It didn't fully dawn on me just how prominent fat phobia is until your post about the baby. Oh my god. I was fat my entire childhood and fat phobia was so bad I developed EDNOS, and I didn't realize it was so deep that it had reached medicine. Medicine for me is something that symbolized knowledge and trustworthiness. Damn. I'd much rather have a fat kid than a dead one or one with serious health issues. Doctors are supposed to keep people healthy, WTF

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dontfindthisblog-blog

It’s really interesting to me that so many people frame medicine and science in general as autonomous institutions that are not within the same structural system as the rest of society. Not acknowledging this is really taking an ahistorical stance on research and medicine that is completely disconnected from reality. There is a reason why doctors and researchers have professional ethics guidelines that they must follow. They didn’t just come out of thin air but due to a long history of unethical and incredibly disgusting uses of power against marginalized people in the name of science. Almost all marginalized people have a history of being stigmatized or dehumanized by people within research and medical fields, this is not something that is special to fat people.

The surprise or reaction of anger people have to hearing that their doctors may not be trustworthy really shows the level of privilege someone has. If you haven’t been taught or had experiences that made you question the validity of the medical care you receive you’re probably more likely to have a great deal of privilege.

-FBP