Critique of "Fat Positive" & "Fat Acceptance"
15 April 2018 [link youtube]
Youtube Automatic Transcription
my problem with fat acceptance and fat
positivity is not actually with the fat side of the equation it's actually questioning what we mean by positivity by taking a positive attitude toward something and this video I want to reflect on that a little bit and for those who come to this video identifying as fat positive people I hope I can actually lead you to question what that means and what you're gonna do with that concept moving forward and for those of you who are just sitting back shocked and horrified by the social media phenomenon of fat acceptance of a positive 'ti maybe I can give you a a more positive angle on it and a way to move forward I'm not I'm not joking I hope this video serves a a positive purpose for some of you and this video is also in part a response to the unique character of Andrew Marlowe who made a video that inspired me to record this one shall we say Andrew Marlowe is not fat himself but he identifies as a chubby admirer he's a man who prefers the company of overweight women if somebody tells you they've had an accident they're now disabled and they're gonna spend the rest of their life in a wheelchair they may share this news with you and they may try to convey to you that they have a positive attitude or they may talk you through a series of positive steps they're taking to cope with the problem to do the best with the situation they find themselves in they're going through a process of probably making modifications to their car so they get a wheelchair into it and out of it they may be having to make modifications to their bathroom they may of course be having trouble with staircases and you might say back to them this friend of yours this relative or colleague of yours you might expect them wow it's really great do you have such a positive attitude toward the fact that you're now confined to a wheelchair but in this context positivity does not mean you're disregarding the nature of the problem it means you're confronting the problem and doing the best you can I had a job when I lived in Thailand and I think in that office I was the only able-bodied person everyone else had quite serious physical disabilities there was one woman in a wheelchair every single time she had to go to the bathroom she would phone her husband or phone a friend who I think worked in the stockroom in a different part of the complex to come up and physically lift her out of her wheelchair put her on the toilet wait outside and then take her off the toilet and put her back in her wheelchair right I mean she had a wonderful life in many ways I lived around her I got to know her in many ways a better life that I didn't make that I do now you know she'd really gotten organized you could say she had a very positive attitude towards coping with her her disability but there's no doubt it's a problem in her daily life I remember seeing her husband take her out of her wheelchair and physically carry her up a flight of stairs and for her that was a if not an everyday phenomenon you know it was a regular part of her life was relying on other people to lift her and carry her and then move her wheelchair for her and so on and you know to say she had a positive attitude would be in no way comparable to this model of positivity whereby people are now encouraging those who are extremely overweight to live and behave and dress and conduct themselves as if this is not an encumbrance to the middle as if the problem is not a problem as if it doesn't exist now just like that woman in the wheelchair many of these extremely overweight people will have difficulty getting up and down a staircase just like the woman in a wheelchair these extremely overweight people who have a great deal of trouble getting on to and getting off of a public bus they'll have a great deal of trouble say walking up a hill the difference is there's something they can do about it maybe not today maybe not tomorrow but soon their disability is in a very real sense within their power to alleviate to improve to solve their condition can end or is that that specific woman that co-worker of mine who's never gonna change she was gonna be in a wheelchair for the rest of her life she was born with malformed legs there was no way for her to recover so imagine how strange you must be for her to look at people who are part of the so-called fad positivity movement see people who are disabling themselves and who claim they have a positive attitude about it and to see someone like Andrew Marlo who applauds this apparently because it is ultimately his sexual fetish and says they can do anything they want to do they can be anything want to be well can they Andrew can they walk up a flight of stairs can they write a public bus can they indeed after a certain point even use a public toilet all these things in life become difficult and I know this to some extent because now living in a Western society I'm surrounded by people who are at different stages of self-inflicted disability just due to extreme obesity no yes they should have a positive attitude they should be encouraged to have a positive attitude the same way the disabled person in a wheelchair should have a positive attitude being in denial about the nature of the problem the nature of the hard work that's ahead of you in terms of coping with that problem or improving it meliorate in it whatever you want to say we can't confuse positivity with the nihilism and I don't want to be part of a culture that celebrates self delusion and denial ISM neither in modern Western internet culture nor say within the culture of tera vaada Buddhism in Southeast Asia I used to be a Buddhist living in countries like Thailand Laos Cambodia and you get into very different types of positive thinking self delusion there you get into very different types of positive thinking so pollution of left-wing politics and all these different theaters of been involved in look guys I'm gonna be self-critical here for a second I'm unemployed I have a positive attitude toward being unemployed I'm really seriously and sincerely trying to make the most out of this period of unemployment and not just in terms of looking for a job my girlfriend and I right now we're going through a stack of books that includes Aristotle Plato Xenophon Cicero we're going through some of the foundational texts of Western philosophy political science lucidity 'z again for those who don't know we're doing some heavy reading we're learning at a baked we're making a lot of our food from scratch we're making we're making our own bread obviously from flour we're making our own soy milk from scratch to working from whole soybeans we're finding ways to both save money and educate ourselves and improve ourselves with the time that we've got time a sort of opportunity that's created by unemployment so I'd say I have a positive attitude toward my unemployment but think about how really sick and self-defeating and debilitating it would be for me if I had an unemployment positive attitude in the same sense as these many people on the internet preach a a fat positive attitude which from my perspective is not truly positive all if I was unemployment positive in the same sense that andrew marlow talks about being fed positive if I went around pretending fundamentally that one this isn't a problem that - this isn't my responsibility and please keep in mind there's a subtle and profound difference between saying this is your responsibility and saying this is your fault I knew one person personally was a friend of mine who actually became very overweight very obese and it wasn't his fault it was due to medical malpractice not worth going into the details but he was strapped down and hospitalised and fed a diet through a tube and the doctors gave him something like 10 more food that he was supposed to be through a tube and he couldn't even talk he was he went through surgery and he came out of the surgery greatly overweight it wasn't his fault there were extreme cases like that but ultimately apportioning fault is irrelevant to what we're talking about here we're talking about responsibility it was it was his responsibility it was his problem it was his challenge what are you gonna do about it now certainly it's an extreme contrast someone who's born with a disability and is in a wheelchair it's not their fault but it's their challenge it's their responsibility what they're gonna do about it in terms of their positive attitude or otherwise it's up to them but there's no way we can proceed from a denial of the fundamental reality of the situation this is a problem it's your problem and it's your responsibility but all these examples I've gotta say it's definitely not in the power of that disabled person to stand up out of their wheelchair and learn how to walk again it may or may not be in my power to get a job this is the reality of unemployment always has been I can do my best but nobody can guarantee a positive outcome to that situation nobody right but it definitely is in your power starting today to pursue a positive outcome that solves obesity it's in your power it's in mine if anything is under our control it's the question of what goes into our mouths and all of us as vegans or aspiring vegan activist obviously if we felt we were powerless over our diet our political and moral movement would make no sense at all so likewise it can't make any sense at all if we regard people as passive victims of their own body type instead of being active decisive players in a game in which their own health and their own capacity to make a positive difference the world is very much in the line very much being decided and the case being diminished by fundamentally matters of self-indulgence lack of discipline etc I talk a lot in this channel about a very simple ethical idea that I know is out of style it's the idea of doing the best you can I talked to a man a couple of weeks ago and his doctor told him that he has to lose 80 pounds just to be overweight he won't lose 80 pounds to be thin he'll lose 80 pounds to get out of the category of being at risk for sudden death basically it's a huge challenge for him he's gotta lose 80 pounds and he'll still be fat he'll still be overweight and I gave him encouragement I told them some positive things from my experience and I offered to put in touch with I know someone here was a vegan trainer you know runs a small gym you know I tried to be helpful how could it possibly help him for me to look in his eyes and say no you're not fat that's just a figment of your imagination that's just a matter of self-image that's just an attitude or state of mind
positivity is not actually with the fat side of the equation it's actually questioning what we mean by positivity by taking a positive attitude toward something and this video I want to reflect on that a little bit and for those who come to this video identifying as fat positive people I hope I can actually lead you to question what that means and what you're gonna do with that concept moving forward and for those of you who are just sitting back shocked and horrified by the social media phenomenon of fat acceptance of a positive 'ti maybe I can give you a a more positive angle on it and a way to move forward I'm not I'm not joking I hope this video serves a a positive purpose for some of you and this video is also in part a response to the unique character of Andrew Marlowe who made a video that inspired me to record this one shall we say Andrew Marlowe is not fat himself but he identifies as a chubby admirer he's a man who prefers the company of overweight women if somebody tells you they've had an accident they're now disabled and they're gonna spend the rest of their life in a wheelchair they may share this news with you and they may try to convey to you that they have a positive attitude or they may talk you through a series of positive steps they're taking to cope with the problem to do the best with the situation they find themselves in they're going through a process of probably making modifications to their car so they get a wheelchair into it and out of it they may be having to make modifications to their bathroom they may of course be having trouble with staircases and you might say back to them this friend of yours this relative or colleague of yours you might expect them wow it's really great do you have such a positive attitude toward the fact that you're now confined to a wheelchair but in this context positivity does not mean you're disregarding the nature of the problem it means you're confronting the problem and doing the best you can I had a job when I lived in Thailand and I think in that office I was the only able-bodied person everyone else had quite serious physical disabilities there was one woman in a wheelchair every single time she had to go to the bathroom she would phone her husband or phone a friend who I think worked in the stockroom in a different part of the complex to come up and physically lift her out of her wheelchair put her on the toilet wait outside and then take her off the toilet and put her back in her wheelchair right I mean she had a wonderful life in many ways I lived around her I got to know her in many ways a better life that I didn't make that I do now you know she'd really gotten organized you could say she had a very positive attitude towards coping with her her disability but there's no doubt it's a problem in her daily life I remember seeing her husband take her out of her wheelchair and physically carry her up a flight of stairs and for her that was a if not an everyday phenomenon you know it was a regular part of her life was relying on other people to lift her and carry her and then move her wheelchair for her and so on and you know to say she had a positive attitude would be in no way comparable to this model of positivity whereby people are now encouraging those who are extremely overweight to live and behave and dress and conduct themselves as if this is not an encumbrance to the middle as if the problem is not a problem as if it doesn't exist now just like that woman in the wheelchair many of these extremely overweight people will have difficulty getting up and down a staircase just like the woman in a wheelchair these extremely overweight people who have a great deal of trouble getting on to and getting off of a public bus they'll have a great deal of trouble say walking up a hill the difference is there's something they can do about it maybe not today maybe not tomorrow but soon their disability is in a very real sense within their power to alleviate to improve to solve their condition can end or is that that specific woman that co-worker of mine who's never gonna change she was gonna be in a wheelchair for the rest of her life she was born with malformed legs there was no way for her to recover so imagine how strange you must be for her to look at people who are part of the so-called fad positivity movement see people who are disabling themselves and who claim they have a positive attitude about it and to see someone like Andrew Marlo who applauds this apparently because it is ultimately his sexual fetish and says they can do anything they want to do they can be anything want to be well can they Andrew can they walk up a flight of stairs can they write a public bus can they indeed after a certain point even use a public toilet all these things in life become difficult and I know this to some extent because now living in a Western society I'm surrounded by people who are at different stages of self-inflicted disability just due to extreme obesity no yes they should have a positive attitude they should be encouraged to have a positive attitude the same way the disabled person in a wheelchair should have a positive attitude being in denial about the nature of the problem the nature of the hard work that's ahead of you in terms of coping with that problem or improving it meliorate in it whatever you want to say we can't confuse positivity with the nihilism and I don't want to be part of a culture that celebrates self delusion and denial ISM neither in modern Western internet culture nor say within the culture of tera vaada Buddhism in Southeast Asia I used to be a Buddhist living in countries like Thailand Laos Cambodia and you get into very different types of positive thinking self delusion there you get into very different types of positive thinking so pollution of left-wing politics and all these different theaters of been involved in look guys I'm gonna be self-critical here for a second I'm unemployed I have a positive attitude toward being unemployed I'm really seriously and sincerely trying to make the most out of this period of unemployment and not just in terms of looking for a job my girlfriend and I right now we're going through a stack of books that includes Aristotle Plato Xenophon Cicero we're going through some of the foundational texts of Western philosophy political science lucidity 'z again for those who don't know we're doing some heavy reading we're learning at a baked we're making a lot of our food from scratch we're making we're making our own bread obviously from flour we're making our own soy milk from scratch to working from whole soybeans we're finding ways to both save money and educate ourselves and improve ourselves with the time that we've got time a sort of opportunity that's created by unemployment so I'd say I have a positive attitude toward my unemployment but think about how really sick and self-defeating and debilitating it would be for me if I had an unemployment positive attitude in the same sense as these many people on the internet preach a a fat positive attitude which from my perspective is not truly positive all if I was unemployment positive in the same sense that andrew marlow talks about being fed positive if I went around pretending fundamentally that one this isn't a problem that - this isn't my responsibility and please keep in mind there's a subtle and profound difference between saying this is your responsibility and saying this is your fault I knew one person personally was a friend of mine who actually became very overweight very obese and it wasn't his fault it was due to medical malpractice not worth going into the details but he was strapped down and hospitalised and fed a diet through a tube and the doctors gave him something like 10 more food that he was supposed to be through a tube and he couldn't even talk he was he went through surgery and he came out of the surgery greatly overweight it wasn't his fault there were extreme cases like that but ultimately apportioning fault is irrelevant to what we're talking about here we're talking about responsibility it was it was his responsibility it was his problem it was his challenge what are you gonna do about it now certainly it's an extreme contrast someone who's born with a disability and is in a wheelchair it's not their fault but it's their challenge it's their responsibility what they're gonna do about it in terms of their positive attitude or otherwise it's up to them but there's no way we can proceed from a denial of the fundamental reality of the situation this is a problem it's your problem and it's your responsibility but all these examples I've gotta say it's definitely not in the power of that disabled person to stand up out of their wheelchair and learn how to walk again it may or may not be in my power to get a job this is the reality of unemployment always has been I can do my best but nobody can guarantee a positive outcome to that situation nobody right but it definitely is in your power starting today to pursue a positive outcome that solves obesity it's in your power it's in mine if anything is under our control it's the question of what goes into our mouths and all of us as vegans or aspiring vegan activist obviously if we felt we were powerless over our diet our political and moral movement would make no sense at all so likewise it can't make any sense at all if we regard people as passive victims of their own body type instead of being active decisive players in a game in which their own health and their own capacity to make a positive difference the world is very much in the line very much being decided and the case being diminished by fundamentally matters of self-indulgence lack of discipline etc I talk a lot in this channel about a very simple ethical idea that I know is out of style it's the idea of doing the best you can I talked to a man a couple of weeks ago and his doctor told him that he has to lose 80 pounds just to be overweight he won't lose 80 pounds to be thin he'll lose 80 pounds to get out of the category of being at risk for sudden death basically it's a huge challenge for him he's gotta lose 80 pounds and he'll still be fat he'll still be overweight and I gave him encouragement I told them some positive things from my experience and I offered to put in touch with I know someone here was a vegan trainer you know runs a small gym you know I tried to be helpful how could it possibly help him for me to look in his eyes and say no you're not fat that's just a figment of your imagination that's just a matter of self-image that's just an attitude or state of mind