Fat Chicks Rule

Fat kids again part 7 billion.

First off, Happy 5th Anniversary to this blog. I've been blogging a lot longer than I have ever done a diet. So kudos to me :-)

I'm really tired of the stupidity of "Let's Move."  Not only might it take food from the hungry, it most likely won't work and be a colossal waste of time and money.  Even the creator of the Zone diet thinks it will fail. Granted not for the same reasons I do.  Sure kids need their vegetables and play but the better idea would be to use the money to make sure all schools have gym classes and healthy and tasty lunches.  

Oh, and guess what, if you are fat, and your parents are fat, they are to blame. They were bad parents. I don't care if you're on the honor roll. Your parents made you fat. Therefore, they are unfit parents, you need to be put in a foster home with some thin folks. It doesn't matter if it isn't a loving home and your uprooted. As long as your thin! 

And the way to remedy this it to join a gym. Not just any gym but Anytime fitness.  Yes, pay your hard earned money to not be an embarrassment to your child!

Or how about the opposite? Hate your fat child instead! A new study in the journal Obesity reveals that parents offen are harder on fatter children. This study showed that parents would more likely to help a thinner child buy a car than a fatter one.

I doubt Michelle Obama is reading this. But Let's Move will cause eating disorders and heap undeserved shame on both parents and children.  And fatness will not be cured. There have been fat people since the dawn of time or at least as 25,000 years. We are not going anywhere and some of us are tired of being ostresized.

Awesome Body Politics Conference In NY!

Breaking Boundaries:
Body Politics and the Dynamics of Difference

a Women's History Conference at Sarah Lawrence College
Bronxville, New York
March 4-5, 2011
Free and Open to the Public

Keynote Speaker:

Marilyn Wann
Fat Activist and Author of Fat!So?

When it comes to "the body," the definition of normal is fluid and changes across cultures and time. In each context, there are those who have been exploited and oppressed because they do not fit prevailing notions of beauty. This conference will explore the body politics around those with "deviant" bodies.

This conference will address these and other questions:

What are the dominant narratives and perceptions about beauty and bodies? How do these perceptions affect public policy around issues of health, civil rights, education, and accessibility? How do those whose bodies do not fit into the "proper" cultural norms challenge attitudes, laws and perceptions? How have they negotiated for and found power in unwelcoming environments, both now and in the past? How do the categories of race, class, gender, sexuality, age and disability complicate prevailing ideas about embodiment? Are there and have there been communities and cultures that have welcomed those whose bodies are currently perceived as deviant in dominant popular discourse? And, what is the relationship between promoting and continuing the dominant discourse and capitalist consumer culture?

We invite activists, scholars and artists in all fields to propose papers, panels, workshops, performances, and exhibits. Proposals for panels are especially welcomed, but individual papers will also be considered.

Specific topics may include, but are not limited to:

Representations of deviant bodies in popular culture
Social justice and fat and disability activism
Intersectionality: race, gender, class, sexuality and the body
HAES: Health at Every Size
Stigma
Feminism and the body
Social construction of disability
Objectification and commodification of the deviant body
Fiction and the deviant body
Language and the body
Deviant bodies across cultures and time

Please email a brief abstract and c.v./resume to:

Tara James
Women's History Graduate Program
Sarah Lawrence College
Bronxville, NY 10708
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 914-395-2405

Deadline December, 3 2010

Damned on both sides of the aisle

Short post today. I had no internet over the weekend (my house was in the vicinity of a macroburst (no damage)).  So I have to go with something easy -- pointing out that Glenn Beck is a disgusting "human" being.

On a recent show, Glenn Beck complained about Michelle Obama's Let's Move program. For about five seconds I agreed with him until he added we should just let fat people die. Unfortunately the left 'based media response wasn't "you're horrible, how could you wish people would die" but that the obesity really is a killer. So we must do something about those poor fat people or they will die!

Both sides have a problem with the same issue: stereotypes. Beck envisions the stereotype of the fattie on the sofa eating bon-bons.  The leftie journalist sees fat people as victims who don't know how to eat right. If they only ate fresh organic vegetables, didn't eat french fries and listened to NPR they would be beautiful and slender (I am an fat (medically speaking OBESE) person who eats organic vegetables, no french fries and listens to NPR). Again I agree that people should eat their veggies, eat less junk food but let's focus it on ALL people not just fat ones.

BTW, Wonk room, if you are making claims about fatness, you ought check your sources and not link the summary of Let's Move.

And Glen Beck, you are a useless despicable person who contributes nothing to society. If you died today, the earth would still turn, and the world would be a better place.

Is losing weight actually bad for your health and a sad note.

A study in Japan shows that as people lose weight, their body releases persistent organic pollutants which were stored in their fat cells. These toxins can cause diabetes, heart disease, cancer and dementia. Anyone recognize these disease?  All of them are blamed on being fat. And with a 95% - 98% dieting failure weight. Many of these people who have lost weight, gain it back and when they get these diseases it will be blamed not on weight loss/gain but being fat.

BMI isn't really a good way to measure an individual person.

"If you fall into the “healthy weight” or “underweight” range, you can easily be lulled into a false sense of security. But thinness is not necessarily healthy — recall the 97-pound weakling from the Charles Atlas ads of yore. A low B.M.I. could be indicative of malnutrition, anorexia, cancer or a wasting disease. On the other hand, if you are an athlete or body builder, your B.M.I. could mistakenly put you in the range for overweight or obese."

That being said. I also don't think measuring body fat also will tell you if someone is going to get a disease. Especially with this new study indicating that weight loss might actually be harmful. Best to eat right and exercise and accept whatever size your body picks. Where have I heard that before. Oh yes, score another for Health at Every Size. (HAES)

And a sad note, Judy Freespirit, fat and lesbian rights activist has passed on. She was a founding member of the Fat Underground who brought fat acceptance into the civil rights spotlight. Share your thoughts about her wonderful life and impact on the fat acceptance community.

Diet drugs again

When I talk about diet drugs, I often have the same mantra: "No diet drug has been proven to work in the long run and some are dangerous to your health."

Well, I'm repeating myself again (and fairly certain I've given the mantra about this drug before) for the drug Sibutramine known by the brand name Meridia which apparently can cause an increased likelihood of heart attacks and strokes according to a study by the New England Journal of Medicine (who are now asking it be removed from the market.)

Actually the New England Journal of Medicine is super slow to react. Eight years ago, the consumer group Public Citizen asked the same thing citing deaths and cardiovascular side effects.

Even though it seems the pharmaceutical industry would like to experiment on us, it looks like Americans at least are weary of taking new pills.  And in July the FDA denied the new diet drug Qnexa (Thanks in part to Council on Size and Weight Discrimination's Lynn McAfee.) 

The worst part about this whole diet drug debacle is that when people die from these drugs, I'll bet their fatness is blamed. 

So let's say it together. "No diet drug has been proven to work in the long run and some are dangerous to your health."