remembering how much of the fitness and wellness space is saturated with anti-fat rhetoric to prey on your insecurities sure makes it hard to engage with them thoughtfully
Aubrey Hoffer, PhD
@hoff-phd.bsky.social
body image researcher | postdoctoral fellow @ uofl | she/her/hers
Our politics seems to be entering a phase of "right supremacy" where only the lives of right-wingers have value. Assassinating the leader of a state legislative body in her own damn home was business as usual, but all of America has to have a reckoning if it's a far-right online influencer.
Upcoming webinar for EDEB sig members on Single Session Interventions for body image and disordered eating! Speakers are @bburnettephd.bsky.social, @hoff-phd.bsky.social, and @ariellesmith.bsky.social. Register here: abctedebsig.wixsite.com/abct-edeb-si...
every time a child tells me that they’re insecure about their body because other kids call them “big back” i die a little inside 🫠
it’s okay to be fat!!! fat people are fucking cool!!! i wouldn’t choose to be thin even if i could!!
most people don’t have a problem with their weight, they have a problem with the horrible ways they get treated by others because of their weight. instead of trying to “fix” an individual’s weight, what if we tried to fix some of the rampant anti-fat bias out in the world?
this week’s episode on the movie adaptation of the whale, a movie no one has ever discussed in the context of fat politics on the internet ever
17. Fat Suits III - The Whale Is A Movie
Informed Attraction · Episode
open.spotify.com
“food is just fuel” is a popular saying in the fitness world. and sure, food can be fuel, but it can also be so much more. food can be a way to connect with other people, cultures, and our memories. you don’t have to moralize foods or punish yourself for enjoying them.
one of the best things i’ve ever done to improve my body image was stop using a scale. it was the easiest way to stop the habit of compulsively weighing myself and it took power away from the number. i hope you can ditch the scale, or resist the urge to weigh yourself today.
just remember that if diets worked, there wouldn’t be a multi-billion dollar weight loss/diet/wellness industry that continues to grow and exceed profits each year.
the problem that keeps fat people out of gyms and fitness spaces isn’t their fatness, it’s the fatphobia within those spaces. toxic fitness/diet culture is rooted in problematic ideals around health, ability, size, and so much more. fitness spaces need to be more accessible.
we act like most diets are invented in labs, but they’re mostly invented in marketing meetings. it’s important to remember that every mass marketed diet was invented by a normal human being (who wanted to sell you a diet). the diet industry capitalizes on your insecurities
Russ Vought: “We wish to destroy government as you all know it, including medical research and universities, and we will crush Democrats to do it“ Schumer: “Please be our bipartisan partners so we can be maximally bipartisan and pretend things are normal”
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last yr.Democrats are holding a news conference right now to highlight they want to have a bipartisan appropriations process, but Schumer says "Republicans are making it extremely difficult to do that" by "talking about rescissions, pocket rescissions, and impoundment"
anti-fat bias are so engrained into everything around us that it can feel impossible to get away from stigma. in that context, it makes sense why so many people strive for weight loss - they think it will be the mechanism that allows them to be treated as someone with value.
Stop it! 👇 this is exactly why people don’t vote for Dems….every little thing is offensive
when you compliment weight loss, you might be complimenting: - an eating disorder - addiction - depression - disease - trauma we are conditioned to view all weight loss as intentional and positive, and this framing can be harmful. try to reflect on your bias about this.
The next 15 years of my career were spent on these observations Most recently my team @uofleatlab.bsky.social & @depressionlab.bsky.social spent years translating anxiety digital exposures to eating disorders This work explains our thinking and process www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Adapting digital anxiety treatments to reduce anorexia nervosa relapse
Exposure therapy is an efficacious, frontline treatment for anxiety disorders. Digital interventions for anxiety are effective and increase access to …
sciencedirect.com
We just received news that my PhD students diversity supplement was terminated. @luissandoval.bsky.social
I cohost a podcast about beauty and body image in the media (we JUST started) and am gay and would be interested, but my fancier suggestion would be either of the Rehash girlies!
Episode 1 of Informed Attraction has been out for about a week and we are so proud of her!!! (we are not proud of Hugh Hefner) open.spotify.com/episode/2V5s...
Episode 1: Hot Bunnies Part I - This Is All Hugh Hefner's Fault
Informed Attraction · Episode
open.spotify.com
I'm not sure why we are pretending this has anything to do with "DEI" anymore. There is a systematic effort to purge any acknowledgement that race or racism or gender or misogyny EXIST
Great turn out at KY stand up for science @clairecusack.bsky.social @standupforscience.bsky.social So many great signs Science is for everyone
We need some better language for pushing back against what the administration is doing. They’re not “ending DEI.” No. They're firing women and people of color in the military. They’re forbidding whole fields of research. They’re erasing trans people from existence.
200 people in stood up for science in Kentucky today. Thank you 🩷 now we gotta keep doing it. Like our lives depend on it. (They do) #StandUpForScience2025 #ScienceForAll
Reason 48261 I cried today. They are killing us. This about more than NIH coins; this is about human LIVES.
Usha Lee McFarling@usha.bsky.social · last yr.NIH immediately cancelling existing grants on LGBTQ research. “All the effort we put into building the cohort, all the federal resources that go into building that, are now wasted, essentially.” With @jaceflatt.bsky.social By @angusrohan.bsky.social www.statnews.com/2025/03/03/n...
Prof. White is right. "When Stanford refuses to speak abt attacks on DEI, I see [it] for what it is: a place of incredible power & prestige more concerned w/public image than the well-being of affected faculty, staff, postdocs & students that call Stanford home." stanforddaily.com/2025/03/03/f...
From the Community | I am more than a researcher, but Stanford doesn’t care
Assistant Professor Elliot White Jr. denounces the University's faint response to political threats against DEI, especially compared to the robust support its research initiatives in the wake of NIH f...
stanforddaily.com
#nedaweek might have officially ended last week, but we're still raising awareness over here in the EAT Lab! Do you think these statements about eating disorder treatment are #myths or #facts? Comment your guesses below! Answers will be revealed tomorrow! #eatingdisordertreatment
One thing that all scientists can do now: Cancel the Washington Post. Bezos is intent on using it to help Trump. They just added rightwing Salena Zito fm DC Examiner. Subscribe to news sources run by journalists, not billionaires—like the Guardian US, Philly Inquirer, TPM, Slate, and The Prospect.
Will Bunch@willbunch.bsky.social · last yr.Making its 90-degree right turn, the clown car that is Jeff Bezos' overhauled Washington Post Opinions section picks up right-wing columnist Salena Zito, famous for her voters take Trump "seriously but not literally" shtick
