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Archive for the 'Fat, fat and more fat' Category
Feminist blogging
The thing about blogs is they let people talk about whatever they like. So there are an awful lot of blogs out there about women’s experiences. Sometimes I wonder if this could be used for something more. If the barrier between feminist blogging, which is primarily about other women’s lives, and blogging on ‘women’s topics’ where feminist women (and non-feminist women) write about their lives, could be broken down. What would it look like if feminists who were writing about body image issues and reproduction, linked more to personal stories on weight-loss blogs and mother blogs (and yes it’s scary that those are the two female blogging topics that come to mind) and vice-versa. Because I do think that feminist analysis is stronger the more it links to women’s experience, and I think talking about women’s experience can be something more, it can be consciouness raising.
This is in response to the great ‘false advertising’ debate. I’ve read a lot of posts on this issue. I feel like I understand the issues around the role women’s bodies play in a relationship, particularly in middle-class white America, but I think many of those observations would apply outside that specific context (incidentally I’ve also developed a plan, if I am in a relationship with someone who thinks a change in my appearance is ‘false advertising’ I will simply tell a couple of my female friends about it, and they will take care of him).
But while I know more, I’m still feeling really ambivilant about the debate, because I’m not sure it’s what I’d call feminism. In supposedly feminst blogs and comments women have been attacked for feeling like they owe it to their husbands to keep their weight down. From I Blame the Patriarchy
Regarding said ass: Women of some races naturally have asses like that. Women of some races naturally have hair like that too. But the kid’s white, and both hair and butt look bought to me. Also besides, being as they are both staunch supporters of the patriarchy, I assume she’s read the fine print. As soon as her ass goes south, he’ll have (and probably take) the option to find another, younger butt.
I get it, I really do. I understand the frustration, the desire to get angry at a woman for accepting and perpetuating so much shit. When I read this:
My boyfriend, the man I thought I was going to marry, brok up with me after 4.5 years. Because I gained weight. To be fair, it was a significant gain (about 25 pounds).
I wanted to yell at the woman why the fuck are you being fair to a man who leaves you because you’ve gained 11 kilos? You should be dancing Numfar’s dance of joy that you got out. But I don’t think that that helps build anything, except the idea that I think I’m better than her. And I’m not, I have my own issues, and I don’t write about them on my blog, except with eight layers of feminist analysis. But does that just make me less honest than her?
Despite these ugly personal attacks, there were real benefits from reading so many different perspectives on one issue. One of the things that really disturbed me, and showed how good the patriarchy (still don’t like the term) is at colonising our minds, was that we shouldn’t just want to attain beauty standards to catch a mate, we should want them for ourselves. From a comment on I blame the patriarchy
I’ve met women who have “let themselves go” after marriage out of the idea that they already have their man, so they don’t have to try anymore. To them, the idea of putting any kind of effort into themselves was a tool to get a mate, and once they had the mate, they could stop doing those things. I’m not saying that one has to wear make-up, exercise, whatever to be happy, but it disturbs me greatly to think that I should only care about my appearance to trap a man, and once I’ve got him I can just “let myself go.”
A slightly different version of the same thought on Tertia
It doesn’t matter if you are 10, 15 or 50 pounds heavier than you were when you got married; if you take pride in yourself and dress nicely, do your hair, spray some perfume on, wear pretty earrings etc, you will feel nice and you will look nice. And I am sure that is all that most men want. They want us to like ourselves and to be happy. Because they know, the happier we are within ourselves the sexier we will feel, and that can only mean good things for the long suffering husband. A happy wife makes a happy husband.
Unfortunately, I can’t really have a conversation here about what these women have said, I’d be attacking them, attacking what they said. Informal, unsure conversations, where you learn stuff together - it’s easier to do that in person.
Which is a shame, because the analysis I found most interesting came from blogs that would probably identify more as Mommy blogs than feminist blogs.
Moxie seemed afraid that everyone would hate her when she came to I Blame the Patriarchy, but I thought her analysis was really useful.
I’ve been thinking about this topic all day. The notion that a woman owes it to her husband or her relationship to keep her body thin (or whatever way the culture decides is beautiful–I’m sure there are women in Africa who feel pressure to stay fat) is part of the truth that when a woman gets married her body no longer belongs to her, but instead is the property of and a symbol of the marital unit.
It’s the woman’s responsibility to get and stay pregnant. Even if she gets pregnant easily, she’s the one who takes the entire physical hit of the pregnancy. Heartburn, acne, sciatica, backache, hemorrhoids, varicose veins, PSD, tendonitis, skin tags, stretch marks, insomnia, swelling. And the labor and delivery is a horror, featuring pain and often cutting or tearing, even when it’s relatively easy. Even if a woman loses all the pregnancy weight, her body is never the same. She sacrifices her body for the family unit.
She goes on to explore what happens if a woman can’t conceive and how this changes as the baby gets older. It’s a really good point, and so much more of what so many other writers say makes more sense when it’s put in this context.
I’ve been reading Jody from Raising WEG for a while, I love her analysis and her writing (and freak out at the very thought of triplets).
As Moxie points out far more eloquently than I could, stress and our mental responses to stress affect our eating habits, too. And exercise that comes naturally to single people gets very hard for parents to find. And I’ll also point out that I don’t believe we are our bodies, and that there’s a difference between living well in the body you have, and trying to make your body into something it was, or should be, so that it looks better to other people. It’s been my experience that it’s not any more work to learn to love your body as it becomes.
[….]
Your body isn’t your self. Your relationship with food isn’t your relationship with your body. There are many ways to be attractive, and they don’t remain static over time. And the thinner women in our neighborhood? I’m pretty sure at least two of them are anorexic. Anything is better than an eating disorder.
I’m going to end with my favourite story. The one that makes me think that maybe this sort of conversation is worthwhile. Maybe it will give women strength, and show them that they are not alone. This is Jen Creer from inkstains
The reason I thought this is because my husband clearly thought differently about me when I was thin and then when I had gained weight in my marriage. One year, when we had two small children, he started running and playing tennis and racquetball and lifting weights. He told me finally that he couldn’t sit around and become a fat slob like me. He said, “No man can respect a man with a fat wife. If you don’t lose the weight, I will leave. If you gain more weight, I will leave.”
I will never forget that conversation. We were sitting in the bathroom at two o’clock in the morning. I was sitting on the lid of the toilet, and he was sitting next to the tub. Our sixteen-month son was sitting in the steamy tub, suffering from the croup. Our four-year-old son was asleep in one bedroom, and our three-week old baby was asleep in another.
Yes, that’s right. I was three-weeks postpartum when my husband said those words to me. And the time that he chose to get back into shape? Was when I was pregnant with his third child. I had a total of three C-sections, and I was not even allowed to pick up our middle child, let alone exercise when he sat and said the coldest words I’ve ever heard from someone who was supposed to love me more than anyone.
Ok that’s not happy, but her next sentance was:
That was the night I stopped loving him
There’s more to the story. Awful horrible stuff that makes me furious, but three years later she did leave him.
I do think bringing together different women’s experiences of the same problem can be helpful. I even think this debate is. But without trust, without sisterhood (with all the problems that brings), I’m not sure this is building anything much. I’m worried that it’s just making ‘feminists’ another group of women with special interests and experiences.
Also posted on my blog.
Unfair
I have a plan to write a long post about the responses to False Advertising a post in which Morphing into Mama says that she believes that to significantly change your appearance after you get married, for instance by cutting your hair or gaining weight, is false advertising.
Before I go any further I do have to quote Twisty:
And, lard-jesus no! MIM, who says she “works” to maintain her figure “for myself and my husband,” goes on to suggest that a person’s weight is indicative, not, as a rational person might imagine, of how much she weighs, but of her degree of “self-respect.” Overweight people, MIM asserts, are probably “depressed.” She asks, “can you imagine still maintaining the same level of physical attraction for your mate when he’s depressed?”
There has been a huge response to MiM’s post, and it’s that collective response that I want to write about. But before I can do that I have to express disbelief at the context in which she reached this particular conclusion:
Recently, in my psychopathology class, I was reminded of this conversation with Husband. My classmates and I were discussing a journal article on bulimia nervosa and speculative reasons were being tossed around as to why the majority of the women sampled were married.
“Maybe married women feel more pressure to be thin for their husbands,” one young, unmarried classmate said.
“Really? Because when I’m in a relationship, I get all comfortable and actually tend to plump up,” said another, very honest young woman to my left.
“Well, first I don’t think it’s fair to say that being married caused these women to be bulimic ““ especially since being in a relationship can make one conscious about one’s weight just as being single can. When you’re single, you want to be in good shape not just for yourself, but so that you can feel confident about how you look and feel like you can attract a partner. When you’re married ““ and especially after having kids ““ you’re conscious about your weight, which may motivate you to watch what you eat and exercise, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll develop an eating disorder. I am conscious of my weight, so I don’t snack, and I exercise. Personally, I think it would be unfair to Husband if I gained a bunch of weight and did nothing about it.”
She was having a conversation about why eating disorders were more commmon among married women, she thinks about her body, food and exercise, within her relationship, and her conclusion is that it wouldn’t be fair to her husband to gain weight.
I’m reminded of last year’s anti-feminist women’s rights co-ordinator at the local university. She wasn’t into ‘No Diet Day’ so she renamed it ‘Love your body day’. How do you love your body? By eating fruit and doing yoga.
I don’t want to blame her for thinking like this, there’s a lot of resources poured into to making women feel like this. It just makes me terribly, terribly, sad and angry.
Also posted at my blog
2nd Big Fat Carnival: Second Call For Submissions
This Ain’t Living has posted the second call for submissions for the second Big Fat Carnival. Less than two weeks left!
Healthy Living
I realised that I hadn’t explained myself very well in my Body Shop thread. Or rather I’d paraphrased an argument without actually making that argument.
I hate The Body Shop, have a for very long time. I’ve never had a use for the dumb soaps and gels and whatever they make (although I did go through a stage when I was 14 of buying them as presents for friends, if I didn’t know what else to get them). They’re such a huge part of the idea that it’s alternative and a moral good to be healthy, and what it means to be healthy is to fit a traditional idea of beautiful that I’d happily watch as every single one of their stores burnt to the ground.
I wanted to explore the link between health and beauty, and the idea that health is a moral good, a little bit more to explain.
The equation of ‘beauty’ and ‘health’ is really common and really insidious. The most obvious example is weight, and (despite rather a lot of evidence to the contrary) the conflation of thin and healthy. In circles (usually middle class and slightly politically aware circles) where it’s not acceptable to talk about weight loss straight up, generally exactly the same conversations take place, but people are talking about ‘health’. If someone is nervous of complimenting a woman for losing weight, they’ll talk about ‘healthy’ she looks.
But it’s much more common than that. Most of the examples are just laughable. Beauty sections in magazines are now called ‘health’ sections. Hair products claim they will promote ‘healthy looking hair’ (because ensuring that your dead-cells are healthy should be the priority of everyone). The state of your skin is seen as indicative of your overall health. Performing beauty routinues, like moisturising or body scrubbing, are portrayed as part of maintaining your health.
Some are more scary:
The American Cancer Society offers the “Look Good…Feel Better” program, “dedicated to teaching women cancer patients beauty techniques to help restore their appearance and self-image during cancer treatment.”
Of course this is bullshit, you can’t tell someone’s health by looking at them, and a lot of so called health routinues won’t increase your longevity, or your quality of life at all.
Now this is partly just a marketing technique, the more women challenge beauty standards, the more useful it is to have different justification for selling exactly the same products. But I think it’s become a lot more significant than that, because health is portrayed as a moral good. This particular conflation is a very powerful one for fucking with people’s minds, and very useful for ensuring certain sorts of behaviour (mostly buying stuff, but also not challenging the way our society is organised).
The first step to believing being ‘healthy’ is moral is to show that ‘health’ is something that is under your control. Now personally, I reject this idea as deeply offensive, as well as being wrong. Wile there are some things that you can do that will promote the length of your life, and increase the ways you can use your body, most of it is just luck. Either it’s your genetics, or it’s a result of environmental factors you can’t control (like poverty, or being exposed to depleted uranium). It’s very tempting to believe we can control our body, how long we live, how far it holds out, but most of us won’t be able to.
To give a rather silly example of this I have had a number of people tell me about the quality of their teeth, how they don’t have fillings, and they each give a different reason for this (they brush every day, or they eat a lot of cheese). Now it seems to me that it’s far more likely that fluoridated water, and improvements in detal practice are the reason my generation’s teeth are better than our parents.
That’s why I think it’s wrong, the reason I think it’s offensive is it promotes an idea that everyone could get better if only they tried hard enough. It turns illness into a form of personal failing. Barbara Ehrenreich wrote a fantastic article about this in relation to the breast cancer industry (and yes unfortunately it is an industry):
My friend introduces me to a knot of other women in survivor gear, breast-cancer victims all, I learn, though of course I would not use the V-word here. “Does anyone else have trouble with the term ’survivor’?’ I ask, and, surprisingly, two or three speak up. It could be “unlucky,” one tells me; it “tempts fate,” says another, shuddering slightly. After all, the cancer can recur at any time, either in the breast or in some more strategic site. No one brings up my own objection to the term, though: that the mindless triumphalism of “survivorhood” denigrates the dead and the dying. Did we who live “fight” harder than those who’ve died? Can we claim to be “braver,” better, people than the dead? And why is there no room in this cult for some gracious acceptance of death, when the time comes, which it surely will, through cancer or some other misfortune?
The idea that ‘health’ is a result of our individual actions is now dangerously firmly placed. We can beat heart-attacks, breast-cancer, alzheimer’s, arthritis, dementia and everything else if we try hard enough.
As well as being awful in its own right, this idea turns anything that is promoted as improving health as a moral good, even if it doesn’t actually improve your longevity or use of your body.
This idea is so insidious that it has often been adopted by the left, where being ‘healthy’ can be portrayed as not just morally good, but alternative - or even radical. So we end up reinforcing our own version of the mainstream ideology. Constantly things that are supported for political reasons (say veganism) are promoted for their supposed health benefits, as if good politics and good health, automatically go together (I have a much, much, much longer rant about this particular topic, but it’ll have to wait for another day).
I started writing this whole post because mythago asked me “why is buying soap kowtowing to patriarchal, capitalistic ideals about beauty?” I want to make it really clear that I don’t think the solution to the problems that I raised is to stop eating in a particular way, or buying a particular product, or trying to live in a way that you find nourishes and sustains you.
What I do think is important is we challenge the ideology which equates beauty, health and morality, and promotes health as something we can control. We can stop praising people for being healthy, we can stop telling people they look healthy, we can stop assuming that just because we agree with something politically it’ll be good for our bodies, and we can stop using moralistic language to describe food.
And that’s why I hate the Body Shop.
Also posted on My blog.
Link Farm and Open Thread #12
As usual, open for whatever discussion or links you’d like to post - and don’t hesitate to post links to your own stuff!
By the way, I’m sorry I haven’t gotten around to part two of my “No Basis” critique yet. I’m mildly sick, and doing a heavy-research blog post just doesn’t seem as high a priority as, you know, lying on the couch and watching a lot of TV. I am going to do part two, but it may be a week or so - I’m taking it easy.
Nonetheless, I still need to empty all these open tabs, so….
Tomorrow is Blog Against Sexism Day!
I’d better start thinking of a post…
The Third Carnival of Bent Attractions!
The Second Radical Women of Color Carnival!
Fetal Personhood as Metaphorical Thinking
This discussion of abortion politics and pro-life thought, by regular “Alas” comment-writer Richard Jeffrey Newman, develops a fascinating line of thought, using as a starting point a couple of the abortion discussions we’ve had here on “Alas,” and so will be especially entertaining for “Alas” readers. One of the best posts I’ve read this week - check it out.
Top Ten Things Fattiepatties is Tired of Discussing
Ten months from now, I must remember to nominate this series for a Koufax award for “best series of posts 2006.” Fattiepatties discusses the ten “fat acceptance” discussions she’s sick of having over and over. Excellent, smart analysis. She’s halfway through the series now; start here and scroll up.
Feh-Muh-Nist: Dance Like No One’s Watching
Utterly fantastic, beautifully-written post about “Dancing While Fat.” This is the sort of writing I envy. (I’ve added Feh-Muh-Nist to the blogroll.)
The Fifteen Year Plan for Same Sex Marriage
The long-range strategy for same-sex marriage. The article is a bit too optimistic and rah-rah go-team-go for my tastes, but it’s nonetheless interesting.
Slavery Denial
We condemn holocaust denial. So why don’t we condemn those who softball or try to excuse American slavery for slavery denial?
Queer vs. Nigger/Nigger vs. Queer
Why is it that every argument of the (mis)use of the term queer, has to be equated with the (mis)use of the word nigger? I think that they have such separate histories, it is ridiculous to even make such a claim.
Newsflash: Contraception Prevents Unwanted Pregnancies
Ohio State Senator Proposes Bill Banning Republicans From Adopting Children
Being an elected official makes sarcasm much more satisfying.
Israel’s Economic Abuse of the Palestinians
Keeping $700 million in taxes that rightfully belongs to the Palestinians is just scratching the surface.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Rape
Curtsy: Muse and Fury.
Can Conservative Christians Be Convinced To Ally With Democrats?
David at The Debate Link argues persuasively that no, they can’t; “as an organized political entity,” the Christian Right can’t get behind “any proposal that doesn’t relate to abortion, gay marriage, and abstinence.” But then a few posts later David reverses himself, after reading this Washington Monthly article, about some Conservative Christians who are sick of Republicans putting big business and hardball politics ahead of issues.
The Gender Mysteries of Don Knotts
Reappropriate on “Crash“: Racist, Shallow, and Easy For Whites To Swallow
The Same Peanut Butter Tastes Better With A Brand Name
As Word Munger sums up, “People prefer inferior peanut butter when it’s got a recognizable brand name. People will say the same peanut butter tastes better when it’s labeled as a recognizable brand.” But since enjoyment is subjective, does this mean that people really do get more taste enjoyment out of eating a brand-name product?
Gendergeek’s FAQ for Men’s Rights Activist readers
Curtsy: Muse and Fury.
Why Curious People Shouldn’t Own Stun Guns
If you ever feel compelled to “mug” yourself with a taser, one note of caution: there is no such thing as a one-second burst when you zap yourself. You will not let go of that thing until it is dislodged from your hand by a violent thrashing about on the floor.
New to the Blogroll: Bad Feminist
The appropriate kitch artwork illustrating each and every post is impressive. More substantively, I liked this post suggesting specific ways feminists could switch way from a judicial-branch approach to protecting abortion rights.
Real Life Simpsons.
“The opening sequence of The Simpsons, but with real people.” Via Crooked Timber.
Widowhood is Bad For Whites, But Not Blacks
Researchers studied 410,272 elderly American couples, and found the “widowhood effect” — the increased probability of death among new widows and widowers — is large and enduring among white couples, but undetectable among black couples.
Excellent Series of Essays on Being An Adjunct Professor
Wow.
What made me cry, was that all these years, I was taught by my family that being gay is horrible, and that gay people do not deserve a decent life. My family lied to me, and I am angry for that. [Curtsy: Rachel’s Tavern.]
The Double Edged Sword of Fuck Me Feminism
UK nurses want to supply clean blades and cutting advice to self-harmers
Parental Notice Laws Don’t Reduce Abortion
New To The Blogroll: Vigilence
Smart, “professional-feeling” blog focused on queer rights and fighting the Christian right.
On Being a Straight White Pro-Feminist Progressive Male
Kevin Drum on the Irrational Wackiness that is CEO Compensation
The Second Big Fat Carnival - Call For Submissions
Meloukhia of This Ain’t Living has posted the first call for submissions for the second Big Fat Carnival!
(Hmm… time to start thinking of what to write!)
Link Farm and Open Thread #10
March 8th is Blog Against Sexism Day
Why March 8?
Because it’s International Women’s Day. Because it’s the Global Women’s Strike. Wimmin in more than 60 countries will be participating in the global strike. Why not add dozens or hundreds or thousands of more voices to this struggle through the growing world of blogging?
Only 2 or 3 Days Left To Submit To The Next Carnival of Feminists!
Suffragettes and Disability Rights
Michael Bérubé discusses the historic ways suffragettes were abused with, and committed abuses with, anti-disabled rhetoric. This is a must-read post, imo, as is an earlier post discussing the intersection of race and disability in American history.
Greatest Hits from Antonin Scalia’s “living textualist originalism”
Terrific post from LGM reviews some of Scalia’s more striking hypocrisies.
How To Steal An Election
Entertaining and historically-informed article actually an excerpt from Andrew Gumbel’s book Steal This Vote! about cheating in American elections. Gumbel is a lefty, but that doesn’t prevent him from recognizing that the “Bush stole the 2004 election” claims don’t have much substance to them.
Walking Women To Their Destination After Dark
Happy provides an excellent feminist analysis of this social habit.
I felt like I had to cram six years of talking to him into this one day, because I didn’t know if I’d ever have it again. I had one day to find out if he liked Tae Kwan Do, if he had any friends at school, what he did in gym class, if he was having difficulty in any area. One day to help him with reading and tying his shoes, one day to tell him how much I loved him before he disappeared back inside himself. Which he did, today. That sweet little stranger that curled up in my lap yesterday morning and sang “Rich Girl” and showed me his fancy dance moves and looked right into my face and laughed and smiled is gone today. Is that what parents of normally functioning children have every day? And, if that’s what you have every day, why would there be a rush to put that kind of kid on Ritalin?
Why Health Savings Accounts Will Suck
Hilzoy of Obsidian Wings makes the case very well.
Comparative Funerals: Coretta Scott King and Betty Friedan
The turnout of politicians to one funeral and not another was not a measure of either woman. It was a matter of whose followings could do more for the politicians in the future.
About Those Danish Cartoons. No, Really - About The Cartoons Themselves.
Offensive Cartoons From America
Who’da thunk it? Something funny in Cracked. Curtsy: Crooked Timber.
The Dark Side of Public Sectarian Schools
So the question is whether Christians who are pro-sectarian public schools are honest in their desire for mere democratic choice, or are fair-weather fans of the doctrine who support it only when it yields Christian majorities.
White Teacher Suspended For Saying “Niggah” In Classroom
I think the suspension is justified - not because the teacher is necessarily racist, but because he displayed such staggeringly bad judgment. Incompetence is justification enough for the suspension.
Cathy Young on False Rape Accusation
Good post discussing the implications of a beyond-any-doubt false rape accusation.
Mary Schweitzer has a webpage on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Also known as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.), or Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS). Mary Schweitzer, a CFS sufferer’s advocate, is one of the best writers about CFS on the internet; even if you think you have no interest in CFS issues, her essays may change your mind.
Sweden Plans To Be “Oil-Free” by 2020
How do you prevent more women from becoming firefighters, police officers, etc.? You refuse to hire or promote them. You compel them to take physical tests unrelated to job qualifications, such as requiring women to lift more than the Occupational Safety and Health Administration permits. You refuse to train women, subject them to hazing or hold them to higher performance standards than their male peers. Curtsy: Feministe
Western Union Quits the Telegraph Business
Past Bush Administration Cheerleader Admits Guantanamo Is Inexcusable
Bush has pledged that the Guantanamo detainees are treated “humanely.” At the same time, he has stressed, “I know for certain that these are bad people” - all of them, he has implied.
If the president believes either of these assertions, he is a fool. If he does not, choose your own word for him.
Housework Blogging
Belle, Pandagon, Ezra, Lawyers Guns and Money, Matt and Majikthise weigh in. Apologies to those I missed. Of all of these, Amanda’s is the most “must-read,” in my opinion.
PrisonSucks.com: Links to research about abuse of women in prisons
I’m putting the link in here because I think there might be a future post in it, and I don’t want to lose the link.
Holocaust Denier Professor Creates Stir at Northwestern
My breasts, in and of themselves, have no meaning. They are not inherently sexualized. They are not inherently beautiful. Or objectifiable. They, themselves, do not say, “Hey, I’m a female! Come, objectify me, rape me, fuck me, look at me, stare at me, penetrate me!” Outside of the discourse, they mean nothing. They’re just lumps of fat and tissue and muscle and nerve endings and whatnot.
On Ambivalence Towards Critical Thinking
When I teach moral theory to students or critical thinking skills for that matter how to spot fallacies, construct valid/sound arguments, evaluate evidence, I rarely change a student’s perspective on the world, or make that student more empathetic to other peoples’ situations. I usually make them smarter at articulating the worldview that they inchoately held before. […] My sense is that critical thinking doesn’t make people better people, it just makes them better at playing the game. (Curtsy: The Reaction).
Israel plans to build ‘museum of tolerance’ on Muslim graveyard
Are they really that clueless, or just incredibly sarcastic? Via Jesus’ General.
The Happy Feminist on “Ladies First” and the Titanic
New To The Blogroll: Beyond Choice
Alexander Sanger Margaret’s grandson has an interesting blog about abortion politics.
Michael Bérubé Rips Apart David Horowitz
If I were a better person, I wouldn’t have enjoyed it so much.
Warren Ellis and Joss Whedon Provide Fan Service, Oh My Yes They Do
If you don’t know who both those people are, then I’m geekier than you. Curtsy: Crooked Timber.
FAT RELATED LINKS
What the heck, there were a bunch of these - mostly swiped from Big Fat Blog - so I thought I’d give ‘em their own section.
New JAMA Study Finds No Link Between Obesity and Lifespan In Americans Over 50
The State of The F-Word
Interesting article takes a look at the various books that have used the word “fat” in the title in the past year. Curtsy: Big Fat Blog.
FatShadow on Celebs Who Lose Weight
Yet another smart, sensitive, and annoyingly difficult to sum up in a single sentence post from Tish.
The Average Sized Privilege List
AKA “The Thin Privilege List.” This isn’t new, but I’m not sure I’ve ever linked to it, and I should have.
A Modest Proposal: The Next Viagra
“We have perfected the weight-loss drug. Enipaznalo not only takes off those excess pounds, it makes you beautiful. Movie-star beautiful. There’s just one catch; it also makes you crazy.”
“Obesity Epidemic” Overblown, Conclude UCLA Sociologists
The link is to a press release about this interesting and nuanced study pdf link by Abigail Saguy. Her webpage includes links to a number of interesting-sounding papers, including a few about sexual harassment and this one pdf link about media coverage of fat and health issues. Curtsy: Big Fat Blog.
New To The Blogroll: Fat Chicks Rule
How did I not know Lara Frater had a blog?
The Big Fat Carnival - First Edition!
Welcome, one and all, to the Big Fat Carnival’s First Edition!
Introduction
The Big Fat Carnival is a blog carnival for collecting some of the best blog posts regarding fat pride; fat acceptance; critiques of anti-fat bigotry, attitudes and research; celebration of images of fat people; practical difficulties of being fat; fat love (queer and otherwise); feminist views of fat and fat acceptance; the health at every size movement (HAES); and whatever else each edition’s editor feels fits into the theme.
(But please note, The Big Fat Carnival is not a place to advocate weight-loss diets, weight loss surgery (WLS), or feederism.)
(If you don’t know what a blog carnival is, check out this post on Science and Politics).
Some carnival hosts create clever schemes or amusing personas to make their hosting that much more memorable, thus making the whole process not only more enjoyable but also more creative for everyone involved. Gosh, it sure would be cool if I was that sort of host! That would be great!
Alas, my natural-born laziness won out over the impulse to work harder (it was a short fight, TKO, laziness had one hand tied behind its back). So the listings here are pretty plain: The title of each post, followed by a short and (hopefully) representative or intriguing quote from each post.
I have divided the submitted posts into categories, mainly because there are so many posts linked here (almost 50!) that I thought I’d better divide the list into shorter, easier-t0-absorb sections. Many posts could have fit into more than one category, and some are hard to categorize at all, so the categorization is, alas, a bit arbitrary. Also, I decided (again, somewhat arbitrarily) to limit to four the number of included posts from any single blog. Categories, and posts within categories, are listed in a more-or-less random order.
As the compiler of this edition of the Big Fat Carnival, I was delighted with both the quality and quantity of submissions, which came from both blogs that are favorites of mine, and from blogs that I’ve never heard of (but I’m happy to discover now!). Thanks to all of you for making this first BFC edition a big fat kick-ass success.
That said, onto the Carnival!
Section One: Fat, Health and Health Care
Amanda passed this infuriating article on to me. It tells the story of 17-year-old Nia, hospitalized with schizophrenia, and the psychiatrist who treats her … a psychiatrist who found it so alarming that she was gaining weight from the medication that finally and completely dealt with her symptoms that he took her off the medication.
(Also commenting on this article: I Blame The Patriarchy, BattlePanda, Pandagon, and Shakespeare’s Sister, whose post is also linked in the “body image” section below).
Which came first the obsession or the value? I value every pound of my body. I value the lessons learned from the life I have lived in this body. It is an effort for me to value my health but I know that my lack of value for health is a hostile reaction to a world that talks to me about health when it means weight loss. So it’s a value I have to learn. Because if fat people don’t do the thinking and talking about their health they will always be too reliant on people who may not have their best interest in mind. People with products.
You know how ex-smokers are among the most adamantly anti-smoking zealots around? The same goes for people who’ve been on diets, particularly fad ones like South Beach or Atkins. So I casually mention the food chart, and suddenly one coworker decides to gently chastise me for the sodium-free breadsticks I’ve been munching on since I cut back on my salt intake because “you know how many carbs are in each of those?” (According to the pyramid scheme, after all, if I eat 6-11 of those a day all my carb servings are used up!)
Behind the Surface: A Fat Girl Goes Wooing
And it was that constant possibility that I might be harassed for being fat that has had me terrified every time I go to see a new doctor. Last spring as the appointment with a neurologist approached, I thought I was going to start having panic attacks.
I find myself preparing for a new appointment like I might for a date. What outfit should I wear? I want to look like I take care of myself, so something somewhat nice. But not too dressy that it would be hard to get in and out of. Or look like I’m not really sick (yeah, having an illness that is not taken seriously hasn’t helped). Maybe something sporty…
Alas, a Blog: Cathy Young’s Reasoning Is (Insert Generic Fat Reference Here)
No diet has ever been shown in clinical trials to turn obese people into non-obese people over the long run; nor has anyone ever been able to run a clinical trial showing that losing weight improves health over the long run. Furthermore, some studies have found that losing weight deliberately actually shortens life - especially for yo-yo dieters. Why prescribe a “cure” that probably won’t work, and that could shorten life, for a “disease” that simply isn’t that threatening?
Section Two: Self-Image and Body Image
Check it. My stomach is big. It’s big and it’s cuddly and it STICKS OUT. I used to wear only long, voluminous shirts and not just to cover my ass - ’cause, as my friend Jeba says, you can’t hide an ass that big. And really, why would you want to? It’s glorious! My clothing choices were generally based on camouflaging my stomach. My stomach was shy. . . or so I thought! I was looking at myself and my tummy in the mirror one night and I suddenly realized there was a reason my stomach refused to stay hidden, refused to be pulled in or masked or ignored - SHE NEEDED MORE ATTENTION.
Shakespeare’s Sister: Beautiful Madness
I just want to take a moment to address something I found particularly distressing in the piece…the notion that “fat” and “beautiful” are mutually exclusive. My entire life I was teased for being fat. Even when I was thin, I had large breasts, which got translated into being fat by my pre-teen peers. I was 12 years old, and not a pound overweight but already sporting D-cups the first time I got called “a fat cow.” I’ve spent my whole life feeling fat, whether I was or not. And consequently, I never felt beautiful, because there’s no such thing in our culture as being both fat and beautiful.
The Boiling Point: Your Yucky Body; a repair manual
Yay! Mikhaela submitted a cartoon! This is just a sample, be sure to go read the whole thing.
Body Impolitic: Whose Body Is This Anyway?
your body, which should be yours by the most basic of birthrights, is not your body. The media, big business, and the medical establishment take it over the minute you are born and put an enormous amount of time, money, and energy into making sure they keep it. If you want to own your own body, you have to put in an equivalently enormous amount of time and energy.
One Tenacious Baby Mama: The Perfect Fit?
(Note: There is one nude image of a woman contained in this post.)
On good days I’m a G.S.G, a Good Sized Gyal. A Middle of tha way Hoochee out to raise some hell. Proudly sportin’ every single inch of me. All stretch marks and dimples with jiggling bits and tits. Lovin’ it. Hoping to develope/envelope some more substantiality eventually.
Other times I walk hunched and harried. My body…it’s shape…it’s image…so fucked. So fucked. Mind filled to capacity. Cerebrum stuffed. Psche straining. Other people’s confusion seamlessly merging with my own. Other people’s shit, projected, injected becomes my own.
A Mindful Life: Self-Portrait Tuesday
When I moved to Austin, my weight crept up to 160 again and stayed there. This was okay by me. I worked out in a gym. I was flexible and strong. I wore size 14 jeans. I felt pretty good about myself. Then an elderly man who’d become a friend in a grandfatherly sort of way one day told me (after he’d had me as a guest for dinner), “You know, Kathryn, you’re pretty. If you lost 20 to 30 pounds, you might find a boyfriend.” If he’d punched my stomach, the effect would have felt the same.
Section Three: Our Fat-Hating Culture
This is why I believe quibbling about whether I’m a big fat dyke by choice or nature is a waste of time better spent fighting for liberation. I am a big fat dyke, and even if you think I should choose to be something else, that doesn’t make it right for you to scream at me in the street, take away my job, evict me from my apartment, refuse me a motel room, beat me up, put me in prison, rape me, or kill me. Arguments for tolerance based on genetics are actually undermining our efforts towards the just society we really want…
Body Impolitic: 21st Century Sin
The world we live in seems to treat food very much like the Puritans treated sex: an obsessively present temptation which is simultaneously sinful and irresistible. Eating high-calorie food is the only thing that contemporary secular Americans call sinful.
Official Shrub.com Blog: Fatty, Fat, Fat, Fatty!
It’s easy for me to advocate for society to adopt a broader image of beauty (and of health) because I’m thin. It’s easy to feel good about my body because I fit into what’s seen as the “correct” weight. But, as much as I try not to, I do think about my weight. I dress it up in pretty words like “healthy” and “toned” but part of it will always be about my body shape. It doesn’t help that every time I see certain members of my family I get comments about my weight. Snarling at, cursing at, and otherwise being angry with them has helped to keep the comments at a minimum, but I haven’t been able to get them to stop completely no matter what I do.
Feminist Reprise: It’s Not The Fat, It’s The Stupidity
Most of the people who sustain me with their affection and support are fat, and when you dis fat people, folks, you’re not just dissing me–you’re dissing the people I depend on to keep me sane in a world that hates me. You’re dissing hardworking honest goodhearted people, and I’m just not going to put up with that. Because if you can write smug simplistic little letters reducing the complexities of our lives to one sentence–if you think it’s your prerogative, because your body type is socially acceptable, to dispense inane nonsensical redundant advice about how we should live and what we should do based on our appearance–you’re just proving you don’t know us.
Body Impolitic: How Young Can You Be And Hate Your Body?
The pressures on adults to be thin and forever young are well understood; what’s not so obvious is that as the airbrushed unreal early pubescent body becomes the image of the adult model, this puts pressure not only on the three-dimensional, unPhotoShoppable adult, but also on the child whose idealized body is being co-opted. If mommy wants to look like a twelve-year-old, what is a twelve-year-old supposed to want? And what will “trickle down” to her five-year-old sister?
Feminist Reprise: Screwed by Southwest
…On Friday the Thirteenth, I was barred from boarding Southwest Airlines because I refused to comply with their “customer of size” policy by purchasing a second seat.
Even though I’ve been some degree of fat my whole life, and certainly have gotten my share of ridicule and rejection because of it, being refused a public accommodation hasn’t been part of my experience. Discrimination has been this bad thing that happened to other people. But suddenly, when I was just going about my business, I was informed by a smug gate agent that I was required to purchase a second seat before I would be allowed to board the plane.
According to 43 Things, the online home of lists and resolutions, losing weight is the all-time top goal of all resolution makers visiting their site. Apparently we are more desperate than ever to fight the putative battle against obesity, a war that supposedly begins at home. But let’s think about it. Even if there is an obesity epidemic…an idea which is thoughtfully disputed by fellow-OUP author J. Eric Oliver in his recent book Fat Politics…why would it be that Americans would suddenly be so hefty?
I Hate People: Fat People Are People Too!
This is the kind of mentality that a lot of people have engrained on their systems, the kind of mentality that makes them believe that fat people, and especially fat women deserve to be abused. Because “how dare they to be normal?? How dare they show their fat asses and bellies in public? How dare these women not be sexual objects??”
Travelling Punk: Navigating the complex world of compliments?
‘Have you lost weight?’ someone called, accusatorially across the office as I turned from the printer to return to my desk. Startled by the tone, I wondered, what have I done, before my mind caught up with the content of the question and my mouth emitted a little, unsure, ‘no…’.
Section Four: Fat, Gender and Feminism
I don’t think the experience of being fat is worse for women; I think the experience of being fat is qualitatively different for women.
Maybe that’s not even what I mean - maybe I mean: the experience of being fat is part of being a woman in the society I live in - whatever size you are.
Feministe: Your Priorities Are Showing
Here’s the lesson I’m drawing from here: the cultural imperative to be thin is so strong that the FDA is willing to put out a product that’s not terribly effective, prone to abuse, and potentially dangerous. Because there is no risk or discomfort too great to be endured for the sake of being thin. And heavens, no, we’ve never had any problems whatsoever with FDA-approved diet pills **coughphen-fencough**!
Body Impolitic: I’ll Just Have A Salad
Here’s what we mean when we say food is gendered. Women are expected to want salads, vegetables, fancy chocolates, and sweet alcoholic drinks with umbrellas in them. Men are expected to want slabs o’ meat, potatoes, apple pie, and beer or hard liquor. Women are expected to comment in restaurants on the size of the portion and the presentation of the food before they take a bite. Men are expected to dig in.
I guess it’s no wonder that out of all the different kinds of plus size markets out there, the store that most consistently sets off Fat Apocalyptic alarms is the store for young white girls, because really, hot young white chicks are among our most precious national resources, and without them America’s reality shows and porn would suffer.
Mind The Gap!: Dove: Real Beauty or Just Real Troublesome?
But at the risk of sounding like a humourless, spoil sport, never satisfied feminist I’m now going to come out and say “I’m not happy.” What’s not to like? Well I don’t like the fact that the empowerment is very little, very late, and I don’t like the questions about my own feminist thinking which this campaign raises. What really bothers me is not the fact that the Dove campaign is not radical, it is the frightening probability that, in the context of our current culture, this campaign is extremely radical. As feminists, this is what we should be worried about.
Alas, a Blog: Fatness and Moral Panic
The terror that fat seems to inspire, the moral terror, seems rooted in the same fear and loathing that has traditionally been reserved for the promiscuous woman. She is not obeying. She is “out of bounds”"“much like the fat that oozes over the sides of the airplane seat. Her problem is a surfeit of appetite““which is the reason that no matter what medical studies might actually show, people will continue to frame the problem of obesity wholly in terms of eating and of appetite.
Section Five: Dieting and Weight Loss
Anyway, about 8,304 innocent people lost their lives in 2005 due to bariatric surgeries. (Of course it’s more considering most die slow deaths from years of nutritional deficits and complications, but we’ll disregard those for this exercise.)
According to CNN, there have been 2211 casualties in Iraq as of January 15, 2006 (covering nearly 3 years). […] In just one year, bariatric atrocities resulted in eleven times more innocent American lives lost than from the Iraq War.
Feminist Reprise: An Exercise in Critical Thinking
Because of course fat people never eat apples, and if we did, we’d all instantly become thin. How dumb we must be not to figure that out, how self-destructive, masochistic even, to stubbornly insist on staying fat–and of course unhealthy–when the cure is so close at hand.
Redemption Blues: The Fat Of The Land: Desperate Remedies
“Chew? Didn’t I learn that skill sometime before my first birthday? ‘No. Nobody in the Western world knows how to chew. Dr Mayr showed this. Most people today swallow their food after giving it one or two chews, and it enters the intestines very hard. This puts stress on the gut. Here, you will learn to chew each mouthful of food 40 times’. Forty? ‘Yes. Do not swallow anything until it is a thin liquid pulp. And you must not speak to each other or read when you are eating. This is distracting and wrong. You will sit in silence. And chew’”.
In the past, this approach was known as Fletcherism. Verily I say unto thee, there is nothing new under the sun, especially not when it comes to wacky theories about dieting.
Alas, a Blog: Anti-Fat “Science” (U.K. Edition)
Note the claim that this is a “scientifically-based program” - which means, I assume, that the Top Ten Tips have been shown to lead to significant, long-term weight loss in scientific studies. There’s also a second claim: the Top Ten Tips do not not involve “radical lifestyle change.” As we will see, neither claim is true.
Section Six: Our Fat-Hating Media
Every time the topic of obesity comes up on CNN, the cameramen are sent out to local malls or city streets to videotape fat people (*gasp*, *shock*, horror of horrors!) walking. With every Paula Zahn voiceover comes the inevitable booty shot of a fat person going about their daily business, painfully ignorant of the camera lens trained firmly on their ass. The heads and faces are never shown — after all, that might actually require asking the poor voyeurism victim for permission to beam their rear ends into televisions all across America.
I went to see America’s Sweethearts last week. I’d heard the movie kind of stunk, and I could have seen John Cusack’s big, adorable head spout much better dialogue in other movies, but I went anyway. I went to see Julia Roberts in the fat suit. I needed to see what the film industry’s idea of a 180-pound woman looked like.
In the summer of 2004, while attending the supposedly radical We Are Resisting conference in Lawrence, KS, I saw my first PETA ad. Chew on This: 30 Reasons to Go Vegetarian. It was the introduction to a workshop on animal rights. Within the first ten seconds I wanted to leave. I at least should have said something. But, instead, I sat floored in silence.
#3: Eating meat makes you FAT! The word fat took up the entire screen in its glaring sans-serif font. Well, nobody wants to be fat. You’re better off being anything but fat - bulimic, anorexic, dead. Anything, but fat.
New Game Plus:J Pop Nightmare?
The article is written by the chief editor of a website “created to provide the gateway of introduction of Japanese Entertainment into mainstream American culture utilizing the most popular ways a typical individual may discover Japan.” Appropriate and judge Japan seems more accurate”“not to mention degrading the Japanese to insects by accusing them of having a hive-mind. Disagree? The author, Jeffrey To, tells his critics to “go jump in a river and die.”
No surprise, the article goes on to be sexist, fat-bashing, and racist. To start, the author predicts plus-sized official cosplay costumes will be released.
There is something I need to tell you. I mean, you’re going to find out anyway, but I thought I’d tell you first: I’m really Tyra Banks in a fat suit.
Yes, I know that all this time you thought I was just a chubby white girl. I’m sure it sheds light on a lot of things, such as my inexplicable personal happiness. Well, now you know I’m happy because, hello! I’m Tyra Banks! I have my own production company! And here you thought I was just happy because I ate all the pies!
Chewin’ The Fat: There’s An Elephant In The Room
Can someone explain to me how if two thirds of us are “overweight,” then why are we virtually invisible in media representation? Well, not invisible. We can always be called upon for comic relief, the perky sidekick, the foil or the villain.
[Regarding Showtime’s The L Word:] It should have been an interesting scene, then, as she fell into bed with her new romantic interest. Sure, he was a man, but he’s an interesting fat man. Boy was I disappointed, but not shocked, when they cut to a completely different scene as soon as Kit and her man hit their hotel bed. Now I’m not one to look for the sex scenes, and, in fact, the soft core porn atmosphere of the show is often very upsetting to my feminist politics, but damn, if I’m going to see a bunch of people having sex, if I’m going to be subjected to tons of explicit heterosexual screwing, and if I’m going to hear women talking about fucking one another every week, completely internalizing patriarchal ideas about sex, then damn it, I want to see some fat!
Fattypatties:Why I feel abandoned by the left or, yep, we’re irrelevant
So I sent out e-mails to a bunch of Air America Shows (below is from the M&M Show here in Phoenix)– here is the only response so far and, well, I can’t make a better case for why I don’t bother much with the Left any more…
BStu: The Most Nefarious Result of Fat-Suits
It also should be pointed out that the most nefarious result of fat-suits is the reason they are employed. Its not simply to deny a job to a fat actor. Hollywood is doing very well on the count as it stands, especially with regard to female actors. The reason is that it suits a narrative structure which exalts weight loss and gives it a redemptive quality. For that, you need to employ a fat suit so you can show the transformation into an acceptable state. If you stopped the fat drag, these stories would stop and that would be a benefit in and of itself.
Peggynature: A Million Little Dummies
You want to talk truth, Oprah? Let’s talk truth. Let’s talk about systematic bias in not only the popular media, which have been known as professional spin doctors for hundreds of years, but in scientific studies and in the peer-reviewed academic journals they are published in. This ain’t no pennystinker newsprint popstand selling the latest paperback. These are scholars, scientists, and people who influence public policy. Let’s talk about conclusions that don’t even begin to correspond to the hard numbers printed, for anyone with eyes and basic math skills to make sense of, on the facing page.
This Ain’t Living: A Few Thoughts On Surveys
An article published in the Chronicle today discussed the results of a survey on fat bias. Curiously, the headline was “Some Americans OK With Being Fat.” The headline was only curious if you bothered to read the article, though. Although I note the Chronicle hedged their bets with “some.”
Section Seven: Neat Stuff I Couldn’t Classify
On an analysis that looks at oppression as a process, and not simply a product, the lens is turned, not at fatness, but at how it is defined and how that definition is inexorably political.
Maia wants to subsume an analysis of fatness into a feminist analysis. I find that a problem. But more, I think it’s likely very wrong to assume that fatness and disability are “in” the body, while race and gender are not.
Several Excellent Posts At Redemption Blues
A few funny, sharply observed, wide-ranging and impossible-to-classify posts at Redemption Blues: The Fat Of The Land, Pariah, and Bite-Sized Junk.
This philosophy is beginning to hit home now, reaching some place beyond the intellectualizing centres of my brain. Because I am one of those fat people who has gone above and beyond genetic intentions, through my behaviour. I am the type of fat person who everyone screaming about The Obesity Epidemic loathes, because I have done it to myself.
I would not say I have chosen to be fat, however. Despite all the obesity hysteria, it is more complicated than that.
Hey, Fat People: Cafepress.com Wants To Hear From You
And finally, a public service announcement: Cafepress wants to survey plus-sized consumers about adding plus-size clothing to their wares. Evil Lesbian Media Whore has the details.
End Notes
That’s it for this edition of the Big Fat Carnival! Big fat thanks to everyone who contributed, either with posts or by sending encouraging words my way! (And I’m sorry that I didn’t respond individually to every submission email.)
Please join us again in two months, when the second edition will be hosted by This Ain’t Livin’! You can submit posts to Meloukhia of This Ain’t Livin’ by going to this link.
(The third and fourth editions will be hosted by Vegankid and Body Impolitic, respectively).
How Not To Host A Blog Carnival
How Not To Host A Blog Carnival
First, do not put off making the big post until the last couple of days. Work on the post gradually, as submissions come in. Like a smart, responsible person. (Also, floss every day and balance your checkbook.)
Second, if you have put off making the big post until the last couple of days, don’t ruin the last-minute productivity you usually rely on by coming down with a nasty cold.
Third, if you do get a nasty cold, at least try to have scheduled the big post for a day when you don’t have to show up at your paying job, where there’s a lot of work that can’t be put off.
Fourth, if you do have to go to your job, at least don’t forget that you’ve also promised to spend a couple of hours babysitting on this day, too.
Fifth, if you do have jobs and babysitting cutting into your precious blogging time, at least try not to have your remaining blogging time decimated by an inconsiderately-timed power outage.
Sigh… All of which is to say, the Big Fat Carnival, scheduled to premiere today, will be a day late. My sincere apologies to all.
Anti-Fat “Science” (UK Edition)
Summary
Two British charity groups, Cancer Research UK and Weight Concern, recently made headlines with a new survey purporting to show that fat people were unaware of health issues and “in denial” about their weight. The poll results, in fact, showed very little difference in knowledge between fat people and what the survey writers called “normal” people; and “in denial” refers to any fat person who is content with their body as it is.
Caroline Swain, Executive Director of Weight Concern said, “The survey findings highlight a widespread lack of concern about obesity.” In fact, the survey shows that 80% of obese people want to lose weight.
The survey was used to introduce a weight loss plan, Top Ten Tips. This plan, according to its creators, is scientifically-validated, easy to follow, and requires no major lifestyle change.
However, the studies cited to support Top Ten Tips indicate that the vast majority of people who try this plan do not lose nearly enough weight to turn an obese person into a so-called “normal” person. A typical study cited by Top Ten Tips found that the average short-term weight loss is only 11 pounds, and long-term weight loss is even less. Furthermore, the exercise study cited by Top Ten Tips recommends up to 90 minutes a day of exercise, which most people would find to be a major lifestyle change.
The weight loss studies cited by Top Ten Tips are plagued by dubious methodologies. For instance, one study cited had a 77% drop-out rate. Another study cited by Top Ten Tips excluded all people who didn’t lose weight from the study (Imagine if drug companies were allowed to claim their drugs “worked” based on studies which excluded everyone who tried the drug but didn’t get better!). Virtually none of the studies examined whether or not weight-loss was maintained over the course of five years; many didn’t even follow subjects for a full year.
To claim that such studies are scientific proof of the effectiveness of the Top Ten Tips program is simply dishonest. Furthermore, by spreading disinformation, Cancer Research UK and Weight Concern are validating unfair bigotry against fat people, and obscuring more realistic and proven ways that fat people can improve their health.
Part One: A Biased Survey Produces Biased Results.
LONDON (Reuters) - Many obese people are in denial about their size and do not want to lose weight even if it would improve their health, according to a poll on Monday.
More than half of 4,000 people questioned by the charity Cancer Research UK were overweight or obese but a quarter of them were not concerned about losing weight. […]
“These results show far too many of those at greatest risk are choosing to ignore their weight,” Walker added. “They are unaware of their increased risk of cancer and unaware of many of the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.”
Cancer Research UK and the charity Weight Concern said people who are overweight or obese should try to eat at the same time every day, choose reduced-fat foods, exercise, select healthy snacks, limit alcohol, and watch their portion sizes.
About a quarter of fat people aren’t interesting in losing weight - the horror! The horror!
Curious about the report, I searched around and eventually found the actual poll numbers (scroll all the way down). “In denial” means “any fat person who is satisfied with their weight.” The bigotry inherent in believing that any content fat person must be “in denial” is appalling.
As for being “unaware of the benefits of a healthy lifestyle,” It turns out that fat people, compared to “normal” weight people, are slightly less likely to realize that avoiding excess drink, exercising and eating well reduce the risk of cancer; but fat people are slightly more likely to say that “maintaining a healthy weight” will reduce cancer risk.
But the differences really are pretty slight. For example, 24% of “normal” weight Brits surveyed were aware that avoiding excess drinking would reduce their risk of cancer, versus 21% of fat Brits who were aware of that. Yes, it’s a statistically significant difference, but is that a difference that matters? Or that justifies headlines saying that fat people, in particular, are ignorant of cancer risks?
Part Two: Introducing The Top Ten Tips For Weight Loss
But never mind all that; turns out the survey is just the leading publicity edge for an associated weight-loss program:
Cancer Research UK has joined forces with the charity Weight Concern to develop Ten Top Tips ““ a set of weight management guidelines that can be incorporated into everyday routines without radical lifestyle change. The scientifically-based programme involves adopting ten simple steps and using a weekly checklist over eight weeks to monitor progress and help reinforce the new habits.
Note the claim that this is a “scientifically-based program” - which means, I assume, that the Top Ten Tips have been shown to lead to significant, long-term weight loss in scientific studies. There’s also a second claim: the Top Ten Tips do not not involve “radical lifestyle change.” As we will see, neither claim is true.
Dr Lesley Walker, director of cancer information at Cancer Research UK, said: […] “These results show far too many of those at greatest risk are choosing to ignore their weight. They are unaware of their increased risk of cancer and unaware of many of the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.”
“The Reduce the Risk campaign offers people health messages and practical advice they can use to change unhealthy habits for healthy ones. With support and information, the quarter of obese and overweight people who do not wish to lose weight will hopefully join the majority who would like to.”
First of all, notice Dr. Walker’s assumption that not wanting to lose weight and having a “healthy lifestyle” are incompatible.
Second, despite the “practical advice” available, according to their own survey the 75% of fat people who want to lose weight are nonetheless still fat. If the advice is so damned practical, then why are all these people still fat?
To be fair, Dr. Walker doesn’t literally say that the 25% of fat people content with their weight will actually lose weight if they “join the majority”; instead, they’ll just join the other 75% in wishing they were thin but actually remaining fat. What a victory that would be!
Professor Jane Wardle, director of Cancer Research UK’s Health Behaviour Unit said: […] “The Ten Top Tips programme is specifically designed to help people develop routines that are easy to follow and become ‘automatic’ over time. If followed over the long term they will help people lose weight and keep it off.”
Caroline Swain, Executive Director of Weight Concern said, “The survey findings highlight a widespread lack of concern about obesity. Education and support are a vital component in tackling the alarming rise in obesity in this country. By working together and sharing our combined expertise, Cancer Research UK and Weight Concern are offering people practical and simple ways to control their weight and reduce their risk of cancer.”
The set of scientifically-based guidelines is designed to help people adopt healthy habits that can be sustained for long-term weight maintenance. Based on psychological theories of habit formation, the easy-to-follow tips can be incorporated into people’s everyday routines without major lifestyle change.
I am puzzled by Ms. Swain’s alarm over the “widespread lack of concern about obesity.” Her own survey shows that 80% of obese people would like to lose weight. How widespread will concern over obesity have to become before Ms. Swain will stop claiming that there’s a widespread “lack of concern,” I wonder? If 90% of obese people hated their bodies, would that be enough to make Ms. Swain happy? If 95% had a almost certainly hopeless desire to be (in the words of Ms. Swain’s survey) “normal,” would Ms. Swain finally be able to sleep well at night, or would the thought that 5% of obese Brits have failed to absorb the requisite amount of self-hatred keep her counting cracks in the ceiling?
Part Three: So What Are The Top Ten Tips?
Here they are - the much-heralded Top Ten Tips:
1) Keep to your meal routine
Try to eat at roughly the same times each day, whether this is two or five times a day.
Try to eat at roughly the same times each day, whether this is two or five times a day.
2) Go reduced fat
Choose reduced fat versions of foods such as dairy products, spreads and salad dressings where you can. Use them sparingly as some can still be high in fat.
3) Walk off the weight
Walk 10,000 steps (equivalent to 60-90 minutes moderate activity) each day. You can use a pedometer to help count the steps. You can break-up your walking throughout the day.
4) Pack a healthy snack
If you snack, choose a healthy option such as fresh fruit or low calorie yogurts instead of chocolate or crisps.
5) Look at the labels
Be careful about food claims. Check the fat and sugar content on food labels when shopping and preparing food.
6) Caution with your portions
Don’t heap food on your plate (except vegetables). Think twice before having second helpings.
7) Up on your feet
Break up your sitting time. Stand up for ten minutes out of every hour.
8) Think about your drinks
Choose water or sugar-free squashes. Unsweetened fruit juice is high in natural sugar so limit it to 1 glass per day (200ml/ 1/3 pint). Alcohol is high in calories. Try to limit the amount you drink.
9) Focus on your food
Slow down. Don’t eat on the go or while watching TV. Eat at a table if possible.
10) Don’t forget your 5 a day
Eat at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day (400g in total).
I for one feel underwhelmed.
2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10 can be summed up as “eat more fruit and veggies, and cut your calorie intake.” (Number 9 doesn’t appear at first glance to be a calorie-cutting tip, but when you read the details it turns out they think that people who eat in front of the TV eat more). 3 and 7 can be summed up as “exercise more.” So 9 of the Top Ten Tips are the two most commonplace and well-known weight loss strategies known to humankind.
Do they honestly think that the 75% of fat people (80% of obese people) who want to lose weight have never thought of eating less and exercising more? That notion has just never been presented to them before January 2006, and that’s why they’re fat?
Good lord, how can these people look at themselves in the mirror? (Answer: they’re thin, and to them that’s the only criteria that matters.) What kind of brainless moron of a researcher brightly chirps to newspapers that fat people should try and lose weight by eating less and walking more, as if this is news?
Jesus Christ! (And I say that as an atheist Jew.)
Part Four: What Is This Scientific Evidence You Speak Of?
Again, these “new” tips boil down to eating less and exercising more. But let’s check out the much-ballyhooed “scientific evidence” (pdf link). I’m not determined enough to go through all ten tips, but I’ll go through the first three, which is (I think) quite enough to demonstrate the level of scientific support behind these tips. Remember, this is being billed as reliable, easy-to-follow advice to enable fat people to have long-term weight loss.
TIP ONE
The first tip - have a regular meal schedule - is cited to a study called “Behavioural correlates of successful weight reduction over 3y.” from The International Journal of Obesity.(2004, 28:334-335.)
Here we see a common problem of the studies cited by weight-loss gurus: The study combines lousy methodology with an extremely forgiving standard of “success.”
Lousy Methodology: The study had a 77% drop-out rate. This means that the researchers have no idea how many people followed their instructions, found that they weren’t losing weight, and so quite reasonably dropped out. All the researchers can claim is that of the 23% minority who didn’t drop out, those who had a regular meal schedule were 70% more likely to have a “successful” weight loss.
Forgiving definition of “success”: ” weight loss of 5% or more from baseline to 3 y FU was defined as successful weight reduction.”
5%? Let’s say a 300-pound man loses 5% of his weight, and so becomes a 285 pound man. Will that mean that he’s now classified as “normal” weight? No. If he says that he’s now satisfied with his weight, will Ms. Swain find that acceptable? Again, no. And what if he gains back the fifteen pounds if we measure it across 5 or 6 years, instead of three (weight loss maintenance declines steeply over time)