It's not very popular in feminist circles to be down on the fat activism movement, but I'm a bit dubious about it. After reading some extensive articles on thin privilege and how sizism is seperate to sexism , http://everydayfeminism.com/2013/10/lets-talk-about-thin-privilege/, http://everydayfeminism.com/2012/11/20-examples-of-thin-privilege/, I feel some crucial points have been left out.
All women are judged on their size. It's not just fat, overweight or underweight women; healthily sized women are judged on their size, size is a form of abuse thrown at all women. Commentary and judgement on their size is offered to all women. I am smack in the middle of my healthy weight range, and I have been call a fat cow, told I looked pregnant, told my bum is big ... Similarly, people feel free to comment on how when they think my weight is looking good as well. This constant scrutiny of size is not offered to men. Men are allowed a significantly greater leeway before people will comment on or disapprove of their size. Nor do i hear them randomly told how slim they look in that outfit. As a result, far fewer men spend a vast amount of their time worrying about their size regardless of whether it is something they should worry about than women.
And there does come a point where people should worry about their size. It is a health issue.A well documented and researched health issue. Is your size a health issue? No? Well, go out and wear and do whatever you damn well want. It is a health issue? Then address your health issue, but go out and wear and do whatever you damn well want at the same time.
Of course it is wrong to judge and discriminate against people based on their size. It is wrong to put people down because of their size. It is wrong to make jokes about size. This is all genuinely problematic. But some of this claiming fat discrimination is getting a bit silly. Can't get clothes in your size? Look, I can't get shoes small enough for me a lot of the time. Do I scream "average size foot privilege"? I have to hem almost every pair of pants I buy. Do I scream "average height privilege"? People just don't stock them because they don't sell many of them. And as the proportion of larger people has grown, large clothes seem to have become more available with the increase in demand.
Your health insurance costs more? My health insurance has never asked me about my weight, but it seems perfectly reasonable to charge more for a higher risk group. See earlier comments about well documented evidence for health concern attached to obesity. Note, not attached to simply being a woman whose body, like most women's bodies, doesn't exactly resemble the promoted ideal. Insurance companies always charge according to risk factors. Have a history of car accidents and speeding fines or not been driving long? Your car insurance costs more. Live in a high crime area without house security? Your house insurance costs more. Charged more by an airline? Well, if you overflow your seat, you need 2 seats. Airlines sell flight by the seat. Really, I'd quite like to have my baggage allowance increased because I weigh less than most people, but do I claim "small person discrimination" that me plus my baggage are less than an average sized healthy male yet they still want to charge me for every kilo over the baggage allowance? I have to climb to get food from the top shelf in the supermarket. I stand on the seats to put my hand luggage in the plane's overhead lockers. Should I really be wondering if the world out to oppress short people?
When your doctor investigates weight related conditions first, they are making a reasonable choice to eliminate the most likely options first. They could test for ebola if you have just vomited as well, but they don't because it's very low down on the list of probable causes. Being obese is strongly correlated with developing myriad rather awful conditions. Visit a dialysis unit or care for someone with chronic heart failure if you want to see how bad these things will get. Or just think about getting older. We will all get weaker, develop some degree of arthritis and moving gets to be hard, hard work. If you are obese, you just aren't going to be able to move yourself around that much sooner. I'm not talking about just not conforming to society's generally harsh assessment of female appearance here, I'm talking about medically concerning weight.
My point in all of this is to focus on the actual discrimination here - pull people up for fat jokes and abuse. Stand up to real discrimination, not evidenced based assessments. Think about how your respond next time you find yourself caught up in the constant discourse about women's size. And get on with doing and being who you are whilst looking after your own health.
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