Fat shaming isn’t cool guys

I have Facebook friends I grew up with, and a handful of us would probably be friends now if we hadn’t emotionally scarred each other during puberty. Specifically, a few of these kids went vegan, which I did in undergrad. I had to reincorporate some diary after I became really sick. Mostly this resulted from me not paying attention to being healthy. Overall, these kids have a very progressive outlook on life, which is awesome. But every once in a while I just don’t know what the fuck is going on. I’m not picking on these people, by the way, but I’ve noticed vegans and environmentalists get real preachy on people and often say very disgusting things about those who opt out of their lifestyles. I once got into an argument with a girl over how funding should be spent on social justice causes. She was an environmentalist who wanted new recycling equipment; the equipment was still in working condition. I wanted to use the money to feed the poor, and we fed the poor via donations. Both of our stances had working solutions, but we both though the funding applied to our cause would be better spent. She accused me of not caring about the environment, which I pointed out I was the vegan in the conversation, and she still ate meet, but for me compassion for people trumps compassion for animals.

I bring all this up because Tuesday morning, I once again saw an article that has been circling the internet for at least a month. It was posted by a vegan I grew up with. An obese woman in the UK receives welfare benefits and claims she needs more money if she is going to lose weight because she doesn’t want to give up fast food and junk food. Look, we can all make better decisions about our food choices…I mean I drink soda, which has no nutritional value. Everyone has something. Additionally, a lot of these junk foods and fast foods are targeted toward the low-income, particularly low-income children (I’m looking at you kid’s meals).

There are a few not so great facts about poverty that people would rather overlook:

1. Low-income people are predisposed to certain diseases including obesity and diabetes. This can stem from lack of access to medical care from childhood through always.  This isn’t just diet by the way; the poor have increase rates of respiratory illnesses as well including asthma.
2. Low-income people have lack of access to healthy food choices, which is evident when you see five fast food places on a block and the only grocery store closed or a corner store (for those playing back home remember when Finest closed on Broadway and our parents had to drive to the suburbs for a grocery store because Dave’s was always selling out?). This is called a food desert. Corner stores, gas stations, etc. have low quality food choices, and then of course the ever present fast food…back home if you ordered fries before your burgers at the Wendy’s on Broadway and Harvard, you’d get narcotics. Helpful life tips.
3. Low-income neighborhoods also have fewer recreational places to exercise, and if they do exist like the shiny Boys and Girls Club on Broadway with the high fence to keep the dealers out, the dealers just hang by the entrances and exits. Parks, pools, etc., hell even our roads lack funding. And I dare someone to run in my neighborhood. Then again, last time I was home my dad said he say some guy running down Fleet looking stupid so we know gentrification is coming.

Additionally, I wanted to point out that once a benefit is dispersed then you don’t really get to decide anymore how it is spent (as long as it is within the confines of the law). It isn’t my or your choice to make. It is their choice. Once, I listened to a fellow-student complain that an EBT recipient in line behind her had nothing but ice cream and a ready-made cake in her basket. I pointed out it could have been someone’s birthday because you don’t know anything about other people’s lives. The student conceded that there are reasons someone might only buy those items…no shit, how big of you. What this comes down to is a lack of empathy for people outside your circle. I find this all the more disturbing when you consider these are people pushing for compassion for animals.  

Finally, the last real issue here is that the person who posted this article (and I use the word loosely), was trying to fat shame this poor woman because there is nothing worse than poverty except poverty co-occurring with unattractiveness.