HAES® exists and benefits humans in all bodies because of anti-fatness and stigma against fat bodies. And yet it is the most marginalised bodies who've explicitly shared how HAES® spaces and 'leaders' have harmed them.
I am a white, thin, able-bodied, cisgender woman who implements the HAES® principles into my weight-inclusive nutrition practice that financially supports me. I know I’ve contributed to the harm of folks in the HAES® space by my sheer existence and lack of lived experience as a fat human. My identities mean it's likely to occur again.
These are my commitments to reducing that harm:
- Continuing to notice and examine my own biases and privileges
- Continue to acknowledge my limited lived experience in the spaces I work within and bring in paid labour to fill those critical gaps in my experience
- Redirect my association membership and professional development investment away from fellow multi-privileged humans and associations led by the same. Specifically this has already looked like:
- Cancelled my paid membership to HAES® Australia
- Am a full-paying member of The Association for Size Diversity and Health (ASDAH)
- Cancelled my paid monthly subscription to a white, academic woman
- Am a paying subscriber of a Patreon run by a black/disabled/fat liberationist writer-educator woman
- Will continue to seek out paid supervision from humans with lived experience and intersecting identities
- Be more critical of whom I'm learning from, sharing and collaborating with to reduce power hoarding and the status quo of more harm
- Including who I refer clients to and which resources I recommend - centreing lived experience authors, creators and professionals
- Remain committed to being called in for harm that I cause
- Continuing to notice and examine my own defensiveness when called in
- Commitment to growth
I care about all bodies. I believe weight-neutral care is the way forward for all bodies to be treated with dignity and respect. And I share these commitments of mine to be held accountable to them.
