The Arc of Acceptance
Is it a sign of progress for a society to go relatively quickly from objectionable human behavior to celebrate that same behavior? Is there another choice between objectionable and celebrational? There are a number of examples of these stark choices but let’s start this week with one of the most obvious – overeating behavior. Our model of this kind of behavior can be reduced to this:
Objectionable → Acceptable → Celebrational
For most of the twentieth century, overeating and becoming fat or obese was considered unacceptable and even repulsive behavior. Fat people were called fatties, pigs, or thunder thighs. Kids were made fun of in schoolyards and most overweight people were shunned unless they were opera singers or defensive lineman. The rejection of fat people may have reached its pinnacle with 16 year old Lesley Lawson, a reed thin English supermodel known as “Twiggy” who was at the height of fashion in 1966. In 1983, the British parodied the monstrously obese in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life with Mr. Creosote who is enticed to eat one more “wafer-thin mint” before he explodes. Gluttony was still considered by many to be one of the “seven deadly sins” during this period. But it was beginning to change, even in the 60s, with The Fat Liberation Manifesto.
Of course, it wasn’t always this way. During the Baroque period fatness was an admirable trait. “For about 400 years, roughly between 1500 and 1900, excess bodily weight and volume, for both men and women, had a strong visual appeal.” To be fat was a sign of wealth, prosperity and beauty and showed that you had access to a lot of food, in other words, you were rich. This was illustrated by Peter Paul Reubens (1577-1640), best remembered for his paintings of “'Rubenesque” wanton plump female flesh.”
But by the late 20th century, it was a common understanding that people who were fat either had no control over their habits or they had some sort of a medical disorder like binge eating.
During this period the weight loss service industry emerged with diet books, weight control products and programs including both diets and exercise. The implicit message is that being overweight or obese is something one can change by changing behavior. In 2012, it was a $4.5 billion market and is still $3.89 billion in 2022. It’s likely to shrink (there is no avoiding these).
Things have changed. We have not only gone back to the celebration of the Rubenesque we appear to have exceeded it.
First, we are all admonished to stop “weight shaming” people. Many believe it is not personal choice or lack of willpower that causes people to be overweight or obese, it’s the food industry creating junk foods and advertising. When the industry began taking fat out of foods around the early 1980s, they replaced it with sugar creating an obesogenic environment. At the same time, the way we spoke about people was changed from “he’s obese” to “he has obesity.” This put it in a medical context like catching a cold or getting cancer.
Obesity then became a disease and doctors originally were urged to treat it. But that is also changing. Doctors are now also told to not tell their patients to lose weight as it not only doesn’t work but it may actually harm them by inadvertently leading them to turn to dangerous drugs for weight loss.
The final page, at least to date, is to celebrate obesity, a movement called "body positivity." We have even had a "National Love Your Body Day" for the last 25 years on the third Wednesday of October. With 75% of adults overweight or obese, there appears to be no immediate slowing of this trend.
Apparently, the Centers for Disease Control hasn’t been celebrating as it reminds us that overweight and obesity impact all causes of death, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, cancer, mental illness and body pain.
Body positivity and fat celebration make no more sense than fat shaming. The only choices aren’t one or another, a third, and better, choice is nuance.
We’ll see another example next week of a need for nuance.