With Wegovy (aka Ozempic) now available, we are about to witness some serious weight loss in Aotearoa. Here’s why you need to keep your views about that in check, writes Lotta Dann.
Get ready, Aotearoa. The weight loss drug Wegovy (which is essentially the same as Ozempic) is here and that means only one thing. We are about to witness some serious weight loss.
No more watching from afar as bodies overseas drastically shrink, no more spying pin-thin celebrities online and hearing them deny (often later admitting) they’re jabbing themselves daily. No more watching people on Instagram and TikTok reveal how the medication and their newly skinny bodies are making them feel. (Joyful, mostly. Sick, some). It’s all going to be taking place in front of our faces.
Colleagues, family members, that person you see every morning on the bus or the actor you follow on social media. Suddenly they’re going to be noticeably slimmer. Their cheek bones jutting (‘Ozempic face’ is the unkind term bandied around when someone’s appearance becomes particularly gaunt). Their clothes hanging, their appetites AWOL. Meals will be picked at, offers of cake politely declined. New wardrobes will be purchased revealing slender arms and flat tummies. It will be noticeable and dramatic, impossible to ignore. And while we are all busy watching and noticing, there is one main thing that we should all keep top of mind: Don’t Judge.
1. Don’t judge anyone who takes it
You don’t know their story. They may have health issues and this medicine is a lifeline. And even if they’re not taking it for purely medical reasons, it will be a valid reason nonetheless. A decision likely made after years spent hating their body, living a limited life because of their size, constantly judged as unhealthy and unattractive because they’re not thin. Diet culture causes countless people constant misery because their body doesn’t look like the supposed ‘ideal’. People with fat on their frame are judged harshly and endlessly by friends, family, the fashion world, medical world, most of the world’s built spaces (think airplane seats and restaurant booths). Why wouldn’t you take a drug that was going to shrink your size and improve your whole experience of life? The problem isn’t the drug, nor anyone taking it, it’s diet culture. Until we shift that disastrous cultural norm, don’t judge.
2. Don’t judge anyone you think should be taking it
You don’t know their story. They may be worried about the side effects or unable to afford it. They may be fat but incredibly fit and healthy, moving their body regularly with all their actual markers of health (NOT the BMI) shining bright. They may also be (shock horror) fat and not unhappy about that fact! Despite the crushing weight (pun intended) of diet culture messaging, there are many people who have soft, curvy bodies and feel great. The last thing they need or want is any of us drawing our own conclusions about how they should look.
3. Don’t judge anyone who has lost weight, assuming they’re taking it
You can’t look at a body and know the truth about what’s going on for the person living inside it. You don’t know exactly what they’re eating or not eating, taking or not taking, doing or not doing. Someone extremely thin might privately be going through a health crisis that has caused them to suddenly and dramatically lose weight. They might not be functioning well in life, struggling with their mental health and straining to nourish their body adequately. The age of weight loss medications is giving us another good reason as to why we should never compliment anyone for losing weight.
4. Don’t judge anyone on it as looking more attractive than they did before
This one is hard. Diet culture has conditioned all of us to regard thinness as the most appealing look. Our entire lives we have been led to believe that skinny equals healthy and attractive, when skinny people can terribly unhealthy and not looking their best, while people with fat on their bodies can be fantastically appealing pictures of health. Challenge your ‘thin-is-best’ thinking and train yourself to recognise attractiveness in all sizes. Look for sparkly eyes and a healthy glow. Look for people who appear strong and confident, stylish and happy. Look for a big smile and a sharp brain. Attractiveness comes in many packages.
And finally…
5. Don’t judge yourself for envying someone who has lost a lot of weight
I’ll admit, even I – someone who has written a book critiquing diet culture and is actively fighting to love my curves and shed my own internalised fat-phobia – can look at a person who has recently lost weight and feel envious. Despite my best and ongoing efforts to push back against diet culture, I still live in the world that is heavily influenced by it. I still have deeply embedded beliefs that pop up from the recesses of my mind. Having been through my own journey with drastic dieting and weight loss, I know how glorious it can feel to move through the world in a super skinny body being heaped with praise from all sides. It’s understandable that I might want to have that feeling again. But a quick check in with myself when that envy emerges reminds me that I’m ok just the way I am. I don’t know the full story of the person in front of me, and we’re all on our own journeys to love ourselves, thin, fat or otherwise.
Lotta Dan MNZM is journalist, author and addiction services advocate based in Wellington.