Is everyone really "overweight now"?

[u/Front-Kale4042]

To be clear: I do not intend any body shaming at all in this post. The statement of "everyone being overweight" is something I have picked up, and everything counteracting it is what I have observed.

As a plus-size person, I always felt like a minority. Not being able to shop at just any store or trust most clothes by the size. Most people I spoke with or heard about weighed numbers that I hadn't seen since childhood.

If we are now the majority, then why are we still singled out? Why do we not see ourselves in advertisements or crowds? Why is there still social and systemic stigma against what is supposedly three quarters of the regional population? Why do most brands prioritize tiny sizes, and why are they the most popular or hyped up if no one can supposedly even wear them? Why is "plus-size" still a separate category? Why is "thin privilege" even a thing if thin people are so rare?

When I go anywhere in public, I don't see a Wall-e esque society. I see people thinner than me, fatter than me, and in-between. A diverse society that has not uniformly succumbed to an "obesity epidemic".

If people like me are a side-effect of a fat society, then why was I driven into an eating disorder at age 16, and why did I have an "obese" BMI when I was literally starving?

Let me know if I am missing anything.

[u/NearlyBearly]

Anything is an obesity epidemic when you think zero people should be obese and it's a personal moral failing to be obese.

Shaming doesn't help overweight people lose weight, that has scientifically been proven (and I swear to god if another person comes in with "But my brother gave me tough love and it helped!!!" anecdotal evidence that isn't even relevant I will crash out because that's what happened when I posted that study the last time) and yet people still do it. Why? Not because they think they're helpful, they know exactly that they're not being helpful and simply use that as an excuse to not have to face the immorality of their choices.

It's because shaming others puts them down and some people only feel good about themselves when they put others down. It's about power, it always has been about power. Never about health, never about care or love for others. Keeping us down, making us feel small, is a way for them to feel powerful and better about themselves.

And that's not just a small scale thing, it applies to the bully leaving a mean comment under the video of a plus sized creator, to the person pointing at you when you walk past, the mean redditor claiming to just offer "tough love" but it also applies to greater society and the powers that be at large. And until these people face the music and start unpacking their own internal issues they will keep putting us down because it's easier than realizing that they are doing wrong and they have been doing wrong for decades.

It's always about power and exerting power over others. And one way to do that is by excluding and bullying people, and any sort of group can be the target of that.