Fatness: That 'American' Thing

Fat is undoubtedly an inseparable part of the American culture. It’s something that has begun to define us around the world. If you’re American, you might be overweight. At the same time, it’s okay, because it’s an ‘American’ thing.

But whereas America has, since its inception, been a sort of smorgasbord of cultural diversity, fat stands as not a cultural or gender difference, but a characteristic – a testament to someone’s body size rather than something that necessarily sets them culturally from everyone else.

Why, then, has fatness recently been surrounded by a movement for equal rights? As Stephen Colbert so ungracefully highlighted in his interview with Amy Farrell, color isn’t necessarily something one can go to the gym and work off. Whereas fat, on the other hand, is.

But, as Amy Farrell points out, that stance – that fatness can be exercised off and therefore should not be accounted for in terms of rights – is part of the issue. Fat doesn’t necessarily mean that you have simply given up, only eat terribly unhealthy food and don’t care about your health. Although some of those labels may apply to some fat people, for others it may just mean that they have accepted themselves and are proud and perfectly comfortable with their fat body.

Or, as Marilyn Wann notes in her Fat!So?, it can be interpreted as a refusal to concede to the pressures of their peers. Farrell writes that, “Wann’s book is a condensed version of all the forms of fat activism that are taking place in the United States. Resisting a sixty-billion-dollar-a-year diet industry and the ideology of fat denigration that sustains it, fat activists ‘refuse to apologize’ for their size” (137).

And yet, despite the constantly growing efforts of fat activists in motivating Americans to better accept fatness, it seems that the movement has yet to gain any substantial traction. What began with fat activists attacking medical research that was critical of fat, and then continued with NAAFA and NOW, has still failed to make a significant dent in the ways in which Americans view fatness.

In many ways, that anti-fat stance is even perpetuated by the U.S. government. Farrell notes that federal seatbelt regulations are only required to seat people that are up to 6’ and up to 215 lbs. Her problem is that, “this kind of regulation literally presumes that larger people do not deserve or have the right to the protection afforded smaller people.” Which, although an absurd accusation, still stands as somewhat accurate considering the federal regulations.

Then, everywhere else, there still stands the issue of employment discrimination against fat people. Farrell acknowledges the lack of protection in the work place for fat people, stating that there are no federal institutions or regulations that prevent employers from discrimination against fat people. If you are fat, you are considered unprofessional and less capable in the work environment.

And that highlights the why of the fat movement. The fat activism movement is attempting to fend off those misconceptions and delusions that often surround the phrase fat. Similar to the movements of the African American and female communities, and the current LGBT movements, fat activists are struggling to secure their place in America.

But it’s about more than just being accepted. Yes, on some level, it is about being able to blend in better regardless of size, but it’s also about squashing, so to speak, the misconstruction in America that fat people are less human. Sure, any sane person wouldn’t trust a fat person to beat Usain Bolt in a 200m dash, but they still exist among us as one in the same. Now, it’s just a matter of giving them the recognition they deserve.