish to call anorexics idiots. It a condition accompanied by a psychological disorder, it's not like people just decide one day to stop eating for the sheer fun of it. It's like calling someone who has depression an idiot for experiencing frequent sadness.

you know what, sleepy? you're right. that was uncalled for. i'll amend, but please read "anorexics" as "pro-ana" extremists. it's not the first time i rage against extremism here or on the fstdt boards, after all. it's almost my catchphrase.

[Katsuro]

I think it's kinda dickish to call anorexics idiots. It a condition accompanied by a psychological disorder, it's not like people just decide one day to stop eating for the sheer fun of it. It's like calling someone who has depression an idiot for experiencing frequent sadness.

There's also a werid double standard in society; a lot of people accept that eating disorders that make you thin are a real condition and treat sufferers as such, but often the same people are completely unaccepting of obesity-causing eating disorders and dismiss sufferers as all being lazy slobs.

Oh and talking of BMI, according to the BMI scale my ideal weight should be anywhere between 8st 13lb and 12st 2lbs (as a healthy BMI is considered to be anywhere between 20-25 inclusive).  Let me say that again...8st 13lbs is apparently a healthy weight for me, a 5 foot 9 male.   Do you have any idea how skinny I would be at under 9st??  When I was 11st 7lbs I had a 29inch wasit, I couldn't buy trousers that were small enough (seriously).  At under 9st I'd have something like a 24 inch waist, I'd be at risk of falling through drain grates.  So I wouldn't worry too much about BMI numbers, waist size and bodyfat % are much better indicators imo.

[Sleepy]

I think it's kinda dickish to call anorexics idiots. It a condition accompanied by a psychological disorder, it's not like people just decide one day to stop eating for the sheer fun of it. It's like calling someone who has depression an idiot for experiencing frequent sadness.

you know what, sleepy? you're right. that was uncalled for. i'll amend, but please read "anorexics" as "pro-ana" extremists. it's not the first time i rage against extremism here or on the fstdt boards, after all. it's almost my catchphrase.

Yeah, I definitely agree that pro-ana folks are idiots. Encouraging any sort of disorder like that is just plain wrong.