Pandemic Onset Fat Phobia (Part 2)

Listen, I get it. We’re all going a little stir crazy. My hair is growing at an alarming rate and I’m fairly sure that I am going to look like a yeti when we are finally allowed to emerge from our homes and access services like salons and barbers again. And March felt like it lasted approximately 5,379 days and we’re not even close to the end of the pandemic, yet. We are all feeling a little wrecked and aged and not at all our best.

There is a right way to make fun of this predicament.

Two images of the same character (in this case Ichabod Crane as played by Tom Mison in Fox’s Sleepy Hollow).

And there is a WRONG WRONG BAD WRONG NO way of doing it.

Two different characters, one of which is muscular and other one of which is fat with a large beard.

DO NOT DO THIS. Your fat friends are paying attention to those of you who share this nonsense. How the fuck do you think we feel when we see this? If your biggest concern about coming out of this pandemic is looking like me at the end, then aren’t you lucky. It means you’ve had more than enough food to eat for the duration, not having to struggle with job loss or food insecurity. But your inherent fat phobia—that let’s face it was there before the pandemic—can’t let you imagine a worse fate. Fuck that noise.

Also, don’t do this:

What the shit is this??

I have no idea who this fool is, probably just a troll based on a glance at his Twitter feed. But this shit isn’t funny. So? People might end up fat. Woe. Start the pearl clutching now. Do you people realize that it feels like the world is ending? This is a HUGE trauma and some people respond to trauma with eating. Some people totally lose their appetite and can’t eat anything. Food is comforting and having access to food can make people feel safe, reducing their anxiety.

If you want a cookie, or a cake, or a whole pizza, why would you ever want to add more stress to your body by constantly denying what it wants? Eat a freaking cookie if it gives you a moment of joy in this hell scape!

And it’s not just memes and random troll posts that are illustrating all that tremendous fat phobia. Articles like this one about the higher death rate in New Orleans all contribute to the narrative that fat people are unhealthy and at greater risk of death. Once again “obesity” is linked to higher rates of diabetes and hypertension and folks, it’s just not true. Buried way down in the sixth paragraph is this gem:

Gee, ya think?

New Orleans just might have a disparity in access to healthcare. Maybe. Possibly. Because what we absolutely didn’t see when Hurricane Katrina hit was an economic disparity among the city’s residents. Not at all.

I can’t fucking stand this. On most days, I can take a deep breath and let this kind of shit pass by with an eye roll, knowing that fat phobia, internalized or otherwise, is a huge issue that is going to take more than just my tiny voice in one corner of the internet to solve. But in addition to the generalized existential dread involved in this time of crisis, it’s just piling on.

Please, miss me with all of this. Feel free to worry about your waistline somewhere else, but keep that shit away from me.