Breaking the Silence: Part 1- Brainwashed by The Systems that Oppress Us into thinking Thin Privilige is Fake News
All the Things Thin Privilege Related
Agenda:
And with that power we have a choice to make.We can remain stagnant and choose to follow along with the current narrative of society. Or we can be disruptive. We have been granted this opportunity to advocate for others and make this a better, more just world.
Let’s explore thin privilege – what is it?
Thin privilege is the unearned advantages automatically given to people who have thin bodies (according to society's definition of thin). It is important to note that there is not one single body size that “thin privilege” is designated for.
However, as a society, the media has elevated certain body types and downgraded others. Society has deemed that the smaller the body the more unearned privilege someone is likely to receive (And we could go into possible motivations of this- examining the pendulum swing of the media and profitability of beauty and fashion in a different post- soon to come)
For the purpose of this article, we will define thin privilege as:
- The ability to go in a mainstream clothing store and find something that fits your body
- Being able to easily access public services like busses, airplanes, and seating at the physician’s offices
- The ability to live without fear that your body size may result in physical or mental abuse
Thin privilege is a problem because it elevates and values the thin body type over other body sizes in all sectors of our culture.
Society's obsession with thinness makes it very difficult for people who do not live in small bodies to exist in the world without experiencing some level of oppression. "
So, with that definition in mind, let’s explore some of the ways that "thin privilege" is impacting those in all ranges of bodies, and how we can move away from the toxicity of promoting thin privilege. First Question:
Where Does "Thin Privilege" Come From?
Thin or skinny privilege comes from social ideas like the following:
- Thin bodies are automatically healthier than large bodies
- Everyone could be in a thin body if they made the right lifestyle choices
- The difference of people in thin bodies vs larger bodies has to do with motivation and will power
- Thin-bodied people are more disciplined
- People who are thin care about themselves more than people who are not thin
- Most people who are thin come into the world in smaller bodies
- Thinness is typically a genetic trait
False Narrative From Diet Culture: "Thinness is a choice"
Consequently, Diet Culture and the media give us this false impression that thinness is merely a choice. We choose to be thin or not. Ever heard phrases like: "People choose not to take care of themselves (and let themselves go- aka not being in a thin body) and then expect society to feel sorry for them" or "Laziness is what's causing the obesity endemic in society, and we shouldn't have to fix it"? Narratives like these are what creates and perpetuates the facade that those who don’t live in thin bodies are a burden to society.
Diet Culture Says
Diet culture, the media, and society in general promote a false narrative that basically states that "people that live in larger bodies ARE choosing to be that way, so it’s okay to reprimand them for this decision."
Hold up. First off, nobody should ever be treated negatively or reprimanded in any way shape or form due to falling outside of what the media dictates as acceptable. EVER. Secondly, we even see this message in the medical field due to highly outdated tools like the BMI scale (Which BTW was NEVER intended to measure health but merely to measure our gravitational pull to a given planet in relation to the sun) to assess our overall health status. Even people in "thin bodies" can be deemed highly unhealthy due to their BMI score.
BMI is BS. Why? Because, BMI only takes into account weight and height of an individual. There is no differentiating muscle from fat. There is no way to tell if a person is bloated or retaining water due to medications. There is no way to determine what is appropriate for an individual based on their body type or history of their growth curve. Just because science and technology have not come out the stone age in regards to measuring our overall health, doesn't mean that we should follow arbitrary systems put in place by men hundreds of years ago who also thought that corsets were healthy for women.
Fact: "Society promotes false and hurtful messages that those that are not in thin bodies should hate their bodies over and over throughout the course of our lives"
This is merely one of the many consequences of the dystopian patriarchy that we live in. Any eye rolls or face palm smacks yet? If you are anything like me you might be thinking, "OOF. What can we do about it?" Well for starters, we need to face a harsh reality that won't get you any instagram likes or high fives in from the media. Facing the fact that society as a whole grants "thin privilige" out to those of us in (societally deemed) "small" to "normal sized" bodies freely and openly. "If you are thin, come on up! And claim your privilige!" "No purchase necessary folks!" Anyone else feeling like we are back in the times of "Manifest Destiny" and early civilization? No? Just me? That's okay. My ADHD tangent is over and crisis averted.
Unearned Privileges of Being Thin
Thin-bodied people might not feel like they are “privileged.” I know I did not feel like, nor do I really "feel" like I have an extended privilige- most likely because I have never had to experience life without it. I wonder if, maybe, other thin-bodied people have feelings of inadequacy and shame around their bodies as a result of diet culture making it that much harder to see their privilige and the lack of privilege for the other side of this spectrum.
It's difficult to explain and empathize with something if you haven't experienced that reality first hand. I could not imagine how hard the experiences must be for those without thin privilige.
I can only sympathize and use my experience with having a normal body and then gaining an elevated status of thin privilige- AKA an extreme form of thin privilige only obtained through my deadly eating disorder that eventually was entrenched so deeply into my core that I could no longer see or focus on anything outside of my disorder- to losing that level of thin privilige and having to mourn the loss of it.
Even so, I do not know the pain of those who are not granted basic thin privileges. While yes, I have fluctuated within the spectrum of thin to normal, I have never objectively experienced the traumas or discrimination that my fellow "bigger bodied" counterparts experience on a daily basis. My heart hurts for every human who has been discriminated based on their lack of thin privilige.
I think it is important to remind everyone, myself included, that thin privilege does not mean that you don’t experience body shame or negative comments. Nobody is immune to diet culture or the media. Rather, it just means that negative body thoughts tend to exist more on an intrapersonal (AKA: your own thoughts) and interpersonal (AKA: in your peer groups) level rather than at the systemic level.
Here are some common thin privileges that are unnoticed or overlooked:
- Being able to walk into a mainstream clothing store and get clothes
- Ability to match with a variety of people on dating websites
- Not having to pay for an extra seat on a flight
- Not having to pay extra for clothes, wedding dresses, sporting equipment, etc.
- Ability to not feel threatened in public spaces solely based on your body size
- Not having higher insurance premiums (health insurance, life insurance) solely based on your body size
- Going to public places and having seating available that fits your body
- Being able to sit down in a chair and not be fearful that the chair may not be equipped to support you
- Ability to eat in public without whispers or comments being made at or to you about the food you are consuming
- Ability to go to the doctor and be treated for your medical condition rather than a focus on losing weight
- Not having certain medical conditions missed because of your body weight
- Ability to go on an amusement park ride without concern
- Compliments and praise
- Being selected for sports
- Greater access to job opportunities and higher pay scales
Do People Who Are Thin (According to Societal Standards) Struggle With Body Image?
Yes. 1000% In fact most people that live in western cultures are subject to horrible amounts of body scrutiny, regardless of their body size heavily due to the media and societal expectations.
Media and cultural norms make it crystal clear that NOBODY is thin enough. Even if someone is living in a thin body, the impeding pressure to do more prevails:
- Shrink the body even more
- Fear fat and gaining weight
- Prevent any change in body shape regardless of puberty, age, menstrual cycles for certain women, health conditions, or pregnancy
- Refrain from any “unnecessary” body fatness
- Be able to wear any style of clothing effortlessly
- Appear thin even in low rise clothing
- Never have a bloated body, ever.
- Look like an edited or photoshopped model at every moment in time
- Add muscle so that your muscle to fat ratio is higher, but not too much muscle- you don't want to appear "bigger"
While people with thin privilege do not experience the same levels of oppression on a systemic level, NO BODY is safe from body image abuse.
Who Does Thin Privilege Harm?
While thin privilige harms all bodies of all shapes and sizes, the greatest level of oppression from thin privilege falls to those in larger bodies. The larger the body, the greater the oppression and limited access to resources. Those in marginalized communities and minorities housed in larger bodies are impacted even more.
Typically society deems oppressive behavior as justified "if a body falls outside the BMI threshold" And then that oppression ends up compounding even more so as we move up the weight spectrum.
Even though it has been scientifically proven that BMI is outdated and an insufficient predictor of overall health, it still doesn't stop society from using it as a tool to discriminate and elevate thin bodies over fat bodies.
Thin privilege harms everyone. The only thing left unfazed in this faulty sytem is the media and diet culture and the power that they hold over everyone within society. Even those in thin bodies are harmed. You can check out my Eating Disorder Story to see that even someone housed in a thin body is not exempt from body scrutiny and the deadly risks + consequences of an eating disorder.
Ways Thin Privilege Harms ALL of us in Society:
- Causing severe and debilitating fear and anxiety around weight gain"
- Causing the majority of people to constantly -'feel fat'" (while incorrect, the feeling is still valid)
- Increasing body checking in all body types
- Increasing occurrences of eating disorders
- Increasing relapses of eating disorders
- Body images struggles and body dysmorphia
- Increases fatphobia at both individual and societal levels
- Feeling guilty after eating-literally any type of food
- Causing Fear foods
- Causing avoidance of shopping for clothing due to distress around weight, shape, size, or appearance
- Causing avoidance and fear around social gatherings with food
- Causing medical health complications due to untested or non FDA approved methods used for weight loss
- Causing abuse of medications designed for other purposes outside of weight loss but have the side effect of weight loss
- Causing abuse of laxatives and harmful weight loss drugs
- Causing plastic surgeries to sky rocket due to the ability to gain thinness with a scalpel
- Creating food rules with the intent of maintaining/ gaining thinness
People in Larger Bodies Also Report Experiencing the Following Behaviors Directly Related to Their Lack of "Thin Privilege":
- Bullying based on their weight, shape, or size
- "Name calling, teasing, or other petty activities directed at one's body
- Physical violence or acts done to them
- Being scrutinized at a medical appointment due to their weight or blood pressure cuff not fitting properly
- Death threats because of the body
- Encouragement to self-harm
- Encouragement of eating disorders
- Encouragement to exercise to the point of injury or physical exhaustion
- Encouragement to hate their body, shape, weight, or size
- Encouraged to purchase incorrect clothing sizes as a means of motivation for weight loss
By offering thin body privilege in social spaces, we are basically, telling people that are housed in larger bodies that they are literally less valuable and deserve less equity. That in my opinion is inhumane and incomprehensible as to how we as a society have digressed so far backwards as to relay on outdated science and media companies who profit and make bank off of our dissatisfaction of our bodies to outline how we treat other humans. This harms everyone.
Some people will vouch that a diet saved them from obesity, and explain how they invested and participated in an extreme weight loss program that results in weight loss. BUT all the weight came back when they stopped dieting.
So while society promotes dieting because it seems like a logical option, because it “worked” for people while they were on the diet. I wonder if we could challenge that belief. Because stay with me for a second, "If a diet TRULY worked, if it REALLY REALLY WORKED, it would be SUSTAINABLE" And we wouldn’t be living in a world where the diet and weight loss industry is one of the most profitable businesses.
Unfortunately, that's not the case. I hear it all the time – how the new fad diet is gonna be the diet to finally work. That Keto Diet? It work-ED (then why are you researching the new Octivia Diet?), Whole30 work-ED (then why did you have to do it multiple times? And why do you suddenly gain all the weight you lost after you stop following the diet?), Weight Watchers work-ED.
TLDR;
Weight Watchers mini rant session* Weight Watches is this huge diet industry and business who makes about $70 million dollars a year is now rebranding with “WW” so they can go after kids and put them on diets at a even younger ages and teach them how to essentially diet – I'm sorry. I never want to overstep and tell a parent how they should do their job, but I am vehemently opposed to the idea of parents handing their children potentially dangerous dieting plans without the supervision of a dietitian or at least a medical provider. All because Weight Watchers or WW and Oprah gave the green light. I’m also kind-of disappointed in Oprah's choice to partner with them. I wonder if she understands just how deeply diets are steeped in racism.
Also, it is important to note that there is so much evidence and research that provides evidence for the fact that 95% of all weight loss efforts will end in weight loss rebound equal to or greater than the starting weight as the body tries to compensate for malnutrition. So basically research has proven that weight loss and dieting doesn't work, at least not long term. It actually can lead to increased weight gain due to the harmful consequences of dieting that our bodies' have to deal with. Yet our society has literally invested and continues to invest billions of dollars into the weight loss and diet culture industry.
How is this helping anyone aside from the corporations and weight loss industries? Nobody. It's just adding even more stress and feelings of inadequacy and failure to people housed in larger bodies when all they really want is to simply exist in the world as equals.
Thin Privilege And Eating Disorders
At its core, thin privilege exists as a result of fatphobia. Fatphobia exists as a result of the oppressive and patriarchal systems that America was founded on. Without disruption and change within the systems themselves, we will never see equality in our society.
We often Receive Messages About Diet Culture Which tell us:
- People in larger bodies are not lovable
- A fat body means you are undisciplined
- Everyone has a moral obligation to maintain a thin body
- Anyone could be in a thin body if they wanted to
- People in larger bodies are a burden to society
These types of messages make the separation between thin bodies and larger bodies even more distinct. Not to mention, it also glorifies thinness above all else in the process. Mainstream media does not even acknowledge let alone address that there is in fact a connection between diet culture and eating disorders.
The Value on Thinness can Increase the Risk of Medical Conditions and/or Eating Disorders Such as:
- Female athlete triad in athletes that are women
- Anorexia
- Atypical Anorexia
- Binge Eating Disorder
- Bulimia
- Dia-Bulimia
- Disordered Eating
- Orthorexia
- Heart Issues
- Dental Issues
- Kidney Failure
- Electrolyte Imbalances
- Energy, Sleep, and Mood Disturbances
- Hormonal Imbalances
- Brain Cognition
- Bone Loss which could result in- Osteopenia or even Osteoporosis
- And so many more....
I also want to note we see thin privilege in people who have access to things like heath insurance and medical benefits which allow them access into eating disorder treatment. Whereas people in larger bodies are far less likely to have access to the same benefits and even if they do, they are less likely to receive eating disorder treatment than those with thin bodies, EVEN if their symptoms are identical.
Think about that for a second, if two people were to seek out eating disorder treatment. Both people had the same health insurance and benefits, both had the same medical history, same labs, same doctor, same symptomology, and have been struggling for the exact same amount of time, and the only single difference between the two people was that one was in a thin body and the other was in a larger body- the two individuals would receive different care and treatment recommendations.
How wild is that? How crazy is that we live in such a fatphobic society that we would literally grant someone access to care and resources that they need and deny another person with identical information except a single factor that is their gravitational pull to the earth based on our position in relationship to the sun. I'm baffled that this is so indoctrinated in society, that most of us, myself included, have fallen guilty to believing the false notion that we are treated equally in the eye of the public, and that there is no discrimination or harm being done to our bigger body counterparts. Yet that's just it, society as a whole promotes inclusivity and equal treatment on paper, "We don't discriminate based on appearance" they say. Actions speak louder than words. If we look at the evidence it is clear that thin privilige is thing and fatphobia is real.
To make matters worse, the only stories in the media for eating disorder treatment are for thin bodies and the only wellness conversations those in bigger bodies are included in are weight loss and obesity centered ones. The systems in place to protect us, are biased and oppress minorities and marginalized groups. But they are also the same systems that control the media and the news that we are exposed to and so we are hidden away from the realities and truth that so many face. So...
How Can We Fight Against Thin Privilege
- Recognizing our own biases around body weight
- Become more curious and critical of spaces that support thin privilege
- Start conversations around the oppression of those in larger bodies
- Practice respecting our bodies as they are in this current moment (Noticing our judgements, the thoughts and feelings that come up, Especially those that surround the desire to change our bodies to be more aligned with societal pressures, which only perpetuates/ advocates that thinner bodies are something to be idolized and sought after)
For all of us who have thin privilege, we can use it to advocate for those without it. We can speak up against diet culture and the harmful narratives surrounding bigger bodies and fatphobia. Simply shutting down conversations that are unhelpful in terms of thin ideals and body standards rooted in societal aspirations is an act of rebellion. We can also be more proactive and refuse unnecessary weights at doctors’ offices for ourselves and our children, we can speak up against fatphobic comments made in public, and disengage from diet culture/ conversation related to weight loss. People in ALL body sizes play an important role in eliminating unearned thin privilege and unlearning harmful stereotypes as a result of societies deep rooted narratives against bigger bodies.
However, it’s entirely possible to advocate for equality in ALL body sizes. Together we can help bring awareness to this ongoing oppression and discrimination, simply start by reminding others that there is so much more to health than a person’s size or a number on a scale. Keep in mind that the topic and discussion of privileges is dependent on societal culture and norms- so please be open. Together we can create change, while it may be slow, it is still possible to create impactful change in ALL aspects of our society.
Lemme know your thoughts on thin privilige and what came up for you in the comments below! Did you enjoy this post? Hate it? Want more or something else entirely? Drop me a line, I welcome and appreciate any and ALL feedback.
Recovery Hype Girl
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