May 11, 2016
Fat 'activist' rails against 'thin privilege' and 'fat oppression'
By Rick Moran
On the "lighter side" of the news, so to speak, "fat activist" Virgie Tovar spoke at the University of Minnesota school of public health, and...well you have to read it to believe it.
Heatstreet:
Tovar’s talk, entitled “Dispelling Myths: Fat, Fatphobia, and Challenging Social Stereotypes,” was designed to help students understand that “fat phobia” is rampant in a “white, heteronormative society” that is looking to actively oppress people with larger body types. Society’s bias against fat people is, apparently, a form of bigotry and discrimination, evident in everything from sexual preferences to the size of seats on public transportation.
She even, reportedly, compared society’s anti-fat culture to so-called “rape culture,” and chastised society for its obsession with what she termed “thin privilege.”
According to Tovar, the students, who study public health (at one of the top 10 schools for public health), shouldn’t push people they deem overweight to shed pounds, even if it’s better overall for health. “Weight loss is not a realistic goal for most people,” she said, declaring that exercise and diet are “social constructs.” She implored her audience to “lose hate, not weight” and rebel against “diet culture.” (Diets are, of course, just a tool of the hetero-normative Patriarchy.)
She did not specify how “losing hate” would have the same impact on, say, your chances of dying of heart disease, but we assume she was not referring to any scientific understanding of human anatomy or disease.
No surprise, Tovar, who lists her occupation as “fat activist,” has a Masters in Human Sexuality—with a focus on the “intersection of body size, race and gender”—and taught at the University of California, at Berkeley, where that is considered an actual academic field of study. Her expertise is wide-ranging.
None of this is suprising. Social justice activism has a template that can be used for a wide variety of issues. The vocabulary is the same; the name-calling is similar; and, of course, the villain is familiar: straight white males. In this case, it's the morbidly obese who are being oppressed. But soon, ugly women will have their own movement, redheads will also come out as being oppressed. Any body part, any difference whatsoever will be appropriated as a social justice cause whose "victims" need protection.
As predictable as this "social justice" madness has become, the damage it does to society is real and lasting. We are being Balkanized by those who are slicing our culture into ever smaller pieces, each with an "authentic" voice of oppression. The goal is to eliminate "normal" as a dominant feature in society. We should be able to tolerate anyone. But when they start demanding special treatment to make white males pay for their perceived (or delusional) oppression, it is right and proper to slap them down and point out how ludicrous their importunings are.
Read more:
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/05/fat_activist_rails_against_thin_privilege_and_fat_oppression.html#ixzz48NLylLKfFollow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
