To begin, no person should have to suffer abuse at another persons hands while they are simply trying to live their lives unmolested. No one should advocate attacks whether verbal or physical or even passive aggressively. Having said that, evidence and truths should not be conflated as attacks or so called ‘shaming’.

Body positivity has become something that the world is being emotionally extorted into accepting as logical. Overweight and obese women (for the most part) are chiding society for the purpose of their own self interests.

When an individual works to gain an education society deems that as a laudable goal. When an individual gets up and does manual labor to support himself or a family, society deems that a laudable thing. When one does philanthropic work, that is almost universally applauded. In all of these examples, someone is putting forth effort and exerting themselves toward achieving a goal. It is not said that someone that is uneducated is laudable, or that someone that does not work hard is desirable. No one argues against hard work…or do they?

When someone obese says the she has earned the same regard as some one that has dedicated their time to exercise and conditioning, then that person is diluted. That is not license to demean that person, but it is like saying that someone that looks at the cover of a few books should be thought of as intelligent as the person that read those same books.

Obesity Among American Adults The United Health Foundation’s annual report regarding health in the United States found that there was a 5 percent increase in obesity rates among American adults in 2018, from the 29.9 obesity percentage in 2017 to 31.3 percent in 2018.

Mexico and the US continue to top the list in recent years trading spots for number 1 in North America. The United States is the most obese country in North America with 36.2% of its population having a body mass index of over 30.0.

The estimated annual medical cost of obesity in the United States was $147 billion in 2008 US dollars; the medical cost for people who have obesity was $1,429 higher than those of normal weight.

According to studies, a distinct link between socioeconomic standing and obesity has been made. The belief is that lower income individuals have increased psychological distress and resort to harmful coping mechanisms. Those that are also in socially disadvantaged areas are less likely to have readily accessible healthy dietary options. Fast food can easily become prevalent and habitual in those cases.

This begs the question; Do some try to redefine their circumstances by promoting acceptance of the negative in lieu of access to positive?

Can there ever be an acceptable excuse for a child that has become obese? No child can buy their own food. No child can decide what, how, and how much to either prepare or purchase. Only a mother, father, or caretaker can provide to that child. That person or people are also responsible for ensuring that the child is active.

Have you ever been in public and saw little demons running wild and wondered why no adult is managing them? That is an example of how children NATURALLY need to expend energy. If a child is sedentary indoors it is only because they were encouraged to be.

25.8%

According to the 2015-2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), more than one in four Latino children ages 2 to 19 had obesity.

22.0%

Twenty-two percent of Black children ages 2 to 19 had obesity according to the latest NHANES study.

14.1%

According to the 2015-2016 NHANES study of children ages 2 to 19, White children had a lower prevalence of obesity (14.1%) than Latino or Black children. 

In all of the uproar involving body positivity, the overwhelming support is for women from women. The world is admonished to support heavy or obese models, actresses, housewives, and beauty contestants. With all of that advocating, no one, EVER, mentions the need for the same acceptance of obese men. Why?

The answer is obvious; women don’t like and don’t respect obese, undisciplined, soft men. The traits that allow a man to become that unhealthy are the very traits that prevent a woman from deeming that man a viable candidate. The same women that would demand that they be loved and respected ( for their physical forms) would generally never view a similar man as acceptable or desirable.

The bottom line is that we can both state the need for a change in the state of health in the world at large and maintain a tone that doesn’t disrespect the basic humanity of a group of people. We can both accept the baseline norms of what benefits the human body and encourage without disgrace. We can both choose not to delude for self-preservation as well as exercise empathy.