A Fat Person’s Redemption
5 minutes
The End of the Fat Golden Age
Many people with obesity may feel they were born in the wrong era. The times when a fuller figure was considered beautiful—such as the High Tang dynasty or the Renaissance, when artists celebrated curvy women—are long gone. For much of human history, people lived through war and famine. Fear of hunger has a longer history than the pursuit of thinness. People valued fat and rich food and did not consider it unhealthy or unattractive.
In 1908, French designer Paul Poiret presented a dress in London that followed the body’s natural shape. Made of light silk, it revealed the body’s curves. Upper-class men and women, proud of their taste, began to pursue a graceful figure and embrace dieting. The trend quickly spread across Europe and America. That is why people say the early twentieth century marked the end of the fat golden age.
Once “slimming down” became the mainstream ideal, people with obesity inevitably faced discrimination, sometimes framed as a moral failing. Employers, for example, might view them as lazy, greedy, or lacking self-control. A successful person was expected to have strong discipline and execution, and to maintain a good figure and exercise regularly.
Being Fat Really Isn’t My Fault
Research over the past decade has established that genes play a decisive role in obesity. In one UCLA study, researchers fed more than a hundred genetically altered mice a normal diet for eight weeks, then gave them a high-fat, high-sugar diet (the “standard American diet”) for another eight. Some mice showed no noticeable change in body fat, while others gained more than 600 percent!
That is why some people never gain weight no matter what they eat, while others seem to gain weight just by drinking water. Until scientists find the switch that turns off obesity genes, those of us who are fat should think about how to redeem ourselves.
If You Can’t Change It, Make Fat Beautiful
Fashion magazines devote endless pages to dressing, styling, and looking your best—but sadly, those pages rarely make room for fat people. Bruce Sturgell was one of those men. He believed plus-size men did not just need clothes large enough to fit their bodies (the “big and tall” shops on every street already provided that); they needed to look fashionable too. He turned frustration into a website offering style advice for plus-size men aged 18 to 35. It brought in huge traffic and enormous revenue. In the United States alone, this was a $600 million business in 2009.
Bruce Sturgell was not the only one in this market.
Success by individuals helped major brands catch up. The May cover of ELLE Québec featured plus-size model Justine Legault. H&M chose plus-size model Jennie Runk to front its swimwear range. And Karl Lagerfeld, who lost 42 kilograms to fit into Dior Homme, said he no longer liked thin people… The world would be better if everyone followed healthy, natural eating and living habits instead of starving themselves to fit fashion.