Jackson: Four out of five Americans hold some level of anti-fat bias. That's according to Harvard research. Olivia: And what's even wilder, Jackson, is that bias is rising, even as other implicit prejudices are stabilizing or falling. Jackson: That’s staggering. It suggests one of the most common forms of discrimination is one we barely even see, or maybe, one we’re still comfortable with. Today, we're asking why. Olivia: It's the central question in Aubrey Gordon's incredible book, You Just Need to Lose Weight: And 19 Other Myths About Fat People. And Gordon is the perfect person to guide us through this. She's not just an author; she spent over a decade as a community organizer and is the co-host of the wildly popular podcast Maintenance Phase, where she's become a leading voice in dismantling health and wellness misinformation. Jackson: Right, she’s famous for her deep dives into the junk science behind so many fads. Olivia: Exactly. And this book is her field guide to fighting the myths that fuel fatphobia. She starts with the biggest one of all, the one that underpins everything.

Jackson: Let me guess. The idea that being fat is a choice. If you don't like how you're treated, just lose weight. Olivia: That's the one. It sounds so simple, so logical. It’s the foundation of our entire cultural understanding of weight. And Gordon argues it’s a carefully constructed lie. She points to how the media tells these stories. Take the plus-size model Rosie Mercado. In 2016, a magazine covered her weight loss, and the story followed a perfect, predictable script. Jackson: What was the script? Olivia: A bleak "before" picture. A life filled with challenges and low self-esteem. Then, a single, dramatic "wake-up call." For Mercado, it was a flight attendant loudly announcing she was too big for an airplane seat. Humiliating, right? Jackson: Oh, absolutely brutal. Olivia: And then comes the "after." She loses 240 pounds through running, walking, and Zumba. The narrative is one of pure willpower. She tried hard, she succeeded, and now she is worthy of respect. The end. Jackson: That sounds like every weight loss story I've ever seen on TV. It’s presented as a triumph of the human spirit. Olivia: Precisely. But it erases all complexity. It ignores genetics. It ignores medical conditions. And it completely ignores the science of weight loss itself. Jackson: Okay, this is where I think a lot of people, myself included, get stuck. The idea of "calories in, calories out" just seems like basic physics. How can that be a myth? Olivia: It’s a great question because it feels so intuitive. But our bodies aren't simple furnaces. Gordon walks through the science, and it’s fascinating. When you lose weight, your body doesn't celebrate. It panics. It thinks you're starving. So it floods your system with a hormone called ghrelin, the "hunger hormone." It’s not a failure of willpower when you feel ravenously hungry after a diet; it's a biological imperative. Jackson: So your own body is actively working against you. Olivia: Actively. And there’s another hormone, leptin, which tells your brain you're full. As people become fatter, they can develop leptin resistance. Their brain literally can't get the "stop eating" signal. So telling someone with leptin resistance to "just eat less" is like telling someone with a broken leg to "just walk it off." Jackson: Wow. That completely reframes the 'willpower' argument. It’s not a moral failing; it’s a biological response. Olivia: And the data backs this up. Gordon cites research from the National Institutes of Health. The probability of a very fat man reaching a "normal" BMI is 1 in 1,290. For a very fat woman, it's 1 in 677. Jackson: Wait, hold on. Those numbers are... basically zero. Olivia: They are statistically insignificant. Yet, we've built our entire cultural narrative around the idea that this is not only possible, but expected. Gordon’s point is that proclaiming fatness is a choice is a tactic. It’s a way to dismiss the real, systemic discrimination fat people face. It puts the onus on them to solve a problem that society created. Jackson: It absolves everyone else of responsibility. If it's your fault, then I don't have to examine my own bias or the systems that make your life harder. Olivia: Exactly. It’s a convenient myth. And that convenience leads directly to the next big myth people jump to when the "choice" argument starts to crumble.

Jackson: Right. The 'health' argument. "I'm not biased, I'm just concerned for your health." It feels like the ultimate trump card in any conversation about weight. But Gordon argues this is just another myth, right? Olivia: A deeply dangerous one. And she uses one of the most heartbreaking stories I have ever read to illustrate it. It’s the story of Ellen Maud Bennett. Jackson: I’m not familiar with her. Olivia: You might have seen her obituary. It went viral in 2018. For years, Ellen, a Canadian woman, felt unwell. She went to doctors repeatedly, but they all told her the same thing: lose weight. No other tests, no other suggestions. Just lose weight. Jackson: That sounds frustratingly common. Olivia: It is. But for Ellen, it was fatal. When she was finally diagnosed, it was with inoperable, terminal cancer. She only had days to live. And in those final days, she planned her own obituary. She had a final message she wanted the world to hear. Jackson: What was it? Olivia: Her family published it as she wrote it. It said: "A final message Ellen wanted to share was about the fat shaming she endured from the medical profession. Over the past few years of feeling unwell she sought out medical intervention and no one offered any support or suggestions beyond weight loss. Ellen’s dying wish was that women of size make her death matter by advocating strongly for their health and not accepting that fat is the only relevant health issue." Jackson: That's... horrifying. Her life was cut short because of medical bias. Because doctors couldn't see past her weight to find the cancer that was killing her. Olivia: It's a devastating example of what Gordon calls the weaponization of health. The book is filled with stories like this. Rebecca Hiles, who was told for six years her bloody coughing fits were because she was fat. It was lung cancer. Patty Nece, who was diagnosed with "obesity pain" in her hip. It was progressive scoliosis. Jackson: How can this happen? How can doctors be so biased? Aren't they relying on objective tools, like the BMI? Olivia: Ah, the BMI. The Body Mass Index. Gordon dedicates a whole chapter to dismantling it, and its history is shocking. It was invented in the 1830s by a Belgian mathematician named Adolphe Quetelet. Jackson: A mathematician? Not a doctor? Olivia: Not a doctor. He wasn't interested in individual health. He was a eugenicist, obsessed with defining the "average man" — l'homme moyen. And his data set for creating this index? It was based exclusively on white, Western European men. Jackson: You're kidding me. Olivia: Not at all. It was never intended as a diagnostic tool. It was co-opted by American life insurance companies in the early 20th century to set rates, and then in the 1970s, it was formally adopted by the medical community. But it's wildly inaccurate. It overestimates health risks for Black people. It underestimates them for Asian people. It can't distinguish between fat and muscle. By BMI, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is "obese." Jackson: That's absurd. So this "objective" tool is actually rooted in racism and was never meant for the purpose we use it for today. Olivia: Exactly. And it gets worse. Gordon points to something called the "obesity paradox." It's a term for the consistent research finding that people in the "overweight" BMI category, and sometimes even the "obese" category, often have better health outcomes and live longer than people in the "healthy weight" category. Jackson: Wait, so being a bit "overweight" could be protective? That blows up everything we're told. Olivia: It blows up the entire foundation of the "health" argument. It shows that the link between weight and health is far more complex than we're led to believe. And the bias isn't just in the doctor's office. It's in our everyday language, in how we police fat people for simply existing.

Jackson: That brings us to the accusation you hear all the time online: "You're glorifying obesity." It gets thrown at any fat person who seems... well, happy. Olivia: Or just neutral! Gordon points out that this accusation is almost never clearly defined. What does it actually mean to "glorify obesity"? She uses the example of the pop star Lizzo. In 2019, she was at a Lakers game, the jumbotron camera found her, and she twerked for a few seconds. Jackson: I remember that. The internet exploded. Olivia: It did. People were furious, accusing her of being inappropriate, of "glorifying obesity." But as Gordon points out, the Laker Girls, who are all thin, were doing far more sexualized dances on the court for the entire game, and no one batted an eye. The only difference was that Lizzo is fat. Jackson: It's a total double standard. So what does "glorifying obesity" really mean, then? Olivia: Gordon argues it's not about celebrating anything. It’s an expression of disgust and anxiety. It’s a punishment for a fat person daring to be visible, to be joyful, to be sexual, to take up space without apology. It’s the fear that if we don't constantly reject and humiliate fat bodies, society will somehow crumble. Jackson: Which is wild, because our society does nothing but celebrate thinness. Every magazine cover, every movie, every ad. Olivia: Constantly. We congratulate weight loss on sight, without knowing anything about the circumstances. Gordon tells the story of the actor Bubba Smith, who played Hightower in the Police Academy movies. He died in 2011 from an overdose of diet pills. His pursuit of thinness literally killed him, but his story got almost no media attention. It didn't fit the narrative. Jackson: That's a powerful point. The stories that challenge the myth get buried. This also makes me think about the other side of the language coin: the word "fat" itself. I was taught it's an insult. It feels wrong to say. Why do some people, like Aubrey Gordon, reclaim it? Olivia: Because the hurt doesn't come from the word. The hurt comes from the discrimination that's attached to the word. It comes from being denied a job, or being misdiagnosed by a doctor, or being harassed on the street. The word "fat" is just a descriptor, like "tall" or "short." Jackson: But it’s been so weaponized. Olivia: It has. And that’s why reclaiming it is an act of power. It’s a way of saying, "You don't get to use this word to hurt me anymore. I am going to define myself." Gordon tells a story about being at an airport when a little girl pointed and said, "Look, a fat lady!" The mother was mortified, shushing the child, saying "That's a bad word!" But Gordon tried to reassure her, saying, "It's okay, I am fat." The mother couldn't accept it. Jackson: Because for the mother, the word itself was the source of shame. Olivia: Exactly. Her discomfort wasn't about protecting Gordon's feelings; it was about her own fear of fatness. Her fear of what it would mean if her daughter grew up to be fat. For many fat people, reclaiming the word is about reclaiming their own bodies and telling thin people that their discomfort is not the fat person's problem to solve.

Jackson: So, when you connect all these dots, all these myths—about choice, about health, about language—they aren't just random misconceptions. They're the building blocks of a system that allows us to dismiss, pathologize, and discriminate against a huge group of people. Olivia: That's the core of it. These myths aren't just incorrect; Gordon calls them "tools of power and dominance." They maintain a social hierarchy where thinness is at the top. But the book's power is that it doesn't leave you feeling hopeless. It shows that this is a system we can dismantle. Jackson: So what can we actually do? It feels so big. Olivia: Gordon offers a lot of practical steps, but one of the simplest and most powerful is to stop complimenting weight loss. You just never know the story behind it. It could be from grief, a serious illness, an eating disorder, or immense stress. Jackson: That’s a really good point. We automatically assume it's a positive achievement. Olivia: Right. So instead, she suggests complimenting things that aren't tied to body size. Compliment someone's energy, their great idea at work, how happy they seem, how great it is to see them. Focus on the person, not their body. It’s a small shift, but it starts to untangle our own biases. Jackson: It really makes you think... what other "harmless" beliefs do we hold that might be causing real harm to people around us? It’s a powerful question to sit with. Olivia: A very powerful question. And a necessary one if we want to build a more just world for everyone, regardless of their size. Jackson: This is Aibrary, signing off.