San Francisco’s New ‘Weight Stigma’ Czar Is A Prop Of The Ice Cream Industry

Virgie Tovar is a pro-fat activist promoted by the ice cream industry who will now advise San Francisco city leaders on 'weight stigma.'

San Francisco hired a new consultant on “weight stigma” who happens to be a pro-fat activist promoted by the food industry.

Earlier this month, Virgie Tovar, the author of the book You Have the Right to Remain Fat, announced her new role with the Department of Health on Instagram. I’m UNBELIEVABLY proud to serve the city I’ve called home for almost 20 years in this way!” wrote Tovar.

More from my reporting in the Washington Examiner:

Tovar released few details about her new role with San Francisco’s Department of Public Health on Monday, and the agency did not respond to repeated inquiries.

As reported in my new book out a month ago, Fat and Unhappy: How ‘Body Positivity’ Is Killing Us (and How to Save Yourself), Tovar is also one of the most prominent influencers for the fat acceptance movement with support from the food industry. In March last year, Tovar was featured in Dove’s “Campaign for Size Freedom,” a collaboration with similar influencers launched roughly 20 years after the company’s infamous “Campaign for Real Beauty” in 2004. The soap brand’s website characterizes the latest initiative as a “movement to end body discrimination” and lists the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance as a primary partner.

“Everyone deserves care, love and respect — at every size — yet body size discrimination is legal in 48 US states,” the initiative’s webpage reads. “We’ve joined forces with National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA) and Fat Legal, Advocacy, Rights and Education Project (FLARE) Project to strengthen legal protection against body size discrimination and shift cultural conversations around a broader definition of beauty through education, advocacy and social responsibility.”

Several states and cities, however, as outlined in Fat and Unhappy, have begun to consider laws similar to one passed in New York City last year that make obesity a legally protected class as being overweight becomes the new norm. More than 40% of U.S. adults age 20 and older are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and nearly 74% are at minimum overweight. In other words, Americans who are at a healthy weight are now a minority.

For Dove, the profits from extra skincare might be marginal. For the bar soap’s parent company, Unilever, the profits are exponential.

Unilever is a U.K.-based company that is among the top 40 processors of packaged foods in the United States. Popular brands include Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and Hellmann’s Mayonnaise. Name a better saleswoman for ice cream than the author of a self-described “manifesto” against “diet culture” and “fatphobia.”

My book with conservative wellness writer Gina Bontempo is full of similar stories related to the food industry’s promotion of pro-fat influencers operating under the banner of “body positivity.”

Links:

Washington Times: Soda giants brace for RFK Jr., aim to protect their product

Sanders: “Yes. In the wealthiest country on earth let us Make America Healthy Again.”

Washington Examiner: Elon Musk reveals recent weight loss due to Mounjaro

Wall Street Journal: More Teens Are Using Dangerously Potent Pot for Intense Highs

Photos:

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