How To Be A Fat Bitch e-course #11: Dealing With Diet Talk

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Assignment

It might also help you if you write down some responses in your own words to these inevitable encounters so that you feel prepared to get through your next family reunion or workplace potluck. Even if you don't use them you can work through your feelings about it. Blog it, Instagram it, Tweet it (#fatbitchecourse, #nearsightedowl), etc. and share it in the comments below.

This is definitely a hot button issue for my family. It comes up pretty frequently at family gatherings so it will be great to have a few go-to responses for when this happens. It will also be nice for work because I have a few co-workers that are not body positive and it is hard to deal with sometimes. Here are some of the responses that I came up with:

"I think people have a right to do what they want with their body. Who are we to judge? How do we know that they aren't perfectly happy as they are?"
"To me fat is not a negative word, it is simply a descriptive word, like happy or tall etc."
"You cannot make assumptions about a person's health based off of their size. There are a way more contributing factors to health besides weight anyway."
"I don't feel comfortable discussing other people's/strangers choices, especially in regards to their body, it's too personal. Let's talk about something else. Have you read any good books lately?"

I think that's a pretty good standard list for most of the situations I have found myself in. Can anyone think of anything else to add?

Discussion

I recently made the decision to either unfriend or filter out online friends that do a lot of diet talking or post fat hate. It wasn't exactly easy and a one didn't understand and lashed out at me. What is your policy on online friends? Have you gone through your friend's list and given people the axe?

When I finished school I went through my Facebook and "axed" quite a few of the people that I had friended over the years. Most of the people didn't get axed because of diet talk (although there were a few). It was mostly people that I only friended because they were in my programs and it was good to have them on there for contact purposes. I make it a personal rule to not friend anyone unless I really know them and their ideals. It's the same for blogs, tumblr, pinterest etc.. I read through their posts and make a decision based off of what I see. If they seem negative in anyway about body positivity or other important issues, then I won't follow them. I definitely filter who I am friends with online, it just makes life more pleasant for everyone involved.