An overweight “fat activist” disclosed that she has been hired by the City of San Francisco to provide guidance on the prevention of “weight stigma.” On Monday, Virgie Tovar reported the news to her more than 82,000 followers on Instagram. This comes after California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the state’s own version of DOGE, President-elect Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, which is meant to eliminate wasteful government spending.
Tovar, 42, wrote in the post: “I’m working with a team at the San Francisco Department of Public Health as a consultant on weight stigma & weight neutrality.” She added: “I’m UNBELIEVABLY proud to serve the city I’ve called home for almost 20 years in this way. This consultancy is an absolute dream come true, and it’s my biggest hope and belief that weight neutrality will be the future of public health.”
How the fuck is this providing health? We should not be promoting fat as natural or neutral. Instead they should promote weight lose and healthy eating habits.
Well, if you read the article, she isn’t promoting being as natural or neutral. She was hired in as a consultant on de-stigmarizing being fat within society. People should not weight that much, I agree, however they also shouldn’t be shamed, ridiculed, or excluded (i.e. stigmatized). They should still be allowed to live without being shamed in the media, the workplace, or in public. If they want to live that way, then that’s their prerogative.
Come to Oklahoma they walk freely and no one shaming them. My wife is overweight. But we shouldn’t be glorifying it either. And that what campaigns like this do. Hell people should feel little shame for allowing themselves to get that big. My best friend lived his life proud being over 400lbs. He is 47 and now lives in a nursing home, because he never took care of himself and allowed his health go.
Thank you for a very measured and well thought out comment on a sensitive topic.
My own stance on this is not very radical at all - I think fat activism is very interesting, and shoudl probably be a very amatuer affair that focuses on destigmatizing fatness among youths who are in the school environment and face all manner of bullying at an age where they are not fully culpable for their diet and lifestyle, right…
But I would just say that, as adults, we should be expected to not bully or belittle overweight people in professional or even daily life environments, right…
If she is consulting specifically on the topic of school bullying, that is intereting, but my understanding is that it’s broader than that.