Three fat black people in a pool, kissed by the sun and stunting on the entire internet. Photo by Shooglet

People react to fat bodies with rage because fat bodies disrupt belief systems. People put their entire lives on hold because they don’t want to be fat — refusing to show up to events if they haven’t lost weight or refusing to pursue goals until they are a certain size. People dress in clothing that hurts and restricts their bodies to hide. People tip toe through life because they don’t want to walk too loudly. People hold their breath because they don’t want to breathe too heavily.

This is the nature of fatphobia.

People sucking in their stomachs so they can appear smaller even just for a moment. This is the desperate nature of fatphobia. This is how high the stakes are. It’s frantic and the belief that “fat bodies are morally bad bodies” forces people to carry a tremendous amount of shame.

The fat body is a criticism when it is existing in ways that disrupt the smear campaign that is fatphobia.

If fat is bad and I’m good because I’m not fat then how on Earth could a fat person be happy? How on Earth could a fat person have joy? How is it possible to be fat and at peace when so many thin people are terrorized by their own fear of being fat?

The rage that people react with is about their relationships with the belief systems they use to understand their identity and their place in the world. That’s the rage born of oppressive belief systems like fatphobia and ableism. That’s the pain people live with created by shame and it’s deeply personal. Rejecting and escaping those belief systems has a cost.

When asking someone to change their entire way of thinking we must consider their capacity to do so.

We can clock that capacity by observing how reactive people are to fat bodies. Information helps but we also need empathy to expand awareness and capacity. Fatphobia is something we’ve been indoctrinated into and it isn’t just about fat bodies. It’s also about believing thinness is perfection and that perfection is the only worthy way of existing in this world.

The fat body is a criticism of this.