09-24-2018, 11:38 PM
The below's going to be a bit of a ramble because I've switched views back and forth over the years.
I see body acceptance frequently brought up as a response to the glorification of unhealthily underweight models. It is reasonable to say that the modeling industry has pushed standards to such extremes that anorexia and other eating disorders are now prevalent within the industry, as well as amongst those trying to enter. It is also extremely reasonable as a society for us to condemn this glorification if it leads to these issues. Showing models of a healthy weight should be the goal.
However, now the pendulum is swinging the other direction, and there is a cottage industry driven by an opposite exploitation of models. It can be quite lucrative to stand against fat shaming, while simultaneously engaging in skinny shaming. Several companies have found it extremely profitable to virtue signal in this manner, as well as several social media stars.
Ultimately, I believe people should live their lives how they wish. If somebody wants to have a given body type for whatever reason, they should be able to do so while understanding the risks. I guess what I'm not comfortable about is that health risks like what you've discussed in the OP can end up getting glossed over when the pendulum swings. But rarely does one's actions only affect oneself. If somebody does choose to be too skinny or too fat, they can be hurting themselves. As a side-effect, they can be hurting the people around them, and quite frankly having an obesity epidemic also puts a drain on society's resources by having tax dollars being allocated to treating these problems, rather than to other technological advances or social issues.
I'm not an expert nutritionist, but I have a cursory understanding of the laws of thermodynamics, and if you consume fewer calories than you expend, you will lose weight. Period. Granted, different bodies can digest food and operate with those calories different than others can. For example, some rare individuals apparently can't break down sugar effectively, so they almost don't have to worry about eating sugar from a weight gain perspective (disregarding other negative effects). Similarly, others might have metabolisms that are horrendously inefficient at breaking down chemicals. So individual chemistry does play a part here. But then the trick is just to eat even fewer calories than what an otherwise average person would do.
However, it's difficult to have these kinds of measured conversations, because there's so much at play here. The ideal situation is to convince somebody that they are most likely in control of their own body weight, without engendering a sense of shame within them. Ideally, they should feel empowered to be able to change for the better, rather than feel awful for having been there in the first place. Strong feelings of negativity can lead to individuals overeating or undereating as a response, and that just makes everything worse. Furthermore, in my experience with expressing unpopular moderate views, it's difficult to tell whether someone actually has a nuanced viewpoint on this whole matter, or if they're just someone on the other extreme from you who refuses to listen to you and hear you as a person.
Anyway, I'm starting to ramble here, but having grown up in the heartland of America (aka almost Ground Zero for this kind of stuff), it's really sad to see so many of my friends and family getting unhealthily overweight over the years. I hate to see it, but there's only so much I can say or do before being told to shut up.
-Teddy
I see body acceptance frequently brought up as a response to the glorification of unhealthily underweight models. It is reasonable to say that the modeling industry has pushed standards to such extremes that anorexia and other eating disorders are now prevalent within the industry, as well as amongst those trying to enter. It is also extremely reasonable as a society for us to condemn this glorification if it leads to these issues. Showing models of a healthy weight should be the goal.
However, now the pendulum is swinging the other direction, and there is a cottage industry driven by an opposite exploitation of models. It can be quite lucrative to stand against fat shaming, while simultaneously engaging in skinny shaming. Several companies have found it extremely profitable to virtue signal in this manner, as well as several social media stars.
Ultimately, I believe people should live their lives how they wish. If somebody wants to have a given body type for whatever reason, they should be able to do so while understanding the risks. I guess what I'm not comfortable about is that health risks like what you've discussed in the OP can end up getting glossed over when the pendulum swings. But rarely does one's actions only affect oneself. If somebody does choose to be too skinny or too fat, they can be hurting themselves. As a side-effect, they can be hurting the people around them, and quite frankly having an obesity epidemic also puts a drain on society's resources by having tax dollars being allocated to treating these problems, rather than to other technological advances or social issues.
I'm not an expert nutritionist, but I have a cursory understanding of the laws of thermodynamics, and if you consume fewer calories than you expend, you will lose weight. Period. Granted, different bodies can digest food and operate with those calories different than others can. For example, some rare individuals apparently can't break down sugar effectively, so they almost don't have to worry about eating sugar from a weight gain perspective (disregarding other negative effects). Similarly, others might have metabolisms that are horrendously inefficient at breaking down chemicals. So individual chemistry does play a part here. But then the trick is just to eat even fewer calories than what an otherwise average person would do.
However, it's difficult to have these kinds of measured conversations, because there's so much at play here. The ideal situation is to convince somebody that they are most likely in control of their own body weight, without engendering a sense of shame within them. Ideally, they should feel empowered to be able to change for the better, rather than feel awful for having been there in the first place. Strong feelings of negativity can lead to individuals overeating or undereating as a response, and that just makes everything worse. Furthermore, in my experience with expressing unpopular moderate views, it's difficult to tell whether someone actually has a nuanced viewpoint on this whole matter, or if they're just someone on the other extreme from you who refuses to listen to you and hear you as a person.
Anyway, I'm starting to ramble here, but having grown up in the heartland of America (aka almost Ground Zero for this kind of stuff), it's really sad to see so many of my friends and family getting unhealthily overweight over the years. I hate to see it, but there's only so much I can say or do before being told to shut up.
-Teddy
![[Image: UBUf2to.png]](https://i.imgur.com/UBUf2to.png)