Who The Fuck Cares If Lizzo Is Fat?

The "Air Space" problem of anti-body positivity arguments.

I was in Granbury, Texas for a part of this weekend, and heard two guys having a discussion about “fat chicks” and such, which is a discussion guys have been having for potentially 4,800 years — if not longer. It did make me, briefly, think about the whole “body positivity” movement and how insane everything about the Internet and hot takes is. At the same time I heard the “fat chicks” discussion, Princess Cate/Kate had just told the world about her cancer diagnosis, oddly without her husband by her side, but that hostage-looking video was the end (beginning?) of a weird arc of social media where everyone must weigh in on everything go on with some woman who is famous because of a generations-old power structure. I started thinking about this stuff more.

I am fat, and have been fat for most of my childhood and adult life. I do work out, but I’ve also been unhealthy with habits around eating and drinking. I am currently trying to be functional in eating/drinking/movement, and not worry that much about my bigger problems. But I know I am fat, and I move from “ashamed” to “OK” with it. For a long while, I felt bad about my health in the context of male fertility, and while I still sometimes feel bad about that, I also kinda think fertility is a giant crapshoot and a game of luck for so many more than we admit. I know absolutely obese people who have four biological kids. Sometimes it’s just age, timing, stress levels, whatever.

So I’m fat, and I do agree that sometimes these “movements” are a bit much/performative in many ways. The body positivity movement was indeed a bit performative, and all it really did was create opportunities for Matt Walsh and Jordan Petersen to go online and talk about how Lizzo is ugly and disgusting, thus extending the culture wars in the name of their own rage-driven bottom lines.

When I think through topics like these, I remember Jamie Foxx going on Tim Ferriss years ago.