Obesity should never be normal.

A disturbing trend that has been happening over the last few years that is gathering pace: The obesity epidemic is becoming fashionable. Hundreds, probably thousands of TikTok videos are showing morbidly obese young people, eating lots and lots of food, dancing in front of the camera scantily clad, or lecturing their audience about why big is beautiful, and you are simply a monster if you disagree.

The normalisation of morbidly fat people is well underway, and young people are increasingly being brainwashed into thinking that being really really fat is completely fine, and even something to be proud of.

Ironically, in amongst all of this, you can’t overtly say someone is “fat” anymore. The politically correct police would admonish you and call you a “fat shamer”, “fat phobic” or simply a “hater”. But what is really happening here? Why has the woke narrative infiltrated those that are obese and how is this going to impact society in the long term?

The phenomenon of showing how virtuous you are by supporting morbidly obese people by openly accepting their size, nurturing the “big is beautiful” mantra, and encouraging the belief that they are physically beautiful, is perpetuating a lie that is downright dangerous, particularly for young people. Morbid obesity is not “beautiful”. It is unhealthy and is creating a litany of chronic diseases within western populations. We know intuitively that being obese is not good, due to the enormous rise in a now multi-billion dollar weight loss industry alongside this rise in obesity, which tells us that deep down, people would rather not be fat.

Over the past few decades, Australia, and other western countries such as The United States and the United Kingdom have been dealing with the affliction of obesity which, in Australia, relates to a third of the population. One of the reasons this issue is escalating is because now, apparently, we can't talk about it. Obesity has arrived on the list of things that cannot be discussed openly lest we offend those who are morbidly obese, and whose feelings are hurt.

The problem is, we do need to talk about it. Because as a society, we are all impacted by an increasingly larger and more unhealthy population. Everyone must eventually wear the burden of faltering health care systems in perpetual crisis – particularly in Australia - and those paying into the system via taxes have a right to comment on how much more pressure the system can take, especially if overall we are becoming more and more unhealthy.

Looking away from, and worse, pandering to the obesity epidemic, doesn’t help anyone, and this inconvenient truth needs to be addressed openly and honestly, pushing back a “woke” narrative that encourages young people to parade their mostly naked obese bodies in front of a camera, openly daring people to criticise. And if said criticism is forthcoming, then we have nurtured another layer of an identity crisis based on victimhood and self-loathing.

Hiding in front of the camera is a trend that is now critical to disenfranchised youth who are confused, and isolated and believe that every aspect of their identity needs to be fully explained, accepted, and fed by the rest of the population, whether it is good or not. The “woke” foundations of identity politics, narcissism, and entitlement are enabling morbidly obese youth to easily step into a world of “woke” acceptance, without having to look too hard in the mirror. Their videos are merely the proof of this.