Fat Chicks Rule

In this week's news, we are stupid, depressed, poor, and living longer.

So apparently the average video gamer is 35, male, fat and depressed.  (I have to wonder what they will study next whether people who prefer Kirk are fatter than those who prefer Picard.) As someone who is part of this culture (Gamer, sci-fi nerd), I found that the culture is more open to people from different walks of life.  When I go to cons, I feel like I can be myself. Was the gamer fat and depressed *before* or *after* they started playing?

And apparently thin kids do better in school .  I'll just set fire to my two master's degrees right now and go watch me some reality TV.  And let's make sure all our kids have eating disorders before they enter kindergarten. 

Well at least we are living longer.   We play our Grand Theft Auto, watch Jackass and Live Forever!

It's still too hot in New York, and my killer whale (who's name is Buono) needs to flatten something.  Watch out CDC!

More Capitol Hill thrills

So here is a response to a few comments I received about last week's Capitol Hill Post.  Namely more details!

I met with three House staff members along with author Dr. Barbara Bruno and Blogger/Scientist Miriam Gordon.

The first staff member we met was Anna from Anthony Weiner's office (See picture below).   Weiner is my representative and Anna was awesome.  Not only was she attentive but she seemed understanding of fat issues.  Including a anecdote about thin people having high cholesterol.  She was also appalled to hear of the LeanWorks obesity calculator.  

We had a 3 hour break between meetings, so we decided to grab food and got to the Library of Congress.  We ended up in the Capitol tunnel system, walking at least a mile to what should have been a few blocks. (Image below is the capitol subway)

The next visit was with Nita Lowey's office.  Unfortunately the person on her staff who deals with health care issues wasn't available.  This was a big problem because Lowey had introduced the Stop Obesity in our Schools bill in 2006. That being said,  we gave the staff member a copy of Health at Every Size and Barbara Bruno gave her a copy of the bill, with suggested changes to a few select terms so it would be a bill to improve the health of ALL children. 

The last was Eliot Engel.  While the staff member was exceptionally nice and accommodating. She did bring up all the "obese kids" in schools.  However Barbara was quick to mention an anecdote about how she knew a fat child who felt stigmatized every time she saw a "Eradicate Childhood Obesity" banner in her school.

Whether things will go further we shall see.  I've already emailed Anna with a follow up.  However even if you can't go to the local or DC office, I urge you to contract your congressmember or senator
 urging them to remove weight-bias in health care reform.

As far as the public option goes, it won't be perfect.  No health insurance is. Between a natural proclivity for choosing profit over people, nepotism, and bureaucracy, it's sometimes hard to get actual care beyond the basics.  However, left to its own devices private health insurers will only provide coverage to what they consider healthy people (which is of course stupid, as it is people in poor health who really need the coverage).  That means no fatties, even if we are healthy.  If the insurance won't cover us but the government plan will, I say we need that public option.

Will obesity rhetoric get worse?  Oh yes.  But just keep fighting back.  Keep saying that fatties are not the reason health care costs have skyrocketed. (Any one who has "obesity related diseases" whether they are fat or not are included as "Obesity related costs.")  Contact your representives, and write every time you see fat hatred.

Workplace "Wellness"?

I spent my vacation in Vermont.  Five days of essentially doing nothing.  Not really nothing more like swimming, walking, hiking, reading, writing, eating and watching movies.  For the first time ever I had time for all.  I exercised a few hours day, read 4 books, watched 4 movies, worked on a short story and ate mostly organic meals.  Not to mention significant alone time with my DH. 

What allowed me to have enough energy to do all this and allowed my stress levels to decrease?

I didn't have to go to work. It was the lack of not having to go to my job that allowed me to do all these healthy things.  Workplace wellness happened merely because I didn't have to go to work.

This is a call to change the state of workplace wellness.   Because the problem isn't fat people.  The problem isn't your workforce knowing the difference between good nutrition or bad. The problem isn't motivation to move.  The problem is this constant harping to lose weight regardless of your health. 

But that seems completely oblivious to the CDC which is now promoting LeanWorks!  LeanWorks, brought to you by the same organization that did TWO studies that showed overweight people lived the longest, is a program to help your workforce lose weight.  Fine, it's not much different than the other stupid programs that choose weight loss over health, until I came across the Obesity Calculator.  The calculator will tell you how much money you will save if only the fatties who work for you lose weight. Which to me crosses the line from trying to make people "healthy" to right out discrimination.  It labels people unhealthy based on the flawed BMI. Meanwhile more studies are stating obesity is not a death sentence.

This new program is wrong on some many levels.
1. It's discriminatory.  Are jobs going to weigh people or demand intimate information from their personal life?   Programs like this don't encourage healthiness, they encourage companies to fire fat employees regardless of their health.
2. It's filled with factual errors as well as lack of information.  Many "Facts" have footnote numbers next to them, but I have yet to find those notes in the materials.  The $117 billion "obesity" cost has always been a shaky number.
3. It encourages disordered eating.  Healthy fat people may take it upon themselves to lose weight when they don't really need too.

You really want to make a healthy workforce, try this: decrease stress on the job. Fewer hours in a work week allows people have time to go home, make a healthy meal, exercise and have some leisure time.  Stop making people do jobs of two people, value good work, give great benefits, decent amount of vacation, personal, child care, and sick time.

In the end, LeanWorks will create hostile work environments for fat people, increase eat disorders and like most programs that focus on weight loss as indicator of health, won't make people healthier.

Another edition of the good, the bad and the ugly.

The Good.

The Fat Girl's Flea Market returns! Saturday April 4th. Donate your clothes and your time!   And be sure to actually come.  This is the best shopping experience you will ever have.

Starting on March 29th, HBO presents the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency based on popular series by Alexander McCall Smith. Beautiful Jill Scott plays Mma Ramotswe who is the only female detective in all of Botswanna.  She is also fat, so it was nice to see a fat actress in the role instead of a fat suit.

John McCain's daughter Meghan sticks it to talk show host Laura Ingraham who insults Meghan's weight instead of her politics.

The Bad

Apparently school programs to stop rampant fatness aren't enough, they'll now be offering free eating disorder lessons.  There are also no fat dancers.  Okay they aren't giving ED lessons, but you keep pressuring kids to be thin that's going to happen.  The writer Dorene Internicola (who's email address I have yet to find) was nice to mention that "There are very few fat dancers" (At the very end of the article.)

Correction: there are very few fat dancers in the mainstream.  Yeah you see one or two on Dancing with the Stars, but we have yet to have the Big Moves/ The Glamazons power hour. You claim to be a reporter, perhaps you should learn how to be one.

The Ugly

When plus size Samantha Scafe contacted airline Jetstar on whether she would have to buy a second seat, they told her no. The story changed as the flight got closer.  She was forced to buy a second seat, except the two seats weren't together and they did the same thing on the way home. It isn't just Jetstar, this is a common practice of Southwest to tell fat people they only have to buy one seat until they get to the airport or have to get a connecting flight or have to fly home. I believe in one person, one fare.   And if you are forced to buy two seats, perhaps they should be together.

I was going to wash my hands of it.

I originally was going to stop posting about the Rudd center who kept claiming they were so against weight bias and swear that they don't pressure people to lose weight nor do they go on assumptions.  Then I was sent from the Rudd Center this great assumption, I mean Op ed piece about how New York MUST pass the tax on soda.  For the sake of the children, the diabetics and the fatties.  

On a personal level this tax will almost never affect me.  I don't drink soda.  I buy organic root beer maybe 2-3 times a year and I buy soda for a yearly holiday party. 

My problem is the assumptions from both the state of New York and the Rudd Center.  Fat people must be fat because they can't stop drinking soda.  If only they would just stop drinking it.  I don't drink it, haven't for about 10 years or so. So can I get a tax exemption for the $20 of soda I buy per year for thin and fat friends at my party?  

Now let's talk about diet soda, shall we?  Studies are showing that your body reacts to diet soda worse than sugar.  Not to mention nutrasweet and splenda aren't exactly proven to be healthy and natural.

You want a healthy state, try this: free health care for all.  Every single person who needs health care should get it.  No one should have to choose between seeing the doctor and rent.

And we can pay for it with a tax on diet soda.  

New Era for Change, for us too

Not only is today Martin Luther King day but tomorrow an African-American will be sworn in as president.  It shows that things change if we are persistent enough.  A lot of people think that fat people having the same human rights as everyone else is a joke.  That all we really need to do is stop eating donuts and go for a run.   We all know that isn't true.  Fat is genetic, just like tall or short.  The same genetics that allows my thin friend to eat anything she wants and never gain while I'd eat less than her and gain.  Regardless of what you eat, is it right to deny you health care, jobs, opportunity,  assume you are of low moral character just because you are fat?  Meanwhile studies have shown time and time again that meat on your bones is okay, that yoyo dieting may be the cause of a lot of ailments and that lesser calories than your body needs doesn't result in long term weight loss.  That this push for thinness has more to do with the diet and drug industry making money than health.

So tomorrow we get a new president, who talks about change.  President Obama is offering the Citizen's Briefing Book that allows you to vote up or down on issues.  Search obesity, vote down fat hatred and vote up being size positive. 

In honor

I just found out that  Jeanne Toombs has  passed on from complications of  pneumonia.   Jeanne was from Massachusetts and was involved getting the height/weight law on the books.  It would have never been done without her.  I was privileged to have meet her on many occasions.  She was wonderful, brilliant, and had marvelous energy.  She will be missed.  Apparently she would have liked money donated to NAAFA in lieu of flowers.

Laws like the one in Massachusetts are extremely important as fat discrimination is as high as ever.

Fat women are more likely to be given c-sections about 50%, even though in the 70's this rate was lower;   weight discrimination is as worse as racial discrimination and fat women as less likely to be tested for certain cancers (which I'm sure will then be blamed on their being fat.)  We are told we must diet, must eat a certain way, our kids are picked on,  must fit into a mold we don't belong and most shop in the basement.

So let's remember Jeanne and fight discrimination in any form: on the job, at the doctor's office, even at the clothing store. 

FATA

Short blog post today because I'm tired.

I came back from Fat and the Academy which BTW was awesome.  The speakers were Katie LeBesco, Paul McAleer, Pattie Thomas, Paul Campos, Susan Stinson and Marilyn Wann.  There were also performances from To The Earth (belly dancing) and Royal Renegades, a drag King Group.  The weekend was very empowering. But as I am currently brain dead I will be posting more about this in a few days.  

The Food Police

Employees told: Lose weight, cash in

While I am not against offering healthy food and gyms at work or even at school, I found it downright dangerous to push people to lose weight.  People may try dangerous dieting to get these incentives.   Another article mentions a challenge to lose 25 lbs by January. 

Soon the food police will come to your home and make sure you are counting calories.

Meanwhile, the figure of 26,000 dying a year from obesity (compared to 400,000 originally lied about) still stands.

Wal-Mart

Although I list Wal-Mart in my book and give them a relatively high grade (a B for their decent sizes and business style), I do not like them as a company and I flat out refuse to buy anything from them.   I understand that many people may have this chain as their only option for purchasing clothes. I also understand that living in NYC, I have many  options for shopping that don't require me to drive 50 miles out of the way for an alternative to Wal-Mart.

That said, the New York Times recently wrote an article about an internal memo from Wal-Mart that got leaked:

"An internal memo sent to  Wal-Mart's board of directors proposes numerous ways to hold down spending on health care and other benefits while seeking to minimize damage to the retailer's reputation. Among the recommendations are hiring more part-time workers and discouraging unhealthy people from working at Wal-Mart."

Read the rest of the article here. (You'll need to sign in).

This could have a profound effect on the employment of workers who are "overweight" by AMA standards.  This could even conceivably produce a trend where people who are considered "unhealthy" (whether they are or not) don't deserve jobs.  Why do I think is? Like it or not (I don't), what Wal-Mart does influences other retailers and other employers. It's been argued that Wal-Mart's reliance on the lowest wage earners both for labor and sales has helped keep our wages low all across the country. That's great for Wal-Mart's stock holders, but less great (even lousy) for the rest of us.

I urge people to contact Wal-Mart and tell them that you're fat (or support size acceptance) and that if this becomes company policy, that you will no longer shop at Wal-Mart.

E-mail feedback form.
 Submit feedback to corporate headquarters 

Via mail

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Bentonville, Arkansas 72716-8611.

By phone
1-800-WAL-MART (1-800-925-6278).