In her blog, Fear & Clothing, Australian journalist Mindy Laube writes…

The average Australian woman is 5'4" (163 centimetres) and a size 14. These dimensions may be typical but they do not make a woman normal, they make her FAT.

Arguing that societal norms ought be drawn from the commonplace without regard for merit is completely indefensible and we wouldn't apply the same logic to any other circumstances. Crime is a common occurrence but being a bad one, we continue to fight it. Same goes for fat. Excess weight is an undesirable condition from every aspect. Pretending otherwise doesn't change that. It just encourages complacency and dress size creep.

I won't bother with tired arguments about optimal health outcomes, if those worked obesity wouldn't be an issue. I'm making an aesthetic argument. As a nation we've let ourselves go something shocking.

Looking around the local pool while enjoying an Indian summer swim at the weekend, I couldn't help but notice how many of the teenage girls and young women in my midst were distinctly overweight. I was certain that this wasn't the case when I was a teenager, so when I got home I pulled out my high school year book and checked my memories. Sure enough in a graduating class of 250 mixed race students of varied socio-economic backgrounds there was just one fat girl. No overweight boys, of course; they hardly existed back then. Then I looked at the staff photos. Of 70 teachers, none of whom was under 40, once again, just one of them is obviously fat. Astonishing. Try saying that about the average high school faculty these days.

So what's changed since the 80s? Multiple explanations abound: increased consumption of processed foods, less incidental exercise, junk food ads, greater alcohol intake, even low-fat food! Undoubtedly, these phenomena are all material to the situation but while they may explain the how, they don't address the why. Post-war prosperity has ensured the availability and affordability of more food than we need for over 60 years but it's only in the past 20 that we've seen a surge in obesity.

She goes on to conclude:

The body is a temple, it requires maintenance. Supersizing it strains its structural integrity making it misshapen and prone to collapse.

So, no. A fat body is not a normal body. It's an aberration that we countenance to the detriment of our looks, health and self-esteem. Shifting the aesthetic goal posts to normalise a disproportionately high fat-to-muscle ratio on the basis of that figure type's ubiquity is equivalent to rewriting home building regulations to accommodate shoddy workmanship. Prevalence is no justification for acceptance. On average, Australians are not normal. We're fat. And if we don't start doing something about it soon, the Lucky Country will one day be better known as the Fugly Country.

Them's fightin' words! Surely we can have this conversation without only acknowledging the extremes? Is anyone suggesting that obesity or mobid obesity is desireable, least of all those who are that size? Not from where I'm standing. I've never seen the issue of body disatisfaction as being seperate or in any way contradictory to addressing the issue of obesity. But does calling people fat really help? I think I've officially asked more questions than I've answered.