In an era of a lot of strange ideological overlaps, one that’s particularly interesting to me is the overlap between two groups of people: those who invoke science to whip interlocutors into submission on everything from climate change to religion, and those who talk a lot about body positivity, fat shaming, etc. There’s absolutely zero scientific uncertainty as to the detrimental health effects of being overweight. (I say this as somebody who has been overweight since high school.) Obesity hurts people, full stop. Science says so.
Yet if you dip into the socially conscious movements that make a lot of headlines nowadays, it won’t be long before you’re catechized in the body-positive movement, which says that categorizing people as overweight is an assault on their personal dignity. There is no normal size, it is suggested, and diversity of body type is to be celebrated as unconditionally as diversity of skin color or gender. Pressuring people to lose weight is “fat shaming,” a grievous social sin that has no place in a compassionate society.
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