The Whale, Brendan Fraser, and Fat Representation: How Tired, Uncreative, and Harmful Tropes Perpetuate Eating Disorders

Several weeks ago, I happened to see the speech Brendan Fraser gave after winning an Academy Award for his latest film, The Whale. Having heard some concerning reports about the film itself, I’d decided against seeing it, but even Fraser’s acceptance speech was peppered with whale references. I was outraged, and as it turns out, I wasn’t the only one: Ragen Chastain of Dances With Fat tweeted that “Brendan Fraser making whale metaphors (jokes, really) while accepting an Oscar for cosplaying a fatter person in a film written and directed by thin people that rests on grotesque weight stigma, ableism, homophobia, and stereotypes is the end of my support for him.” Regardless of your feelings about the actor himself, there’s little doubt that The Whale leans on a stereotypical – and incredibly harmful – trope: that fat is the worst thing a person can be.

It is, of course, entirely possible for a person to exist in a fat body and still experience love, happiness, joy, fulfillment, health, and connection. Yet, looking at movies like The Whale, is it any wonder that so few people realize this is true? Representation of fat folks, particularly those on the larger end of the spectrum, is almost always limited to narratives like this, with fat people being portrayed as sad stories, wells of unrealized potential, or cautionary tales. Where are the movies about fat people experiencing elation, being promoted, falling in love, or living long and happy lives? 

This lack of representation only feeds into the idea that fatness is inherently bad–a paradigm which drives body dysmorphia and harmful patterns of disordered eating. For all the patients I’ve been able to help in my practice, there are others who make the choice to cease treatment, due solely to a fear of their body becoming larger as a result of recovery. These are people who are fully aware that their eating disorder is on the path to killing them, and do not pursue healing out of a fear of becoming fat. And yet their fear is real and their feared consequences are a reality. These moments are heartbreaking. There is pain in their voices: deep sadness, utter weariness. They know the decision they are making, the position they are putting their health in, and the dangerous consequences. But oppressive systems are insidious and oh-so-strong, and fatphobia is no exception. Patients tell me time and time again that our eating disorders clinic is the only space that supports their right for food liberation and nourishment and a weight restored body.

We won’t see an end, or even a reduction, in disordered eating behaviors until we, as a society, stop demonizing and dehumanizing fat people. In many ways, fatphobic discrimination and weight bias are still entirely socially accepted, even in a culture which is (far too slowly) moving toward curbing discrimination for other marginalized groups. For example, it is legal in 49 states to fire a person for being fat. Despite the very real consequences of, and casualties resulting from, fatphobia and weight stigma, body size is not considered a protected class, the way race, gender, and sexual orientation are, to name a few. The very fact that this is the case points to how socially, and even legally, sanctioned fatphobia is–and why so many people are so afraid of gaining weight.

The movement toward fat liberation is full of incredible people offering a wealth of resources for unpacking and untangling our own internalized fatphobia. Check out the following folks for (much, much) more information! 

Da’Shaun Harrison

• Website: https://dashaunharrison.com 
• Book: Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness

Aubrey Gordon

• Book: “You Just Need to Lose Weight” and 19 Other Myths About Fat People
• Podcast: Maintenance Phase

Sonya Renee Taylor

• Website: https://www.sonyareneetaylor.com 
• Book: The Body is Not an Apology

Ragen Chastain

• Website: https://danceswithfat.org
• Twitter: @danceswithfat

Lindley Ashline

• Website: https://bodyliberationphotos.com
• Twitter: @lindleyashline

Sonalee Rashatwar

• Website: https://www.sonaleer.com
• Instagram: @thefatsextherapist

Asher Larmie

• Website: https://www.fatdoctor.co.uk
• Podcast: The Fat Doctor

How Weight Stigma is Leading to a Less Kind World: Breaking Down the Myths Around Weight

They’re just lazy, unmotivated and they lack discipline. They must really not care about themselves. If they don’t care, why should I care about them?

These are some of the thoughts going through our minds when we come across someone in a large body. 

And yet, we don’t know this person at all. As Marilyn Wann says “ When you see a fat person, the only thing you know is your level of weight stigma”. Also isn’t it also none of your business why a person has the body they have?

Weight Stigma is Rampant

Weight Stigma is ​​prejudice or discrimination on the grounds of a person's size or weight. It’s a widespread problem leading to discrimination, violence, bullying, high stress levels, and unhealthy, disordered eating. Just like any other form of prejudice, it causes harm to those it impacts. 

Weight stigma plagues our world. Over 40% of US adults report weight stigma and body shaming, across all body types and weights. 

Weight Stigma also impacts children. Adolescents are bullied for many reasons. Tack on body shaming due to weight and it’s a rough ride. 71% of adolescents reported some form of weight shaming abuse over the last year alone. 

It leads to eating disorders and other self-harm behaviors. Because there’s such a stigma and bias towards folx in large bodies, they are bullied, mistreated, and harmed. It leads to increased stress levels and suicide. The impact is huge and it’s disheartening. 

Even their doctors assume the worst….assuming patients are unhealthy due to their weight without even assessing health behaviors. This type of shaming leads them to believe they are failing. They avoid return visits to the doctor. They feel ashamed and don’t want to be seen. 

Avoiding doctor visits leads to even worse health outcomes including death. This is not an ethical way of helping individuals. 

There has to be a better way. We need to unpack and rethink how we view bodies. Weight isn’t an indicator of health. Nor is it a holistic way of viewing health. 

Let’s start by debunking some myths about weight.

Myth One: Weight is an Accurate Measure of Health

alone, it’s only one number to be considered when evaluating a patient.

Researchers found “no clear relationship between weight loss and health outcomes.” Shedding weight doesn’t meaningfully lower blood pressure, diabetes risk, or cholesterol.

Instead of obsessing about one number, weight, we should be encouraging nourishing and connecting behaviors instead. 

Encouraging patients, friends, and loved ones to be in community, eat and produce foods together, get good sleep, and have a balance of self-care and collective care is more valuable. 

Let’s create welcoming spaces for all bodies. 

Let’s retool our culture and society to value holistic health. Not one metric….that doesn’t accurately measure health.

Myth Two: Fat People Aren’t Fit

I train in martial arts. In 2019, I presented with one of my training partners at a martial arts teachers’ conference on weight stigma in martial arts. We interviewed numerous people in large bodies sharing their experience of weight stigma in martial arts. Many of the people interviewed have advanced belts, some even more than one black belt. All people discussed having experiences where training partners, teachers, and tournament judges assumed they lacked skills due to their size. They also expressed being told that martial arts could lead to weight loss as opposed to skill and confidence development. Lastly, many expressed that they assumed they could take more physical contact due to their large body.

How sad and upsetting that we continue to focus on weight loss instead of the intrinsic and community benefits of physical activity and movement.

Researchers have found that losing pounds doesn’t always lead to healthy gains. 
Hunger points to a meta-analysis that found that even after dieters lost weight, their blood pressure, glucose, and other blood markers weren’t significantly better when they were reevaluated two years later.

A New View: Redefining how we hold Health

I am including this piece from ASDAH- Association of Size Diversity and Health as it articulates so powerfully how we need to hold weight, health and inclusivity
https://asdah.org/health-at-every-size-haes-approach/

“The Association for Size Diversity and Health (ASDAH) affirms a holistic definition of health, which cannot be characterized as the absence of physical or mental illness, limitation, or disease. Rather, health exists on a continuum that varies with time and circumstance for each individual. Health should be conceived as a resource or capacity available to all regardless of health condition or ability level, and not as an outcome or objective of living. Pursuing health is neither a moral imperative nor an individual obligation, and health status should never be used to judge, oppress, or determine the value of an individual.”

Need help?

Contact me. I would love to support you.

Workplace Food and Body Liberation

Picture this….you go into the mailroom and see a bag of cookies that somebody left for everybody. There are also a couple of your work colleagues there. You all are surrounding the plate of cookies. Then the comments start. “Ohhh I want one but I need to work out first”. “I am trying to lose weight so no cookies for me”. “ I am not doing sugar right now." Then you all start talking about your workplace wellness program and how you, “should all take a walk together right now and move away from the cookies.”

The problem with this scenario is that it’s commonplace. It’s not regulated. It has become acceptable. It’s assumed you are trying to “help” each other. But this is diet talk and is quite harmful. Also, it doesn’t feel good for anybody here.

Food Shaming In the Workplace

This is such a common occurrence. I hear it from individuals in the workplace time and time again.

Let’s start by answering what food shaming or guilting is.

Food shaming happens when another person judges or criticizes what another person eats. It can cause guilt, stress, and embarrassment to the person receiving the comment.

These judgments around what we should and shouldn’t eat stem from diet culture which is intersected with racism and other forms of oppression. And diet culture takes on a mindset that being thin matters above all else.

Some Examples of Food Shaming:

• "Wow, that’s a healthy serving."
• "Your plate looks like it could feed an entire family."
• "Woah, did you work out or something?"
• "Is that your whole meal? You’re already so thin."
• "That looks terrible. What is it?"

The story I shared in the beginning happens all the time. And yet, it’s not considered inappropriate or harassment. The problem is, it is.

The next time you decide to make a comment about what someone’s eating, ask yourself why. Take some time to think about how diet culture is impacting you.

Work needs to be a space where your colleagues can thrive… without diet culture looming in.

Weight Discrimination in the Workplace

Food shaming is not the only challenge in the workplace. Weight discrimination in the workplace is a serious problem.

Weight discrimination is real... and it’s harmful. And not okay.

When we judge people for their weight, it leads to other assumptions.

In 2017, 500 hiring professionals were shown a photo of a large-bodied woman by researchers at the job site Fairygodboss and asked if they would hire her. Only 15.6% of them said they would — and 20% said they thought she was “lazy.”

Furthermore, 21% of large-bodied individuals felt they had been passed over for a job or promotion because of their weight.

Both weight discrimination and food shaming are rampant issues… largely due to wellness programs.

Wellness is a new concept. It’s a broad term that seems to be a catch-all. And yet, it’s creating a lot of harm.

These weight-loss and wellness programs pressure employees to restrict their eating and sometimes over-exercise.

I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound like wellness to me. It is actually quite harmful.

Be Part in Creating an Inclusive Thriving Workforce

We are at work for such a large proportion of our waking hours. Our ableist work demands continue to increase. Yet the pressures of work demands make it difficult to eat away from our desks.

We want a work environment where we celebrate food, movement, and each other. We are already pressured by work demand. We do not need to add the pressures of diet culture to our work.

So how do we combat these challenges in the workplace?

Let’s be part of needed change…

If you see these challenges in your workplace, bring them to the attention of a leader at your organization.

Urge them to address these issues. If they don’t know how to do that, share resources for experts who can help.

I am deeply passionate about addressing these issues in the workplace.

In my Workplace Food and Body Liberation Workshop, you will:

• Learn about diet culture and how it impacts your work setting
• Explore your own weight stigma biases in a safe space
• Discover how to build a workplace culture that is connected and empowered to make changes in a way to create food and body liberation

Who this is for:

• Companies
• Nonprofits
• Small Business Owners
• Communities
• Organizations

Schedule Your Call Today:

Schedule Your Call

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You Don’t Need to have Bulimia or Anorexia to Have an Eating Disorder

You may be thinking, I don’t have an eating disorder. I don’t keep myself from eating food. I don’t throw up any of my food. So I’m okay.

But are you really ok? I recently spoke with a friend of mine who knows I work in the eating disorder space. She shared, “Marcella I just had an epiphany. I have an eating disorder. While I’m not throwing up my food nor am I avoiding eating food, I am struggling.”

“I find myself obsessing about working out. I hate the number on the scale even when I feel good. I struggle to eat certain foods because they have sugar in them. I find myself working out even when I’m exhausted because I’m afraid of weight gain. I am constantly aware of how I look.”

“I find myself comparing myself to others all the time. It’s exhausting. I don’t want to feel this way anymore. And I know it’s hurting my health. I’m getting injured all the time. I’m not eating enough to sustain my workouts. I need to figure this out.”

Perhaps you can see a bit of yourself in my friends' very vulnerable share.

This is why I want to bring more awareness to eating disorders. Because I believe that more people in our country and around the world are suffering and not realizing they have an eating disorder.

We live in a toxic diet culture. Diet culture attaches our worth and value to thinness. Diet culture actively encourages eating disorders by prescribing and praising restriction, excessive exercise, calorie tracking, food labeling, weight monitoring and just being hyper-vigilant about everything we eat and how much we weigh. Diet culture blames, criticizes and shames bodies that are different in any way.

Diet culture abusively demands that we work towards a privileged body by any means. If we do not work towards a privileged body and/or do not achieve it, diet culture says we deserve any negative outcome, including any harm that comes to our bodies. Diet culture is so thoroughly manipulative that it has become interwoven into mainstream living and is embedded in our vocabulary and ultimately our way of living.

Do You Find Yourself?

• Obsessing over your diet
• Judging how many pounds you see on the scale
• Being hyper-critical of what you see in the mirror
• Working out even when you’re exhausted
• Avoiding certain foods even when your body craves them
• Feeling bad about eating certain foods or missing an exercise day
• Controlling what you eat to an obsessive degree
• Using diuretics to control your weight

The reality is that eating disorders are complex and intersected with demographics and numerous oppressions in our society. People with eating disorders experience severe disturbances in their eating behaviors and related thoughts and emotions. People with eating disorders struggle with their relationship to their body. There are many different types of eating disorders:

• Anorexia Nervosa
• Bulimia Nervosa
• Binge Eating Disorder (BED)
• Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)
• Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID)
• Pica
• Rumination Disorder
• Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder (OSFED)

It’s important that we understand eating disorders more fully as sadly, there are many stereotypes and misconceptions about eating disorders. In doing so, we can help loved ones, colleagues and communities get the support they need. We especially need to help marginalized communities who are struggling with eating disorders.

Eating disorders can be deadly.

Let’s raise our understanding around eating disorders to address this as a community.

Understanding Eating Disorders

I’m going to share three t common eating disorders. And how to identify if you or a loved one is suffering from this condition. 

Anorexia Nervosa

The most commonly known disorder is anorexia nervosa. 

They avoid certain types of food and severely restrict their calorie intake. 

They also have an extreme fear of gaining weight. They struggle with their relationship with  their body.  

Bulimia Nervosa

Individuals with this eating disorder will typically binge eat foods. During a binge, they feel they can’t control eating. 

After their binge, they use laxatives, enemas, vomiting or excessive exercise to compensate.

Similar to anorexia, these individuals have an extreme fear of gaining weight. 

Binge Eating Disorder

Binge eating is the most prevalent and common type of eating disorder. It’s also one of the most common chronic disorders among adolescents. 

People with binge eating disorder do not restrict calories or use purging behaviors, such as vomiting or excessive exercise, to compensate for their binges.

People with binge eating disorder often consume excessive amounts of food and are consumed with guilt, shame and /or negative feelings after a binge. 

If you or someone you know is suffering from an eating disorder, please share this article with them. Offer to listen and support them. 

I am happy to connect them with the resources and support they need. 

It’s important that we help each other given the amount of suffering eating disorders are causing.

The Rise in Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are on the rise. Due to westernization, social media, and the pandemic, we are seeing surges in eating disorders.

Some Concerning Statistics:

• Up to 70 million people suffer from eating disorders
• Severity and prevalence of eating disorders may be spiking even more due to the anxiety and stress unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic
• Eating disorders prevalence has “increased over the study period from 3.5% for the 2000–2006 period to 7.8% for the 2013–2018 period”

We know we have a problem. The best way we can address eating disorders is by collectively building awareness. Educating ourselves about these challenges.

Need Help?

Navigating the world of eating disorders is not easy. It’s complex and nuanced.

That’s why I’m here to help.

If your team, company, school, community or organization is struggling with eating disorders, I’m would like to help.

No matter what specific challenge you are facing, I provide customized training around eating disorders.

Let’s connect and see what we can build to get you and your team back on track.

Speak soon.

Schedule a Call

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Why is Eating Disorder Training Being Left out of Medical Schools?

Eating disorders affect at least 9% of the population worldwide.¹ That means 28.8 million Americans, will have an eating disorder in their lifetime.² This poses as a significant financial burden as the economic cost of eating disorders is $64.7 billion every year.²

Of all mental illnesses, eating disorders have the highest mortality rate. 

And yet, studies show that medical students receive less than two hours of training on eating disorders. They study for 4 to 6 years and spend less than two hours on an illness with a high mortality rate. 

Individuals suffering from eating disorders have shared that doctors’ knowledge around eating disorders, or lack of it, can be the difference to continuing to suffer and recovery. 

According to a study done in the UK, only 42% felt that their general practitioner (doctor) understood eating disorders. Only 34% believed their doctor knew how to help them with their illness.

To Recap….

• Eating disorders impact millions of people
• They have a high mortality rate
• General practitioners are the frontline workers about individuals’ health
• Medical schools provide medical students with less than two hours of education on eating disorders 

What gives? 

It seems to me that there is a clear gap. And it doesn’t appear to be that difficult to solve. 

Closing the Gap: Training for Medical Practices 

I am passionate about closing this gap. This is why I have put together training to support practitioners. 

If you haven’t worked directly with eating disorders, addressing and treating them can be stressful. They can also become more complicated. Sometimes you know an eating disorder is present but your client/patient refuses treatment.

In my training, How to Treat Eating Disorders in Your Practice, you will learn how to navigate the complexity of eating disorders. You will discover tools and treatment ideas to help you support your patients. 

Who this training is for: 

• Therapists, psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists
• Mental health interns
• Post doc residents
• Physicians
• Nurses and dieticians

Over the years, I have discovered that we have many frontline workers. So I have built two additional training sessions to help us get ahead of this eating disorder epidemic. 

Eating Disorders in the Classroom 

Eating disorders are on the rise, and many teachers are not sure of how to approach it. There is all kinds of information about eating disorders. 

Teachers wonder what to do with that information. It can feel overwhelming. Especially with everything else a teacher must watch for among their students.

In my Eating Disorders in the Classroom training, you will learn about eating disorders and treatment options. You will discover how to handle circumstances with students. You will learn what questions to ask your students. 

Together, we explore your own fears, concerns and biases around eating disorders in a safe place. You will walk away confident and prepared to support your students. 

Who this training is for: 

• Elementary School to High School Teachers
• Teachers’ Assistants
• School Administrators

The classroom training helps address eating disorders from Kindergarten to High School. But this still leaves a big gap. 

That’s why I built my Workplace Food and Body Liberation training. To tackle eating disorders with adults, through their companies. After all, we spend 40+ hours a week at work. It has a huge impact on our day-to-day lives. 

Workplace Food and Body Liberation

We are at work for such a large proportion of our waking hours. Our work demands continue to increase. Yet the pressures of work demands make it difficult to eat away from our desks.

Many workplaces are adopting work programs that focus on food and physical activity. Many “healthy work programs “ take a restrictive approach to food. And a focus on weight loss with physical activity.

We want a work environment where we celebrate food, movement, and each other. 

We are already pressured by work demands, we do not need to add the pressures of diet culture to our work.

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In my Workplace Food and Body Liberation Training, you will learn about diet culture. How diet culture impacts your workplace. We will explore your own weight stigma biases in a safe space. And you will discover how to build a workplace culture that’s empowered to make changes for food and body liberation.

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Who this training is for:

• Companies

• Nonprofits
• Small Business Owners
• Communities
• Organizations

Change begins when we can individually and collectively embrace nourishment, our bodies and each other.

We all deserve to experience food and body liberation. 

We all deserve that freedom. It is vital. 

Need Help?

I also provide customized training around specific topics or needs.

Let’s connect and see what we can build to get you and your team back on track.

Speak soon. 

Schedule a Call

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¹Arcelus, Jon et al. “Mortality rates in patients with anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders. A meta-analysis of 36 studies.” Archives of general psychiatry 68,7 (2011): 724-31. https://doi.org/10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2011.74

²Deloitte Access Economics. The Social and Economic Cost of Eating Disorders in the United States of America: A Report for the Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders and the Academy for Eating Disorders. June 2020. Available at: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/striped/report-economic-costs-of-eating-disorders/.

Why it's So Hard to Treat Eating Disorders in an Oppressive Diet Culture World

As an eating disorder psychologist, I love my work. Sure, it can be hard, but it's not exhausting. I do believe that people can recover from eating disorders. I want to learn about my clients and hear how their eating disorders have served as their survival and protection and helped them make sense of their world. So, I lean in to hear folks' stories. By holding their story and honoring it, we can understand it so that healing can happen.

The biggest struggle and frustration of my work is not that it is difficult to treat eating disorders. The biggest challenge is always how toxic diet culture obstructs recovery.

What is Diet Culture?

Diet culture is everywhere. From intermittent fasting to no sugar or no-carb diets, to detoxes and cleanses, to "being bad " if we eat particular foods, or needing to "earn " our meals we are inundated with the belief and mentality that we must continuously strive to be thin. We are conditioned not to trust our relationship with food. We see it in so many aspects of our lives: thinness, weight bias, and privileged body types are glorified, while marginalized bodies are targeted. 

Diet culture runs so deep that when we sit with it, we realize how completely entrenched and pervasive it is in our society and in ourselves. I call it "white supremacy in a pretty pink bow. "

Diet culture attaches our worth and value to thinness.

Diet culture actively encourages eating disorders by prescribing and praising restriction, excessive exercise, calorie tracking, food labeling, weight monitoring and just being hyper-vigilant about everything we eat and how much we weigh.

Diet culture blames, criticizes, and shames bodies that are different in any way.

Diet culture abusively demands that we work towards a privileged body by any means. If we do not work towards a privileged body and/or do not achieve it, diet culture says we deserve any negative outcome, including any harm that comes to our bodies.

Diet culture is so thoroughly manipulative that it has become interwoven into mainstream living and is embedded in our vocabulary and ultimately our way of living. 

Diet culture also aligns with white supremacy because it specifically targets marginalized bodies.

My clients who are marginalized tell me about their daily experiences of being targeted. They also tell me how thinness can make up for it. It's the one place where I can have some control over my body, and thus how people see me. If I have to lose thinness, I lose the one privilege that I have. If I recover and my body changes, then society will see me for who I am and that's scary, if not dangerous, for me.

It Takes Courage

When folks tell me they are scared to recover because it means they will gain weight and they are fearful of the backlash that will come to them I wish I could say that's not true. But it is true.

My clients tell me all the time the ways that recovery is difficult:

• I'm getting compliments now that I have lost weight.
• If my body changes, my dating pool decreases.
• If I gain weight, I don't get love from my family.
• I'm assigned the boring or less visible jobs at work.
• People make negative comments to me about my body and express concern about my weight.
• I can't eat in public as I get negative looks and/or comments.
• People laugh at me when I exercise, even though I am told I should exercise.

When someone is making the decision to recover from an eating disorder and they seek treatment, they are being very courageous. Folks are terrified to give up an eating disorder. It may be the hardest thing that somebody has ever done. In addition to learning to have a new relationship with food and with their body, they have to struggle with all of the stigmas and biases attached to their recovery within our diet culture. Everyone who suffers from an eating disorder deserves to recover. They also deserve support for their recovery.

Weight is NOT the Problem

One of the greatest dangers of diet culture is that it presents itself as "healthy. " Our medical establishments regard thinness as health. There is a firm and commonly accepted belief that being in a large body is unhealthy, yet the studies that support this idea are inconclusive. BMI (body mass index) the standard by which doctors have measured whether a person is underweight or overweight for over 100 years is a haphazardly invented and flawed mathematical calculation. There is no actual science behind it. 

• https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/255712#Is-it-too-simple?
• https://www.livescience.com/39097-bmi-not-accurate-health-measure.html
• https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106268439

Weight stigma repeatedly comes up during eating disorders treatment. My clients in larger bodies always tell me: 

• People are surprised when I tell them I have an eating disorder.
• People tell me that I don't look like I have an eating disorder.
• My doctor expresses concern about my weight and/or weight gain.
• My doctor encourages food restriction.

It is hard enough to recover from an eating disorder, and now folks have to endure weight bias as their body restores weight. I have had a number of clients tell me that they can't handle the weight gain and weight bias so they leave treatment. This breaks my heart and enrages me. It is unethical for healthcare to encourage people to control their weight through eating disorder behaviors that are medically dangerous. It is also unkind, given the internal suffering and shame that people hold in their bodies. Instead, we need to meet people with compassion and understanding. 

I work with a "health at every size " approach and professionals in healthcare tell me repeatedly that this approach is not common. Restriction, losing weight, and food labeling is a chronic focus in the world of healthcare. Anti-fatness is the norm.

Our medical establishments need to go beyond weight in their assessments and prescriptions for health. Weight is not the problem. If our focus for physical health primarily involves making changes through weight loss that's a failure. We're missing a whole spectrum of experiences and understanding, as well as the underlying sociological and emotional issues that contribute to health. We really have to be willing to challenge, and challenge with compassion, how we are all so wired to be anti-fat. 

If healthcare does not examine and address its anti-fat and weight biases, we are saying that only thin people with eating disorders deserve to recover. It's the same as saying that people in larger bodies deserve their eating disorder since it will manage their weight.

Everyone who suffers from an eating disorder deserves to recover. 

Creating Change, Embracing Nourishment

I remember one woman who called her obsession with food, her body, and weight a "mental prison. " She finally said I can't live like this anymore. When she gave herself permission to eat what she wanted, she felt liberation. My head isn't so preoccupied. It's becoming more and more a journey to embrace my body, and let go of having a smaller body. I can't live in all this excessive hatred.

Despite what society says you have a right to be nourished. You have a right to have food liberation and to have a relationship with your body that works for you. You don't deserve to have an eating disorder. You deserve a life that is more than your eating disorder.

We connect with others through food and through our body. 

Change begins when we can individually and collectively embrace nourishment, our bodies and each other. We all deserve to experience food and body liberation. We all deserve that freedom. It is vital.

The thoughts I conveyed here in this blog have been expressed by many activists. I have been in conversations and shared space with so many HAES (health at every size) and eating disorders social justice activists who raise how diet culture impede eating disorder recovery. There is a potent and collective advocacy to challenge diet culture. I encourage you to check out the work of many activists https://marcellaedtraining.com/resources/ I have learned so much from these incredible folks. I also encourage you to look at how diet culture has influenced you, and spend time challenging your own weight bias with compassion.

Marcella M Raimondo, PhD, MPH (PSY#27037)
Psychologist, Consultant and Trainer
Pronouns: She/her
Check out my site - http://www.marcellaedtraining.com/
working with folks with eating problems, eating disorders and body image issues

Expanding our Potential for Healing from Eating Disorders through Diversity of Perspectives and Lived Experiences

The first time I read about queer women and women of color with eating disorders was in 1995. I was in grad school, interning at an eating disorder clinic, and a friend of mine who knew I was a biracial queer woman who had battled anorexia recommended the book A Hunger So Wide and So Deep, by Becky W. Thompson. To say that this book resonated with me doesn't even capture what happened. It did more. Reading those stories, I felt seen, validated and soothed... and it was everything to me.

The book is centered around the testimonials of queer women and women of color and their personal experiences with eating disorders. Their stories describe how parents and families who immigrate are responding to racism through anti-fatness. They identify the same confusion and mixed-messaging that I had received as a young person growing up in a biracial household. This book goes beyond the mainstream idea that eating disorders mostly happen to white, hetero, affluent, cisgender, able-bodied, neurotypical girls and integrates the impact of racism and oppression on eating disorders.

Until that point, I truly felt that there was something wrong with me and that my eating disorder made no sense. All of the biographies and textbooks that I had read about eating disorders had not in any way mirrored my own experience. As I read the stories in Thompson's book, it made me see that my story was true and valid. I realized that peoplecould understand, and peopledo understand because they were saying my story! And that was incredibly liberating. I felt seen for the first time.

Growing up, food was a huge part of how my family honored our culture. My parents celebrated food and believed in enjoying all foods. I never saw my mom restrict her diet or only eat salads. At the same time, there was so much mixed messaging. I was encouraged to participate to enjoy the food and family traditions that centered around food and at the same time I was constantly being told not to gain weight. There was this sense of showing loyalty to my culture don't abandon us but, in equal measure don't gain weight.

Thompson's book explained the damaging confusion of these mixed messages and why it was so upsetting to me. It also gave me more understanding of my parents, and particularly my mother who was an immigrant and had experienced oppression and the anxiety of assimilation in this country.  

When my mom came to the US from Peru, she was learning English, looking for a job, and trying to assimilate. What she encountered as a brown woman with an accent, and all of the ways that our western culture regarded her, shaped in her the idea that in order to be successful and included she had to be thin. Even though roundness was celebrated in her culture, she saw that thinness was, and is, valued. Her thinking was: Of all the things that I am, if I'm thin, that can make up for it. It can be one less strike against me.

So, when I started to go through puberty, and gained puberty weight which is a natural, common, physical response to hormonal changes my mom began expressing her concern. I did not know how to make sense of these mixed messages around aspects of myself that were so personal, nuanced and vulnerable. I felt pressure and confusion around food and my changing body. Overwhelmed and angry, I began restricting my food to numb my pain and confusion. So that was how my eating disorder began.

Thompson's book sparked my life's calling my commitment to bring awareness and change to the huge gap that exists in treatment servicesfor underrepresented and underserved folks with eating disorders. Through this work, I have seen the vital role that diversity plays in the treatment of eating disorders. By bringing in different perspectives and expansive thinking to the field, we create greater possibilities for treatment and recovery for everyone. 

Historically, the field of eating disorder recovery and treatment has taken a harmful and exclusive cookie cutter approach to address these issues. The myth that eating disorders only occur in affluent Caucasian girls is damaging to marginalized communities that suffer from eating disorders. This narrow viewpoint continues to reinforce an invisibility that is experienced by marginalized communities. It also limits our ability to understand the underlying problems that cause eating disorders and diminishes the deep complexities and layers that need to be revealed for true healing to occur.

If we think that there is only one perspective, and only one solution, we lock ourselves into one way of thinking for healing and recovery and that is limiting to everyone.

Healing and recovery is personal, individual, and complex. It means different things for different people. And each person's relationship with food is also complex. By bringing in diversity, both in thinking and experience, it allows us to find new, innovative ways to approach treatment. Where in our system and society do we need to change so that recovery is more possible for more people?
Eating problems are very pervasive. They are not confined to specific populations or groups of people. With this greater understanding, we can tap into different people's viewpoints and learn how they use treatment, which grows and strengthens our understanding of what treatment is. We can say, "Let's hear your stories. Let's hear what works for you. " We can hold healing and recovery as an evolving, expansive process. The more expansive we are the more we take on different angles of healing the more we will be able to think of inclusive and inventive ways to approach treatment and recovery. As we open and expand our approach and ideas around treatment, we create a whole new wave and energy that provides more hope and holds healing from eating disorders as absolutely possible.

Why Addressing social justice in eating disorders in important to me

I will start with some personal thoughts about why this work is so important to me.Our bodies are our home. Yet our bodies take in our experiences and pain. As marginalized folx, our bodies take in the experience of being marginalized in society. Eating disorders are rampant in marginalized communities and yet current eating disorders treatment models are not geared for marginalized folx suffering from eating disorders. So the unhealing continues for marginalized folx. As a cisgender able-bodied queer woman of color whose 10 year battle with anorexia nervosa was shaped by cultural and societal factors, I found it so hard to make meaning of my disorder because I did not have the vocabulary to bring in my culture. Perhaps because I did not value myself as a queer woman of color, I did not give myself permission to bring in my culture. Also my story did not mirror those I read in eating disorder textbooks and biographies when I began my recovery journey. After reading Becky Thompson's "A Hunger so Wide and so Deep ", I began to read testimonials of diverse and queer women with eating disorders and could relate so deeply to how cultural and oppressive factors were so embedded in their experiences. These stories provided me the comfort and validation I needed to recover. I am also very privileged and was able to access eating disorders treatment for my recovery. And due to my proximity of whiteness, I was able to heal in the current eating disorders treatment model. This is not the case for too many marginalized folx who suffer needlessly from eating disorders. And this massive injustice in this field needs to be dismantled. Anybody suffering from an eating disorder deserves healing and we need to especially focus on our marginalized communities who continue to suffer from eating disorders.