Weight Loss

Fat in the Fatosphere

They are staging their counter-attack in the fatosphere with a battle cry that big really is beautiful. Bloggers with names like FatChicksRule and Fatgrrl are using their wits and wiles to call for greater acceptance of fat in society. It’s innovative but it’s also an uphill battle.

Most countries, including Australia, are beginning to count the cost of the obesity epidemic. And little wonder. More than half of Australian adults are overweight or obese and the numbers are increasing.

According to the 2004-2005 National Health Survey, the proportion of Australians who are obese is increasing at a faster rate than the proportion of people who are overweight. Interestingly, women, who represent 45% of the overweight or obese, are likely to see themselves as having an acceptable weight.

The rise in fat is being matched with a rise in emotions. The language used by Rob Moodie from Melbourne University’s Nossal Institute for Global Health is a case in point. He claimed that eating too much, exercising too little and smoking were more of a threat to society than terrorist acts. He told a recent conference that our lifestyle excesses had contributed to global epidemics in heart disease, diabetes, lung disease and some cancers.

Bloggers in the fatosphere are unmoved - no pun intended. The fatosphere is heaven in cyberspace for overweight readers. The Big Fat Deal blog (bfdblog.com) was launched “to navigate those murky waters of body image.” It urges its readers to challenge fatphobic statements and not to be afraid of using the word fat. It also suggests 10 ways to be a “body positivity activist.” They include: “Understand that you’re beautiful, understand that a lot of people are hateful morons” and “Don’t be afraid to order the cheesecake.”

The common theme of the blogs is that fat people should be given a fair go. Weight is often the result of a genetic lottery. Just as some people are tall and others are short, some people are thin and others fat. Food for thought?
 

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