Upstream Public Health is Weight Inclusive
Photo description: A joyful photo of two white-presenting fat women in an office setting. The one with curly hair in a mustard yellow sleeveless mock turtleneck is laughing a lot and the one with short straight hair in a white shirt with a sapphire blue cardigan is laughing a little. Both are wearing glasses. Photo credit to: AllGo - An App For Plus Size People on Unsplash
What does that mean? It means we reject traditional public health’s emphasis on asking individuals and communities to shrink their body size as a path to improving their health. It means we actively stay away from policies that stigmatize fatness and promote the research behind leaving this outdated and harmful approach behind.
Some examples of how we work:
We don’t use language or refer to concepts that pathologize fat bodies.
In our nutrition security work, we do not put forth policies that may activate folks in recovery from or in a phase of disordered eating.
We talk about our position on weight inclusion with current and potential partners, coalition members, and in presentations.
We host educational events for staff and the community at large.
Resources
We have found this self-study guide from Washington University in St. Louis helpful and a good place to start in building a vocabulary and vision around weight inclusion.
Some Oregon-centered resources include the Body Liberation + Public Health Project and ReDefine Health Promotion. There are also some podcasts, including Maintenance Phase and Rethinking Wellness (to start), and many books and articles written by and centering fat voices and especially fat people of color, queer and LGBTQ people who, with intersecting identities, have been most impacted by anti-fat bias and stigma. Many readings can be found in the resources linked to above.