First off, please pledge money, loving and support for the documentary "Fat Girl's Float."
And Lincoln University has changed their fat discrimination policy, sort of. Fat people will no longer be forced to take a "Fitness for life" class, but it will be rolled into one course for *all* students. Many colleges require some kind of PE course (as I mentioned last week, I aced the course I took in college.) Even though the head of the college and the head of their gym wanted to keep it, faculty overwhelmingly voted to get rid of the requirement, calling it discriminatory. That being said, Fat students will still be targeted. So there will be no more outright discrimination but expect a fair amount of bullying in the form of help.
Apparently 1 in 10 fat people either don't know they are fat or think they are okay at their size (the horror!). Actually what I think is that 1 in 10 of their subjects have body image disorders. They wanted to be a thin person, so they saw a thin person.
So are the Biggest losers actually winnersr? No. One "winner" not only regained the weight but admitted to using unhealthy methods to lose weight. He probably wasn't the only one. I found the Biggest Loser stupid, insipid and dangerous. Even if you are pro-weight loss, most weight loss experts think that healthy weight loss is at 1-2 lb per week.
"Apparently 1 in 10 fat people either don't know they are fat or think they are okay at their size..." study is crap. Did you read this bit in the article?:
"Participants who didn't think they were obese were less likely to go to a physician ... Among those who had a doctor visit, nearly 40 percent of the people with misperceptions about body size said their doctor mentioned they needed to lose weight. That's compared with about 70 percent of those in the know about their obesity."
It's not great that these people don't know what their body looks like - we should all be aware of our bodies. But the implication of this section seems to be that these delusional fatties should go to the doctor so they can be told to lose weight, fatty. How tempting!
Posted by: Frances | December 07, 2009 at 11:36 PM
Re: Fatties being too stupid to know we're fat. Um, yeah, no. I know that the medical community as a whole thinks I need to lose weight. I, however, know my body and my health, and am perfectly healthy at my current weight. Luckily I have a doctor who backs me up.
Posted by: Meems | December 08, 2009 at 01:26 AM
Pfft. That whole "Fats too stupid to know they are fat." I took a survey a while ago that was obviously bised to get this result. I think they probably asked if people were happy at the size they were, and if people said yes the people in charge went "OH NOES."
Maybe the results shoudl be "1 in 10 fat people are happy in their own skin, and that is AWESOME"
Posted by: Anna | December 08, 2009 at 07:07 PM