Fat

[Content Note: Fat bias.]

I think everyone knows I love Jennifer Lawrence with one million hearts, but I have to disagree with her here (in part):

"Why is humiliating people funny?" Lawrence, 23, asked. "I get it, I do it too. We all do it."

But the Oscar winner argues that fat-shaming on TV and elsewhere has an indisputably harmful effect on her young female fans.

"I think the media needs to take responsibility for the effect it has on our younger generation on these girls that are watching these television shows and picking up how to talk and how to be cool," she continued. "So all of the sudden being funny is making fun of the girl that's wearing an ugly dress. And the word fat! I just think it should be illegal to call somebody fat on TV. If we're regulating cigarettes and sex and cuss words because of the effect it has on our younger generation, why aren't we regulating things like calling somebody fat?"

This isn't the first time the young star has spoken out about weight. In the December 2012 issue of Elle Magazine, she said, "In Hollywood, I'm obese. I'm considered a fat actress."

I understand her point that the way in which women who are her size are called "fat" is problematic, because calling people fat who aren't contributes to a culture in which young women (especially, but not exclusively) are exhorted to have unrealistic standards for their own (and others') bodies. I agree with that. I also agree with her position that calling someone "fat" to humiliate them is problematic, because bullying is shitty and body policing is shitty and treating "fat" like it's an insult is shitty.

But "fat" is a perfectly cromulent word to describe a body like mine. In fact, it is the word I prefer. It is a morally neutral word (or should be).

I don't want to be called big or large or plus-sized or overweight or any other word that carries an embedded comparison. I am perfectly happy with "fat."

The problem is not the word "fat," but the misuse of the word "fat," which in part is the result of the dearth of actual fat bodies in pop culture.