You're making a general argument against revisionism but you seem to miss the point that the specific critique of gluttony / being fat / "fat shaming" is an aspect of the current morality that is imposing itself in many corners of culture.
It is forbidden to say being fat is unhealthy, undesirable or to pathologize it at all.
Forbidden? Some people don't like it, bit its certainly not forbidden. This gross hyperbole doesn't help the situation, I think it makes the topic all the more polarized. People who are overweight or obese to the point of being unhealthy are of course going to be defensive about it, and sure part of the current culture may be growing to support them in this with the growing number or overweight or obese people, but that doesn't mean we can't talk about it, just that we need to consider this defensiveness in our approach.
As someone who is fat and unhealthy I don't think it is. You're not rejecting me to tell me I need to lose some weight, you're suggesting you care about my well being.
I don't understand the modern idea that you must celebrate every part of a person to love them.
I suspect it went something like this: There were studies into shaming of overweight individuals concluded it was a poor method for weight loss. This mutated into the idea that anti-shaming must be good for health and the idea that we should not implicitly shame fat people in general.
In general, I suspect these kinds of cultural phenomena generally begin by fairly mundane scientific observations being processed through a game of telephone within academia.
It combined with a corruption of HAES: Originally it was "Health At Every Size", as in, an encouraging message that you can always improve your health no matter how big you are (which a lot of people need because when you start exercising you can end up gaining weight before losing anything, because you're building muscle faster than you're losing fat). But at some point it became understood as "Healthy At Every Size" which people took to mean your size doesn't impact your health.
Yes but not all criticism is shaming. There is tremendous value in learning how to take negative feedback without letting it get you down. It's not easy but it's valuable.
I'm surprised in the direction we've headed. Instead of encouraging people to develop the ability to give and receive constructive criticism we've demonized it.
There was a time, back about five hundred to a thousand years ago, when being fat was a positive trait because it was a social sign that you had the means to surplus nourishment.
But whether it's acceptable to be fat or not, it's ultimately a social measurement that changes like the wind.
Objectively and biologically, being fat is not good for one's health. Period. There is no room for argument here. Being fat is unhealthy. Being too skinny is also unhealthy, incidentally.
The version of Fat that was envied in the 1500s and earlier is a whole different beast to the morbidly obese blobs of fat that can barely stand up we're seeing today.
Tedious counterpoints from everyone here. Very one dimensional.
It's not about the relative merits of more or less body fat, it's about overweight people constantly being told they need to do something, either in person or in the media. Worse, people will try to shame them into action, probably on a weekly basis, taking the moral high ground that they didn't allow themselves to gain weight, despite having no idea what conditions or mental issues have led to that state.
It's just tiring for people who are a little different (height, skin, fat, ability, etc.) to constantly be reminded of it and ignored as a person because of it.
The old books will continue to exist. But just like we don't tell our kids everything their beloved grandpa said, we do the same with the media they consume. Publishers making these changes are just adding value through convenience, making a calculated bet that it's in demand.
I read these books as a kid in the 80s and was definitely happy in my early years to join in with jokes about differences in people. Took longer than necessary to realise that wasn't funny for them.
It is forbidden to say being fat is unhealthy, undesirable or to pathologize it at all.