Teen Vogue, an online magazine that in recent years has earned a reputation for being a champion of harebrained SJW fads and lewd sex guides, has fully embraced the “fat acceptance movement” with a series of articles celebrating obesity.
The magazine launched in 2003 initially targeting teenage girls with stories about fashion and celebrity gossip, but since 2015, it has expanded its focus to include politics and current affairs (from a very left-wing perspective).
One notable contribution to Teen Vogue’s “F-Word” series “celebrating what it means to be fat” is an article by (self-described) “black fat cultural producer” Ashleigh Shackelford (she/ they).
TEEN VOGUE: "For me, fat is a way of saying 'f*ck you.' … Fat stigma is also tied to anti-blackness, in that being black is the abundance that white supremacy seeks to shrink." https://t.co/IzVNiRFrPl pic.twitter.com/KSyQldX1Xw
— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) September 5, 2019
In her article, “Fat Is Not a Bad Word,” Shackelford manages to tie negative perceptions about obesity to “anti-blackness” and “white supremacy,” and claims that destigmatizing obesity helps tear “down the walls built by racism.”
How fat is weaponized, and the reclamation of the word, goes beyond size. Fat stigma is also tied to anti-blackness, in that being black is the abundance that white supremacy seeks to shrink. Blackness and its cultural markers are historically viewed through a lens of gluttony, abundance, and savagery, stereotypes that linger and impact us today. Because of this, black fat people are assumed to have it “easier” being fat, because it’s “normal” for our bodies to be bigger; because failing the societal standards white people set is the default for our black existence.
But black people come in all shapes and sizes, just like anyone else. It’s the negative stereotypes created by white supremacy that reinforce the idea that we are naturally fat, and with that many of the negative associations tied to the word today. The more we call ourselves fat, and the more we realize that it’s not bad to be fat, the more we’re tearing down walls built by racism.
“For me, fat is a way of saying f*ck you,” Shackelford says, and I believe her. It’s sad that she has such a giant chip on her shoulder as a result of being fat, and sadder still that a magazine geared toward young women would publish her racialist nonsense.
Of course, every person has inherent value no matter what color or size they are, of course no one should be racked with shame and self-loathing because they are overweight. But Shackelford argument that “white supremacy” is somehow to blame for “negative stereotypes” about obesity is nonsensical and offensive.
No one thinks black people are “naturally fat,” but they probably do think think there’s a higher incidence of obesity in the black community. Because there is.
Obesity is a very common disorder that affects people of every race and ethnicity, although some groups more than others.
Blacks and Hispanics tend to be more overweight than whites, according to the latest CDC statistics, but all three groups show a concerning high prevalence of obesity. Asians are the leanest group.
Hispanics (47.0%) and non-Hispanic blacks (46.8%) had the highest age-adjusted prevalence of obesity, followed by non-Hispanic whites (37.9%) and non-Hispanic Asians (12.7%).
The fat acceptance movement wants to remove the stigma of being obese by pretending that it’s a perfectly healthy lifestyle choice. But it isn’t really. The CDC warns that “obesity-related conditions include heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer that are some of the leading causes of preventable, premature death.”
The estimated annual medical cost of obesity in the United States was $147 billion in 2008 US dollars; the medical cost for people who have obesity was $1,429 higher than those of normal weight.
Are those figures acceptable to those in the fat acceptance movement?
Teen Vogue should not be pushing articles “celebrating what it means to be fat” any more than it should push articles celebrating the freakishly-skinny models you usually see in fashion magazines. Both body types come with their own set of health problems no responsible magazine would want to encourage.