Because it is. What we consider “healthy” is not the same as what is considered healthy in other cultures, nor what was considered healthy at other times in history. Hell, our own definition has changed considerably just since I was born. (This is also how we can tell that things like gender and childhood are socially constructed.) And we know that much of what the public considers healthy right now does not actually give the benefits people think it does (such as the fact that people “overweight” and “obese” by the BMI chart actually live longer than people it lists as “normal” weight). How would you not consider that a social construct? “Healthy” in our culture is constructed from a lot of false ideas and false assumptions about people’s bodies. This isn’t just a HAES idea. (Indeed, there are a lot of parts of the popular idea of “health” that HAES subscribes to.) If you read the actual medical and scientific literature that’s out there, you’ll find all kinds of things that contradict our idea of health.

And, of course, the popular idea of health leaves out a lot of people, especially people with disabilities, and makes it something they can never attain, but are told they should strive for constantly.

-MG

rebloggable by request