I assumed that 'Fat Pride' and 'Fat Justice' were a fad.
Silly me. I once again underestimated the ability of academia and professionals to embrace bad ideas and stick to them long after they have proven to cause enormous harm. Careers are built on the scaffolding of horrible ideas, money flows to grifters who latch onto the latest 'thing,' and institutional inertia keeps alive things that should have died long ago or never been born.
I had assumed that the advent of GLP-1 drugs had allowed public health officials to quit pretending that obesity was normal and actually a good thing. After a decade of "Healthy at any size" propaganda as a nod to social justice activists, they could get back to helping people lose weight, as so many fat people actually wanted—even Lizzo went on a fitness kick, and good for her!
The left wing is very mad about this tweet today for some weird reason and I was alive for the last decade while there was non-stop propaganda about fat being healthy and everyone remembers it, guys. https://t.co/M6KyWTP3Cm pic.twitter.com/XOcjA4nmOD
— Bridget Phetasy (@BridgetPhetasy) February 9, 2026
But apparently I was wrong, at least about the lengths to which the most committed social justice warriors are willing to go to promote demonstrably—actually obviously— bad ideas. Even after a string of fat activist social media stars up and died due to their horrific lifestyle choices, the Oregon School of Public Health still has a 'Fat Justice' initiative, and UCLA's Medical School is still teaching that promoting healthy weight is a form of structural racism.
Oregon public health school’s ‘Fat Justice’ initiative combats ‘oppression’ of overweight people https://t.co/rT3cX8gJgV
— Allen Mendenhall (@allenmendenhall) July 21, 2026
“The purpose of the Fat Justice Working Group is to engage students, faculty and staff of the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health (SPH) in learning, activities and advocacy to reduce weight stigma and anti-fat bias in ourselves, our School and society at large,” the initiative’s webpage states.
The group was formed by Dawn Richardson, associate dean for academic affairs, as a social justice project to oppose the “oppression” of overweight people, rejecting the notion that excessive weight correlates with poorer health.
In an open letter addressed to the SPH, part of the working group, called the Fat Justice Journal Club, expressed its concerns with the research and healthcare at the school. The letter rejects the “obesity paradigm,” requests the expansion of “Fat Studies,” and demands the release of public statements that fight “weight stigma and structural anti-fatness.”
It includes references to works such as “Health(ism) At Every Size: The Duties of the Good Fatty,” “Thick Sistahs and Heavy Disprivileged: Black Women, Intersectionality, and Weight Stigma,” and “Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia.”
Having been overweight to the point of obesity for a decent chunk of my life, I, too, can tell you that there is a stigma attached to excessive weight. I can also say that as uncomfortable as living with that stigma is, it is also based on a reality: being overweight is unhealthy for you, and it should be discouraged. The reason why people are uncomfortable with severely overweight people is, in itself, healthy.
Being mean about it isn't, of course. Bullying anybody for any reason is not the appropriate way to deal with problems people have, but on the other hand, when I first met my niece—about 3-years-old at the time—one of the first things she did was rub my rather impressive belly and ask her grandmother why it stuck out so much.
Out of the mouths of babes. They see that the Emperor has no clothes, and don't know not to say it.
She wasn't being mean, just observing a reality, and it helped spur me to action. I am 35 pounds lighter today, on Wegovy, and doing better. Lizzo said she was tired of people commenting on her weight, and is healthier for it.
UCLA’s “Structural Racism and Health Equity” course, for example, described “ob*sity” as a slur “used to exact violence on fat people.”
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) July 15, 2026
UCSF’s “Justice and Advocacy in Medicine” course promoted an anti-Israel protest that shut down the San Francisco Bay Bridge, delaying the…
So much of "social justice" activism is about denying reality, when we should be responding to it and trying to improve what needs changing. Telling people to embrace their sins or flaws as manifestations of "queerness," which is all about subverting social norms of all kinds, is usually enabling people to be at their worst and not to aspire to be at their best.
Of all people, the credentialed authorities shouldn't be engaged in this sort of thing. At least you would think so, and the fact that we keep finding them promoting insanity is proof that we should ignore them until they are proven right. Which is unfortunate, obviously, because public health authorities have and can do a lot of good if they employ their credibility for the public good.
Fat activism seemed to have peaked a couple of years ago and be fading. Even Southwest Airlines, which had provided an extra seat for free for obese people who couldn't fit, has scaled back this policy, although they still try to make accommodations when they can. That only happened this year, to the great frustration of the obese customers who loved it.
Southwest Airlines has rolled back part of its divisive policy requiring overweight passengers to buy two tickets on flights when they require a second seat because of their size.
Under the budget carrier's revised rules, Southwest gate agents will arrange a free second seat for passengers who need the extra room on flights where two adjoining seats are available.
After an earlier rule change in January, Dallas-based Southwest required people needing a second seat to book and pay for it in advance. The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA), an advocacy group, criticized the policy as "more restrictive."
The new update aims to promote "a more consistent and seamless experience for customers who require an additional seat," Southwest said in a statement to CBS News.
When two adjacent seats aren't available on a flight, larger passengers will be rebooked on a later flight, the airline said.
To avoid inconveniences at the airport, Southwest continues to encourage passengers who need more space to book an additional seat in advance.
Unfortunately, medical schools went as woke as the rest of academia, and the consequences are even worse than graduating boatloads of unemployable blue-hair gender activists for the people who have to navigate the medical system to get real help.
So much of "Social Justice" activism is really just about denying real, but uncomfortable facts. Racial crime statistics that point to real cultural problems, restricting serious discussion of immigration policies that desperately need reform, and hiding the failure of our education system to provide a minimally decent education to kids.
Denying reality doesn't change it. It makes things worse, and in the most extreme cases it will kill people.
Editor's Note: Do you enjoy HotAir's conservative reporting that takes on the radical left and woke media? Support our work so that we can continue to bring you the truth.
Join HotAir VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member