Fat activists struggle mightily with all of their heft and with the internal conflict they feel regarding a) their fealty to their cult and b) their irrepressible desire to not be obese and the inescapable shame they feel at their current state.
Psychologists call this phenomenon “cognitive dissonance.”
Via Psychology Today (emphasis added):
The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people are averse to inconsistencies within their own minds. It offers one explanation for why people sometimes make an effort to adjust their thinking when their own thoughts, words, or behaviors seem to clash with each other…
When someone tells a lie and feels uncomfortable about it because he fundamentally sees himself as an honest person, he may be experiencing cognitive dissonance. That is, there is mental discord related to a contradiction between one thought (in this case, knowing he did something wrong) and another (thinking that he is honest).
Imagine all of the psychotherapy bills that could be repurposed to a much cheaper pair of running shoes and a gym membership, with the added benefit of avoiding heart disease.
Related: Southwest Airlines Caves to Fat Mob, Gives Away Free Seats to Obese Passengers
Human tragedy.
Via The Cut (emphasis added):
As a feminist writer and committed proponent of body positivity, I’d spent years trying to love my body at any size. And yet, here I was, agonizing over this picture…
It’s a debate I’d started thinking about in earnest last year when I shared that I had decided to go on Mounjaro, a choice I struggled with. I had told myself going on the medication was for my health. And it was, but I was also aware of, and not opposed to, the potential for weight loss…
In the months since I’ve come off the medication, I’ve been forced to reckon with how I feel about my own body and how even the most steadfast and committed proponents of size inclusivity are vulnerable to a culture of mandatory thinness. Why is “loving yourself” at any size such a tall order? Is it because, in the words of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Heather Gay, “Body positivity is all a big lie”? Because, as she continued in a Nightline interview about her decision to take Ozempic for weight loss, “It’s better not to be overweight”?
Google is serving up Ozempic to online fat activists — they know their audience — hot and heavy, and the results have been a psychological minefield of self-loathing and regret.
Via The Star (emphasis added):
A few weeks ago, I got served an ad for Ozempic from Felix, an online health care service. I mindlessly clicked it and went through the questionnaire to determine my eligibility for the popular drug, and as I did so I became uncomfortably aware of my subconscious excitement at the prospect of losing weight — and fast.
I cancelled the session before I could be connected with a doctor, leaving my answers saved somewhere in the ether.
Had this happened 15 years ago, I probably would’ve gone through with it. But even now, as someone who’s worked for years on my own body image, the promise of being smaller is incredibly tempting. I’m not safe from the allure of a quick fix to a body I know most people wouldn’t choose to have.
