Some of you might have noticed this new term being thrown around on Tiktok (maybe other platforms too) but "almond mom" is just literally someone who has a severe eating disorder and was raised+brain washed by diet culture and they usually force it on their kids/others.

I would rather die than live the way this woman lives. This is only one video, but it's very telling. It infuriates me because you just know she probably gave shit to her kid for eating "so much" growing up. That type of person never shuts the fuck up about calories and shit.

(had to screen record because I could not dowload the video)

i just want to preface this by saying that nothing im going to say is meant to be rude in any way or an attack on you personally. i wanted to start with that because i'm autistic and i can have trouble conveying the tone i want (especially over text). additionally, if you need clarification on anything i say i'm happy to do that :)

my opinion on the term almond mom is that it sugarcoats the fact that these are women with dangerous and severe mental illnesses. i think this is partially because women's mental health has never been taken seriously, and partially because it's easier to process how you were raised if your mom had a quirky personality trait (which is how a lot of tiktoks make it seem) than if your mom had an eating disorder.

and like you mentioned, almond moms are women who were raised in diet culture. they also likely would have been in their teens around the rise of trends like heroin chic and models in general being very thin, and companies like weight watchers being just. everywhere

however, i don't think the solution to dismantling diet culture and otherwise furthering fat acceptance and fat liberation is belittling those who are victims of diet culture.

it seems very unsympathetic? i guess is the word? to say things like "It infuriates me because you just know she probably gave shit to her kid for eating "so much" growing up. That type of person never shuts the fuck up about calories and shit." seems to gloss over the effects that an eating disorder/disordered eating can have on a person. someone who's constantly thinking about how much they're eating and how many calories is going to externalize those thoughts somewhere. and yes, it can be uncomfortable and triggering, but like you said, these are mentally ill women who have been struggling for years and i think we should have compassion for them instead of getting angry over the symptoms of their illness.

because these women grew up around so much diet culture and the resulting disordered eating patterns, and have carried those into adulthood, it's pretty much their idea of normal eating. does this make how they treat others based on that idea okay? no, but i think it's important context to have when discussing this topic.

while i didnt grow up with an 'almond mom', my mom had similarly strict rules about food (less focused on restriction/thinness and more about eating the healthiest foods tm). i don't want to get into too much detail, but because of how she was raised, she believed raising me like that would lead to the best outcomes for me and she was doing it out of love for me, even though it kinda messed me up. i think it's a similar situation for a lot of these women. by giving their kids strict food rules, they think their kids will turn out healthy (thin) and so they do this out of love.

"I would rather die than live the way this woman lives" is a sentiment i've heard repeated in a variety of situations. i've heard it myself when discussing my chronic pain with people who don't experience that. "i think i'd die/go crazy/kill myself if i was in pain all the time" doesn't do anything to fix my problems, it just reaffirms yep! my life sucks! and other people would rather die than live the way i do!

i'm having trouble figuring out exactly how to phrase this but it seems more effective to attack the companies putting out these diets and weight loss plans that target women and result in disordered eating than to point out specific women who are victims of diet culture and talk about how they're bad parents

(something something tiktokificaiton of mental illness something something too much focus on the individual instead of the institution something something women's mental health is always belittled and commodified something something this is way too long already)

No worries I'm not mad at for your giving me your opinion on the post. I'm aware that eating disorders are mental ilnesses but it can't be compared to chronic pain... ED is a toxic mindset and it kills people.... Anyway, as of this video, I mostly made the post to vent. You have to know that people like her usually don't see fat people as PEOPLE. THEY would rather die than be like me just because of the way I look. The way I said it, I meant it like " id rather die than never enjoy food and count my calories all the time. That is so exhausting, also being fat is not the end of the world" They have and will continue to dehumanise me and I don't pity the ones who don't try to recover. As an adult, it is kind of your responsibility to try and be a better person, to learn and grow from the views you grew up with. I have empathy and sympathy for people who suffer from mental ilnesses but not for the ones that are disgusted by my existence or by the idea to look like me.

I pray that the woman i am 5+ years from now is loved, happily living her dreams, and carefree. -Mariana P.

my younger self would think I'm so brave (cause I am)

“Thick and fabulous” by Alisha Petrova 

okay so yeah I guess I am the only person on the planet who doesn’t appreciate fat suit humor

Like as an alcoholic I HATE the fatphobia related to any form of treatment. The idea that I should stop drinking cause it'll make me lose weight, the way doctors will point out my "beer belly" before they talk about my liver or my kidneys or the social aspect of my drinking problem, the way people only care about my drinking problem cause it makes me fat. You don't care about me as someone who's struggling with addiction.

I encourage non alcoholics to like and or reblog this because it's a unique experience of fatphobia you don't understand if you've never tried to get help for a drinking problem.

idk who needs to hear this but like fat people are allowed to eat chips and candy and drink soda just as much as skinny people

SÃO PAULO FASHION WEEK 2023 - BRAZIL

so sad when a fat person gets famous and then they're skinny a year later. what did they do to you

(Almost) Every Costume Per Episode + Penelope Featherington’s yellow visiting gown and pink spencer with flowered print in 2x02