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Basically, what I did here was try to be 'balanced', or 'play devil's advocate', but ignored the fact that it's a subject that causes serious distress and harm. I've called people out for such behaviour many times, only right I call my past self out for it too, I'd say
/11
/11
Yes, there's plenty more anti-fat-shaming content in the piece than stuff which criticises being overweight. But much of the latter is right at the start of the article, and I definitely knew, even back then, that many people only read the first parts.
/12
/12
I always scoffed at this fact, arguing that if people wanted to criticise something I wrote without actually reading it all, then they were dumb and could be ignored
Only, it wasn't just me who would experience the consequences. Not this time, at least. That was wrong of me
/13
Only, it wasn't just me who would experience the consequences. Not this time, at least. That was wrong of me
/13
Also, I now can't help think of someone who'd been on the receiving end of fat shaming, who'd seen my article, been keen to read it, and and the first thing they're told by someone ostensibly defending them is "Being overweight is definitely bad, but..."
Who did I hurt?
/14
Who did I hurt?
/14
Sure, writing is a craft you hone over time, you improve with experience, and I've come on a great deal since then. But I wasn't some unknown blogger in a random corner of the web in 2016; I was a popular science writer for a major mainstream news site. That matters.
/15
/15
As it happens, I remember the stats for this article, and it did 'OK', nothing special. I can't got back and change it now, but by tweeting about it I'll probably reach as many people, if not more, given my current follower count
/16
/16
But it's important to me that I own this. I screwed up here, however unintentionally. I pride myself on never making the vulnerable feel worse via my writing (given how popular that is among so many in the media nowadays), but really dropped the ball there this time, I think
/17
/17
And also, I'm hardly the most svelte human myself, not even close. What gave me the right to wax lyrical in my personal media platform about who does and doesn't have an excuse to be overweight?
/18
/18
But that's just it, isn't it. I'm a married straight white male scientist with a media profile, who communes with the world largely via written words. My size isn't an issue, because nobody gives a damn what I weigh. I've never been fat shamed, not to my face at least.
/19
/19
But because of that, I felt fine about talking about fat-shaming as some abstract issue, an intellectual exercise to be tackled with logic and science. It's not. It's a real problem that makes many people's lives worse. By not appreciating that, I may have contributed to it
/20
/20
Can't really do much about that now, except flag it up and own my mistakes as best I can, while promising to work hard to never do that again. Because it's important for people like me to be mindful of such things
Do let me know immediately if I ever slip again
/end
Do let me know immediately if I ever slip again
/end