Fun and love in the face of adversity.

All of you fat activists out there we now have our own social network: the Fat Activists Network.  Come and share a virtual cup of joe with other activists.  It's just starting out but it is growing quickly. 

Finally something useful from the Journal Obesity. An entire supplement about fat bias.  (All the articles are free).  It's nice to see this but it goes back to my post about the Rudd Center.  You can't have it both way.  You can't say "Fat is Bad!" then say "We should be nice to fat people".

And a personal anecdote. While waiting forever in my doctor's office, I looked at the medical literature and apparently weight loss surgery the cure all to everything does not actually cure Sleep Apnea.  So besides diabetes which can be helped with proper diet and not necessarily with weight loss, what benefits does WLS have? 

Comments

[marian]

"You can't say "Fat is Bad!" then say "We should be nice to fat people"."

Of course you can. The same way you can say "Tumors are bad!" and then say "We should be nice to people with cancer." Calling a condition bad says nothing about the person who has it. It's the fat activists who conflate the two concepts, not everyone else.

[vesta44]

WLS may (I'm not convinced of this, but others are) have some small benefits for a few people, but I think the major benefit is to the surgeons who perform it.
marian - calling the condition of fat "bad" leads to calling fat people bad. Why else do you think fat people are so reviled in this society? According to the people who think fat is "bad", fat people are lazy, ugly, smelly, stupid, and have no will-power at all. Fat activists aren't the ones conflating the two things, fat-phobes are the ones with the problem.

[Paula]

Fighting the factors that cause obesity, which is what Rudd Center does, is not the same as saying "fat is bad" that's an incredibly defensive comment. You can work to eliminate weight bias and fight obesity at the same time. Besides they've wouldn't say "fat is bad" everyone has fat on their body that would be like saying "wide hips are bad" or something.

[marian]

Right, so the solution is to throw the baby out with the bathwater, then, and deny the very real, well-established health consequences because some people might hurt your feelings? The fact that that some people might say mean things about fat people doesn't change the fact that the original statement is wrong - yes, it is absolutely possible to think having too much fat is bad - it is bad for your health - while still thinking fat people deserve to be treated well. There is no conflict there.

[living400lbs]

Re: Sleep Apnea, it can be caused or made worse by fat, but, there are also skinny people who have it too. My sleep doc took one look at my airway and told me I'd be a "skinny snorer" like my father. :)

[wriggles]

Saying that criticising the hypocrisy of 'obesity' researchers = fat people don't suffer from disease, is an argument that is not being made. If you cannot understand correctly what is being said, your disagreement is something you've already decided ahead of time.

If we say that we are being stigmatised, then we are and we do not require you marian, or anyone else to interpret what we feel and have experienced times without number. If you don't like the truth, then it is you that has the problem. Defensiveness is when you are scared of the truth and arm yourself with the shield of prejudice.

How arrogant of you and others to think we need you to tell us what has and is happening to us.

Using the disease model to describe a large number of people without any health issues is inaccurate. Even if that hurts the feelings of the Paul Rudd centre.

[melissa]

come to my website sign the guess book and share your stories about being fat!! www.speakoutaboutfat.webs.com