Health(ism) at every size: The duties of the “good fatty”

Discussing health in many “body positive” spaces will provoke a variety of familiar responses, for example, “but it is possible to be both fat and healthy,” “thin people can be just as unhealthy as fat people,” and “what about health at every size?” While there are many different ways to interpret the Health at Every Size (HAES) movement , this article seeks to examine the links between Lindo Bacon’s Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth about Your Weight and the popularized body positivity movement as it is today. While Bacon and other health professionals subscribed to HAES undoubtedly have good intentions, those intentions do not absolve the negative impact that the popularization of HAES-related body positivity has had on those of us who are both fat and, by the definition of HAES “unhealthy.” The rise of body positivity into mainstream consciousness has popularized an “acceptable” way to be fat and perpetuates the stereotype of the “good fatty.” Using autobiographical writing of fat women who have been associated with fat activism and body positivity, I draw lines between Bacon’s influential text and some of the healthism that exists in the body positivity movement. Inspired by my discomfort with the celebration of HAES in fat body positive spaces, I ask how does HAES promote healthism in the contemporary body positivity movement?