Where Freedom of Speech and Shame Intersect

The topic of body-shaming—particularly “fat shaming”—has been a hot media topic for the past couple of decades. Starting in the 1990s, the Body Positivity and Healthy at Every Size movements gained traction, promoting the acceptance of all body types. However, as Free the People creative director Sam Martin notes, the movement may be shooting itself in the foot in its attempts to equate fat phobia with many serious prejudices based on immutable characteristics such as racism, sexism, and homophobia. This is because many individuals in this movement seek to classify diet and nutrition as social justice rather than scientific issues. As such, it steers us away from what is arguably the most helpful approach—that of studying the psychological and physiological problems that make obesity such a difficult obstacle to overcome for so many. It stops those in need from understanding how losing fat rather than just weight can seriously reduce their risk of heart disease, diabetes, and many other chronic illnesses. In Martin’s view, fat activism “places the blame on society for not accepting and celebrating health at every size.” As such, it encourages people to reject the fact that obesity is a serious health problem.

Shaming Thinness

Grande’s situation demonstrates how a culture that is shaped by body-positivity rhetoric can end up reinforcing the very policing it deems so dangerous. If weight is a social or political issue, then bodies become symbols of ideological beliefs, and people assume that a person’s size says something about their values. In this case, for many, Grande has become a symbol of diet culture, of an individual who willingly rejects the idea of body positivity. And that means that it’s “okay” to judge her body. Ironically, the body positivity movement purports to stop us from judging others’ bodies. Yet because the movement focuses so strongly on body shape and exclusively celebrates specific body shapes, judging others’ bodies (including those deemed “too thin”) has become commonplace on social media and in our everyday interactions.

Finding a Sense of Balance

How, then, do we reconcile a wish to further human health, without embracing what Grande refers to as a “comfortability” with diagnosing or blatantly shaming others online? One could argue that the answer lies in reminding ourselves that we are dealing with real people with real lives. Our bodies are not free fodder for others to use in making political or moral statements. In the end, we must turn to science and think about the repercussions of our statements before making them. In the case of Grande, for instance, her apparent weight loss could be attributable to a host of factors we are unaware of. To assume either illness or an eating disorder, then police her based on our assumptions, is undoubtedly a dangerous pursuit. At the very least, thinking about the potential repercussions of our words is vital, since the very things we defend or criticize could end up worsening both public health outcomes related to obesity and eating disorders.

The body-activism movement has shown that, in many ways, it can cause more harm than good to the health of those who are overweight or obese. It is a wake-up call to the importance of viewing obesity from a scientific rather than a sociological or political perspective. It also reminds us that criticizing those who do not conform to one’s ideal shape can further the very conditions we so recklessly diagnose (if they actually exist, that is), including potentially life-threatening eating disorders.

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Children are Independent Learners

Young people are natural researchers: they want to learn; they want to question; they want to find out. A homeschool environment is the perfect environment for nurturing independent learning, a skill that feeds itself with knowledge and higher level thinking. Encouraging your children to investigate social issues, both local and global, will broaden their minds and encourage them to be engaged and thoughtful members of society.

Pick an interesting topic for them to study—or better still, guide them to pick their own—and ask them what they’re going to do to find out everything they can about the topic. Then you can intervene with your input and guidance, but allow them control: being at the helm of their own education will motivate and inspire them to learn. With your help, they may think of heading out into the community, conducting interviews and finding out what social issues are affecting their world.

More than One Perspective

Remind your children of the importance of looking at all the angles: their essays should be balanced. Young people should be encouraged to find and express their own opinions, but if we are to teach social and ethical topics effectively, they need to make sure that they incorporate every side of a debate. If your child is struggling with this around a particular topic, it might be an idea to create several fictional viewpoints and get them to look at the issue through each lens.

It’s important that young people don’t just accept what they’re told. Teach them to look for evidence and find proof through discussion, debate and asking questions. In the home environment, they can be active learners, and they have far more opportunity to find out about ideas and schemes that might surprise them, ways in which people are helping others in our society and inspiring them to do the same.

Homeschooling allows you to break down the barriers that hem children into a rigid way of thinking. They are young people in a world affected by a multitude of complex social issues: giving them the tools of independent research skills and analysis will set them up well to not only be aware of them, but to help to address them in later life.

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