Fat Chicks Rule

Smile for Big Brother

Last week I posted about how Arkansas' BMI program wasted money and did little, this week there another debacle in action in San Antonio, TX. It seems they got a small grant (only 2 million dollars) to monitor kids food consumption. When I say monitor I mean monitor. Barcodes on lunch trays, recorded before and after kids eat. What is left over and what is eaten. 

I'm not sure what bothered me the most about this. The obsessive nannying, the invasion of privacy (guess what just because you are under 18 doesn't mean you have no privacy rights!) or the waste of 2 million dollars.

I think it's the money (Although I can't believe both a parent and a school would do this, then again if it were my kid I would tell them to mess up the results: get extra mash potatoes and shaped them into a middle finger.) Back to the money, the 2 fucking million dollars. People including children go hungry or are food insecure (that's the idea that they aren't sure they will have enough money to eat). Not in India-- here. I bet that two million would go some way towards making sure no child went hungry. And if San Antonio would like to look at Arkansas, programs to reduce a child's BMI fail. And what if they discover children are eating "too much" at lunch, will they be forced to consume less calories like three cheese sticks and a cup of fruit 

Yes, that is one student's complaint about the not only unappetizing but lack of food they were receiving due to the Health Kids Act.  And the World Health Organization despite their focus of fatness is also focusing on the 100 million children that are underweight. 

So 2 million bucks for Big Brother while kids still go hungry. 

Arkansas wastes our time and money and Some Doctors think fat women don't deserve care.

In 2003 Arkansas created a health bill to make fat kids thin. Then governor Mike Huckabee who had lost 100 lbs after being diagnosed with diabetes wanted a "lean" and "healthy" Arkansas. Some claim he had weight loss surgery which he denied. He has also since gained the weight back. Anyway, under the new rules Arkansas schools would send home BMI screenings and report cards, fewer vending machines in school, limit junk food and increase physical activity.

The results? Some eight years later? A huge waste of time and money. Not only are fat kids still fat there has been very little increase in healthy behaviors. In fact kids are consuming more junk food. 

Now look at this waste of time and money in Arkansas and look at Let's Move. While Arkansas was more harsh, both programs prefer that children get thin rather than healthy. Stigma against fat people is in all walks of life and a recent study by the Journal of Health Communication points out that fat people are often portrayed negatively in media articles (i.e. the headless fattie.)

Obese individuals are frequently stigmatized in online news photographs; this phenomenon has important implications for public perceptions of obese persons and may reinforce pervasive prejudice and discrimination.

Meanwhile in South Florida, some OB/GYN doctors have decided that women who weigh over 200 lbs don't deserve any care. 

Fifteen obstetrics-gynecology practices out of 105 polled by the Sun Sentinel said they have set weight cut-offs for new patients starting at 200 pounds or based on measures of obesity — and turn down women who are heavier...  "People don't realize the risk we're taking by taking care of these patients," said Dr. Albert Triana, whose two-physician practice in South Miami declines patients classified as obese. "There's more risk of something going wrong and more risk of getting sued. Everything is more complicated with an obese patient in GYN surgeries and in [pregnancies]."

So the doctors have assumed no matter what that fat=high risk. I have to wonder if these same doctors don't see smokers  as high risk patients as well? A doctor should see a patient first before deciding they can't treat them. And if you are in OB/GYN who can't handle high risk pregnancy, do ALL pregnant women a favor and find another field. No one needs a doctor who is more worried about lawsuits than caring for a patient. Sometimes women seem low risk in the beginning and have complications at the end. What do you tell them "Oh sorry, I don't do high risk, you are on your own." 

 

Movement! Fat Shame! And put your fetus on a diet!

Busy week for me, so short post of some news of the week...

First off I will bring you some good news. I have mentioned many times on this blog the importance of exercise. CBS news brings you 12 tips for fat people to exercise. This is based on Jeanette DePatie, book, The Fat Chick Works Out! Movement is important for all bodies. Remember do what you can. You don't have to run a marathon (unless you want to.) Number 1o on the list is start slow. Right now I'm training for an all day 8 mile hike in July. 

Check out Amy Farrell on the Colbert Report  as she promotes her book Fat Shame. I haven't read it yet, but I'm looking forward to it and will post a review here.

 

Occasionally I have joked on this blog that we will one day they will put fetuses on diets and that we will have eating disorders right in the womb. It's a joke no longer. Doctors in the UK are doing a drug trial of giving fat pregnant women the diabetes drug Metformin so they don't have fat children. The Metformin would stop the fetus from absorbing too much food from the mother who being fat is obviously an out of control eater and will not stop eating until her fetus is 100 lbs.

And my essay on Glee was mentioned in Jezebel. 

 

The worst diet in the world

Sign on the subway

My body is at the lowest track, 
With the stink of piss and rats.
No scars, no fat, no unhappy.
Four white men will end the stigma.
They will make me thin
With one small knife in my gut.
The bacteria and urine won't mix.
My stomach already wounded by dieting
Won't survive,
And I will die on the subway platform
Surrounded by a bikini
and how I lost 140 lbs that saved my life

(c) Lara Frater, 2011

Three years ago, Marissa Jones was labeled "Britian's fattest teenager." (I bet she felt great to get that title.) She weighted 475 lbs. Doctors told her that if she didn't lose weight she would die. They pressured her to have surgery, which she did. In late 2009 she regretted having the surgery but now things have gotten worse. Malissa is terrified of eating, she can't carry a baby to term and is anorexic. Now doctors are telling her if she doesn't gain weight, she'll die. And no matter what happens, it is always her fault. It is her fault for failing to lose weight and her fault for gaining weight.

Clinical psychologist Dr Funke Baffour from Waltham Cross, Herts, said: 'There would have been psychological reasons for Malissa' obesity that a gastric band would not have dealt with. 'It is not surprising she has swapped one emotional relationship with food for another.'Perhaps, subconsciously, Malissa is so afraid of becoming obese again, she is stopping herself from eating.'

The above ad makes it seems like WLS is quick and easy. But it isn't, it affects a major organ that we need to live.  Just check out this happy fun chart  from the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery about emergency care after these surgeries.  Teenagers who are still growing may not get as extreme as Malissa, but do lose bone density (but it's okay because their bones were fat!)  And the lapband? The supposedly less invasive WLS, has half the patients wanting a reversal.

So in honor of International No Diet Day, this is my choice of the worst diet ever. (Okay maybe starving to death sucks too. And the surgery can cause that also!)

ASDAH Conference! This Summer!

An Invitation.  Please feel free to repost.

Recently we lost one of the great icon’s of the magical movie age, Elizabeth Taylor.  She was beautiful and strong and struggled with her demons often in the public eye.  She certainly experienced the gamut of admiration for her physical beauty to disgust for her fat and physically disabled body.  In many ways she represents the madness our culture experiences around the physical self.

In March, as President of ASDAH, The Association for Size Diversity and Health, I presented at the Endangered Species Women Summit in New York City convened to address the toxic culture that women and girls face.  This damaging environment not only manifests in how we feel about our physical selves but it directly impacts our spiritual, intellectual and emotional selves.  The summit was an amazing experience. Several ASDAH members and colleagues also in attendance presented and spoke eloquently and passionately on the need to live and love in our bodies.  The clear overwhelming consensus from this diverse group of 500 women and men, young and old, from around the globe was that the Health At Every Size ^SM Approach was a logical and natural path toward ending the toxic culture that ALL bodies face across the globe. Take a minute and let that sink in.  It wasn’t a gathering for HAES^SM practitioners and supporters.  The majority of those in attendance had never heard of HAES^SM in any formal way.  They were people who passionately felt that shame and hate and blame did not belong on our bodies so when we brought HAES^SM to the table, no one had to make room, there was already a place for it.  What an incredible thing,

ASDAH’s upcoming conference will be a galvanizing event as an organization and as the stakeholders in the HAES^SM movement.  So let’s take that place at the table and make sure everyone knows we earned it with hard work and strength of character and perseverance. I invite you to join us.

Deb Lemire

ASDAH, President

 

"I call upon you to draw from the depths of your being — to prove that we are a human race, to prove that our love outweighs our need to hate, that our compassion is more compelling than our need to blame." Elizabeth Taylor upon accepting the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, in 1993.

 

SAVE THE DATE!  ASDAH Conference

No BODY Left Behind—The HAES(SM) Approach:

Ensuring an Inclusive Approach to Health and Wellness

 

August 12-14, 2011  Sofitel Hotel, San Francisco, CA

Registration Open!

www.sizediversityandhealth.org

 

Happy International No Dieting Day!

19th International No Diet Day

Greetings to all of you celebrating this auspicious day.
How far have we come since 1992? Well, in some respects a long, long way.
More health professionals support a 'health at every size' approach.
There are fat study groups in colleges as younger people are challenging the status quo.
And people in the public eye are speaking out about their experiences.
Plus there are a few more clothes to choose from.

But, the pressure is still on us all to be other than we are...
Whether child or geriatric
There's far too many people ever ready with their knives.
And quacks peddling magic drugs and potions
Fat remains an easy and socially acceptable target and a useful vehicle for others to project their self hate.

It is not unusual for oppressed people to understand their oppressors more than they understand us.
So, no surprise if people scratch their heads in puzzlement as we say, in our various ways, "get off our backs" -
when 'they only have our best interests at heart'.
But today is a day of pride and to use our precious creative and fighting energy to challenge institutional sizeism and the nasty trinity:
diet, media and fashion who exploit us all for their own ends.

As a British politician famously said, "Don't let the bastards get you down".
INDD is an opportunity to change the rules: encourage self acceptance and respect for all.
And use your love and friendship to have a great day.... in the way it suits you.
Go well.

In solidarity, Mary Evans Young
Oxfordshire, England

Glee, sex and self esteem.

Check out the essay I wrote for Xhibit P, a interactive site that covers issues in pop culture.  My essay is about the lack of storyline and sexuality of Glee's fat characters.  Don't just read my essay but the entire theme is all about body image including Zoe Spencer's article about black women's booty or Franchesca Ramsey video about photoshop: "Pixel Perfect". 

In my essay, I point out that the character Mercedes who is a regular on Glee is non-sexual (she remains the only main character in Glee who has not had a long term relationship) where Lauren (who is reoccurring)  is hypersexual.  Fat women are often characterized (especially in media) as either giving it freely so people will like them or not getting it at all because no one wants them.

A entry from a blog called Live Once, Juicy explores the myth of fat sexuality (from a list of myths about fat people from Pattie Thomas' excellent book Taking up Space) and how fat people being asexual is a myth. Fat isn't asexual. She points out that asexual is an orientiation of people who aren't interested in sex.  In other words, the real myth here is that fat people aren’t sexy, she writes.

This is a modern phenomenon possibly brought on by media which puts conventionally pretty people as positive and desirable compared to fat people who are often headless and associated with disease and death.  But look at nudes in the past and you'll see chubby and fat. 

However there are people out there who either prefer a fat partner or don't allow media to cloud their judgement about what is attractive.  The problem is that fat people also believe the hype. They don't consider themselves sexy because they don't look like what the media has made desirable.  And a suitor might be potentially be turned off by the low self-esteem.

So it's important fat girls that you improve that self-esteem. Give up those magazines, try to avoid those images that make you feel like dirt. Go to Fat Positive events. I just went to one on Saturday, the Fat Girls Fleamarket. And it wasn't the "new" clothes that made me feel good, (although I did snag an Igigi dress for $10), it was the feeling of comradarie of this event. Here was a place that I could not only get cool clothes but wouldn't feel like a leper while shopping.