Google is Fat Shaming Us! So Much Triggering!

I'm sure, by now, you are all aware of Google Maps and the corresponding app for it that you get with your Android phone whether you want it or not. Maps has come under light fire for several issues, including creating a map of everywhere you have gone and when that was stored online (you can turn it off). 

Apparently, they issued an update the other day that had to be withdrawn within 24 hours because people got all kinds of triggered. The app includes information about how long it will take to arrive at a destination depending on how you are getting there. A bubble pops up to tell you - in this update - how many calories you will burn if you walk there and corresponds to foods, telling you how many calories are in certain items. Now, anyone who tracks this sort of thing understands it is a guesstimate, not completely accurate, because how many calories you will burn depends on several factors including speed, terrain, body weight, etc. 

Google most likely assumed this would be a useful tidbit of information, especially considering the amount of people who wear fitness trackers, myself included. It has also become common to find the calorie counts for foods on menus, around me there are signs up telling you this information Google gives, etc. In these instances it was "a good idea." When Google adds it to an app, it's "fat shaming." Que the body positivity movement.

Don't get triggered here, but I'm no fan of the body positivity movement as it currently stands. Because of garbage like this. Before you get into a huff, I'm one of the people this movement is supposedly "protecting." I jiggle. I am, by no means, the correct weight for my height. The difference is, I am working on changing that. 

What I hate about the current status of the body positivity movement is a list of things. 

• They don't seem to place value in changing your size. Apparently, if you are fat, you shouldn't be ashamed of it and don't have to change it. Be proud and stay fat. No. This isn't right. If you are overweight, admit you have a problem. It doesn't mean you have to hide yourself away or do unhealthy things to lose the weight. But remaining fat to spit in the face of societal norms isn't healthy for you. And you are the one who matters. If you really want to show you love yourself, take steps to make your health better. And if you are fat and your health is currently good, that's great! It isn't going to stay that way. So start working now. 
• They thin shame people. Time and again I watch fat people attack thin people for being thin. I'm sorry, but screw you. Here you sit, demanding people treat you better as a fat person, and your response is to abuse thin people? Treat people as you wish to be treated. 
• They don't support fat people who have lost the weight and become thin people. I watched a video one time where three fat women started brutalizing this woman on a TV show insisting she was just as happy and healthy when she was fat as she was when she got thin. If you meet a person who is formerly fat and is now fit, congratulate them! That took work and discipline.

​Now, don't get me wrong. I don't have time for people who go out of their way to brutalize people for being fat, either. People who legit fat shame by tearing a person apart aren't doing it to help people. They use "helping" as an excuse to be an asshole. Maybe you'll get someone to lose the weight that way. But the majority of the people you meet actually won't be inspired to lose weight because you verbally abused them for your own pleasure - and it is only for your own pleasure, it's time stop kidding yourself, because no one believes you. You are more likely to end up with that person going home and eating an entire pie or locking themselves away in their house for a few days with their own depression than you are of inspiring them. There is a difference between encouraging a fat person to lose weight and verbally abusing someone for being fat. You can argue with me about that all you want, you are full of it. Period. Save it for someone gullible. If someone fat shamed you by tearing you apart and it worked for you, great! But understand that it actually doesn't work for most people. 

​At the end of the day, both groups are wrong. Both groups are spawned out of each other. And both groups have agendas that they are desperately trying to hide. The body positivity people who thin shame and tell you to stay fat don't want to make lifestyle changes and put in the required work to lose the weight, so they put the effort into trying to force people to accept them as they are. The fat shaming people who tear people apart for being fat just want a free pass to be jerks. They can yell about how much they are helping until the cows come home, but they are doing more harm than good, and deep down they don't care because they enjoy destroying people. 

What Google did in their app was a good thing. And I hope they decide to bring it back. If you felt "fat shamed" by the Google Maps app, it wasn't Google, it was you. They weren't doing it to tear you apart. They were doing it as encouragement, and as stated above, there is a difference between encouragement and tearing someone apart. You don't have to use the app or pay attention to the bubble. It is for information purposes. And personally, I would have found that useful and interesting. Maybe you need to know how far you'd have to walk to burn off that double cheeseburger, fries, and milkshake you had for lunch. Maybe you'd reconsider next time you were ordering lunch. That's not a bad thing! That's the point behind putting the calorie counts on menus, putting the signs around town, Google putting a calorie burn count on their app... it's to encourage you to make better choices for yourself. Not to destroy you or tear you apart. Maybe it will encourage you to walk to the grocery store that is a mile away instead of driving. Maybe it will encourage you to order a salmon dinner instead of a greasy burger loaded with cheese and bacon. Maybe you'll reconsider the 32 oz cola drink if you realize you have to walk for several hours to burn it off. Maybe it won't. That's up to you. But if you got offended by the encouragement, your problems run deeper than that. 

---