when we’re really just talking about the average slightly overweight/obese people
Are we though?
I think the discussions here are mostly coming down to what you think you’re arguing about. Because there certainly are some crazy claims made by the body positivity movement as well. Even if the core message (“your dignity as a human is not bound to your body shape”) is something basically everyone can agree on.
So the big majorities on both sides argue against the other side based on some fringe opinions. And since one rarely explains their position in detail on the Internet neither side is aware that they actually have a lot of common ground.
-A person loses no humanity or respectibility by being overweight. Overweight people are still people.
Overweight people deserve to have their concerns actually heard. Doctors often literally will not investigate some problems that overweight people ask about beyond “oh you should lose weight.” For some concerns, that may be a reasonable diagnosis, but there are plenty of actual medical concerns that are ignored by doctors in fat people.
Shame largely does not work to get people to lose weight. For the people where it does work, it definitely doesn’t do it in a healthy way, and for most people it just makes losing weight harder. (I’ve seen a lot of people justify being shitty to overweight people because they think they need to feel shame all the time to change).
That’s it. It’s literally “treat people like people and actually listen to their concerns.”
Honestly, I’m pretty surprised that Lemmy already seems to have a bit of the “fat people hate” energy. People have a very specific image of a “fat person” in their head that they imagine when this stuff comes up, but all I’m saying is that people who are overweight sometimes have concerns that aren’t addressed by just losing weight, and those concerns are often dismissed because we value and respect fat people much less than skinny people.
Are we though?
I think the discussions here are mostly coming down to what you think you’re arguing about. Because there certainly are some crazy claims made by the body positivity movement as well. Even if the core message (“your dignity as a human is not bound to your body shape”) is something basically everyone can agree on.
So the big majorities on both sides argue against the other side based on some fringe opinions. And since one rarely explains their position in detail on the Internet neither side is aware that they actually have a lot of common ground.
My position is literally:
-A person loses no humanity or respectibility by being overweight. Overweight people are still people.
Overweight people deserve to have their concerns actually heard. Doctors often literally will not investigate some problems that overweight people ask about beyond “oh you should lose weight.” For some concerns, that may be a reasonable diagnosis, but there are plenty of actual medical concerns that are ignored by doctors in fat people.
Shame largely does not work to get people to lose weight. For the people where it does work, it definitely doesn’t do it in a healthy way, and for most people it just makes losing weight harder. (I’ve seen a lot of people justify being shitty to overweight people because they think they need to feel shame all the time to change).
That’s it. It’s literally “treat people like people and actually listen to their concerns.”
Honestly, I’m pretty surprised that Lemmy already seems to have a bit of the “fat people hate” energy. People have a very specific image of a “fat person” in their head that they imagine when this stuff comes up, but all I’m saying is that people who are overweight sometimes have concerns that aren’t addressed by just losing weight, and those concerns are often dismissed because we value and respect fat people much less than skinny people.