Body positivity normalises obesity

The body positivity movement has been advocating acceptance for decades, but should we accept all bodies unconditionally? Many people cannot help the way they look and we should accept them and make them feel included. But this becomes harder to argue when we see the increasing rates of obesity in the world. According to the World Health Organisation, obesity levels since 1975 have tripled worldwide. They calculate that, worldwide in 2016, more than 1.9 billion adults (39% of the population) were overweight. Of these 650 million were obese^[1]. All the while, a study researching people's perception of their body weight seem to indicate that from 1997 to 2015 adults in the UK increasingly likely to misjudge their own weight. This led to them being less likely to work on losing weight^[2]. COVID-19 has only brought obesity statistics further into the spotlight. The CDC reports that obese patients are more likely to suffer severe symptoms, and are three times as likely to need hospitalisation^[3]. Obesity is, in many cases preventable. Encouraging people to accept themselves without encouraging to take better care of themselves, as the body positivity movement sometimes does, seems irresponsible.