Dear Diet Culture Letter: Reclaiming Joy and Examining Internalized Anti-Fatness

Dear Diet Culture,

It’s me, Sunday. Or some weeks, like this week, it’s Monday.

With the joy that erupted all over the US, and the world, with a change in administration, I was thinking about how much you take joy away from people and demonize it. In fact, I also know that you are SO heavily influenced by Puritan ideology (see the book Anti-diet for more history here) that joy is a real no-no to you.

You, Diet Culture, are so filled with fatphobia that the connection between food and joy, for example, is shamed. For someone to fully embrace joy, especially someone in a larger body, is deemed wrong and “gluttonous” by you. You promote and name joy with food and movement as being not disciplined and you present the denial of joy with food (and life often) as “righteous.” Joy is “meant for the weak” as you illustrate to us.

But you see, feeling and experiencing joy is part of being human and is what allows us to sustain ourselves through the difficulties of what life entails. Experiencing joy allows us to take breaks from the pain and breath in the elation along with the sorrow, the love along with the disagreement. For if we don’t allow ourselves to experience joy, burnout often occurs or we become apathetic.

Reclaiming joy is an essential part of healing. Embracing joy with food and movement is an essential part of being human. Honoring being both joyful and scared/sad/angry/passionate/etc. is part of embracing our own humanity and the humanity of others.

You are oppressive, Diet Culture, and a real joy thief. And pursuing joy is one of the ways that we will fight back.

Sincerely,

Sunday, aka your most passionate anti-diet Dietitian Katherine who wants you to know that reclaiming your joy is a necessary part of healing from diet culture and examining internalized fears of fat