Fat acceptance movement
Besides its political role, the fat acceptance movement also constitutes a subculture which acts as a social group for its members.
[6][7][8] The history of the fat acceptance movement can be dated back to 1967 when 500 people met in New York's Central Park to protest against anti-fat bias.
[10] Called by radio personality Steve Post, the "Fat-in" consisted of a group of 500 people eating, carrying signs and photographs of Twiggy (a model famous for her thin figure), and burning diet books.
[11] In 1967, Lew Louderback wrote an article in the Saturday Evening Post called "More People Should be FAT" in response to discrimination against his wife.
He primarily intended it to campaign for fat rights, however, a reporter attending the 2001 NAAFA conference notes that few attendees were active in fat rights politics and that most women came to shop for fashion, wear it on the conference catwalk or to meet a potential partner.
[15] The FU were inspired by and, in some cases, members of the Radical Therapy Collective, a feminist group that believed that many psychological problems were caused by oppressive social institutions and practices.
[18] In 1979, Carole Shaw coined the term Big Beautiful Woman (BBW) and launched a fashion and lifestyle magazine of the same name aimed at plus-sized women.
[21] In 1989, a group of people including actress Anne Zamberlan formed the first French organization for fat acceptance, Allegro fortissimo.
By the 1990s, input from the fat acceptance movement began to be incorporated into research papers by some members of the medical professions such as new anti-dieting programs and models of obesity management.
[citation needed] Public transport has also been subject to criticism due to lack of inclusivity to fat people as seats and walkways are often too small to accommodate them.
[22] For instance, individuals who experience weight discrimination have reported facing more psychological distress, more loneliness, and lower well-being.
[41][42] Experiencing and internalizing weight stigma are identified as critical risk factors leading to eating pathology.
[43] Concerns are also raised that modern culture's focus on weight loss does not have a foundation in scientific research, but instead is an example of using science as a means to control deviance, as a part of society's attempt to deal with something that it finds disturbing.
[47][21] Proponents of fat acceptance maintain that people of all shapes and sizes can strive for fitness and physical health.
[citation needed] Informed by this approach, psychologists who were unhappy with the treatment of fat people in the medical world initiated the Health at Every Size movement.
It has five basic tenets: (1) enhancing health, (2) size and self-acceptance (3) the pleasure of eating well, (4) the joy of movement, and (5) an end to weight bias.
Men respond to being overweight differently, (i.e., having a Body Mass Index of 25 or more), being half as likely as women to diet, a quarter as likely to undergo weightloss surgery and only a fifth as likely to report feeling shame about their weight.
[64] In the 1970s, fat people in the United States began seeking legal redress for discrimination based on weight, primarily in the workplace but also for being denied access to, or treated differently in regards to, services or entertainment.
[67] The cities of Washington, D.C., San Francisco (2000), Santa Cruz, Binghamton, Urbana (1990s), New York (2023),[68][69] and Madison (1970s) have also passed laws prohibiting weight discrimination.
Despite recommendations from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to the contrary, in 2009 the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit decided that fat people will only qualify as disabled if it can be proved that their weight is caused by an underlying condition, supporting the concept that being obese is not inherently a disability.
But in 2018, the Washington Supreme Court provided weight-related disability bias protection without evidence of a related medical condition.
In the UK an All-Party Parliamentary Group published a report in 2012 called Reflections on Body Image that found that one in five British people had been victimized because of their weight.
[citation needed] In many colleges, student groups with a fat activist agenda have emerged, including Hampshire, Smith, and Antioch.
[77] The fat acceptance movement has been divided in its response to proposed legislation defining morbidly obese people as disabled.
The primary criticism is that fat acceptance ignores studies that have shown health issues to be linked to obesity and hence encourages an unhealthy lifestyle.
[82] In 2008, Lily-Rygh Glen, a writer, musician, and former fat acceptance activist, interviewed multiple women who claimed to be rejected by their peers within the movement and labeled "traitors" when they changed their diets.
[87][88][89][90] Barry Franklin, director of a cardio rehab facility, stated: "I don't want to take on any specific organization but... A social movement that would suggest health at any size in many respects can be misleading.
