Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?
Would you say that it should be against the law to discriminate against people based on their body size? Unquestionably. So why don't we see more fitness and wellness advocates asking for that? I'm happy to ask for it. Ask for it right now. I didn't know that you thought I wasn't for it. I wasn't allowed to have a ding-dong when I came home and I said, I want ding-dongs in my lunch.
You know what my mom bought me? Low-fat Ding Dongs. Maybe there's more to life than trying to lose weight.
That's what body positivity has given me. You have to, like, love yourself. You have to invite love into the space. How? By looking at yourself in the mirror and telling yourself, I'm beautiful. It's not gonna work, kid. It does work. That's an SNL skit.
Are Americans fat phobic and obsessed with unrealistic beauty standards? Or has the body positivity movement normalized unhealthy habits and lifestyles? I'm John Regalado, and today we're going to have a debate about what it means to be healthy. Jillian, how are you feeling?
I feel good.
Debaters, you ready to come at Jillian with your best arguments?
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Chapter 2: How does Jillian Michaels view body positivity?
All right, let's get into it.
Hi, I'm Jillian Michaels. I'm a fitness expert and a health advocate. And today I am surrounded by 20 body positivity activists. All right, my first surrounded claim is that obesity is not healthy and pretending it is puts lives at risk.
If you want to be the first debater, get to the chair in three, two, one.
Hi. Hi. I'm Edie. Nice to meet you, Edie. I'm an eating disorder therapist. I'm gonna do my best to not use the O word because I find it pretty offensive. So I'm gonna use fat-bodied as we talk. Okay. Do you understand why people find it harmful and triggering?
Overweight and obese is literally just having too much body fat. It has nothing to do with the quality of the person.
Yeah, I agree with you on that.
Are we going to debate the claim?
Yeah, I just wanted to clarify, though, the language.
Are we going to pretend like I'm a three and you're my mommy telling me how to talk? Wow. Okay. Okay.
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Chapter 3: What claims does Jillian make about obesity?
So it puts it in fat cells. So it puts it in initially subcutaneous fat cells, a little bit of visceral fat, which is fat around the organs. And at first you have hyperplasia, which means we're recruiting new little fat cells. which isn't necessarily a bad thing up to a point. Now the issue is that once you can no longer recruit more fat cells, right, you get hypertrophy.
So the fat cells start to expand. And this is exceptionally dangerous because what ends up happening is the blood vessels get outpaced. So the fat cells can't get oxygen and they start screaming, literally. And when they do, they release Cytokines, inflammatory proteins, right? I want to pause. Of course you do want to pause. Because it's irrefutable.
You don't even know what I'm talking about. Jillian, okay, first of all, I don't appreciate the way that you're speaking to me right now. You called me out for just trying to understand the languaging and saying I was talking to a three-year-old who I felt like I was talking to very respectfully. You're talking to me very disrespectfully right now. Here's the thing.
You're telling me you understand it, but you don't understand it. You fundamentally... didn't describe it accurately. But what I understand is that... What's lipotoxicity? I don't want to talk about... I am not... Okay, here, I'm going to say this straight out. I am not a medical doctor, okay?
So I'm not going to talk to you about medical diagnosis because that's outside my scope and I'm fully willing... That's the claim. Hey, I'm fully willing to be wrong. What I am here to talk to you about is the fact that people in fat bodies are irregularly harmed going into the medical system every single day because of the term, the O word. So... That's what you wanna litigate? Yeah.
Okay, that's not the claim, though. The idea that fat-bodied people are inherently unhealthy is, I believe, incorrect. You're wrong. No, I'm not wrong.
There's a robust amount of data.
I'm not wrong. Let me finish my thought first. You can't look at a person's body and tell their health status.
So fat is an endocrine organ. When it overgrows, it does wreak havoc in the body. I didn't finish telling you what happens. So when the oxygen can't get to those fat cells, they'll die and they'll rupture. And then the immune system starts dumping macrophages in to try to clean it up.
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Chapter 4: How do the activists respond to Jillian's claims?
The problem, right, is that they put it back on. Are we in agreement? Yes. Okay, great. Why do you think... Okay, we've got to pause here. God damn it!
All right? I'm sorry.
John! I'm getting somewhere!
Yeah, voted out by the majority. Please return to your seat.
Okay. Hello. Hi. I have lived in a fat body for like, as long as I can remember. And I've known very many fat people. And I don't think any of us, the people that I know, I can only speak to the people that I know, I don't think any of us are pretending that we're okay with it. What I wanna say here is I live with autoimmune disorders, I live with chronic illness, and I'm also neurodivergent.
And this is, the body positivity movement has made it so that I can tolerate this life. I can find ways to thrive, even still. But I'm not pretending that this doesn't bother me. And by bother, I mean that it doesn't hurt to carry my weight. I'm willing to concede with you that carrying around extra weight is harder. It is. But it must be done. I don't know that I agree with you. Okay.
Tell me more, please. Well, tell me why you think it must be done. Because I've worked really hard to not have this. What does that mean? Like you beat yourself up in the gym or something? No, I don't. That's not fun.
No, I'm just trying to understand what you mean.
What I mean is that I grew up with a number of undiagnosed conditions. And even I can think back to like middle school and I couldn't keep up when the PE teacher would make us like run laps. And I'm like, this is physically aching me. And I didn't understand why. And I didn't understand why because I grew up with a single parent, undocumented single parent,
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Chapter 5: What personal experiences shape the views on body positivity?
You have to remember, I'm quite young. So when these came out, I was very young, very impressionable. And I have adults telling me that my body, because my BMI is higher, I have adults telling me that my body is like, you have to lose weight to fit in with normal people. Like you're young when you're impressionable.
And for you to be arguing against like body positivity, like I hope you don't have a daughter because my little sister like needs the body positivity movement. I think people need the body positivity movement because without it, everyone's just going to be looking at other people, judging other people. Like I'm sure. You think the body positivity movement is stopping people from being assholes?
No, that's not what I said. I think you're not right about that. No, that's not what I said at all. You just said you think it stops people from judging other people. No shot that's going to happen.
They're not judging people on their size. Of course they are. They're not.
Okay, okay, pause.
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Chapter 6: How do shame and body image intersect in this debate?
You've been voted out by the majority. That's okay, thank you. Please return to your seat.
Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you. So I think the language there is a little bit tone deaf just because I actually believe that gym talk, diet culture oversimplifies eating disorders. Two separate issues though. Both can be true at the same time. Both can be true as in? As in you could absolutely be making, first of all, gym talk should have nothing to do with eating disorders. So you're right.
But it's a separate issue than the claim I'm making. How is it separate? Okay, so you're saying gym talk oversimplifies trauma and eating disorders, right? Well, not just gym talk, but just the way that our youth, all of us are
Chapter 7: What are the implications of diet culture on body positivity?
we are all exposed to that, like we can't just avoid it. And when you see- It's still a separate issue though. I'm trying to say that the ways body positivity suggests people deal with body issues and trauma is an oversimplification, and it has to do with things like intuitive eating principles that get misrepresented by influencers. Okay, I can definitely agree with that.
Unfortunately, you and I are so far on the same page. Well, the way I see it is that body positivity is actually the bridge between health experts and anybody else, really. Explain it.
Chapter 8: How can we redefine health and wellness in the context of body positivity?
Because I think that... If I go to a doctor, it should be empowering for me to talk about my body. Of course. However, when I usually speak to a health expert, it's really not. I'm really more just afraid that they're going to speak to me in a way that degrades my body and makes me feel that shame that you've mentioned. Shame is not a motivator. It really turns people away.
Whereas the body positivity movement teaches people to have the kind of confidence they need to make choices for themselves. How do they teach you that? When you look at yourself in the mirror and you tell yourself, I'm ugly, I'm fat, I'm gross, I don't deserve to be alive. Some people get to that extent, right? I understand.
When you do that to yourself, that is not going to motivate you to then go make the choices that I think we all know are healthy for us. Totally agree. Then what's the next step though, dude? I think that's what we're here to speak about. Actually, I'm healed. So that's not what body positivity is. Body positivity is promoting the healing of said wounds. How?
This is where I'm telling you it's an oversimplification. It's not, though.
Tell me how.
How is it going to heal you, buddy?
By looking in the mirror and saying I no longer think so?
By looking in the mirror and saying these shameful things to yourself, you already know that it degrades you and you're not going to want to do the things that... So then what comes after deciding not to beat yourself up? We're both on the same page there. Now get below the tip of your iceberg. We're seeing different perspectives of the same page, right?
And that's why I do believe that body positivity is the bridge that we all need. Tell me what comes after. The moment you decide you're not going to say that shit in the mirror anymore, then what? then I should be able to consult health experts that are also body positive towards my body. No one's saying not to. Okay, so tell us who the health experts are that are body positive.
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