Image description: Photo shows a father and son in a swimming pool. Source: istockphotos

By Tigress Osborn, NAAFA Board Chair

CW: Discussion of Weight Loss Drugs

If you have any exposure at all to the mainstream media, it’s no surprise to you that weight loss drugs are dominating the national discourse about fat. The short version is this: pharmaceutical companies are succeeding at getting drugs that were created to treat serious health conditions approved as weight loss drugs. (Of course, they argue that being fat is, in and of itself, a serious health condition. Fat activists oppose that classification.) Even when those drugs are not approved for weight loss, some patients are demanding them and some doctors are prescribing them for that purpose without approval. These are lifesaving drugs when used for their original purposes, and people who need them for those purposes are having a harder time getting them because of shortages caused by overprescription.

Add celebrity endorsements and TikTok trends to the mix, plus the efforts of the marketing departments of a bunch of multi-billion dollar companies, and the media will not shut up about these drugs.

That also means the people around us will not shut up about these drugs.

No one will shut up about these drugs.

The Media will Not Shut Up about these drugs.

No one will shut up about these drugs.

Sometimes, that’s absolutely right. Sometimes, we can’t shut up about them because then their potential and demonstrated harm to individuals and to fat community goes unchallenged. We need education about the impact of these drugs. In order to understand the skepticism and concern people have every time there’s a new so-called miracle weight loss product (pharmaceutical or otherwise), we need to understand the history of other “miracle” drugs and how they have ruined and have ended fat lives. If we lived parts of that history, this new wave can be particularly triggering. But even if we didn’t, the non-stop media message that everyone could and should lose weight by taking the right drugs implies that those of us who are still fat are failing. We get enough of that message!

We know that media coverage of fat people is almost always about health and weight, but it feels like the last couple of months have been particularly relentless. Even in size-inclusive spaces– where at least the dialogue is (hopefully) about critically questioning how the drugs have been created, researched, and marketed– our focus is on these drugs. How do we ensure that our critiques of these pharmaceutical companies’ practices and messaging don’t make life harder for those in our community who use and need their products–including these very drugs– to live? How do we give each other a break without giving these companies a break? How do we give ourselves a break?

It feels like the last couple of months have been particularly relentless

I know this is yet another article on the topic, but this one is an acknowledgement of how aaaaaalllllllllll the media coverage lands on fat community, lands on you. If you are feeling frustrated, overwhelmed, angry, sad, defeated, or any of the other feelings that come from an increased volume of the neverending soundtrack of weight loss talk and body comparisons, all of us at NAAFA just want you to remember that you are not alone in those valid and understandable feelings.

We also want you to remember that, in the words of our Board Member Christina Chase, we brazenly celebrate fat joy! Christina encouraged us to add this to our email signatures a few months ago so we, and everyone we correspond with, is regularly reminded of the importance of joy in the midst of our sometimes-very-disheartening work to combat anti-fatness.

So, take a minute to brazenly celebrate fat joy with us.

Take a minute to brazenly celebrate fat joy with us.

Rest is resistance.

Ozempic and Wegovy aren’t going anywhere any time soon, and here comes Mounjaro. But rest is resistance, and giving yourself permission to turn off, put down, throw away the next weight loss story that hits your timeline is 100% acceptable.

And, remember, while it feels like all the fat news is anti-fat news, it’s actually not. Fat and fat-positive people may not be getting all the coverage we deserve, but we’re getting a lot more coverage these days! Let’s make that the trend. More fat faces on newspaper front pages in stories that have nothing to do with all the ways the world tries to shrink us. More likes and comments on fat-positive news stories and posts online. Notes to the editors and producers of things we like about fat people so they know we want to see more of that coverage.

Fat and fat-positive people are getting a lot more coverage these days! Let’s make that the trend.

We’ll keep supporting you with serious work to dismantle anti-fatness and with more opportunities to brazenly celebrate fat joy. If you’re fat, join us for Fat Fridays Virtual Social Club at the end of the month and get some joy there. The rest of our virtual events are open to friends and supporters of all sizes. Check our events page or social media for other joyful events coming up!

About the Author

Tigress Osborn (she/her) is NAAFA’s Board Chair. Tigress joined the NAAFA Board of Directors in 2015 and became Director of Community Outreach in 2017. She is the founder of Full Figure Entertainment in Oakland, CA and co-founder, with activist/blogger Nicholet Deschine Parkhurst of Redstreak Girl, of PHX Fat Force in Phoenix, AZ. Her professional background as a youth advocate, diversity educator, and equity and inclusion consultant informs the fat liberation activism she has engaged in since 2008.