I have been doing content creation for almost 3 years. The content can vary from plus size fashion inspo, fat representation in media, diet culture, eating disorders and commentary on just *EXISTING* as a fat person. But if Health Secretary, and spawn of Satan’s asshole Wes Streeting, has his way - I won’t have any content in 10 years time.
Since coming into power in July 2024, Streeting has laid out plans to tackle the “obesity epidemic” which he believes is plaguing Britain’s population and of course draining our incredibly vulnerable NHS. In October 2024 he laid out his plan, a partnership with Lilly at a cost of £279m, to provide Mounjaro to 250,000 patients over 3 years in the vain it will get unemployed fat people into work. Implying that these individuals are out of work due to their weight even though no statistics are offered on this. There are statistics however on how 9% of the NHS budget is used to tackle Type 2 Diabetes and linking this to obesity - even though diabetes is not an obesity only condition.
Streeting is desperate to get fat unemployed people back into work, because the only valuable citizen is one that contributes to the GDP! And this is echoed by the likes of Liz Kendall’s “job coach” scheme to get mental health patients back into the workplace too. But then we have Keir Starmer announcing that he wants to replace civil servant jobs with AI - actively removing jobs from the workplace, I am left confused, shaken and afraid - what jobs will these former fatties and mental health affected people be scrambling for once they are deemed “fit for work”, whatever that means? I am sure it has nothing to do with ensuring massive international companies like Amazon have enough labour available to tear through.
That brings us to 3rd July 2025 and Streeting has announced his ambitious goal for Britain to be “fat-free” in 10 years. His belief being if they make GLP-1s widely available on the NHS to “anyone” who needs it, it will lead to “everyone” taking it. There is no nuance in his language. He talked on LBC about how half his colleagues are taking Mounjaro and they are encouraging others to follow suit. But what’s failed to be mentioned is if people want to keep the weight off they may need to stay on the medication forever and we are waiting for long term usage data. He also fails to recognise that GLP-1s don’t work for around 14% of people. And then the most obvious question I have; but what if people don’t want to take it?
I am one of those people. Now I have been tempted, of course, something I spoke about here, but I have come to the conclusion that due to my history of eating disorders and chronic digestions issues, that this would not be the right step for me to take. But every time I unapologetically exist in my fat body, in the face of the tsunami of GLP-1s, I am seen as a rebel. And my “defiance” at remaining fat, at remaining “unhealthy” when it is perceived that I could be “easily healthy” - if I just took the damn jabs - well that unlocks a new level of bullying, harassment and fatphobia.
Plus size content creators have been noticing and calling out the very obvious dip in engagement with our content. The algorithm doesn’t seem to push out plus size centric content because it is not on trend and not seen as aspirational. Or if it is pushed out to the masses, then we know to expect a barrage of negative comments, from people around the globe questioning why we dare to exist as we are and not conform to the unchallenged truth - that “fat always equals bad”. Content creators like Kirsty Leanne Travels who, funnily enough, travels for a living, experiences horrendous comments from people sharing their upset and fury at her choosing to live out loud in a larger body and see the world. Jocelyn Mosman, travelstylemagic, posted a reel of her literally walking up some stairs and the comment section was foaming at the mouth at her. Megan Ixim, msgigggles, recently shared her own pain and frustration of being seen as a punching bag for people to openly hate with no consequences. We are being attacked all the time, either for “glamorising obesity” and encouraging others to be fat to having to defend our relationships as people can’t believe that someone may find a fat person attractive to people believing (and wishing) we will die. Brands are choosing not to work with fat creators. Abby Bible had an ad with Dr Martens and the amount of fatphobia that was present in their comments was not, unfortunately, shocking to see as we are so used to it, but it is relentless. And on one hand, I understand why brands may not want to work with larger people because they don’t want to have to moderate their comment sections from the scum of society - but then that leads to a domino effect to not seeing diversity in our media and therefore othering us further.
I think it is important to note that these aren’t a loud minority of people which is something we love to say to soothe us that the vast majority of people are kind. But the truth is a lot of people hate fat people. If you’ve grown up fat then you know this. From the school kids and teachers to parents and family members to doctors and nurses. This is one of the most normalised hatreds in our society, in a world which seems to become more divided and hated with every passing day. And of course if you were to challenge any of these people “why do you treat fat people so terribly?” their answer will be “they need to know it’s not ok for them to be fat. I am trying to help them”.
And this is Wes Streeting’s strategy. I think he truly believes that in his policies, in his language, he is helping fat people. His answer to “curing” fat people is to ply them with drugs for the rest of their lives and encourage society to see fat people as unemployed, unhealthy and in dire need of intervention. It demonises fat people, it motivates others to bully fat people into submission, we are seen as wackadoo for not conforming and therefore deserving of any negative treatment. But if Streeting actually cared about fat people, saw the inherent humanity, respect and dignity that we pull, then he would be very interested in the physical and mental effects of fatphobia and weight stigma.
The consequences of stigma
Stigma can result in a variety of adverse emotional responses such as depression, low self-esteem and anxiety. Obesity itself is typically blamed for these potential consequences. However, it is weight stigma, rather than obesity, which has been proven to mediate the greater likelihood of depressive and anxiety disorders in individuals that have or have formally had obesity. Focus tends to be placed on the emotional effects of stigma. However, in addition to emotional health, weight stigma can also have social and physical effects.
The Health Secretary, someone who claims to really care about the NHS and its spending, would be super interested to know that weight stigma can cause fat people to avoid and delay going to see medical professionals for fear of being judged, which could exacerbate their condition / illnesses and cause for a more lengthy (and more expensive) treatment than if they had gone earlier. Weight stigma is also related to a number of disordered eating patterns - something I have gone to the NHS for myself. And there is evidence that suggests the impact of facing weight stigma increases people’s stress hormone levels which can impact cardiac health, blood pressure and insulin resistance. There is a horrible irony that it is the treatment of fat people that causes them ill health, not necessarily the fat itself. When I have had low mental health days and when I suffered from my eating disorder, and I analysed why I was so low I realised that I wasn’t low because I was fat. I was low because of how others treated and perceived me because I was fat.
I created my social media accounts when I had found recovery from my eating disorder and I had done a lot of work reframing my perspective on myself and self worth and started healing my relationship with my body - body peace is something I am so grateful to have. I wanted to create a space on social media where I could share my journey and represent that a positive, rewarding relationship with yourself is possible at any size - this is something I know I personally would have benefitted from when I was younger and going through it.
But now I feel like my purpose is to hold the line. It is to be a safe haven for those who don’t want to bow down to the conformity of thinness, who want to see and empower those of us who just want to exist in bodies that may be larger than average. It is to value our lives and our health regardless of what the scales say - and that is an act of rebellion. They are going to try to tear us down. Even today am I facing a flood of negative comments from a TikTok I posted where I challenged the government and media’s choice to continually refer to GLP-1s as “weight loss jabs” as it harkens to vaccinations, especially as we have all just had a few Covid jabs in recent memory - and my question is; vaccinating from what? Obesity? Fatness? Laziness? Unemployment? Streeting wants to "make Britain fat-free” as if he is talking about a plague or disease scourging our land - it is purposeful language. But the comments would have you think I was criticising all people who have ever taken GLP-1s and pissed on their kids while doing so. You can take, agree and support GLP-1s while also critiquing and noticing the chosen words. It is not black and white.
Streeting’s “war on obesity”, which he claims is a drain on the NHS, fails to notice or fails to care that obesity isn’t an island, it isn’t an abstract concept, it always relates to fat individuals.
This war is on people. A war he, the government and our media encourage civilians to wage on fat people in every walk of life.
Wholeheartedly agree with your points. Another thing to add, is who will be getting richer from this? Somehow I feel that pharma companies are behind these new policies…that’s a lot of money going to GLP-1 makers.