WaPo Slams ‘Diet Culture,’ Calls to Help Kids Resist ‘Anti-Fat Expectations’

FILE - A person eats in London on Oct. 17, 2007. The World Health Organization says the nu
Kirsty Wigglesworth, File/AP
Joshua Klein

The time has come to “cancel diet culture,” according to a Washington Post essay that calls to help children “resist” conforming to “anti-fat expectations,” and whose author expresses regret over not having challenged her doctor’s recommendation she lose weight. 

The article, by contributing columnist Kate Cohen, entitled “It’s time to cancel diet culture — if not for ourselves, for our kids,” begins by blaming “American diet culture” for establishing a deep-rooted bias surrounding obesity. 

“American diet culture teaches us at an early age that fat is bad and thin is good. Fat is ugly and thin is pretty. Fat is unhealthy and thin is healthy. Fat is irresponsible and thin is virtuous,” the author writes. 

“This cultural bias is so pervasive and insidious that it turns almost everyone into either victim or collaborator. Or, if you’re like me, into both,” she adds.

Cohen cites author Virginia Sole-Smith, who explores “the toll that weight stigma takes on children” and the tools parents can use “to fight back,” as well as the “near-constant barrage of abuse and discrimination fat people face — in addition to the physical challenges of navigating a world designed for smaller bodies.”

Sole-Smith argues, Cohen writes, that fat children are “underestimated” by their teachers, “Black adolescents in bigger bodies are disproportionately punished for dress code violations,” and doctors “often have trouble seeing beyond a patient’s weight and reflexively prescribe dieting, regardless of the well-documented odds against permanent weight loss.”

According to Cohen, Sole-Smith’s new book Fat Talk also “questions the received narrative of the ‘obesity epidemic’” while tracing a “far more complicated relationship between health, weight, diet, disease and mortality.” 

The book also argues that “whatever health risks might come from living in a fat body are compounded, not lessened, by anti-fat messaging.”

Cohen then goes on to berate herself over her own “complicity” in diet culture, as she notes how Sole-Smith demonstrates “how easily everyone, especially parents, can go from being victims of diet culture to being its enforcers” — something she personally admits to having done:

When my own child’s body changed from “slim” to “husky,” I didn’t tell him to diet, but I know I radiated concern and an eagerness to help him lose weight. At the time, I would have said I simply wanted him to flourish in a fatphobic world where people get more goodies if they’re thin. But even if that were true, even if my own anti-fat bias had nothing to do with it, I should have behaved differently.

She, again, cites Sole-Smith’s book, which argues that “instead of urging children to conform to anti-fat expectations, parents could help them identify, critique and resist them.” 

“I should have told my son to trust his body, not suggest casually that he might enjoy yoga,” Cohen writes.

She concludes that though she sees the importance in the message of being comfortable with one’s own body, she need not believe it for herself:

What I decided when I read “Fat Talk,” though, is that I don’t have to believe it for myself. I have to believe it for children whose teachers assume they are dumber because they are heavier. For Black girls who are punished because their bodies don’t conform to White body standards. For the women who avoid the doctor because they failed to obey the one impossible doctor’s order: lose weight.

“I can’t stop being a victim of diet culture. But I can stop being a collaborator,” she adds.

The Post columnist then expresses her aspiration to henceforth remain silent on such issues.

“I can, first of all, shut up — about diets, about ‘guilty pleasures,’ about resolutions to eat ‘healthier,’ about any body’s weight,” she writes. “Whatever toxic notions I hold about food and weight I can at least keep from spilling out.”

However, she notes, Sole-Smith insists that silence, too, is harmful. 

“Saying nothing isn’t enough,” she writes, “because the rest of the world talks about bodies so loudly, all the time.”

Cohen ends her piece by describing the regret she feels for not challenging her physician, who once recommended she lose weight. 

“A few years ago, at my physical, I ventured to say, ‘I think this is just what I weigh, and it’s okay.’ I was trying so hard to believe that. My doctor replied, ‘You could stand to lose 10 pounds.’ And I didn’t argue,” she writes.

“One day, though — not for my sake but for the sake of some future patient — I might just muster the courage to ask: ‘What for?’” she concludes.

In response, some took to social media to ridicule the essay.

“‘Diet culture collaborators,’” wrote one user, “[meaning] People who encourage others to eat healthier.” 

“Heaven forfend,” the user added.

“Yes, because diabetes is awesome!” another mocked.

“The WaPo is a laughingstock,” one Twitter user wrote.

The issue comes as obesity continues to be encouraged by many on the left and in the entertainment industry, despite it being a condition that puts people at an increased risk of severe illness, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In December, a Scientific American essay claimed the fight against obesity is rooted in “racism,” and the prescribing of “weight loss” has “long since proved to be ineffective.”

Meanwhile, a TIME Magazine piece claimed early 20th century pushes for exercise in the U.S. stemmed from “white supremacy” in order to produce “more white babies,” while alleging it is wrong to presume that fat people are “not fit” or that they “want to lose weight.”

In October, entertainment giant Disney unveiled its first “plus-sized” heroine in a short film about an oversized ballet dancer dealing with “body dysmorphia.”

The obese ballet dancer in the film marks the first time an overweight character is treated as the hero instead of as comic relief or a villain.

In September, the Los Angeles Unified School District reportedly shared a “woke” video stating it was wrong to deem junk food bad while promoting a new concept of “food neutrality,” claiming “diet culture is based on oppression.”

Last January, SELF magazine published a column claiming that “anti-fatness” and “fatphobia” restrict the accessibility of fitness endeavors for fat people.

In addition, many have found themselves being attacked for so-called “fat shaming.”

Pop megastar Taylor Swift faced backlash after “hurting the feelings” of fans over what some considered “fatphobia” in the video for her song “Anti-Hero,” which was criticized as demonizing and shaming the overweight as well as those with eating disorders.

In 2021, Cosmopolitan magazine promoted plus-size women as “healthy.”

HBO comedian and talk show host Bill Maher has criticized the tendency to claim fat is “beautiful,” suggesting the government shame overweight people because they are a burden on the healthcare system while expressing concern that “fat celebration” is oversimplifying the obesity epidemic.

“There’s a disturbing trend going on in America these days with rewriting science to fit ideology,” he wrote. “We’ve gone from fat acceptance to fat celebration.”

In May, Canadian psychologist and bestselling author Dr. Jordan Peterson sparked controversy after declaring that plus-size Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Yumi Nu — who joined the ranks of plus-size models Ashley Graham and Hunter McGrady — is “not beautiful.”

Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.

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