Stop everything and grab your cell phone now. Come exercise with me. Among your contacts, how many people are fat? Which ones are successful and well placed in the job market? Which ones are not on a diet and satisfied with their own body? Which ones are you sure are happy, without mental health perrengues? Which ones are healthy? Which ones have already escaped your jokes and mean looks?
How many fat people are there, in fact, in your life? How many of them have you interacted with? Would you assume a relationship with a fat person in your contacts? (yes, I'm talking about a hypothetical situation). Do you have pictures with fat people you claim to be friends with? Do you post these photos on your social networks?
Outside of the pandemic, when you call one of your contacts who are also fat people, is it to ask for something or to celebrate friendship? Do you invite your fat friends over to your house? do you separate a comfortable place, where they can fit, so they can sit?
Do you worry about what the fat person will eat, considering whether they are vegan, vegetarian, lactose intolerant, or order extra food, assuming they will eat it all?
How many times have you judged the clothes of the fat person who is your friend, but never wondered if the store where you buy your 'outfit' has pieces that fit her? How much do you really care about the fat people around you?
And on dating apps, do you match with fat people? If so, do you ask them out in public, or just to the motel, on the sly? Are the fat people you are friends with people you know? How much do you tell them how proud you are of the friendship/relationship you have? What are your empathy exercises with the fat people you hang out with? How many times have you offended and/or humiliated the fat people around you?
I invite you to these reflections because today, September 10th, is the Day for Fat Visibility and Combating Fatphobia , but it wasn't always like that. The date only gained this resignification after an occupation by the “Vai ter Gorda” movement, at Praia da Barra in Salvador (BA) in 2017.
So come here and think with me:
what have you been doing to be a better person with fat people? What privileges do you give up so that fat people can access their own rights?
And here, beyond the middle of this text, I thought I'd apologize for the inquisitorial tone, but I've already lived a lifetime apologizing for being fat, for taking up too much space, trying to make myself smaller to fit in chairs, turnstiles, clothes, loves , in affective relationships and in the world, that I refuse to, once again, make this movement.
Consider each question as one of the times I needed to justify my existence in the world. The list is endless. And that's why I'm here, making this textão, begging for empathy. Asking you to, at least while you're reading this, put yourself in a fat person's shoes and not think and say things like 'but if it's that hard, why not lose weight?'
I could even talk about this topic in another text, but I'll limit myself to saying: have you ever thought that fat people don't want to be thin? And, why do you think only skinny people should be respected? Where does the belief that only thin people should be humanized come from?
You see, I've already asked questions again, but, I swear, I wanted to understand: what is the root of so much hate? And, therefore, on this September 10th, whose date was imported from the USA in a pejorative tone and became a day of struggle - one more, considering that our entire existence is marked by resistance and forms of self-affirmation.
You must be wondering: why a day to romanticize obesity? And I appeal to you: never use that word again. Yes. Obesity. It doesn't matter what Drauzio Varella said, that doctors repeat it for diagnoses before examining a patient, but offering a death sentence just by looking at the body. It doesn't matter how many scientific articles it appears in.
I shorten the way: on Google alone, a search of 0.71 seconds points to 9,140,000 results. None of them bring positive news. The term obesity was coined by the scientific community to introduce a non-existent pathology and thus authorize practices of mutilation and extermination. The term 'combating obesity' suggests the extermination of these dissident bodies and the big question is: who profits from it?
Believe: fatphobia kills more.
So, since you've come this far, understand: don't reproduce this speech. Look at people, the same ones on your contact list and answer to yourself: how much do I facilitate or hinder these people's lives because of their body shape, which disobeys the current norm?
I take advantage of the date and ask: stop harassing and violating our bodies!
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Jessica Balbino is the type of electric woman, who mixes journalism, cultural production and literature with pepper, caffeine, phosphorus and gasoline.
Photo by Cinthia Rizoli .
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