Should We Aim To Be Thin?
11/06/23 • 59 min
We live in a culture that is obsessed by weight. About a third of adult women in the US are on a diet at any given time, and a fifth of men. Those who aren’t dieting are thinking about dieting, with well over half of all adults actively wanting to lose weight, with men only slightly trailing women.
To feed the obsession on weight, or to help people manage their weight, depending on the way one looks at things, there is a global weight loss and management industry that is expected to surpass US$405 billion by 2030.
So what is going on here? Why is there a near pervasive belief that it’s good to be thin and bad to be fat.
In this episode we explore some of the reasons why fat has come to signify so much, looking at issues like health, shame, self-discipline, beauty and more.
Guests
Tigress Osborn (she/her) is a fat rights advocate and Executive Director of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA), the world’s oldest documented organization working towards Equality at Every Size. She is a co-founding leader of the Campaign for Size Freedom, which supports passing legislation to outlaw size discrimination. Tigress is a two-time women's college graduate with degrees in Africana Studies (Smith) and English (Mills). She is an intersectional feminist teacher and writer whose professional background as a youth empowerment leader and DEI educator has informed her fat liberation activism since 2008. She has been featured in USA Today, Newsweek, and the cover of the Smith College Alumnae Quarterly; heard on BBC AntiSocial, Burnt Toast, and NPR; and seen on ABC News, NewsNation and Free Speech TV’s Feminism Today.
Helen Pluckrose is a liberal humanist and political and cultural writer and commentator. Her writing has focused on the evolution of postmodern thought into contemporary Critical Social Justice activism which she regards as counterproductive to the goal of genuine social justice. Helen is best known for participation in the Grievance Studies Affair, co-authoring Cynical Theories and the foundation of the organisation Counterweight to support workers at risk of cancellation for not supporting Critical Social Justice theories. She mostly just wants people to value evidence-based knowledge and consistently liberal ethics.
Your hosts are Lloyd Vogelman and Emile Sherman.
This podcast is proud to partner with The Ethics Centre.
Find Lloyd @LloydVogelman on Linked in
Find Emile @EmileSherman on Linked In and Twitter.
This Podcast is Produced by Jonah Primo, Bronwen Reid and Danielle Harvey
Find Jonah at jonahprimo.com or @JonahPrimo on Instagram
Find Danielle at danielleharvey.com.au
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
We live in a culture that is obsessed by weight. About a third of adult women in the US are on a diet at any given time, and a fifth of men. Those who aren’t dieting are thinking about dieting, with well over half of all adults actively wanting to lose weight, with men only slightly trailing women.
To feed the obsession on weight, or to help people manage their weight, depending on the way one looks at things, there is a global weight loss and management industry that is expected to surpass US$405 billion by 2030.
So what is going on here? Why is there a near pervasive belief that it’s good to be thin and bad to be fat.
In this episode we explore some of the reasons why fat has come to signify so much, looking at issues like health, shame, self-discipline, beauty and more.
Guests
Tigress Osborn (she/her) is a fat rights advocate and Executive Director of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA), the world’s oldest documented organization working towards Equality at Every Size. She is a co-founding leader of the Campaign for Size Freedom, which supports passing legislation to outlaw size discrimination. Tigress is a two-time women's college graduate with degrees in Africana Studies (Smith) and English (Mills). She is an intersectional feminist teacher and writer whose professional background as a youth empowerment leader and DEI educator has informed her fat liberation activism since 2008. She has been featured in USA Today, Newsweek, and the cover of the Smith College Alumnae Quarterly; heard on BBC AntiSocial, Burnt Toast, and NPR; and seen on ABC News, NewsNation and Free Speech TV’s Feminism Today.
Helen Pluckrose is a liberal humanist and political and cultural writer and commentator. Her writing has focused on the evolution of postmodern thought into contemporary Critical Social Justice activism which she regards as counterproductive to the goal of genuine social justice. Helen is best known for participation in the Grievance Studies Affair, co-authoring Cynical Theories and the foundation of the organisation Counterweight to support workers at risk of cancellation for not supporting Critical Social Justice theories. She mostly just wants people to value evidence-based knowledge and consistently liberal ethics.
Your hosts are Lloyd Vogelman and Emile Sherman.
This podcast is proud to partner with The Ethics Centre.
Find Lloyd @LloydVogelman on Linked in
Find Emile @EmileSherman on Linked In and Twitter.
This Podcast is Produced by Jonah Primo, Bronwen Reid and Danielle Harvey
Find Jonah at jonahprimo.com or @JonahPrimo on Instagram
Find Danielle at danielleharvey.com.au
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Previous Episode
The Basics of Bad Faith, Pt.2 On the Couch.
In Principle of Charity on the Couch, Lloyd has an unfiltered conversation with the guests, throws them curveballs, and gets into the personal side of Principle of Charity.
Tim Dean
Tim Dean is Senior Philosopher at The Ethics Centre, where he works to promote ethics in public and professional spheres. He has a Doctorate in philosophy from the University of New South Wales on the evolution of human nature and specialises in ethics, critical thinking and public philosophy. He is an Honorary Associate at the University of Sydney and the author of How We Became Human: And Why We Need to Change published by Pan Macmillan. Tim received the Australasian Association of Philosophy Media Professionals’ Award for his work on philosophy in public. He has delivered keynotes and workshops across Australia and the Asia Pacific for the likes of TEDx, Facebook, Commonwealth Bank, Aesop, Clayton Utz, the Art Gallery of NSW, the Sydney Opera House and the University of Sydney.
Danielle Harvey
Danielle Harvey is a curator, creative producer and director. Danielle works across festivals, live performance, talks, installation and digital spaces, creating layered programs that connect deeply with audiences. She is currently Festival Director of the infamous FESTIVAL OF DANGEROUS IDEAS and Director of the line-blurring theatrical events company Dancing Giant Productions. Danielle was creator of BINGEFEST (a festival celebrating digital culture) and ANTIDOTE (a festival of ideas and action), and co-creator of ALL ABOUT WOMEN (a feminist festival). She was the co-creator and originating director of the award-winning immersive experience A MIDNIGHT VISIT. Her latest immersive work ETERNITYLAND created a theatrical ‘playground’ to rave reviews. Past roles include Head of Contemporary Performance at Sydney Opera House, the Festival Executive Producer of the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras and the Director of Engagement for The Ethics Centre.
Your hosts are Lloyd Vogelman and Emile Sherman.
This podcast is proud to partner with The Ethics Centre.
Find Lloyd @LloydVogelman on Linked in
Find Emile @EmileSherman on Linked In and Twitter.
This Podcast is Produced by Jonah Primo and Danielle Harvey
Find Jonah at jonahprimo.com or @JonahPrimo on Instagram
Find Danielle at danielleharvey.com.au
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Next Episode
Should We Aim To Be Thin? Pt.2 On the Couch.
In Principle of Charity on the Couch, Lloyd has an unfiltered conversation with the guests, throws them curveballs, and gets into the personal side of Principle of Charity.
Guests
Tigress Osborn (she/her) is a fat rights advocate and Executive Director of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA), the world’s oldest documented organization working towards Equality at Every Size. She is a co-founding leader of the Campaign for Size Freedom, which supports passing legislation to outlaw size discrimination. Tigress is a two-time women's college graduate with degrees in Africana Studies (Smith) and English (Mills). She is an intersectional feminist teacher and writer whose professional background as a youth empowerment leader and DEI educator has informed her fat liberation activism since 2008. She has been featured in USA Today, Newsweek, and the cover of the Smith College Alumnae Quarterly; heard on BBC AntiSocial, Burnt Toast, and NPR; and seen on ABC News, NewsNation and Free Speech TV’s Feminism Today.
Helen Pluckrose is a liberal humanist and political and cultural writer and commentator. Her writing has focused on the evolution of postmodern thought into contemporary Critical Social Justice activism which she regards as counterproductive to the goal of genuine social justice. Helen is best known for participation in the Grievance Studies Affair, co-authoring Cynical Theories and the foundation of the organisation Counterweight to support workers at risk of cancellation for not supporting Critical Social Justice theories. She mostly just wants people to value evidence-based knowledge and consistently liberal ethics.
Your hosts are Lloyd Vogelman and Emile Sherman.
This podcast is proud to partner with The Ethics Centre.
Find Lloyd @LloydVogelman on Linked in
Find Emile @EmileSherman on Linked In and Twitter.
This Podcast is Produced by Jonah Primo, Bronwen Reid and Danielle Harvey
Find Jonah at jonahprimo.com or @JonahPrimo on Instagram
Find Danielle at danielleharvey.com.au
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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