How Big Food Feeds Fat Positivity
15th April 2024
In 1967, Lew Louderback published an article titled “More People Should Be Fat”. Fat people were being told they were ugly, immoral and unhealthy; they were discriminated against in the job market and in education. Their persecution had “more than a hint of the Nazis’ kraft durch freude [strength through joy]”, wrote Louderback.
Yet there was no civil rights movement for the overweight. “All that the fat person can do, at great personal sacrifice and daily torture, is attempt to ‘pass’ as a thin person.” Louderback and his wife had opted out. They were what he described as “honestly fat” — predisposed by a combination of inheritance and upbringing to never be skinny — and by finally ending the fight against their own bodies, they had become happier and even healthier.
Again, this is a self-correcting problem, long-term. Being fat is unhealthy. Sooner or later, fat people kill themselves with the kind of indulgences that a modern technological society makes possible and even easy. The famous Internet meme “I want to come to America. I want to see a country where the poor people are fat.” expresses the situation pretty neatly.