I've had a few conversations this week about GLP-1 agonists – the class of drugs that are used to treat type-2 diabetes and, increasingly, for weight-loss – both with people IRL and with the CIHAS community in the Discord channel. This might be partially due to the fact that the European Congress on Ob*sity is meeting this week and the news cycle is dominated by 'miracle' weight-loss cures.
Come share your thoughts with the rest of the CIHAS fam over on our Discord server!
Before we do, I want to offer that this is not a place to police other people's bodies or their use of these drugs. I don't begrudge anyone wanting to minimise their experience of marginalisation in a world that is systematically dehumanising to fat folks. I'm also aware that even when people use these drugs to reduce their experience of stigma, they are still labelled as taking the 'easy way out' and treated with contempt for...doing the thing that they've been told to do their whole lives. It's WILD. I also want to make the distinction between using these medicines to manage type-2 diabetes vs. the project of thinness, which I think is a substantive difference.
That said, I'd like to know how you're feeling about what I have been calling 'Ozempic-core' (Ozempidemic is also good); the intense and pervasive conversations in the media, the normalisation of taking these drugs amongst everyday people, and our favourite celebs shrinking in front of our eyes. The explosion in causal anti-fat violence. The nexus between GLP-1 agonists and UPF discourse (body fascism/food fascism).
Are there people in your life taking these drugs and if so, how have you been navigating conversations with them? Has it been triggering or upsetting for you to be around them? Have you tried (or considered) taking them? How are you handling the casual anti-fatness it brings out in your friend groups or lunch room conversations with colleagues? How is this impacting your body image and your relationship with food?
And I'm also curious what you have gleaned from other people's experiences. For instance, I know some people have no side-effects and are mostly OK with the drugs. Others seem to have a really horrendous time but think it's worth it to Not Be Fat, which speaks to just how hard it is to live in a fat body. Not because being fat is inherently a difficult or painful experience, but that our cultural anti-fatness makes it one.
I have a neighbour who has lost a significant amount of weight in recent months using these medications. What's interesting to me is that even though she has a much smaller body now, I still hear her searching for things to 'fix' in her life that will make the difference. In this way, I don't think GLP-1s (for weight loss) are really any different from the lies that diet culture has sold us all along.
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