People who have never lived in fat bodies truly have no idea what that experience is like. Personal responsibility narratives are not bold or interesting or new. They are extraordinarily damaging and dehumanizing.

Fat people are already constantly told they are failing, that they are a drain on society, and that they are killing themselves. This is done under the guise of “caring about health” while usually doing nothing to resolve the structural barriers that make health inaccessible.

It is done despite substantive evidence that diets do not work. Not because fat people fail or are bad, but because bodies do not respond well to substantive weight loss and so it is almost impossible to keep weight off. Many people end up putting on more weight in the long run.

And still, we are told to take responsibility. We are congratulated on weight loss regardless of how it was achieved. I know concerns about health are unfounded because I see no concern about my mental health or the extreme measures I have taken to lose weight in the past.

Shaming fat people harms their mental health and does nothing to help them. There is no nuance in a personal responsibility narrative that considers weight the key evidence of health and focuses exclusively on weight loss.

I have dieted since I was 14. I have been many weights. I know the experience of being hated by society for my body. I suffer extreme medical anxiety as a result, not because of my fat body but because of fatphobia which means doctors do not take me seriously.

All of this is to say that Judith’s comments can go to hell. But they’re also not new. And I’m tired of seeing rampant fatphobia on the left and in supposedly progressive spaces. Educate yourselves. Do better.