Here’s a clear rule everyone needs to follow: if it’s not your body, it’s not your problem and none of your business.
It’s not anyone’s place to say anything about anyone else’s body, plain and simple. In our culture, we think it’s normal to look at others with a critical eye and to vocalize our opinions on what we see. This is absolutely unacceptable.
Criticism of other bodies has become so ingrained in our society that fat jokes are something many comedians make part of their “funny” routines.
A comedian like Nicole Arbour, for example, has become a household name for her infamous “Dear Fat People” video on her YouTube channel.
This video is highly problematic for many reasons other than fat shaming, but I’ll save that rant for another time.
In her video, Arbour said fat shaming is a good thing because it will shame all the fat people out of their unhealthy habits and will lead them to make choices to lose weight. I’ve got to tell you, this is disgusting. Shaming any type of person for any reason is called harassment, which is unacceptable in all forms.
Arbour said she made the video out of concern for the health of all overweight people in this country.
Well, there is no way for you or anyone to observe how healthy a person is by looking. It is possible for thin people to be unhealthy and for people who are not thin to be healthy. Weight is not always a defining factor of health.
It just isn’t your job to tell anyone what makes him or her healthy and what doesn’t. If you’re not a trained medical physician, you shouldn’t have anything to say about someone’s health and the way you perceive it.
The association of health and weight is not the only way people police each other’s bodies. We also make comments about how people of different sizes dress and whether or not it is appropriate.
A comment was recently made to me — a person who is not thin — about how I dress. While I was wearing a baggy outfit, this commenter said I dressed appropriately given my size and how this was something to be celebrated.
The first emotion I felt was shock, then confusion.
Was I dressed “appropriately” for my size because my body was undefined in my baggy clothes? Was I dressed “appropriately” because I wasn’t showing much of my skin?
Either way, how we dress should not be in correlation with how much we do or do not weigh.
We can wear whatever we want and whatever makes us feel the most comfortable. Clothes are a mode of expression. Clothing is not a social bargaining tool for us to shame each other into wearing what we find appropriate or inappropriate based on the perceived size of a person.
All bodies are acceptable. Bodies should not be the subject of debate, shame or criticism of any kind. The perceived health and size of a body that is not your own is not a subject for comment.
Let’s do ourselves a favor and focus on other characteristics that are not in association with our bodies, because there is so much more to a person than how they look.
rcm2@indiana.edu
@RachelCMiller1
