When people want to have an arguments about fatness- they often dedicate themselves to arguing that Health at Every Size (HAES) is false or discredited or whatever.

The short version of HAES (as I understand it, and I am NOT an expert here) = Listen to your body and eat a variety of food. Do some exercise that you enjoy. You may lose weight or you may not.

But here's the thing- radical fatness and HAES are not the same thing. It's a Venn diagram with a lot of overlap, but you don't have to do HAES to be into fat liberation.

I have health habits in my own personal life. I am not interested in discussing them. This is because the fatphobic are constantly trying to make fats "prove" their worth via how healthy they are or how much they exercise. And then the "discussion" is all goal post moving and redefining terms and calling fat people liars... blah blah.

The only way to win that game is to refuse to play.

So here's what I'm about. Radical fat pride. The humanity of fat people is not up for debate. No one has to prove the un-provable by listing their health habits.

I demand that we be treated with dignity and respect. I demand that we be made visible in a world that seeks to erase us.

I have a political stance about this. I am into body autonomy. Your body is YOURS. And you are the one who gets to make decisions about it.

I don't care if people want to diet or lose weight. I really don't. I wish I didn't have to hear about it all the time. I wish people were more aware that the culture's constant diet talk and focus on weight loss can be very triggering for people struggling with eating disorders.

But am I mad at people for losing weight? No.

Am I mad at people who decide they want to get into shape or run a marathon? NO.

Jesus CHRIST, it's like I'm not even speaking the same language as the whole rest of the WORLD.

Here is my SUPER RADICAL proposal-- (to paraphrase a feminist line)

Fat people ARE PEOPLE.

We're not jokes or devils or evil. We're not trying to stop you from doing anything.

We're not taking more than our fair share of anything-- not any more than any person in any other developed country. We are all doing that. Because CAPITALISM.

Stop using us as object lessons or projecting all your fears onto us. We are just PEOPLE. Just treat us like PEOPLE.

And yes, I intend to scream and yell and fuck shit up and break stuff until the harmful attitudes change. Want me to shut up? STOP YER FUCKERY THEN.