Fat shaming by McDougall

[Guest guest]

It's unfortunate that Dr. McDougall is engaging in fat shaming. Later in

the same article, he goes beyond fat shaming, devaluing people with

disabilities and people who are not young (among others):

 

" With this one simple shift to a starch-based diet the word “vegan” will

become synonymous with terms like healthy, trim, active, young, strong,

and energetic, and finally the most important adjective, earth-changing. "

 

McDougall writes that a fat vegan will not be an effective advocate

because omnivores will be " distracted by their appearance. " This

reasoning is common in some activist circles, where there is an

obsession with advocates having a " mainstream " appearance. Can't we just

be ourselves? Can't we focus more on connecting with others instead of

worrying about the clothes we're wearing or how thin we are? I don't

think we are creating a better world if we perpetuate these harmful

ideas about who is acceptable and who is not.

 

Our advocacy doesn't have to support ableism, ageism, and sizeism. We

can do better than make people feel bad that they don't fit somebody's

idealized image of what a person's body should be like. I believe people

who are fat, who are old, who are unhealthy, who have disabilities are

all worthy of respect and can be great vegan activists.

 

An article on fat shaming: http://bit.ly/aaFnt

Sizeism and other isms in animal welfare advocacy: http://bit.ly/JQBF9

 

Victor

____

First paragraph:

You may consider this title an oxymoron—a figure of speech that combines

two normally contradictory terms, but in real life this concurrence is

all too common. You may also think the title is offensive. My intention

is to help, not to provoke anger. People who have declared themselves

“vegan,” have said “no” to eating all animal-derived foods. At

extraordinary personal costs, many of these guardians labor tirelessly

to protect the welfare of all animals. Fat vegans, however, have failed

one important animal: themselves. Furthermore, their audiences of

meat-eaters and animal-abusers may be so distracted by their appearance

that they cannot hear the vital issues of animal rights and the

environment; resulting in an unacknowledged setback for a fat vegan’s

hard work for change.

 

Read the rest of the essay here:

http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2008nl/dec/fat.htm

 

Alex

 

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Veganism as Anti-Oppression: http://loveallbeings.org/