According to its mandate, the Body Confidence Canada Awards (BCCA) “advocate for equitable and inclusive images, messages, practices and policies supporting body diversity.” It’s pretty hard to argue with that mandate, unless you’re a jerk. And if the past few weeks are any indication, there a lot of jerks out there. On October 27, BCCA issued a statement of concern in regards to the TTC and National Ballet of Canada’s joint campaign “We Move You.” The campaign is meant to highlight a partnership between Toronto’s transit infrastructure and cultural organization. Campaign videos and posters showing ballet dancers on the TTC are displayed in transit stations and vehicles.

Media outlets have since cherry picked which parts of the statement to share. So, let’s break it down.

“In regards to the TTC and National Ballet of Canada joint campaign we have concerns about the body size, shape, and weight diversity, or should we say lack thereof, that this campaign unknowingly communicates. The body type of most ballet dancers do not adequately represent those of most Canadians and dare we say most TTC users.”

The argument here is, “Well they are dancers and train all day.” This is true, and yes, dancers work hard at what they do and it requires discipline a lot of us don’t have. In cases like that of former National Ballet of Canada company dancer Kathleen Rea these bodies are also suffering from eating disorders. In a Huffington Post article titled “How My National Ballet Career Led to Bulimia,” Rea writes about her experiences: “My required performance weight was 105 pounds, and at 5’6″ that was bone thin. My ballet mistress told me that I needed to be thinner than the other girls because of my ‘larger’ breasts (my cup size was B!)” Rea starved herself, and then began purging; she even considered cutting the fat from her thigh with a knife. After finding an eating disorder therapist she told the company she was in recovery. They told her she was “far too fat to appear on stage” and that she had “embarrassed the nation of Canada on the international stage.”

“While we completely agree with the intent of message: one of acknowledging and celebrating Toronto arts and culture, we believe initiatives like these, executed in this manner, continue to perpetuate unrealistic and highly regimented bodies as some sort of an ideal of ‘beauty’ and ironically more specific to this ad they become signifiers of some sort of higher ‘art’ and ‘culture.’ It is also well documented that ballet as both an art form and as a sport is not inclusive to differently shaped or weighted bodies traditionally. While we know some alternative ballet exists that feature differently sized bodies for instance, it does not receive the prominent attention nor the distinct ranking that institutions such as National Ballet of Canada would enjoy.

Our critique is not a dislike of ballet. We want to make that crystal clear. We have attended ballets and quite enjoyed them—though we did leave lingering to see more progressive shifts in body diversity. Our critique is a challenge to you to reflect on what version of “enhanced beauty and movement” is being privileged in this ad for public consumption by the public TTC. And what about those who will never embody this mould? Are they equally moving, beautiful symbols of Toronto’s thriving cultural fabric?

Many TTC users in their daily movements who identify as fat, racialized, disabled, elderly, and pregnant have experienced varying forms of body-based discrimination, sexual harassment, fat and body-shaming, or simply rude treatment where they are not given seats even in designated priority areas based on their mobility needs.

We do not believe this campaign reflects how users of the TTC “move” regularly. We have had many pleasant experiences on the TTC and in our city travels but sadly the negative experiences can have lasting consequences. ”

If thin, white, Eurocentric bodies were not the only ones we already see plastered everywhere on the sides of buses, magazine covers, and billboards, this initiative wouldn’t need to be called out. BCCA isn’t saying the bodies in this campaign are wrong or do not deserve to exist, as implied in this Toronto Star article. Instead, they are suggesting it would be great to see other bodies represented as well.

Jill Andrew, BCCA Co-Founder is not making this stuff up for fun. Maybe she wants to change the culture where it is socially acceptable for someone to call her a “fucking fat black bitch.” A horrible thing to say, right? Not the norm, right? I would love to think that too, but these words are continuing to be thrown her way as a response to the articulate, hospitable released based in valid concerns, experiences, and research.

Additionally, BCCA is not simply ‘complaining’ without offering suggestions to accommodate everyone:

“An ad like this could have been made more inclusive with the addition of non-professional or professional children and adult dancers of differing sizes, shapes, ages and abilities dancing with the National Ballet dancers in the video. THEN we would be seeing MORE of Toronto’s superb beauty, art and culture in motion in collaboration with National Ballet’s principal dancers.

At the end of the day if you want us—TTC users—to be ‘moved’ by a campaign like this while we are ‘on the move’ we MUST SEE OURSELVES.”

The backlash Andrew and the BCCA organization has received is appalling. In response to the suggestion that other bodies should be represented as well as the thin Eurocentric ones has been met with fat shaming and hate; in other words, BCCA’s message has been met with the reason their fight is so important.

For our special 50th anniversary issue, Canada’s brightest, boldest, and most rebellious thinkers, doers, and creators share their best big ideas. Through ideas macro and micro, radical and everyday, we present 50 essays, think pieces, and calls to action. Picture: plans for sustainable food systems, radical legislation, revolutionary health care, a greener planet, Indigenous self-government, vibrant cities, safe spaces, peaceful collaboration, and more—we encouraged our writers to dream big, to hope, and to courageously share their ideas and wish lists for our collective better future. Here’s to another 50 years!

In my TED Talk on fat-shaming and the thin epidemic, I proclaimed, “Fat is just a description. It is not a prescription nor an invitation for hate!” Size discrimination has lasting effects. From micro-aggressive stares to overt verbal, physical, and sexual violence, fat bodies, especially those of women and girls (though accounts of men and boys are rising), are often the targets of unmitigated judgment and groundless assumptions about our value, health, productivity—in essence our potential for being good, successful citizens. It’s as though living in a fat body begets failure. Insidious myths on fatness create environments where fat talk, fat stigma, general body-shaming, and body-based harassment on the basis of size, weight, and shape flourish without accountability.

Children as young as four have thigh gaps on their wish lists. Calling someone a “fat cow,” I’ve been told, “is the ultimate come back.” Body image and more specifically body-based harassment is also a primary source of bullying, according to the 2006 Toronto District School Board student census report. In 2011, the student census showed that 58 percent of students in Grades 9-12 and 67 percent in Grades 7-8 said they liked how they looked—a passing grade, but not exactly an “A.”

Adults like to tell bullied children “it gets better,” but does it really? Without legal protection against sizeism, employers, health care providers, and educators are able to discriminate against fat people without fear of recourse. Fat people are less likely to be hired or promoted and on average are paid less than non-fat employees. Particularly in the workplace, sizeism intersecting with sexism and racism can have a triple effect for women of colour. In health care, fat people have been misdiagnosed or refused services by providers who immediately assume their health issues are associated with their weight—an assumption that has been debated for years in scholarly, scientific, Health at Every Size, and fat activist communities. And lastly, some educators assume fat students are less intelligent or committed to taking on leadership roles. Ironically, absenteeism is often linked with “obesity.” Yet, has it ever occurred to anyone that someone’s choice to discriminate or that being fat in environments where fat talk is left unchallenged might be the actual culprit?

Sizeism must be illegal. I am advocating to have size recognized as a protected ground in our provincial and territorial human right codes and the Canadian Human Rights Act. I am also advocating for the explicit addition of sizeism within all human rights policies in school boards across Canada as well as an instituted Body Confidence Awareness Week across school boards that incorporates body-based harassment and body image issues from a human rights social justice lens. When surveys indicate some young girls are more afraid of being fat than of cancer, nuclear war or losing their parents, I think it’s time we take action. Join me.

Photo courtesy of Jill Andrew/Twitter