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What is the difference between a "Good" fat person and a "Bad" fat person, and does it really matter?
Spoiler alert: Yes, it does matter.
A Good Fattie is someone who wants to be seen as acceptable to the larger society inspite of their size by proving they are doing all the things they are supposed to do to lose weight and be "healthy." While a Bad Fattie is someone who demands respect regardless of their size and does not feel the need to prove themselves "worthy."
Why is this an important difference? Because on one side you are implicitly (if not explicitly) saying that one group of people are more deserving of respect, compassion, dignity, and human rights simply based on their appearance.
And that shit is wrong.
I'm not going to get into the papers about weightloss and health at every size because it doesn't matter. Having to go into any of that is ablist bullshit. I'm not going to go into food deserts and food insecurity. Because having to explain that is highly racialized, classist bullshit. And, above all, none of this shit matter.
People. Deserve. Respect. Regardless. Of. Their. Size.
A lot of anti-fat biases come down to a belief that people who are fat are bad. They are lazy, gluttonous, sour, stupid...whatever. That is how they got fat, because they are bad people. So a Good Fattie is essentially someone fat who says, "I'm not fat because of my behavior, I'm not like these fat people." And who feel the need to prove to the world at large that they act like the "good" thin people, who are obviously doing everything right, because, hey, they're not fat.
Bad fats don't feel the need to be performative. If I work out its because I want to, it serves a purpose for me, it's not because I need the world to know I'm not lazy. I don't give a shit if you think I'm lazy. I'll eat my donut in my IG stories for the world to see and enjoy it. I'm not choosing my pictures based on how thin I look, because I'm not thin. I am fat, and that's not a statement of worth or value--just a fact.
Now, you want to lose weight, fine. You do you--but you don't have to support the idea that fat people are somehow undeserving of basic rights and respect because of their size by vilifying those who don't, can't, or won't lose weight.
So, essentially a Good Fattie cares about how they fit into a shallow, abilist, and exlusionary society, while a Bad Fattie doesn't want to fit into that society, but change it to be more open and accepting of difference.