The struggle against the scales is also a fight against others – and against yourself

World stars should also watch their words. Previously, Beyoncé and Lizo adapted a song after they were criticized for using the term ‘Spa’Now, Taylor Swift has to run through the dust. In the clip accompanying her song “Anti-Hero,” Swift steps on a scale while her husband looks over her shoulder and shakes her head in disapproval. In the original version of the clip, there was another shot where the scale pointer points to the direction of the word ‘Fat’ moves. That shot has since been removed.

A discussion arose about that one photo. Was your “fat phobia” or, conversely, inspired by your eating disorder? A person is “fat phobia” if they perpetuate the stigma of being fat. The discussion was often conducted in no more than 140 characters, even if it was much more complex than that. It is precisely that lack of nuance that has stuck to my shoes like a stone in recent days.

What is the problem with fat?

According to body positivity critics, Swift threatens to make people doubt themselves if they see even a slim pop star who calls herself fat. The scale scene demonizes the word ‘Fat’They think so too. Obesity is a reality for many people. For someone with a platform like Swift to express how much they hate being called obese, it means that there is something wrong with that.

There is something to be said for this criticism. The stigma on obesity is far from gone. You notice it in unsolicited looks and comments from people on the street that it is better to lose some weight, or from doctors who do not trust physical complaints. Many stories are circulating online about people who have been prescribed a diet rather than serious psychological help.

Such expressions of fat phobia are also at the root of the problem that Swift addresses in her song: the eating disorder she has struggled with for years. She already testified about it in the Netflix documentary Miss Americana. In the song Anti-Hero she literally sings: “I sometimes feel like everyone is a hot kid and I’m a monster on the hill.”

As support from Swift

This text, this bathroom scene: Swift sums up most of my morning. Yes, including the deleted photo. I also wanted it to be different, but that’s another matter. What touched me was that Swift was able to portray an experience so delicate that I could barely speak for myself, so accurately in picture and word. Not listening to that voice in your head is a battle I still lose regularly. For someone like Swift to openly show this war to himself to the world seems like support for me. As you say I’m not alone. Let an eating disorder be one very single thing. It isolates you. Just imagine that you eat as little as possible with others because you are afraid to get feedback about your eating habits.

The problem is that it is almost impossible to talk about eating disorders without talking about fat phobia and vice versa. When you see and hear how people receive feedback about their weight, this obviously has an impact on how you see yourself. Most people realize the social repercussions when they regain consciousness. The best proof of this is the diet culture that revolves around these doubts. This wouldn’t be the first time a diet has turned into an eating disorder — according to a US NGO, this is what’s happening In 20-25 percent of cases. Ultimately, the disruption is nothing more than destructive action because these insecurities have become so prevalent in your life.

But it also works in the opposite direction: a distorted self-image and the strict goal you set in front of you also make you more likely to judge others more quickly. If you are so convinced that obesity is not so good that you want to destroy your body, it also has an effect on how you treat obese people.

Swift’s decision to remove the shot is still a stone in my shoe. Admittedly, she could have probably done it more subtly, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that her clip is really gripping. You can’t talk about eating disorders without talking about fat phobias. The two go hand in hand. Silence on both issues will only do more of the same. Perhaps that’s what bothers me the most: that in all of those discussions, there’s never been any talk of how to tackle fat phobia. Because it won’t happen by removing a screenshot from a video. Not even if it was from Taylor Swift.

The things we talk about on the balcony or over a cup of coffee or a glass of wine. Life and what we mean. I want to make room for that here. Every day in the blog from heart, on the De Standaard website and app. With you: [email protected]