Believing in fat acceptance is tough. I just don't have much to say right now. What can you say in a month when we learn that diets don't work (duh!) and that fat people are being carved up in ever increasing numbers. The sad thing is that instead of calling into question the goal of weight loss, the first story probably just does more to fuel the second. Since eating well and staying active don't "work", organ amputation must be the way to go.
Its sad. I'm sorry, but I don't know how else to look at this. Fat people are criminally underserved and, indeed, abused by society. And its just not letting up. We can do better. I hope that some day we can.
4.30.2007
3.31.2007
That video everyone's posting...
So, everyone has posted this, so I might as well join in. Joy Nash's "Fat Rant".
Okay, my bad response first. I'm not completely enamored with the video. There is a lot of good stuff, but the "Yes, there is an epidemic" bit is a concession I'm sick and tired of seeing fat activists making. Its a way of drawing lines about when its okay to be fat and when its not. Especially from smaller women, this is often a way of saying that "I'm okay, but you might not be". Still, she doesn't go down that road so I'm not going to freak out about it. I'll just say that fatness is not an "epidemic". If rates of fatness are going up (and not simply the definitions of fatness going down and reporting on the "epidemic" going up), I think its far more likely that fat hatred is fueling it and not rampent overeating and laziness. The fat person stuffing their face on the couch watching TV is a strawman. Its a way of guilting fat people for behavior that everyone does by magnifying the blame when the person is fat. Do I sometimes eat while watching TV? Sure. Doesn't mean that's all I am, but the strawman is designed to make fat people self-critical when they do things we're told we shouldn't do, but which really everyone does. It can become a self-fufilling prophecy when they make all the efforts to lose weight and don't, so they conclude that eating well and being active isn't working because it doesn't make them thin. I don't see any good reason to think there is an epidemic independant of the freaking out over the epidemic. A lot of relatively fat positive people think they need to agree that fatness is a problem to be taken seriously as the comment on the issue, but I don't think they grasp the concession they are making. They may think, "Okay, so there is a problem, but I'm not part of it" but the fact is that the problem they are agreeing exists DOES seem them as the proof of it. Sure, they love bringing up the 500lb strawman, but their true target is the person who is 200lbs. Making that concession isn't meeting them half-way. Its meeting them at their front door and we have to stop allowing the discussion of fatness to be only made on the terms of those who hate fatness. Diets don't magically work if you're the person who "needs" to lose weight. There are no lines that can be reliably drawn.
So, I've said my peace. The image of a fatty stuffing themself is a button pusher for me and I couldn't let it go without comment. All that aside, though, Joy Nash makes some great points and makes them well. She's engaging and makes some very keen observations. I loved the presentation on dieting's failure rates as concluding that 95-98% really means everyone. Really, for all my talk, I took issue with about 2% of the video. So that means I liked 98% of it. Which means I liked it. Check it out.
Okay, my bad response first. I'm not completely enamored with the video. There is a lot of good stuff, but the "Yes, there is an epidemic" bit is a concession I'm sick and tired of seeing fat activists making. Its a way of drawing lines about when its okay to be fat and when its not. Especially from smaller women, this is often a way of saying that "I'm okay, but you might not be". Still, she doesn't go down that road so I'm not going to freak out about it. I'll just say that fatness is not an "epidemic". If rates of fatness are going up (and not simply the definitions of fatness going down and reporting on the "epidemic" going up), I think its far more likely that fat hatred is fueling it and not rampent overeating and laziness. The fat person stuffing their face on the couch watching TV is a strawman. Its a way of guilting fat people for behavior that everyone does by magnifying the blame when the person is fat. Do I sometimes eat while watching TV? Sure. Doesn't mean that's all I am, but the strawman is designed to make fat people self-critical when they do things we're told we shouldn't do, but which really everyone does. It can become a self-fufilling prophecy when they make all the efforts to lose weight and don't, so they conclude that eating well and being active isn't working because it doesn't make them thin. I don't see any good reason to think there is an epidemic independant of the freaking out over the epidemic. A lot of relatively fat positive people think they need to agree that fatness is a problem to be taken seriously as the comment on the issue, but I don't think they grasp the concession they are making. They may think, "Okay, so there is a problem, but I'm not part of it" but the fact is that the problem they are agreeing exists DOES seem them as the proof of it. Sure, they love bringing up the 500lb strawman, but their true target is the person who is 200lbs. Making that concession isn't meeting them half-way. Its meeting them at their front door and we have to stop allowing the discussion of fatness to be only made on the terms of those who hate fatness. Diets don't magically work if you're the person who "needs" to lose weight. There are no lines that can be reliably drawn.
So, I've said my peace. The image of a fatty stuffing themself is a button pusher for me and I couldn't let it go without comment. All that aside, though, Joy Nash makes some great points and makes them well. She's engaging and makes some very keen observations. I loved the presentation on dieting's failure rates as concluding that 95-98% really means everyone. Really, for all my talk, I took issue with about 2% of the video. So that means I liked 98% of it. Which means I liked it. Check it out.
2.26.2007
My Big Fat Greek Eviction
Via Feministe, I found out about an incident at DePauw college where the national officers of the Delta Zeta sorrority were concerned about a decline in membership at the school and responded by kicking out 23 women and driving another 6 to quit. Which would seem a much sharper decline than the one they were to fix. The interesting thing, though, is that the 23 women who were evicted included all of the fat women in the sorrority, not to mention all of the black, Korean, and Vietnamese members.
Now, I'm generally not a fan of sorrorities or fratnerities. I was happy my university banned Greek socieites as they generally seem ripe for promoting discrimination or elitist mindsets which frankly don't belong in higher education. But I'll admit some chapters can prove to be exceptions and the article suggests that this Delta Zeta chapter was doing just that, catering to students normally shut out from sorrorities by including a lot of women from math and science majors as well as disabled women. Unfortunetly, the national chapter was more interested in proving my apprehensions right. Its a feature, not a bug, I'm sure they'd say.
The community there has been fast to respond to the lookism that was openly evident from the sorrority's actions. While the article mentions some women withdrawing from classes as a result of the personal attacks directed at them, it seems that many are not standing for it and I applaud all of them. If the national officers of Delta Zeta are going to be so blunt about their priorities, the school should respond inkind. DePauw is an educational institution and it has no room for a club for pretty people. They should revoke Delta Zeta's authority to act as an official sorrority. Their purpose is clearly not the “enrichment of student life at DePauw,” but rather the promotion of a sexist, sizest mind-set for the purpose of affording extra privlages to the already privlaged. They've shown they have no purpose on campus. The school should respond accordingly.
Now, I'm generally not a fan of sorrorities or fratnerities. I was happy my university banned Greek socieites as they generally seem ripe for promoting discrimination or elitist mindsets which frankly don't belong in higher education. But I'll admit some chapters can prove to be exceptions and the article suggests that this Delta Zeta chapter was doing just that, catering to students normally shut out from sorrorities by including a lot of women from math and science majors as well as disabled women. Unfortunetly, the national chapter was more interested in proving my apprehensions right. Its a feature, not a bug, I'm sure they'd say.
The community there has been fast to respond to the lookism that was openly evident from the sorrority's actions. While the article mentions some women withdrawing from classes as a result of the personal attacks directed at them, it seems that many are not standing for it and I applaud all of them. If the national officers of Delta Zeta are going to be so blunt about their priorities, the school should respond inkind. DePauw is an educational institution and it has no room for a club for pretty people. They should revoke Delta Zeta's authority to act as an official sorrority. Their purpose is clearly not the “enrichment of student life at DePauw,” but rather the promotion of a sexist, sizest mind-set for the purpose of affording extra privlages to the already privlaged. They've shown they have no purpose on campus. The school should respond accordingly.
Fat is not a choice. Neither is thin.
Fat oppression is nothing if not adept at adaptation. Fat hatred gets pitched in a shiny corporate packaging. It gets pitched as the ultimate in anti-corporate activism. Fat hatred is anti-poor, fat hatred is anti-rich. Fat Acceptance shows up, and fat hatred co-opts its vocabulary to promote a fundementally incompatable position. Fat hatred is a Conservative political principle. Fat hatred is a progressive political principle. Its always garbage, but its always presented with unflinching and self-righteous certainty.
As a progressive, though, I'm more intimately annoyed to see my political beliefs used to promote fat hatred. One that I've seen a lot is to co-opt language of the pro-choice movement and refit it to promote dieting, or at least to censor criticism of dieting. Dieting is a choice, so goes the exclaimation. The implication is extended to compare fat acceptance with the anti-abortion movement. Just as they want to keep women pregnant, fat acceptance wants to to keep women fat. We're trying to deny women their choice to be thin.
Bull shit.
Fat is not a choice. Neither is thin. Fat is NOTHING like abortion. I don't care how you fall on that issue. Fat isn't like it. At all. Dieting is not feminist empowerment over an oppressive pro-fat patriarchy.
Diet promoters are trying to kill two birds with one stone with this presentation. Firstly, the want to blunt the feminist arguements against body hatred by trying to make dieting into a feminist act. Secondly, it wants to continue to establish the notion that fat people have chosen to be fat. Thus, they are responsible for the discrimination and hatred directed to them. Further, any fat person can choose to be thin. This just isn't true.
Diets don't work. I don't care if they work for an small number of people. Presenting 1% success as "proof" of the effectiveness of dieting is absurd. Suggesting that a 1% success rates means you can't say that diets don't work is insane. Its using semantics to advantage the status quo. Its the kind of advantages the status quo always demands for itself and I'm not giving in. I'm not letting the status quo define how I can disagree with it. You can choose to diet, but you can't choose to be not fat. The minimal number of people who lose weight and keep it off even for a moderate amount of time have no secret. They have no cure. All they are is the exception to the rule. They are flukes. Either by being the fluke people who were fat unnaturally or by taking unnatural and debilitating steps to enforce a different weight upon an unwilling body. I've seen a dieting "success" up close and personnel and it was a lie. It was an eating disorder that was greeted with congratulations instead of intervention.
Dieting isn't really about choosing to be thin. That's a false promise. I don't care if dieters don't want to hear that. Its why it needs to be said. Its not because anyone wants them to stay fat out of malice. Its not about trying to impose my view of what your body should be. I'm not trying to impose anything. No one in fat acceptance could even pretend to have the power to impose our will upon anyone. That doesn't seem to stop the forces of fat hatred from suggesting otherwise, though. They act like we are terrorizing people into giving up their freedom of choice. At its worst, it accuses of denying people a quality of life by withholding medical treatment. In what world? In what world do a few people standing up against a multi-billion dollar industry have those powers? In what world does expressing a position against the status quo oppress ANYONE? Not this one. But that doesn't stop those who endorse fat bigotry. They claim for themselves immunity by hiding behind pro-choice language. They claim for themselves immunity by professing the sanctity of their self-hatred and the inability for their self-hatred to withstand the oppression of those who say they don't need to live their lives in self-pity for what they are not.
Fat hatred is not a progressive imperative. It is not a conservative imperative. It is a sham. And it is the shame of those who promote it that they would seek to silence those who disagree with a false morality.
As a progressive, though, I'm more intimately annoyed to see my political beliefs used to promote fat hatred. One that I've seen a lot is to co-opt language of the pro-choice movement and refit it to promote dieting, or at least to censor criticism of dieting. Dieting is a choice, so goes the exclaimation. The implication is extended to compare fat acceptance with the anti-abortion movement. Just as they want to keep women pregnant, fat acceptance wants to to keep women fat. We're trying to deny women their choice to be thin.
Bull shit.
Fat is not a choice. Neither is thin. Fat is NOTHING like abortion. I don't care how you fall on that issue. Fat isn't like it. At all. Dieting is not feminist empowerment over an oppressive pro-fat patriarchy.
Diet promoters are trying to kill two birds with one stone with this presentation. Firstly, the want to blunt the feminist arguements against body hatred by trying to make dieting into a feminist act. Secondly, it wants to continue to establish the notion that fat people have chosen to be fat. Thus, they are responsible for the discrimination and hatred directed to them. Further, any fat person can choose to be thin. This just isn't true.
Diets don't work. I don't care if they work for an small number of people. Presenting 1% success as "proof" of the effectiveness of dieting is absurd. Suggesting that a 1% success rates means you can't say that diets don't work is insane. Its using semantics to advantage the status quo. Its the kind of advantages the status quo always demands for itself and I'm not giving in. I'm not letting the status quo define how I can disagree with it. You can choose to diet, but you can't choose to be not fat. The minimal number of people who lose weight and keep it off even for a moderate amount of time have no secret. They have no cure. All they are is the exception to the rule. They are flukes. Either by being the fluke people who were fat unnaturally or by taking unnatural and debilitating steps to enforce a different weight upon an unwilling body. I've seen a dieting "success" up close and personnel and it was a lie. It was an eating disorder that was greeted with congratulations instead of intervention.
Dieting isn't really about choosing to be thin. That's a false promise. I don't care if dieters don't want to hear that. Its why it needs to be said. Its not because anyone wants them to stay fat out of malice. Its not about trying to impose my view of what your body should be. I'm not trying to impose anything. No one in fat acceptance could even pretend to have the power to impose our will upon anyone. That doesn't seem to stop the forces of fat hatred from suggesting otherwise, though. They act like we are terrorizing people into giving up their freedom of choice. At its worst, it accuses of denying people a quality of life by withholding medical treatment. In what world? In what world do a few people standing up against a multi-billion dollar industry have those powers? In what world does expressing a position against the status quo oppress ANYONE? Not this one. But that doesn't stop those who endorse fat bigotry. They claim for themselves immunity by hiding behind pro-choice language. They claim for themselves immunity by professing the sanctity of their self-hatred and the inability for their self-hatred to withstand the oppression of those who say they don't need to live their lives in self-pity for what they are not.
Fat hatred is not a progressive imperative. It is not a conservative imperative. It is a sham. And it is the shame of those who promote it that they would seek to silence those who disagree with a false morality.
1.29.2007
Maybe they didn't hear me the first time
I'll just talk louder.
Because as always, the problem with fat people is that we just haven't heard about how awful we are for being fat. Or in this case, that our parents haven't heard. Because really, fat kids are getting a free pass and need to be "jolted". Oh, but they are also depressed from the stigmatization and social torment they endure. I wonder how they could know enough to be depressed but still need to be talked to like they just didn't hear them the first million times fat was proclaimed to be bad. Couldn't possibly be that quarter-million dollar ad campaigns designed to shame people over weight might result in an atmosphere where fat people get depressed.
Nah. Better just talk louder.
Because as always, the problem with fat people is that we just haven't heard about how awful we are for being fat. Or in this case, that our parents haven't heard. Because really, fat kids are getting a free pass and need to be "jolted". Oh, but they are also depressed from the stigmatization and social torment they endure. I wonder how they could know enough to be depressed but still need to be talked to like they just didn't hear them the first million times fat was proclaimed to be bad. Couldn't possibly be that quarter-million dollar ad campaigns designed to shame people over weight might result in an atmosphere where fat people get depressed.
Nah. Better just talk louder.
1.12.2007
No comments (unless you want to)
I started writing this as a response to a comment from my last thread where I asked people not to comment. Yeah, I didn't mean that I'd be angry if someone commented, just that I wasn't trying to ask for comments or backslapping, because I'm not. Anyway, as usual, my response started getting much longer than was reasonable so I figure I'll just post a new post for it...
My frustration may have finally reached the boiling point from an incident at a specific blog, but it's been simmering all week from a series of attacks against me from literally all sides saying that I don't have a right to discuss size acceptance. If anything, the final incident was the least problematic and wasn't really what I was going on about in my last post. Its just getting to be too much. The institutions of Size Acceptance have long proven their uselessness. There is no support system for people who believe in this. I go out and try to speak up for it, but all I get are catty slams or dismissive condemnations. I know everyone has to deal with trolls and criticism online, but most people get support for their views. I look at other progressive causes and I want to know why fat issues can't get that same kind of cheerleading and community support. Instead, my "allies" are always looking to throw me under the bus and my critics just keep hyperventilating at having to endure someone who disagrees with them. I'm sick of it.
Refering to the specific incident that Sharon had witness, my feeling is that when some people express fat bigotry, it needs to be responded to. This stuff goes unanswered in our culture all of the time. In a thread about looking for answers for the casual acceptance of fat negativity, how is it wrong to demonstration the necessity of confronting fat hatred? I don't buy into the cliqueish attitudes of those who demand we just ignore trolls and that responding to them makes you a troll to. Fuck that! What if someone new comes to that thread and didn't get the memo and sees all of that fat hatred? What about them?
But what bothered me the most was the acqusation that if I was commenting on body issues and feminism, I wasn't listening. That by wanting to speak up and be a part of a solution, I'm just proving that I'm some kind of sexist jack-ass. I do listen. I respect the need for women's only spaces, but no where had that been suggested as one. The site is run by a man, for goodness sake. But for wanting to participate, I get smeared as some kind of mysognist. That's frustrating and hurtful and I don't know how I'm supposed to respond with out my defense being mutilated into proving her point that I'm a self-important and/or wanna-be hero. Being accused of those things should bother me, but defending myself will just be used to prove that I'm those things. So why bother?
Why bother caring? I'm not supposed to care about feminism because I'm a man. I'm not supposed to care about fat issues, because I'm fat. Or because I'm not fat enough. Or because I'm not supposed to care about other people. What am I supposed to do when all I get told is that I shouldn't care. That I don't have any right to care. That the problems are the domain of other people and I should just sit down and shut up and let other people deal with them. I don't want to do that. I don't want to speak out against gender equality to be a hero to women. I want to do it because its the right thing to do. I don't want to spread fat liberation to get laid. I do it because I feel its right. I've always felt the problem in our culture is that too many people look at the structural problems of our society as someone else's problem. Too many people don't want to care. They want to shrug off responsibility and retreat into their own lives. I don't like that. But I never expected that everyone would just be telling me to do that. Telling me not to care. Telling me to shut up. "Allies" and critics alike. What's the point in trying to change the world if no one seems to want you to try?
Again, I know this is all rhetorical whining. I'm not asking for validation or vindication. I'm just frustrated and wondering why I should even bother. I've got mine, after all. So why should I care?
My frustration may have finally reached the boiling point from an incident at a specific blog, but it's been simmering all week from a series of attacks against me from literally all sides saying that I don't have a right to discuss size acceptance. If anything, the final incident was the least problematic and wasn't really what I was going on about in my last post. Its just getting to be too much. The institutions of Size Acceptance have long proven their uselessness. There is no support system for people who believe in this. I go out and try to speak up for it, but all I get are catty slams or dismissive condemnations. I know everyone has to deal with trolls and criticism online, but most people get support for their views. I look at other progressive causes and I want to know why fat issues can't get that same kind of cheerleading and community support. Instead, my "allies" are always looking to throw me under the bus and my critics just keep hyperventilating at having to endure someone who disagrees with them. I'm sick of it.
Refering to the specific incident that Sharon had witness, my feeling is that when some people express fat bigotry, it needs to be responded to. This stuff goes unanswered in our culture all of the time. In a thread about looking for answers for the casual acceptance of fat negativity, how is it wrong to demonstration the necessity of confronting fat hatred? I don't buy into the cliqueish attitudes of those who demand we just ignore trolls and that responding to them makes you a troll to. Fuck that! What if someone new comes to that thread and didn't get the memo and sees all of that fat hatred? What about them?
But what bothered me the most was the acqusation that if I was commenting on body issues and feminism, I wasn't listening. That by wanting to speak up and be a part of a solution, I'm just proving that I'm some kind of sexist jack-ass. I do listen. I respect the need for women's only spaces, but no where had that been suggested as one. The site is run by a man, for goodness sake. But for wanting to participate, I get smeared as some kind of mysognist. That's frustrating and hurtful and I don't know how I'm supposed to respond with out my defense being mutilated into proving her point that I'm a self-important and/or wanna-be hero. Being accused of those things should bother me, but defending myself will just be used to prove that I'm those things. So why bother?
Why bother caring? I'm not supposed to care about feminism because I'm a man. I'm not supposed to care about fat issues, because I'm fat. Or because I'm not fat enough. Or because I'm not supposed to care about other people. What am I supposed to do when all I get told is that I shouldn't care. That I don't have any right to care. That the problems are the domain of other people and I should just sit down and shut up and let other people deal with them. I don't want to do that. I don't want to speak out against gender equality to be a hero to women. I want to do it because its the right thing to do. I don't want to spread fat liberation to get laid. I do it because I feel its right. I've always felt the problem in our culture is that too many people look at the structural problems of our society as someone else's problem. Too many people don't want to care. They want to shrug off responsibility and retreat into their own lives. I don't like that. But I never expected that everyone would just be telling me to do that. Telling me not to care. Telling me to shut up. "Allies" and critics alike. What's the point in trying to change the world if no one seems to want you to try?
Again, I know this is all rhetorical whining. I'm not asking for validation or vindication. I'm just frustrated and wondering why I should even bother. I've got mine, after all. So why should I care?
1.11.2007
Why bother?
I wanted to write a post today about the hideous Lifetime movie "To Be Fat Like Me" and its message of pity and thin-superiority as a brave thin girl teaches us why thin people are the coolest and fat women are gluttons who we should pity instead of hate and how this is an enlightened message. But I just don't care anymore.
Nobody cares about Size Acceptance. People keep attacking fat people and if you speak out against them, you'll just get attacked for speaking out. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of caring about other people. Everyone tells me that everything should be purely subjectivist and whatever anyone wants is okay even though everyone wants to hate fat people so where does that leave me? I'm supposed to not care because I'm accepting of myself? Because I've found someone who is accepting? I'm supposed to stop caring about other people? I don't want to do that. I want to care. But everywhere I go I'm told I'm not supposed to care. I'm insulting for caring, or at least for saying so. I'm told I don't listen. I'm told I just don't understand. That if I just put everyone else first, I'd understand why I should just keep my mouth shut and not care.
I don't want to do that. But what's the point in trying if no one wants you to? If every time you open your mouth you're insulted for doing so. I'm sick of it. Maybe I should just care about myself. Retreat to my own life and stop caring when other people attack what I believe in. Just let it be everyone else's problem.
I'm just so sick of it. Everywhere I go I'm told I don't have a right to speak. I'm too fat. I'm not fat enough. I'm a man so I must not get it. I'm a feminist, so I must just be a fool. I'm just sick of it. I'm sick of caring.
Look, this is all rehtorical. Don't comment to this thread. My self-pity is hardly worth your time. This isn't a cry for help or a plea for validation. Its just frustration from being told over and over that I don't get a voice on Size Acceptance and that people who oppose it or who denigrate fat people have more of a right to speak up than I do. I just keep getting told to be quiet and I'm sick of wanting to speak out.
Nobody cares about Size Acceptance. People keep attacking fat people and if you speak out against them, you'll just get attacked for speaking out. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of caring about other people. Everyone tells me that everything should be purely subjectivist and whatever anyone wants is okay even though everyone wants to hate fat people so where does that leave me? I'm supposed to not care because I'm accepting of myself? Because I've found someone who is accepting? I'm supposed to stop caring about other people? I don't want to do that. I want to care. But everywhere I go I'm told I'm not supposed to care. I'm insulting for caring, or at least for saying so. I'm told I don't listen. I'm told I just don't understand. That if I just put everyone else first, I'd understand why I should just keep my mouth shut and not care.
I don't want to do that. But what's the point in trying if no one wants you to? If every time you open your mouth you're insulted for doing so. I'm sick of it. Maybe I should just care about myself. Retreat to my own life and stop caring when other people attack what I believe in. Just let it be everyone else's problem.
I'm just so sick of it. Everywhere I go I'm told I don't have a right to speak. I'm too fat. I'm not fat enough. I'm a man so I must not get it. I'm a feminist, so I must just be a fool. I'm just sick of it. I'm sick of caring.
Look, this is all rehtorical. Don't comment to this thread. My self-pity is hardly worth your time. This isn't a cry for help or a plea for validation. Its just frustration from being told over and over that I don't get a voice on Size Acceptance and that people who oppose it or who denigrate fat people have more of a right to speak up than I do. I just keep getting told to be quiet and I'm sick of wanting to speak out.
12.19.2006
So, wait... its not because of fat people?
A stunning development out of Canada over the weekend with regards to diabetes research. Now, I have to caution that while this is encouragine news, it is also still very early in the research process. That said, a team of Canadian scientists have been able to cure Diabetes in mice. Not manage, cure.
Their research looked at the nervous system instead of the body's immune system as most have assumed was the key factor. By counteracting damaged pain neurons in the Pancreas, they essentually jump start the body's insulin production and reduced insulin resistance. While its not a perminant cure, it was sustain for as long as four months. While treatment for Diabetes would still be ongoing, it would be vastly more effective and far less burdensome. They still have to show that the treatments on mice can work on humans, and that is a major jump. But this is an enormous amount of promise coming out of nowhere. It also sharply challenges the "weight control" means of "treating" diabetes. That may not even remotely be linked to the actual causes. At the very least, by challenging conventional wisdom, this research could lead to major improvement in treating a disease which does impact the lives of many fat people. I'm cautious, but hopeful all the same.
Their research looked at the nervous system instead of the body's immune system as most have assumed was the key factor. By counteracting damaged pain neurons in the Pancreas, they essentually jump start the body's insulin production and reduced insulin resistance. While its not a perminant cure, it was sustain for as long as four months. While treatment for Diabetes would still be ongoing, it would be vastly more effective and far less burdensome. They still have to show that the treatments on mice can work on humans, and that is a major jump. But this is an enormous amount of promise coming out of nowhere. It also sharply challenges the "weight control" means of "treating" diabetes. That may not even remotely be linked to the actual causes. At the very least, by challenging conventional wisdom, this research could lead to major improvement in treating a disease which does impact the lives of many fat people. I'm cautious, but hopeful all the same.
12.18.2006
How stupid do you think we are?
The answer out of the UK, apparently, being very stupid. Yet again, the anti-fat crusaders have demonstrated their complete inability to understand reality. Again, we are told that the problem is that fat people just don't know that they aren't supposed to be fat. The remedy for this non-existant problem? Warning labels. No, not on food, though that'd be pretty stupid. No, its been suggested that we need warning labels on our CLOTHES. It reminds me of the suggestion (I think by infamous hate-mongerer Mikey Fumento) that plus-size clothing stores were the moral equivilant of crack houses.
This goes beyond the foolishness of the anti-fat people movement positioning themselves as the new anti-smoking (and demonstrating their lack of understanding of the differences between the correlations in both circumstances). Labeling clothing is a mean-spirited suggestion with no chance of success. Its only being made to generate press attention, but I don't think its fair to dismiss it out of hand. What it shows is that for all of their constant screaming in the media, for all the billions of dollars spent promoting weight loss products, for all of the petty insults fat people endure in their lives, the message from the anti-fat camp is that they think we just don't know any better. It is patronizing and insulting, and betrays the motivation for their scorn for fat people.
To them, its all very easy. Just don't be fat. They really seem to think its that easy. To them, anyone who hasn't just stopped being fat, they must be a fool or absurdly lazy. They think we're either too stupid to lose weight or too stupid to know we should. Either way, the depth of this contempt is alarming.
Fat people know we aren't "supposed" to be fat. We know we're supposed to lose weight. We know how we're supposed to do it. The problem is, none of that works. The problem is, all of those "Supposed to's" aren't nearly as factually based as their promoters would have us believe. Fat people have incredible will power. To resist the call takes a great deal of committment and effort. And for those who haven't come to acceptances, they are still demonstrating towering will power by repeatedly waging a losing fight in the hopes of meeting the expectations that have been drawn for them. Yet we are constantly called failures and demeaned as idiots.
This is what the anti-fat establishment thinks of us. They think we're so stupid that just repeating themselves is an intelligent response to their make-believe epidemic. We are dealing with people who hold us in such low regard as to respond to us like we are drooling fools. This is the opposition to fatness and this is what they think of us.
This goes beyond the foolishness of the anti-fat people movement positioning themselves as the new anti-smoking (and demonstrating their lack of understanding of the differences between the correlations in both circumstances). Labeling clothing is a mean-spirited suggestion with no chance of success. Its only being made to generate press attention, but I don't think its fair to dismiss it out of hand. What it shows is that for all of their constant screaming in the media, for all the billions of dollars spent promoting weight loss products, for all of the petty insults fat people endure in their lives, the message from the anti-fat camp is that they think we just don't know any better. It is patronizing and insulting, and betrays the motivation for their scorn for fat people.
To them, its all very easy. Just don't be fat. They really seem to think its that easy. To them, anyone who hasn't just stopped being fat, they must be a fool or absurdly lazy. They think we're either too stupid to lose weight or too stupid to know we should. Either way, the depth of this contempt is alarming.
Fat people know we aren't "supposed" to be fat. We know we're supposed to lose weight. We know how we're supposed to do it. The problem is, none of that works. The problem is, all of those "Supposed to's" aren't nearly as factually based as their promoters would have us believe. Fat people have incredible will power. To resist the call takes a great deal of committment and effort. And for those who haven't come to acceptances, they are still demonstrating towering will power by repeatedly waging a losing fight in the hopes of meeting the expectations that have been drawn for them. Yet we are constantly called failures and demeaned as idiots.
This is what the anti-fat establishment thinks of us. They think we're so stupid that just repeating themselves is an intelligent response to their make-believe epidemic. We are dealing with people who hold us in such low regard as to respond to us like we are drooling fools. This is the opposition to fatness and this is what they think of us.
11.30.2006
Go Here
I've been bogged down at work so I haven't had much opportunity to write. So, I thought it might be a good idea to spotlight a few people who are writing things worth reading.
Do I HAVE to hate Old Navy? is a MySpace blog by a woman who recently discovered that Old Navy carries Plus Size clothing but slightly more recently discovered that her local Old Navy was discontinuing Plus Size clothing. While I was encouraged that Old Navy tentatively expanded to includ Plus Sizes, they've supported the move with no promotion and it seems that when no one came to something no one knew existed, they've decided to call the effort a failure. Old Navy needs to be called out for this and called on to promote their plus-size wares. Fat clothing should stop being marginalized. This can make Old Navy money. I'd like to know why they seem to think fat women's money isn't worth as much as every else's. If you're on MySpace, I'd suggesting adding her as a Friend.
Junk Food Science is something you already know about, but its worth mentioning all the same. Writer (and Red No. 3 reader) Sandy Szwarc recently started the blog and has already done some must-read writing. I don't agree with Sandy about everything, but I'm nothing but happy to have her as an ally on fat acceptance. She brings a much needed perspective and expertise to the discussion. She does a great job debunking the plethora of nonsense stories and studies about fat and food that the media dutifully reports all the time. Bookmark her site and read it regularly. Its well worth your time.
Finally, I'd like to suggest a visit to Big Moves. Both the website, and one of their shows. I've been fortunate enough to see two Big Moves performances and they were really great shows. Their "Heavy Metal Holidays" is coming up on December 10, and I'm looking forward to it.
Do I HAVE to hate Old Navy? is a MySpace blog by a woman who recently discovered that Old Navy carries Plus Size clothing but slightly more recently discovered that her local Old Navy was discontinuing Plus Size clothing. While I was encouraged that Old Navy tentatively expanded to includ Plus Sizes, they've supported the move with no promotion and it seems that when no one came to something no one knew existed, they've decided to call the effort a failure. Old Navy needs to be called out for this and called on to promote their plus-size wares. Fat clothing should stop being marginalized. This can make Old Navy money. I'd like to know why they seem to think fat women's money isn't worth as much as every else's. If you're on MySpace, I'd suggesting adding her as a Friend.
Junk Food Science is something you already know about, but its worth mentioning all the same. Writer (and Red No. 3 reader) Sandy Szwarc recently started the blog and has already done some must-read writing. I don't agree with Sandy about everything, but I'm nothing but happy to have her as an ally on fat acceptance. She brings a much needed perspective and expertise to the discussion. She does a great job debunking the plethora of nonsense stories and studies about fat and food that the media dutifully reports all the time. Bookmark her site and read it regularly. Its well worth your time.
Finally, I'd like to suggest a visit to Big Moves. Both the website, and one of their shows. I've been fortunate enough to see two Big Moves performances and they were really great shows. Their "Heavy Metal Holidays" is coming up on December 10, and I'm looking forward to it.
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