Thinness and happiness

The discussion of mistreatment of fat people on the blog Shakesville included a link to the blog The Militant Baker, written by Jes Baker. She describes herself as a body advocate, mental health professional, self-love enthusiast, and professional rabble-rouser. The particular post that I was led to is a discussion of why so many people hate fat people who are happy. There is lots of evidence for that hate – check out the social media feeds for anyone who says she is fat and happy.

This puzzled Baker for quite a while. She finally figured it out.

The overwhelming message from our culture is that thinness equals happiness. The Diet Industry, the Fitness Industry, the Fashion Industry, the Entertainment Industry, and many more push this connection. It has us so convinced that millions of us spend huge amounts of money working like crazy to be thin. The Diet Industry rakes in $60 billion a year. All this work and all money spent in pursuit of impossible perfection is supposed to get us happiness.

And then this fat chick refuses to do the work and refuses to fix her body says she is happy. She just contradicted everything we zealously believe in, broke all the rules, jumped to the front of the line, ripped us off, and made a lifetime of work meaningless. Of course, we freak out! But the average customer doesn't know why.

The core of the problem is that thinness does not equal happiness. The whole thing is a scam.

Yes, there is lots of anger. And all that anger is toward themselves. As Baker puts it, people who hate the bodies of others hate their own. People who love their bodies don't try to get others to hate theirs. Whatever shape you're in, love yourself. Especially around body image, don't listen to the noise of the culture. To help you along take a look at the photo essay Baker put together titled This Year Love the Mirror.