Jacob Riis Beach hosts the day of body positivity and fun, in the city at the heart of the fat acceptance movement
Fat Beach Day events are springing up across the US in an effort to fight back against fat-phobia, reclaim safe spaces for the community and honor plus-size culture. Today, one of these celebrations is being held to coincide with Pride month at Jacob Riis Beach in New York, a location deeply ensconced in the city’s activism space.
I didn’t think anybody is arguing it’s a bad thing to avoid / reduce body shaming. Instead, the argument is that overeating is not predestined and out of people’s control and it’s also not a blameless activity.
By all means go to the beach every day, and fuck anybody that says anything negative. Not everybody has to like the look of your skeleton or your furry suit or the look of you spilling out of your bathing suit though: that’s preference not shame.
What people are arguing is that this one day a year shouldn’t happen, while ignoring the issue that fat people, especially fat women, face a lot of body shaming when they’re at the beach. Many fat women can tell you stories.
Also, on top of just random people giving them shit, they also have to deal with things like this when not even near a beach, which make them not want to go to the beach at all because of the shame being forced on them.
So, again, I think giving them one day a year on one beach in one city with eight beaches where they don’t have to walk around in a bathing suit and getting shamed for it is a good thing.
Treating a fat person poorly is just not going to do anything about the obesity epidemic. I am seeing a bunch of posts here talking about reasons why people are fat and what they should do to not be fat, but they are fat right now even if they are now taking that advice and losing weight, so maybe a little compassion is needed.
All fine and good, and agreed on all fronts.
I still don’t think it’s a great perspective to normalize or justify obesity because people cope poorly with stress / only have access to fast food / really like French fries / have a back injury / etc. It’s not (generally) an unchangeable destiny, and everyone at every moment is the caretaker of their own bodies.
I don’t see any normalizing of obesity. I see a lot of empathy for people whose circumstances have led them to this point. I see a lot of explaining why someone may actively choose foregoing physical health for another reason.
You can support people who are in a position, even by “their own hand” without saying it’s cool, or normal, or anything. You can give just a little back to these people, to hopefully help move them back towards an actual normal living without saying where they are now is good or healthy. That’s what I’m seeing.
Sure you can. But there’s a difference in being compassionate and saying “yeah I can see how you got where you are” and saying “corpos and your stressful job made you obese, you sweet child” which was the vibe I was getting.
I don’t think I was normalizing or justifying it. I was saying that people are living in a country that actively encourages it and that is where things need to be attacked if we want to solve the issue, just like you’re never going to end smoking while tobacco is still being sold.