Here’s the thing I want to repeat, ad nauseum, today: Fat Acceptance is for everyone.
Everyone.
EVERYONE.
That means thin people, too.
That means fatties who work out at the gym three times a week.
That means fatties who sit on the couch and eat doughnuts every single day.
That means fatties who fall somewhere in between.
That means thin people who practice any and all of the above behaviors.
It means EVERYONE.
Fat Acceptance, at its foundation, is about believing there is no such thing as an unacceptable body.
YOUR BODY IS FINE.
It doesn’t matter if your body is a size 4 or a 14 or a 24 or a 34 or AND SO ON. YOUR BODY IS OKAY.
It doesn’t matter if you are a triathelete (of any size) or if you have a physical disability or an invisible illness or something else that keeps your body from performing the way other people think it should. YOUR BODY IS WORTHY OF RESPECT.
If your body is healthy, by your own standards or conventional medical standards, Fat Acceptance is for you.
If you body is unhealthy, by your own standards or conventional medical standards, Fat Acceptance is for you.
If your body is brown or black or red or yellow or white or any other color, your body deserves dignity. If you are trans or cis or genderqueer or asexual or any other designation, your body deserves dignity. If you are gay or straight or bi or asexual or any other orientation, your body deserves dignity.
YOUR BODY IS JUST FINE THE WAY IT IS.
Fat Acceptance isn’t about imposing other people’s rules on your body. Whether you practice HAES (Health At Every Size) or not, your body is not evidence of some moral failing. If you are lazy and self-indulgent and whatever other word you can think of to horrify those hard-working Puritans, your body is STILL not evidence of some moral failing.
Your body is your body.
FULL STOP.
Actually, not full stop. Your body is YOUR body and other people don’t get to tell you a good goddamn thing to do with it.
At it’s very core, Fat Acceptance is about body autonomy. It means I’m not going to tell you what you need to do with your body and you better not try to tell me what to do with mine.
Fat Acceptance is about busting the beauty standard wide open, about tearing down the current thin-is-in paradigm and building an ENTIRELY NEW PARADIGM. It is not about merely widening the narrow definition to include a few more privileged people.
Fat Acceptance is about building a new damn world order, people.
And that world order includes EVERYONE.
Your body is fine. Treat it with the dignity and respect it deserves. Do the things that are best for YOU (which includes your mental health) whether that means an hour of exercise every other day or an hour of laying there doing absolutely nothing that takes place above the cellular level.
********************************
Stacy