![]() ![]() ![]() In our culture, fatness is a constant source of shame and ridicule. ![]() Why we should stop using fat as an insult More important, there are many reasons why a person may be larger, and that does not make them moral failures. Scientific research has shown, however, that diets, no matter the type, do not work on a lasting basis for many people. Far too many people still believe the misinformation that fat people are fat because they are gluttonous, lazy, and don’t care about their health-not to mention the fact that being skinny isn’t the same as being healthy. We are still exposed to questionable health advice (we’re looking at you, Goop). We still have fad diets (e.g., Keto, intermittent fasting, gluten-free when not being used to treat gluten sensitivities) and weight-loss programs (Beachbody, Noom, and WW, formerly Weight Watchers, which dates all the way back to the 1960s). But, the culture was so steeped in the idea that fat was evil that even the craziest, unhealthiest diet would have been seen as good. In the 1970s, Vogue published a now-viral wine and egg diet, which advocated, in part, snacking on boiled eggs and drinking an entire bottle of wine every day for three days. There was also the cabbage soup diet, which instructed people to eat only cabbage soup and limit their intake of other kinds of foods for an entire week. (Clearly, Domino Sugar was feeling the pinch of America’s emerging weight consciousness.) One ad touted that three teaspoons of Domino-brand sugar contained fewer calories than half a grapefruit. Soon, magazines were publishing all manner of absurd diets, like the Domino Sugar Diet, which encouraged people (yes, primarily women) to increase their sugar intake as a means of losing weight. In March 1954, Life magazine featured an article, “The Plague of Overweight,” which characterized obesity as “the most serious health problem today.” “The uncompromising truth,” it went on, “is that obesity is caused by gluttony.” At the time, only around three percent of Americans were considered obese. Technology and industry in the 19th and 20th centuries made food stabler, cheaper, and more widely available as well as increased the overall standard of living-but that came with more sedentary lifestyles and processed foods, creating new concerns about weight.īy the 1940–50s, thinness had spread as the new ideal for health and beauty. ![]() Crowther explained in 2011 research, “excess body fat a symbol of wealth and prosperity as the general population struggled with food shortages and famine,” as we can see in Renaissance portraits celebrating full-figured women. When did being fat become “bad”?įor much of history, as W.F. As early as the 1830s, people were using the term fatheadto describe “a stupid person or a fool.” In the 1940s, fatso disparaged “a fat person.” By this time, pejorative senses of fat prevailed. In the late 1300s, fat land was “fertile” and “abundant.” In the 1600s, a fat person could be “wealthy” or “affluent.” That underlying sense of prosperity lingers in fat cat, a 1920s barb at a “wealthy person,” especially one with political influence.īut, even in Old English, fat was already being frowned upon-and the word went on to spawn many an insult. Historically, fat had a number of positive meanings. What does fat mean?Ī primary definition of fatis “ having too much flabby tissue corpulent obese.” As a noun and adjective, fat is found in Old English ( fǣtt), from a verb form meaning “to cram, load, adorn.” The word has cousins in Germanic languages, like the German Fett/ fett. However, the body positivity movement, fat activism, and popular books and television shows centered on fat characters are proving that narrative is wearing thin. It’s so often framed as a negative-and used as an insult. As an adjective, it joins words like tall, hairy, fluffy, or bright.īut, unlike those descriptors, fat isn’t neutral. By Ashley Austrew The word fat holds a complicated place in our society. ![]()
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