The explosive popularity of weight-loss medications like Ozempic is triggering a profound reckoning within the fat acceptance and body positivity movements, according to commentator Amy Hamm. In a recent analysis, she suggests the widespread desire for these drugs underscores a simple truth: the majority of people, including those who champion body positivity, ultimately do not wish to be obese.
The Stages of Grief in a Movement
Hamm observes that since Ozempic emerged as a potent tool for weight management, reactions from fat activists have mirrored the classic five stages of grief. The initial anger was palpable. In 2023, one academic within the movement controversially linked such pharmaceuticals to "eugenicist social practices." Others went so far as to label individuals who lost weight as having undergone a form of "conversion therapy," a comparison that Hamm criticizes as an inappropriate appropriation of historical struggles.
Some proponents, however, moved quickly to acceptance. A Guardian headline from two years ago starkly declared, "Ozempic has won, body positivity has lost, and I want no part of it." The author of that piece notably conceded that fat people do not "owe it to their community to stay fat"—a statement Hamm highlights for its irony, pointing to a movement that claims weight doesn't define identity yet may ostracize those who slim down.
Denial and a Defense of Diversity
More recently, high-profile American fat activist and model Tess Holliday has exemplified what Hamm calls the denial stage. In a video posted to Instagram, Holliday argued that Ozempic and similar GLP-1 drugs will not destroy the body positive movement. "I don't think that Ozempic is killing the body positive, body neutrality space," Holliday stated. "It's not GLP-1s. Because before that, there were diet pills... They've existed since the beginning of time."
Hamm provides a fact check on this historical claim: For the vast majority of humanity's 300,000-year existence, securing enough calories was the primary challenge. The modern phenomenon of widespread obesity and the desire to combat it is a product of contemporary, calorie-abundant environments.
Holliday's video, overlaid with text stating "Diversity matters more than ever," championed the radical act of being oneself. "Why do you want to look like everyone else?" she asked. "I don't want to look like everyone else. I don't want to be like everyone else... Eww, gross."
A Reality Check on American Weight Statistics
Hamm challenges Holliday's underlying assumption that "everyone else" is thin. She cites hard data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey: more than 42% of American adults are classified as obese, with 9.2% falling into the severely obese category. An additional 30.7% are overweight. This means roughly three-quarters of American adults do not fall within a normal weight range, painting a very different picture of the "average" body than Holliday's rhetoric implies.
The core tension, as framed by Hamm, lies in the contrast between a movement advocating for the unconditional acceptance of larger bodies and the clear, market-driven public appetite for pharmaceutical solutions to reduce weight. The soaring demand for Ozempic and its counterparts, in her view, serves as a silent but powerful referendum, suggesting that for most individuals—when given an effective medical option—the ideals of fat activism are ultimately less compelling than the pursuit of a lower weight.
