Monstrous Musings: Why are there no fat vampires? 

My main issue with this is that her problem is not an overabundance of UNDERweight vamps, it's a lack of OVERweight ones. Being overweight is as unhealthy as being underweight, so in my opinion writers have no obligation to positively portray it. Can you imagine if someone did a post complaining about the lack of anorexicly thin characters? Nobody would take it seriously. She speaks of diversity, but there's a difference between a diverse range of weights and an unhealthy weight. Being fat isn't being diverse or individual, it's putting your health at risk the same way an anorexic does, and being fat deserves no more or less acceptance than being anorexic. She actually says she hopes there's a 'fat positive' vampire out there, but that's a terrible thing to say. Why is she hoping for something out there sending bad messages about health? People shouldn't be hoping for poor health to be glorified just so they can feel better about their own poor health.

This connects to an issue that annoys me. People with the huge double standard that tells them it's ok to judge underweight people, but cruel and unacceptable to judge overweight people. Being overweight is very unhealthy, and should be no more or less accepted than being underweight. I don't often take Mrs Meyer's side, but complaining about her (or anyone) not shining a positive light on obesity is unfair and hypocritical, because I'd bet my life none of these people would complain about her not shining a positive light on anorexia. Meyer is right not to glorify ANY unhealthy weight, over or under. I hate people who bitch about a lack of 'fat acceptance' because they aren't in favour of anorexia acceptance (as they shouldn't be) so why is one dangerous weight bad and the other in need of defence?

This is an interesting read btw, so thanks for posting. It's just an issue I (as someone who has known lovely people on both ends of the weight scale whose weight put them at risk and caused them illness/injury) view with some confusion and frustration. Nobody should be judged for not being positive towards poor health. People shouldn't be judged or treated badly for being fat, but it certainly isn't something to be encouraged.

I didn't really like the article either, it was a bit extreme and over-analyzing, but she didn't say obese, she said fat. It actually is possible to be fat and healthy. It's also possible to be fat even if you diet and exercise. Then, when a new product comes out to help people lose weight, users are unfailingly criticized for being lazy. It is assumed to be their own fault they haven't lost weight the natural way. You never see this for smokers who use a patch for instance.

Even in the case of the unhealthy obese, they are always portrayed as lazy or greedy or unhappy. This coincides with society's idea that overweight people are bad people and deserve to be unhappy until they are skinny, not healthy, skinny. Why? Why can't obese people be happy? Far more unhealthy, but skinny people are portrayed as happy all the time.

Portraying fat people in a positive light is not the same as portraying obesity in a positive light. Every character has flaws. Just because one is being portrayed positively doesn't mean their flaws are being glorified.

I agree there is an unfair double standard that sends the message it's possible to be happy and unhealthily skinny but not to be happy and unhealthily fat, but that isn't really what she was talking about in this post as far as I can tell. By saying things like she wanted a 'fat positive' (not a 'health positive' or a 'be your natural weight positive')character and some of the examples she uses, it seems that her point was annoyance at the lack of positivity towards unhealthy weights. There is a difference between portraying fat people in a positive light and portraying obesity in a positive light, but she doesn't want a positive fat character, she wants a 'fat positive' character, which seems to mean what she wants is a character whose fatness is shown positively.
Besides, I wouldn't say you can be fat and healthy, because there's a difference between having body fat and actually being fat (and fat enough that you would make enough of a distinction between fat and 'normal' people to do an article like this one) You can have body fat within a certain range and be healthy, there is enough leeway in that range to give body shape diversity, but once you go over or under that range you are harming your health. It is not until someone went over that range I personally would consider them fat, and once they are over they are not being healthy or taking proper care of themselves.

I would like to see some curvier vamps though. I guess I can understand why slenderness would be part of the myth in some cases, but still if a vampire stays with the basic appearance they had as a human, something true for quite a few vamp myths, it makes sense there would be a wider range of body types than we see, especially vampire characters who were turned a while ago when the cultural preference was for curvier women. I'd love a vampire with a body like Miracle Laurie (Mellie on Dollhouse) for example. She is by no means fat, she has a lovely body, she just isn't stick thin.

I used to work at a doctor's office so I know that people can be rather large (enough that they can't see their toes and larger) and still pass their physical without any problems. Medical studies are published saying the same all the time. As for the awkward 'fat positive' phrase she kept throwing around, I think a lot of that comes down to it just not being very well written. There were a lot of places where I got confused and had to fill in what I thought she meant. I think she really did mean 'positive fat,' at least that's what I got from the context.

The "fat acceptance" and "fat positivity" are really more in response to the "fat hatred" prominent in society. As fat is seen as ugly, people openly hate fat people, whereas a number of unhealthy things seen as pretty (botox, tanning, etc.) do not get the same treatment.

I once overheard a teen girl in a bookstore say something like "I'd rather get skin cancer than be pale."

Having no experience in the medical side of these things, my opinion can only be based on the little I do know. But (unless I'm mistaken) your BMI is important and going under or over the range your BMI should be in puts you in worse health, and people are told not to by doctors as far as I know. I wouldn't consider anyone with a healthy BMI fat regardless of their shape, which is what I was trying to say before :)

If by fat positive character she was actually meaning a positive character who is fat, I have no problem with that. Just from the way the article as a whole was phrased to me it still sounds like what she meant was a character whose fatness was shown as a positive, which is just not something I agree with.

As for the part about wanting fat positively in response to fat negativity, I don't think that's the way to go about it. She should want health positively. Sure, fat acceptance, because judging someone on their weight is definitely very wrong, but I think acceptance and positively are not the same. You use an example of things like the girl who would rather have cancer than be pale, which I agree is terrible and ridiculous, but you don't fight admiration of being one type of unhealthy by promoting being a different type of unhealthy.
I'm just waiting for someone to do an article like this where the point is promoting good health, no matter what weight it makes you. Whether you are at your healthiest small or large that's what you should be. Me for example, at my healthiest, which I'm admittedly not often at due to an unshakeable love of candy, (so eating well but not obsessively and doing a fair amount of exercise) I get scrawny looking in some areas. It makes my body look worse than when I eat more and move less in my opinion, but I'm still better like that, because good health should be more important than what is considered aesthetically pleasing or displeasing.