Put another way...if you have a serious medial issue being overweight can be the difference between life and death.
Instead, we have Oprah selling "love your body" as if that love will save you went a health crisis comes knocking.
Instead, we have Oprah selling "love your body" as if that love will save you went a health crisis comes knocking.
The fact that we are encouraged to think of being overweight as a personality flaw makes it much harder for people to lose weight. They take their weight as evidence of their weakness which causes a detrimental cycle.
It's also true that popular notions of "healthy weight" are medically inaccurate. Many people who are a normal healthy weight and have no medical reason to lose weight still think they are overweight.
There are lots of good reasons to encourage people to think of themselves as healthy at non-skinny sizes.
Many of those people probably _are_ overweight. If your bmi is greater than 25 and you’re not weightlifting (and eating to support that), you’re almost certainly overweight.
Many people who are overweight are using the love your body campaigns for justification of their weight, when they are actually overweight.
The fact is that shame keeps people from being able to engage with their body and maintain the work needed to lose weight.
Pretty sure you only brought that up because you perceive Oprah as being overweight. "Love your body" is one of NOW Foundation's programs. The program description is:
> Every day, in so many ways, the beauty industry (and the media in general) tell women and girls that being admired, envied and desired based on their looks is a primary function of true womanhood. The beauty template women are expected to follow is extremely narrow, unrealistic and frequently hazardous to their health. The Love Your Body campaign challenges the message that a woman’s value is best measured through her willingness and ability to embody current beauty standards.
Oprah helped advertise and promote that program.