There should be no shame in not being healthy.

And it’s not that we abhor fatness because we discovered it is unhealthy. By and large, we decided it is unhealthy because we came, over time, to abhor it—for

Fatphobia is an inherently structural phenomenon, which sees people in fatter bodies navigating a different world, containing numerous distinct material, social, and institutional barriers to our flourishing.

Fatness serves as a potent class and race signifier. And so, when we wring our hands or jeer at fatness, we are often tacitly and unwittingly expressing classism and racism.

Fatphobia can be defined as a feature of social systems that unjustly rank fatter bodies as inferior to thinner bodies, in terms of not only our health but also our moral, sexual, and intellectual status.

What is called for is a thoroughgoing political reckoning and subsequent moral recognition: being fat, like being trans, is a valid and indeed valuable way of being in the world.

This is especially true in leftist circles, where such prejudices are now widely frowned upon, and would be an occasion for guilt, shame, and self-censure if admitted, even inwardly. Hence, as Paul Campos has argued, fatphobia can serve as a powerful proxy—and outlet—for these forms of bigotry: Precisely because Americans are so repressed about

Being thin has thus become much harder over the course of the past century—and, at the same time, vastly more valued.

Healthism seems to be less a general moral mistake, then, than an ideological weapon wielded selectively against those who are already stigmatized and othered.