The rebellion of the shocks

The Trump administration has decided to deny entry visas to the country for economic or health reasons, specifically targeting people with obesity or diabetes. This is yet another way for the populist orange-haired leader to further exploit the scapegoat status of foreigners, now pointing the finger at one of the most stigmatized conditions of our time. Being or being overweight in developed societies is beginning to be considered a true heresy, an unacceptable state in a world based on constant movement, continuous productivity, and the mechanization of human beings into perfect cogs in the machine. Aren't there countless studies on diet and exercise that provide the tools to tame the body and stay within the limits set by BMI? So what prevents weight loss? Body fat is now associated with laziness and a lack of willpower and ambition. The perceived lack of control attributed to someone with a body mass exceeding what is stipulated by health and aesthetic standards is an affront to a world where technology grants almost absolute power over things and nature. Yes, perhaps a fat person is too materialistic, a kind of savage who, instead of embracing and practicing an aesthetic ethic of instinctual mastery, gives in to their cravings. And they enjoy it, and that is truly an intolerable offense. The enjoyment attributed to fat people in their eating habits is a provocation to those who maintain their figure through strict diets and the deprivation of foods considered sinful by the religion of dieting. Therefore, the most transgressive images that can be disseminated today are neither of nudity nor explicit sex. Today, what provokes waves of indignation and all kinds of insults and threats is a woman eating in public. Unless, of course, it's a sad salad or any dish considered light and healthy.

The stigma surrounding fatness is far from a minority attitude. It has become ingrained in our culture. For aesthetic reasons, but not only. Health education has also brought this unwanted side effect. Being taught that we must eat well and exercise to avoid many diseases stemming from sedentary lifestyles and the invasion of junk food on supermarket shelves has also spread an idea that is now unquestionable: that we have absolute power over our health and that with effort, willpower, and good habits (diet and exercise, diet and exercise), we can achieve it. Which is not true, of course, and even less so in the field of human nutrition, which is more misunderstood than it seems despite the abundance of studies and recommendations available on the subject. Be that as it may, we now automatically associate good health with being thin and bad health with being fat. We see these fatphobic stereotypes in the reactions on social media to the physical changes experienced by some celebrities. David Bustamante gained a lot of weight after quitting smoking, and the public relentlessly attacked him, as if he had committed the worst of crimes. In other words, they'd rather he die of lung cancer from smoking than be overweight. They should hide, they should be ashamed of their outbursts. The emaciated figures of models like Kate Moss, so admired at the beginning of the millennium, were partly the result of using ill-advised substances. But thin people should never have to explain their health (only when they "go too far" and fall into anorexia because of prevailing standards; then they are ridiculed as victims), they shouldn't have to prove that they won't die prematurely or represent an extra expense for social security. As if the number on the scale (which expresses nothing more than our relationship with gravity) were a magic formula for not getting sick. And not dying, for that matter.