(Trigger Warning: use of ableist language, descriptions of high school socialization)
Marge Swanson, a fat acceptance activist who helped pioneer the concept of thin privilege, is dead from a heart attack. She was 34 years old. Swanson championed the notion that weight and health have no inherent connection. She enjoyed dying her hair bright colors, wearing glasses and dating African American men.
“It’s not that I’m thin-phobic,” she once told an audience on a college campus. “It’s just that curvy women have been enslaved and victimized by capitalists for far too long and yeah, I’m upset.”
Swanson was born the middle of five children to a working class family in rural West Virginia. She was overweight as a child, and by her senior year of high school weighed over 350 pounds. She would later describe her teenage years as the most difficult period of her life.
“People can be so intolerant of others,” she later wrote. “My classmates were such judgmental, privileged assholes.”
In college, Swanson found acceptance among a group of intersectional feminists. “First I learned to love myself, and that helped me become a happier person. Then I learned about white supremacy and thin privilege, and I got pissed.”
After finishing college, Swanson moved into a studio apartment. She had trouble securing a full-time job due to “systemic ableism,” so she started a blog. Within a year, she had attracted a worldwide audience. Swanson became a big voice in the fat acceptance community, where she sought to raise awareness about the impact of fat phobia, which includes expressing concern over someone’s size (“concern trolling“) or associating obesity with health issues.
“I don’t want to compare struggles, but Harriet Tubman fought a similar battle,” Swanson once told a reporter. “Women in larger bodies are seriously underrepresented among athletes and models. Oppression and discrimination are the only logical reasons why this is occurring.”
Some doctors, who Swanson called “psychological terrorists,” affirmed her message of self-acceptance but warned about the practice of endorsing unhealthy body types amidst skyrocketing obesity rates. Additional concerns were raised about the fat acceptance movement’s use of dangerously unscientific or misrepresented concepts, like the belief that weight and health have no clear relationship. The promotion of obesity, some have said, is no different than advocating for anorexia.
“When people learn that I’m 412 pounds, they assume that means I’m inactive or unhealthy,” she wrote in her blog last year. “I’m actually one of the most health conscious people you’ll ever meet. The myth that obesity has any relationship to health is absolutely ridiculous.”
In 2015, Swanson was diagnosed with heart and gallbladder disease. The reality of her mortality, she claimed, only deepened her commitment to fight against weight related injustices.
“I may have a few bad cells, but my health has not been affected,” she told fans on her website. “Thin privilege is a far greater menace to health than having a few extra curves.”
No source on this? And nowhere in the news outside of here. Made up or under reported?
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its a fucking satire site if you didnt know jesus
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Still: any good, high quality satire should have satire references to satire sources.
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Get off your fat ass and look it up, moron.
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As it says in the blue chunk at the end of the article:
“Progressive SATIRE [emphasis added] written by a rational liberal.”
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And the woman pictured is Kelli Jean Drinkwater
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“Some doctors, who Swanson called “psychological terrorists,” affirmed her message of self-acceptance but warned about the practice of endorsing unhealthy body types amidst skyrocketing obesity rates.”
I’m going to call BS on this one. Doctors are there to steer our health habits in the right direction and they are well versed in the negative impacts of obesity on health. It’s measured in every lab value we provide with our yearly exams. I spent my whole life struggling with my weight, and even got weight loss surgery. I don’t think fat people should be hackled or put down. That being said, being overweight/obese is one of the hardest and most negative things to happen to a person, both physically and psychologically. It not only tears away at your self-esteem but has a negative impact on virtually every system—your sleep, your mobility, your blood pressure, your joints, and the list goes on. The body is not meant to carry 300+ lbs. It’s not healthy.
“When people learn that I’m 412 pounds, they assume that means I’m inactive or unhealthy,” she wrote in her blog last year. “I’m actually one of the most health conscious people you’ll ever meet. The myth that obesity has any relationship to health is absolutely ridiculous.”
Somehow I doubt it. She may be active and not eat all the wrong things, but if she’s carrying 412 lbs, there is a deficit somewhere—either she’s eating too much, not eating the right type of foods, not exercising enough, or there’s a metabolic or thyroid deficiency (which would need medical intervention).
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Oh dear skywalker, the force is definitely not strong in you. The article is a joke.
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Oh dear, billybooby, you’re a special kind of stupid, aren’t you? Another lame progtard opening your ig fat pie hole and confirming the moron that you are.
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@geri670
You don’t seem to understand what’s going on. The article is satire.
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“Women in larger bodies are seriously underrepresented among athletes and models. Oppression and discrimination are the only logical reasons why this is occurring.”
Lmao well no fucking shit there are no fat athletes it is literally part of their job to be physically fit
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What are you smoking? Obese women are not represented in sport because their cardio is shit, they have no strength or balance or stamina etc. Yeah, let’s put a 300 lb woman on the national socceer team. I’m sure she’ll make a great contribution. Stick her in front of the goal maybe.
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If athletes would’ve been fat 100m events at the Olympics would take 15 minutes to finish.
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Well, Liberalism and this story have one thing in common. Idiots believe them.
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Sorry, but wilfully ignorant bigoted Conservatives are the idiotic ones holding back the human race.
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ignorant oppressive divisionists live on either side of the story and both do just as much damage. some as the world looks on a cringes some as the world cries. same shit though.
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Really, asshole?? You fucking libtards are the dumbb motherfuckers holding back all of humanity. You’re as dumb and illogical as the day is long. Fuck off and die while you’re at it, loser.
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You know this is satire, right?
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Fat acceptance is death acceptance.
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so the fat dummy is actually dead though right, like from a heart attack, cause her heaet couldnt support her fatass anymore? just curious if that parts real
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i mean what were we expecting
sad that she died, but i mean…she had it coming.
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Shes still at large…
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Yep, fake article indeed. I don’t know too many who are born and bred in West Virginia and maintain an English accent the whole way through it all.
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