I thought about making this post personal, but this article is stronger and backed up by a hell of a lot of studies, more eloquent all around, so just click through.
It’s all well and good to say you don’t intend to shame fat kids or their parents, but the reality is, by framing this as an obesity prevention initiative rather than one with benefits for children of all sizes, by emphasizing BMI over fitness and setting a goal of, quite literally eliminating fat children — could you send a clearer message to big kids that they’re unwanted? — you’re tapping into a deep vein of fat hatred running through this culture.
This is a culture in which fat people can’t get health insurance or adequate medical care because of prejudice, where teachers, nurses and medical students report having “very strong anti-fat attitudes,” including that “obese people lack self-control and are lazy, obesity is caused by character flaws, and failure to lose weight is due only to noncompliance.”
