Body Shaming in the Animal Rights Community

There's a disturbing tendency in the vegan community to disparage and alienate fellow vegans because of their weight. Over and over again, i have seen these condescending remarks made by the exact same people who decry the common conception of veganism as “just a diet.” Remarkably, i can recall one particular individual who claimed that overweight vegans should be "closet vegans," because they might "turn people away" from veganism. While this is obviously an extreme example, it stems from a belief that exists on a much broader scale: you are respected if you look this way, and you are rejected if you don't.

Skinny Bitch, a rather popular diet book, promises to alleviate the “self-loathing” you feel due to being “a fat pig” (an odd choice of slur for a book authored by vegans). Thin YouTube commentators evidently want nothing more than to evoke the viewer’s self-disgust by superciliously reveling in their “new and improved” selves. After all, if they can do it, anyone can! And if anyone can, you should be ashamed of yourself if you haven’t! … Right?

The authors of Skinny Bitch state the popular conception bluntly: “Healthy = skinny. Unhealthy = fat.” This is hardly a groundbreaking idea. Virtually every source of information, from advertising to academia, is constantly reiterating that message every day. Sitcoms, movies, cartoons, video games: they all reinforce the idea that it’s okay to stigmatize overweight people. As activists dedicated to creating a more equitable world for all beings, it's crucial to oppose these stigmas when they appear, not to reinforce them. 

An actual 2011 advertisement (image source)

Bioethicist Daniel Callahan actually suggests that stigmatizing overweight and obese people will force them to “want something different for themselves.” Not only is Callahan’s article mean-spirited (to put it lightly), but his claims are astonishingly baseless and contrary to almost every relevant study. The pervasiveness of fat-shaming  is such that it is rarely questioned, but it’s almost difficult to think of how we could possibly stigmatize overweight people any more than we do now. The social stigma attached to their weight already puts them at a disadvantage in the job market, education, and customer service.

Unsurprisingly, these folks end up with a lower self-esteem and more psychological distress. Obese individuals who face weight prejudice have a harder time losing weight. Indeed, many of the health problems related to obesity are also intricately linked with the stress of stigmatizing experiences. It is women who bear the brunt of this stigma, and the rate of disease for overweight women is almost seven times higher than for overweight men.

And this is where the tremendous implications for animal rights (AR) activism become apparent. There’s a preponderance of women in the AR movement; it’s estimated that for every male AR activist, there are three female activists. While it’s true that vegans have been shown to have a lower BMI than non-vegans, that does not mean veganism is (or should be used as) a panacea or a body-sculpting tool. We send out messages like that, and then we’re puzzled as to how anyone could refer to veganism as a “fad diet”!

The idealization of thinness is also firmly rooted in classism. Studies have shown with striking consistency that socioeconomic status is inversely related to obesity. That is, individuals of lower social classes are a good deal more likely to be obese than are those of higher socioeconomic standing. This pattern appears consistently among different racial groups, and the relationship is particularly strong among women.

The difficulties which members of the lower class must overcome are well-documented. Simply growing up in a lower-income environment has a significant effect on rates of obesity. Supermarkets tend to cluster in high-income areas, which ultimately leads to the creation of “food deserts,” areas in which residents lack easy access to fresh fruits and vegetables but have plenty of access to highly-processed and unhealthy foods. Even those low-income people who carefully budget for their food can face serious challenges in merely obtaining enough to eat, much less procuring nutritious foods. These are obstacles disproportionately affecting racial minority groups like American Indians and African Americans, and they're also obstacles that the AR movement must be able to address when advocating for an end to the consumption of animals and their “products.”

It's estimated that about 30% of veg*ns (vegetarians and vegans considered together) are overweight or obese. Almost one in three vegans, then, are being caught in the crossfire of our rhetoric. Whether it's PETA referring to heavier women as whales or an activist making snide remarks about another individual's weight, one is forced to ask: why are you advocating for veganism? Is it because you are revolted by the way we’ve turned living individuals into biomachines who exist for the benefit of humankind? Or are you attempting to exert control over the bodies of other individuals? The two are quite clearly not compatible; take your pick.