‘DETOX FROM DIET’: University of Cincinnati tells students to ‘reject diet culture’ during ‘Body Justice Week’
The Women’s Center, which is hosting the series, calls on followers to ‘[s]ay NO to diet culture!’
Events include a screening of the movie ‘Fattitude,’ and a ‘Conversation on Body Justice,’ among other events.
The University of Cincinnati’s Women’s Center is hosting a “Body Justice Week,” encouraging students to reject “diet culture.”
To celebrate “fat liberation,” the university’s Women’s Center made various Instagram posts in preparation for the annual Body Justice Week in the name of “#SelfLove” and embracing being overweight. Body Justice Week began Monday and lasts until Friday.
“Say NO to diet culture!” one post tells students. “Let’s reclaim our bodies and our worth.”
The Women’s Center lists three tips on how to “fight diet culture” in the post, including getting rid of weight scales. “Your worth isn’t measured in pounds. Focus on how your body feels, not what it weighs,” it wrote.
The post also instructs students to trust themselves to “eat when [they’re] hungry, stop when [they’re] full,” and unfollow social media accounts that “reinforce unrealistic beauty standards.”
Another post claims it is a myth to suggest that “[y]ou need to lose weight to be healthy,” instead positing that “Health exists at every size.” The Women’s Center also encourages readers to “[r]espect Your Body’s Needs: Eat, rest, and move in ways that honor how you feel, not how you think you should look.”
“Let’s detox from diet culture together!” one of the posts concludes.
A screening of the film “Fattitude” that “challenges fatphobia and celebrates body diversity” was hosted on Monday, and was followed by “A Conversation on Body Justice,” a lecture by a guest speaker on “eating disorders in marginalized communities,” and a workshop focused on “joyful movement.”
“If you’re promoting an unhealthy lifestyle and telling people it’s okay for them to be morbidly obese, you’re doing way more harm than good,” Thomas Hooper, a University of Cincinnati graduate student, told Campus Reform.
“Sure, self worth isn’t found in your weight, that’s true. We all have inherent value because we’re made in the image of God. However, it’s such a bad message to spread that it’s okay to be unhealthy. That is objectively false. Being unhealthy is bad for you. Kind of crazy that this is even up for debate,” he said.
In 2024 during Body Justice Week, the University of Cincinnati’s Women’s Center gave attendees vibrators, and hosted various sexually explicit events, such as “Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby!” and “Anatomy of Arousal.”
Campus Reform has contacted the University of Cincinnati and the Women’s Center for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.