Trolls Accuse Body-Positive 'Cosmo' Covers Of 'Promoting Obesity'
God forbid women who aren’t conventionally thin appear on the cover of a magazine
Right off the bat, let’s get one thing clear: the size of a person’s body does not determine the health of that body. Period. But try telling that to fatphobic assholes who, instead of seeing a beautiful woman living her best life on the cover of a magazine, have to go out of their way to dump all over it because that woman isn’t conventionally thin. Which is what a lot of people are doing in the wake of Cosmopolitan UK‘s latest cover.
The magazine’s February issue features 11 different women with 11 very different bodies, proving that “wellness” isn’t all about being thin, starving yourself, or looking a certain way. Each woman shares what “healthy” means to them — it’s an incredibly valuable feature story, as the new year is always rife with “diet this, detox that, here’s how to lose that holiday weight FAST” garbage aimed at making women feel like total crap about ourselves. Weight bias in medicine is especially prevalent, so it’s even more disheartening to see this fatphobic narrative take center stage.
One of the cover models, Callie Thorpe, is also a writer and content creator who opened up about what it means to be featured on the cover of Cosmopolitan UK on her Instagram page.
“This cover was an opportunity beyond my wildest dreams,” she wrote. “I’m so grateful for the chance to discuss an issue I believe is often ignored and that is this one dimensional understanding of health. How it’s used to shame others. How there is a distinct lack of diversity or support in ‘wellness spaces’ and how poorly fat people are treated in the name of health.
“It’s not lost on me that we have all survived the perhaps one of the most challenging years of our lives,” Thorpe continued. “And now more than ever it’s clear that mental health is so important and health isn’t linear.”
She’s absolutely correct. Everyone should love the body that got them through a global pandemic, full stop.
Unless you’re an intentionally short-sighted, mean person who doesn’t think twice about seeing a cover feature like this in a mainstream women’s magazine and taking a hot, steamy, dump all over it by concern-trolling.
Like this vile take from (of course) Vile Take Extraordinaire Candace Owens, who thinks we need to protect children not from the violent insurgency of white supremacists, but from healthy, beautiful women instead:
She’s not alone. We certainly couldn’t uplift these women without making assumptions about their health while also tying it directly to COVID-19 in a willfully bad faith take.
And then there are people like this, who fat-shame people while saying they shouldn’t be fat-shamed. Fun!
The rest of the terrible opinions are basically like Attack A Fat Person Bingo. “Mention diabetes as soon as possible” should be the Free Space.
How dare a fat person do yoga!
Quick, get an anorexia comparison in there as fast as you can! Because if a body isn’t a size four, surely there must be disordered eating involved even though genetics plays a far larger role in what size you are than food does.
Hey, let’s throw in discriminatory comparisons to transgender people and illogical comparisons to domestic pets while we’re at it.
And for our final bingo win, a mention of bariatric surgery.
https://twitter.com/jetpack/status/1345888389753696260
These women are healthy, happy, and doing their fucking best to get through the terrible hand we were all dealt during the last 10 months. Fat people aren’t automatically unhealthy just like thin people aren’t automatically healthy. Not acknowledging this inarguable truth is ignorant, harmful, and just plain cruel.
New resolution for 2021: Mind your business and your own body. THE END.
