“Fight for size equality” should be canned

Superstar Lizzo, “embraces her body” we are told.
She’d be better eating less. This is not the result of “big bones” 

I’m probably going obsessive on this issue, “plus-sized”, one might say, having posted yesterday. Now, a Letter to the Post. Mainly coz I think we ought not be going along with this thing of *celebrating* being overweight, when we know — the science and modern medicine tells us — it’s bad for individuals and bad for society — bad for health and hugely costly for society. Just look at how much higher Covid fatalities were in the US., because America has such high rates of obesity. We, our society, must be tackling it as an issue, not going along with it — celebrating it — for the sake of “diversity and inclusion”. 

I must own and stress that I’m myself overweight and struggle to control it. So I know how difficult it is. But I don’t think I should be “celebrated”, reframed, euphemistically, as being “plus-sized”.

So, letter to South China Morning Post:

We know we’re going off the rails when we “celebrate” activities that are plainly and scientifically harmful to society, and do so in the name of diversity and inclusion.

I’m referring to “Sports Illustrated model, influencers on being plus-size in fashion” (Lifestyle, 22 August)in which “body positivity” activists ask us to be totally accepting of overweight people (the “plus-sized”). Further, they insist we cheer and encourage them in their weightyness.

I am myself a “person of girth”. That is to say, overweight. But I’m in no doubt that it’s not good for me amd struggle to keep it under control. 

Being overweight is bad for the bones; bad for heart; bad for the liver, indeed bad for pretty much every organ in our bodies. It heightens risk of diabetes. We know too that it greatly increases risk of dying from Covid. Yet whereas Covid could have been a spur to tackle what has rightly been called an “obesity epidemic” in the west, especially America, no action was taken out of fear of offending “body positive” activists. 

We need to be clear: there is no mystery about why Lizzo, why Jordan Underwood, why Giancarlo Russo are overweight. It didn’t happen of a sudden. It’s simply down to them eating more calories than they burn. Let’s be polite to them, sure. But celebrate them? Urge them to “go still further”? That’s crazy.

I understand and applaud the Post's desire to publish a wide variety of opinion. But this was a puff piece, not at all helpful to the bodily health of our society.

We must win this Battle of the Bulge. The original Battle of the Bulge was not good for Hitler. This one won’t be good for us unless we resist this false and dangerous narratives about fat being “wonderful”. It’s not and it’s fake news.

Peter Forsythe

Discovery Bay 

9308 0799

PS: If you Google “Jordan Underwood” you find two. One the “plus-sized” one, the other a famous model and very slim. The first because she eats too much; the second because she doesn’t.