Episode 44: Let’s Talk About Thin Privilege
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Episode Transcription
Participant #1:
Hello, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Up-Beet Dietitians podcast. Hello, everyone. Today we will be talking about a very important topic. We'll be discussing thin privilege and fat phobia, especially in today's society. And kind of one of the biggest reasons we want to talk about this is because these are terms that I think are becoming much more familiar. People are becoming much more familiar with. They are hearing it more frequently in conversation, especially in the healthcare setting. But also it's important that we kind of distinguish what both of these encompass, how they might play off of each other, examples of them in today's size that you might not realize and then kind of what the issues with both of them are. And especially because we especially want to talk about this because over the past two decades, with the changes in technology and the changes that people have access to other people around the world, that 20 years ago, you would not be able to probably talk to someone across the world as easily. But with kind of that accessibility to people comes also more spaces for people to just be rude and judgmental. Unfortunately, it's insane. Yes. Okay. I'm so excited. Yes. So we're going to first start off with thin privilege. We're going to chat about what it is I already talked to you about. This is well, let's get into it anyway. Yeah. So then privilege is defined as kind of a representation of all the social, financial and practical benefits a person gets because they are thin or in a relatively smaller body. And Hannah and I both I was not going to say separate. We both benefit. That's what I'm looking for. We both benefit from thin privilege. So we're going to kind of talk about examples of it, but also our own personal experiences if we think of some. Yeah. And kind of along with that, I don't know this for sure, but I believe that I could probably eat like pretty much whatever I wanted, and I would never really reside in a larger body. And we'll go over in a little bit, like the struggle of those who experience the fat phobia around, those who do with a larger body. And I'll probably never experience that as I get older. If I ever had kids, weight will ever flow, but I would likely never be in a relatively larger body that would likely lead to me experiencing waistigma. So that's part of, I think, fitness and privilege, too, is we don't really have to ever worry about that on a personal level in terms of us getting having that weight stigma. And a lot of it is genetics yes, that's what I'm trying to do. I am built exactly like my dad. We have the exact same body type. I'm just in a girl form, but that's just kind of it's never been something. I also had to even when I had my past experience with poor, disordered eating and whatnot, and I gained 16 pounds from that. To me, it felt traumatic because I had some mental stuff going on and I was like, oh, my gosh, I paint so much weight. But I wasn't actually really treated that much differently because of how I guess my perception of it is also weird because there's a lot of body dysmorphia going on and stuff like that. But even then when I was at quite possibly one of the lowest points in my life and it was leaking over, it was like also transferring over to my physical health, I didn't have to worry about that. It's just something that we both recognize or privileged with it. And that's kind of one of the most important things around thin privileges. Recognizing one is a thing. It's 100% a thing. Some people say it is not. But we're going to go over reasons of it. But hopefully if you're on the edge, you'll believe us. And if you don't want to believe us, then that's all right. Go outside in society for a little bit and do some reflection. I did a TikTok on it a long time ago. It was probably like months ago. I talked about how I have the privilege. I remember the comments were just disgusting. They were like, oh, so now I have to be sorry that I am thin. I'm like, that's not what it's about. It's not about that. It's about being treated differently. We have all these perks because we just naturally genetically have smaller bodies. Yeah. And it's not like being thin makes you a bad person and you're like, horrible when you take advantage of people because you're thin. It's because society has conditioned us to believe that we're going to go into this. But society has conditioned us to associate thinness with health status. And in a lot of other cases, we're going to go in with a little bit, like potentially like, wealthier people because they have the resources to take care of themselves and whatnot. But I digress. Let's talk about examples of privilege. Yes. Okay. First one is and we actually talked about this, I think in two episodes, go with BMI is same. Privilege is never being told to lose weight or is never an ultimatum. Very not likely. You're going to be told by your primary care physician that you need to lose weight. I've never been told I needed to lose weight. I don't think I have either, because I think I mentioned it would be my episode as well, that I'm technically overweight. Like, if I get on a scale and put it in my chart at the doctor's office, it will say that I'm overweight I think I have the benefit of I've had the same doctor since I came out of the womb, so he knows I just have a very pediatrician. Well, he's a family doctor, so he's like, I see him literally forever. My mom also works for him for 20 something years, so he's basically my family. Yeah. So that is another privilege. My doctor is like, I know him personally, but I would assume that if I went to a new doctor, they probably wouldn't tell me that either. Even though I want to say this earlier too, I am 30 pounds heavier than I was in high school. I still have been privileged for sure. Like, you were kind of mentioning how you had that fluctuation of weight, but we still had the thin privilege. Even with that weight gain there, it's all relative. Oh, yeah. A lot of it depends on your height, your distribution of weight. Like we said, this is not always better. I'm 30 pounds heavier than I was, but I'm also the healthiest I've ever been in my entire life. Yeah, no, it's not even sure that because it was not a healthy. Well, maybe it would be beneficial to someone. You know what? I will share it because maybe someone resonates to hear this. And I grew up being and I don't know if we're going completely off the rails we're supposed to talk about today, but maybe this will resonate with someone I also need to share. And I know my younger self heard it. And I think, actually, I talked to you and someone else about this and it was something, I don't know if you'll remember once I talk about it, but growing up, I was always like an athletic, super thin kid, definitely underweight. I needed to gain weight. It was unhealthy. But luckily I somehow turned out okay leading up to a certain point. And I didn't, like, have any type of body image issues or anything like that. I just was naturally like, very athletic, very thin. And I think what messed me up was my classmates would tell me how good a shape I was in. And then I had my little. I don't even know where I was going with this, but I'm just going to finish where I'm going right now. Tell the whole thing. I had my disordered eating period and I struggled with my body image issues. And also we should probably just do an episode on our disordered eating history because we should talk to him also. Trigger warning. I feel like I forgot to put a trigger warning just in case. Yeah, skip ahead a little bit. Now, you do not want to hear about potential eating disorder stuff like that. But essentially I had my disorder eating period and then it affected my life for the next four to five years. It affected me, like, all throughout college. And I remember talking to you and some of our other friends and I would look back at pictures and I'd be like, oh my gosh, I was in such better shape. And literally someone told me, Emily, your skin was gray. And I was like, but I was in such better shape. And the thing is, I was clinically underweight and I would regularly lose my period during sports seasons and it was not healthy. Even if at first it wasn't intentionally, I wasn't intentionally trying to be small. Although, looking back, you're getting my whole life story right now. There was one kind of bad thing where I would ignore my hunger cues and then when I started dealing with stuff, I started honoring those hunger cues and then they end up gaining weight. And then that was the whole thing. So it was very interesting a lot, but I don't even know what we were talking about at first. I just had this up for each other. How I gained weight and you gained weight. We were talking about how being thinner is not healthier. Yes, I needed to gain weight. Looking back, if I told that to myself and to my college self right now, I would have fought myself. Like collegeme would have beat me up. I'm not a fiscal person, I would have verbally beat myself up. But it was completely true. And I was other people telling me that it was not good and I just looked so much in my head that I needed thinness was better, but it was not true. I was not having a period. My skin was gray.
Participant #1:
I don't even think it's too much. It's not. But if men are listening and I love it. But my period now that I'm 30 pounds heavier is so much more consistent. I think stress that are really huge. For a while when I was in college, I'd say more stress than I am now. Stress. College is terrible. Don't go to college. Seriously, don't go to college. Not worth it unless you're getting a full ride. It's an easy major. Anyway, I have to believe that part of it is being at a weight that my body is meant to be at. Like, I'm at a healthy weight. I'm eating food. Finally, like, I'm nourishing my body. I'm not micromanaging my calorie and take my carb intake. I'm not in the gym seven days a week for 2 hours at a time. I'm not doing six mile runs, I'm letting my body be where it wants to be and I'm treating it with respect and that's like, my body is like thanking me and doing all these good things now because of it. So yeah, dinner is not much better. No, bottom line there, which is not even the point of today's episode. What's the whole episode on that? Because that could be a whole lot. We start off with like, private care, never telling you to lose weight and then we just completely. But if you guys have been listening for a while, you kind of know this is how we tend to go. Hopefully you appreciate our life stories. If we ever stay on track on an episode, just know we don't care about that topic. We're just doing it for you. If we care about it, we're going to get off topic. Yeah. All these other things. Yeah. But let's do another. So this one I can definitely attest to as someone who posts on social media, this one is being able to post a video of you eating McDonald's or really any food and everyone compliments you for living your life. I have benefited from this. I posted one recently of me eating Wendy's, and I did try to say in the video, like, I have this privilege that I'm able to do this and eat this. And I probably won't get any comments saying that I need to lose weight. Why am I eating that? Exactly. Like, maybe you should skip on the fries or something like that. Exactly. I was able to eat that and I addressed that side of it. But my comments still to this point, we're like, wow, yeah, you're so right. That really helps me feel better that I know I'm able to meet those things. I was going to say it's because you have a thin body. It's the entire Emily Mariko effect. People who are familiar with Tik Tok. She's like a lifestyle wellness influencer. I love her, but she is someone that highly she benefits from privilege. And it took a lot of actual reflection for myself because I did a video about her and everything, but people and the whole thing was like the white rice. That was like the biggest thing I feel like is she was eating white rice regularly. And people are like, oh, my gosh, I can eat white rice regularly. And it's because they see someone in thinner body. They're like, oh, it's okay to eat these foods because you can still be thin and eat these. Nothing wrong with her. This is nothing wrong. Not about her or anyone who thinks that way. Like, if you had that thought of Emily Mariko's eating white rice and now I've eaten white rice. That's not your fault that your brain went to that conclusion. That's just the society we live in. And our brains are, like, trained to think that way. Yeah. Because we've been taught and programmed to believe that you have to eat, like, your green juices and all your protein shakes and all these your chicken and your vegetables to be thin. White rice is not the cause of thinness or fatness. That's not how food works. Yeah. And I actually just thought of this, and I know we've talked about it before, but those like 10,000 calorie videos, there's so much thin privilege there. Let's do a cheat day episode, too. That could be a whole episode. Yes. Because they will make a challenge to eat 10,000 calories in a day, and they're typically like a body. Like, they're typically into some type of weight training. Normally their thing. And they're like, this is my cheat day or this is my challenge. And no one on there. Well, I keep making ultimate items. Most people on there are not going to be like, you shouldn't be eating that. Like, are you sure that's okay for your weight? Like, are you sure that's okay for you? No one is saying that. Everyone's like, oh, my gosh, that looks so good. Oh, my gosh, I want to try this. Like, no one's concerned about their health because they have a smaller body so they can eat whatever they want. People think because being in a smaller body is always healthier according to our society, the diet industry, diet culture, almost. But the next example of thin privilege is not having to worry about sizes being available at stores. This is huge because I am a retail therapy fanatic. Yes, I love going to stores to try and close. It is something that I love doing with my friends. It's really good stress relief for me, that instant gratification. But I never have to worry about my size is not being at the store unless they're out. But, like, there's probably always been something that. Yeah, and that's something that can be incredibly deterring to people in larger bodies. What if they want to participate in retail therapy, but they don't know if the store they want to go to has their size? That's so demoralizing and incredibly stressful. And then something that used to be fun no longer is fun. And like, different types of clothing too. Like, only crop tops being available in smaller sizes or people who are in larger bodies that wear a crop top are made fun of. But I could wear one and be totally fine. No one's going to comment on that. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. So social media hates to see a confident woman in a larger body. And I applaud every single larger body woman who posts on social media confidence. I wish I had their confidence. I don't know if there's science behind it, but I strongly believe, like, confidence is the most attractive thing you can wear. And like, everyone who, like, posts in these, like, whatever it is, and they're confident. I'm like, you are stunning radiant. I'm like, I want to be you. I wish I looked this good and the world just hates them.
Participant #1:
There are certain people that want to see the world burn, and they will just try to make people feel bad about themselves for feeling good about themselves. I'm like, what do you get from that? What do you get from telling someone who is confident in their crop top that they need to lose weight or that they're a bad person or whatever? It doesn't make you any better. It doesn't give you any Kudo points. Like, it doesn't make you any type of healthcare guru, health guru. It just makes you a jerk. I censored myself. I just not. I have bad, but it's just like, oh, my gosh, I like how you brought up that, too. That's a really good point, because I think the biggest I don't ever see. I'm always told never to burn bridges, but a problematic store is Brandy Melville. Have you ever heard of that store? No, I haven't. It is, like, super popular in big cities, like La, stuff like that. But they only offer, like, size zero, size two. It's like a Hollister Abercrombie back in the day vibe. Yes. Got you. I don't even think I'd be able to find clothes there. And I am like a smaller body, but they sometimes have cute things and, like, what if you wanted one of those things? They're still on. Oh, yeah. They have not changed. They have stood their ground. The sizes they offer, they're the ones making those being comments on TikTok. Probably people who, I've heard things and, you know, who knows how accurate it is? But I've heard it's just a lot of judgment going on in those stores myself would probably never put in them. But it's just like, what if they have a certain style you like? But they only offer so many things and they're so limited that I'm pretty sure they're losing business. People have talked about it a lot more. People have talked about how they're not inclusive and the world is becoming much more of an inclusive place, so you got to keep up with the times. Are Hollister and Abercrombie, like, keeping up the times? Have they gotten, like, larger sizes? Do you know, because they're, like, they're popular again? Oh, yeah, they're coming back. I actually shot the area prompted recently. They have larger sizes. I don't know if. I mean, back in the day, it was like, they're not as large. And I was like, 130 pounds. Yeah, they're not as bad. Like, they have much more variety now. And let's not even get into how women sizes are all over the board. All my pants are different sizes. We should be taking notes. Yeah, we'll have the episode idea last year. Oh, perfect. Put down the discrepancies in cheat days and discrepancies in women's sizes. I don't know a lot about men's sizes. Seems pretty straightforward. There's just, like, your waist size and then your length. It's like, not like that changes exactly. Unless you're going from inches and centimeters, you can do that conversion pretty easily. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. That's a whole nother thing, though. I used to care about a lot. I know I cared about that a lot. That would also ruin my retail therapy time. Because I'd be like, why am I no longer fitting in this size? I refuse to go up a size. Looking at my back pass up. I'm like, Emily, why by the clothing that fits you, no one knows what size you're wearing. No, I've told this story before I told the story about how I used to save. I used to have so many clothes that I would just save when I would lose weight, even though I have no place to be losing weight, that should never be a goal of mine, this place in my life. Yeah. I also had those clothes. I got rid of them. Luckily now just an accident. Like, oh, I have these shorts I've worn in six years. You definitely don't put me anywhere. Yeah, I will note kind of with the aspect of having different sizes. I forgot who does this, but someone does this where they have, like, period clothing where you're, like, more bloated and they could eat better. I was like, oh, I kind of like that. Well, most of my clothing is stretchy and baggy, so mine's always period. Perfect. There you go. I literally wear scrubs for my job, and then I've been home, put on sweatpants and a sweatshirt. Like, right now, if I'm wearing jeans, if you know me, you know this. If I'm wearing jeans, it's a wild day. We're going out tonight. Like, we're going to, like, an Eddie Merlots or something.
Participant #1:
Eddie merlot's. But I don't like them very much. Jeans are the worst. Maybe because I haven't gotten ones that fit me right. I've found jeans that fit me life changing. I've never found them because I've been too stubborn to get ones that are bigger size. Next time we hang out, we'll do some retail shopping. That sounds actually really amazing. You keep talking about it now. I love shopping with you. I love shopping, too. I'm just super cheap, and so I get stressed up. I love getting stuff I like. Tj Maxx is my favorite place in the entire world. There's a Marshalls. Like, I can see it on my window right here. It's amazing. I can't go often because then I feel very guilty about spending all that money. That's why you need typically, I convince my friends why not? We live close together. That I think would be one dangerous part of it. There's a lot of pros. You guys are going shopping again? Yeah, he would Ross and are both cheap, so that would be dangerous. That's okay. We only have one life. We're talking about this. Yeah.
Participant #1:
I'm not going wild and, like, I'm not going to buy a jet, but I can buy some jeans that bit me.
Participant #1:
Yes. Okay. We have, like, episodes like this where it takes us hours to get through one section. Okay. The next example of the new privilege is being able to eat in public without getting stared at. I can say I've never been well, maybe for other reasons, like, I have a burger or something, but I've never been stared at for what I think is my weight in public. That's never been a concern I've had no. I think the only times I've maybe no, I was like, people like, maybe in high school if I was eating. But even then it wasn't because of my weight, it was self portrayed. I was like causing a ruckus eating food. Well, I was ashamed of what I thought was a large body, even though it was not at all right. That was just a poor body and just anything. Oh yeah. Because people are just so like, I am someone in Hannosis. I am someone that I'm not afraid to confront someone and tell you how. I have a rule that anything I say behind someone's back I would feel comfortable saying to their face, yeah, not only helps filter myself, but also it makes me feel a little bit better myself. Am I probably a bad person? Probably. That's a good quality to have. I'd rather you be blunt than like a two faced buyer. Yes, but people are so blatantly judgmental. The only time I would stare at someone is if it was like a rude customer in like, food service jury tail therapy. Like all the Karen, that is the only time I would stare at someone because they are being a problem. And I'm like, you should know your behavior is problematic. You are not being nice right now, no matter how in the right or how entitled you're feeling. But other than that, mind your own business. You don't know what they have going on. We're all just trying to get through life. We all hate it here. We just stop with being mean to everybody. We're not having fun. No one needs to get shamed for going to Panda Express and eating some Orange chicken. Let them enjoy their Orange chicken and peas. You're still right though. Like those TikToks of the people. Just like going off on service workers. I can never look away.
Participant #1:
We worked in the service industry. There have been very few times I've said something like, ever. And it was normally because at a restaurant where I wasn't served for like 30 minutes or you would talk to. But it wasn't like I was like, I've been here for 30 minutes and no one called the CEO. Yes. I've been like, hey, I don't know if anyone knows we're here. I exist. Hungry. I'm like, I'm sorry if you're really busy or you're short. I feel like that's like a red flag. Like none of my friends I know would do that. I wouldn't not be friends. I wouldn't be the one. No. If you feel that comfortable, this podcast will be over. I would hope you would end cut all ties. No. Like feeling that comfortable and entitled to harass a stranger to get your freaking $5 Starbucks drink. It's not that deep. No. And they don't get paid enough to deal with these. It's not their problem. It's a you problem. Yeah. If you're really that upset, called Starbucks. What is the lady? What's her character? The Starbucks siren. Yeah, the Mermaid. Call the siren up if you're really that upset about your Frappuccino being made with one less chocolate chip. Yeah. I don't think she's going to care. Right. No one's going to care.
Participant #1:
Okay. So last one. And I think this is one of the biggest ones that people don't think about is examples. And privilege is not having to worry about being in public spaces or furniture, like chairs that you could sit in comfortably, comfortably, benches that you can sit in comfortably. Being able to sit at a table, being able to sit on a bus, any type of public transportation of plane seats, theater seats. Like not having to worry about fitting in these spaces. And it's kind of like a lot of I was reading about this before, and like so much of kind of society has, like, tailored everything towards been people and just assumed, like, this is what your size is and nothing bad comes out of making more inclusive spaces.
Participant #1:
No. It just might take up a bit more space. Like pay for the space. Right. Or like the materials you need to make a little bit bigger of a chair or a sturdier of a chair. Yeah. Accommodate all your guests and customers. Yeah. This one's big. I've never, ever had to think twice about if this chair will hold my weight or if it's wide enough for me. Yeah. I've complained about being uncomfortable on plane seats because my knees were like really small and I am small. I couldn't even imagine like one this is another height is not an issue. But like if you had long legs or if you're in a larger body and trying to fit in these places, I couldn't even imagine how uncomfortable that is. It aerospace engineers who designs planes because they got to make them more comfortable for everyone of all sizes. Right. And I hope that we are going that way. I feel like it's been a thing for a long time, but everyone's kind of ignored it. And now we're finally talking about it. So hopefully people in all industries will think about this. Like healthcare, aerospace engineers, people who are making chairs for kitchen tables. Hopefully everyone starts to think about these things, not just like healthcare and clothing. That's a good point. It's not just healthcare. Every thin privilege. And we're going to talk about fatphobia these two, like shoes. I don't know if it's constructs. They affect every aspect of life, even if you don't realize it. And that's kind of what we're hoping you'll realize after we talked about it today that maybe you do benefit from privilege or maybe there are things you don't have to think about or things you might understand and that other people have to go through that you might not have to. Right. And I didn't even realize I had this privilege to the last year. I hadn't even thought about that until recently. So it's highly likely that you haven't thought of it if you also have thin privilege. That's not because you're bad or wrong or you have to not be thin anymore to be a good person. That's definitely not the case. But at least like recognizing that you have that privilege and maybe being a little bit upset. That like trying to be more proactive and speaking out on the matter. Right. Kind of like diet culture as a whole. We get, like, pissed that it exists. It doesn't really pick up as much anymore personally, like in our own nutrition habits because we've kind of overcome that. But we still are just so upset about how it affects everyone around us. It's the same thing with this. Like, even if you have the privilege and you're living a pretty great life in general, it should still be upsetting that it's affecting everyone else so negatively. Yeah. You could speak up on these issues if you're in any type of positions of, I guess, power where you can make decisions about this. Absolutely. Try to be more inclusive in whatever you do. And there might even be things that we haven't talked about today that are more closely aligned to benefit people in a thinner body. And we should be challenging those to be more inclusive of people of all body shapes. Our podcast is our way of doing that. We hope to be able to reach a lot more people so people, like, understand that this exists, that diet culture as a whole exist. While Emily and I aren't, like, working for Spirit Airlines and able to, like, make bigger seats, we hope that if you're someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone that maybe could have some say in that in some way. Yeah. So every little bit counts, even if it's not some life changing thing that you get to do about it, or even if it's having like, a conversation or confronting people who are exhibiting behaviors that benefit them people and be like, hey, what if we did this and made it a little bit more inclusive? Episode 44 Up-Beet Dietitian podcast to learn more. Yeah. So if you guys don't have the words or the confidence to really talk about it, refer them to us, then we will give them the low down of why their actions are problematic. Yeah. Okay, let's go over and let's finish up them. Thin Privilege. Essentially, the two biggest issues within privilege, on top of everything we just kind of talked about is someone who is in a smaller frame, might not receive or they might not be treated for kind of care or proper care. If they have something internally or psychologically going on because they are smaller body and perceived as more healthy, their symptoms might kind of be pushed aside, be like, oh, you're fine. This happens to everyone. I have heard that one I've had issues and people are like, it was something you ate. And I'm like, no, I'm a dietitian. I know it was not something I ate. There's something going on. Yeah. Age plays a role with that, too. Oh, you're young. It couldn't be that. I've heard of cancer stories. For example, young women getting breast cancer, but everyone kind of blows it off because they're in their 20s or whatever. And they're like, oh, I don't even know what they say that cancer isn't. But neither. But that's not even the point. It isn't the point, but yes. No, that's a big one. And the other issue with the whole idea of associating size of health status, as we said, just because someone is smaller or thinner does not mean they are healthier. The number on the scale tells you absolutely nothing. Just like the mass of your weight on this Earth. That's all it tells you. It doesn't tell you if you're healthy or if you have an absolute risk of getting any disease is just the weight that your body is on this Earth. Yeah. And you can be in a much thinner body than someone who's in a larger body and be way less healthy than that person in a larger body. Yeah, that one gets me. That one gets me going. Yeah, we're probably going to talk about it a lot more. Second half. So welcome to the second half of the episode. The second two thirds, because that was just the intro. We've already been going for like 40 minutes. I know. Take your snack break. Take your water break. I mean, you could still be eating the podcast. I listen to the host. They do take snack breaks, like twice an episode and they go to the bathroom play. Okay. I was like, what happens during and the commercials will play in this video. It's kind of fun. I know. It's cute. Let's go to a break. We'll be right back. Yeah, take your time. Hey, guys. We realized we had a lot to say about both in privilege and fat phobia. So probably based off the episode title, you know, this has been privileged focused. But based off our intro, you're probably like, Emily, Hannah, why are we taking a break here? It's because we are not good with time management today, and we just recorded for about 2 hours. So we're going to make this a two parter. So we're going to kind of cut it short here, let you sit on your thoughts about the privilege and take some time to reflect and all that fun stuff. And then next week we'll discuss that phobia so you don't have to sit and listen to us for 2 hours. Two plus hours, because we talk about a lot. And I think if you haven't experienced before, it can be a lot taking in like one, maybe it's actually good that we're doing this in two. So you can kind of like absorb, reflect, think about how it's affecting you, how it's affecting everyone around you, and then listen to part two and have those thoughts all over again. Yeah. Maybe get a therapist. Go over it with that if you haven't already. Yeah.
Participant #1:
Cool. Okay, guys, in part two. Yeah. See you there.
