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« Dr. Oz, Snake Oil Salesman | Main | Yet another useless Weight Loss Drug »

June 30, 2014

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After having read the "Invitation to a Dialogue: Talking About Obesity" I penned a response and sent it in. Here is what I wrote:

Everyone dies! Fat, skinny, nice, mean, everyone dies. The argument that being obese will lead to death and cost society money is the one argument I think I despise the most. Do not give birth if you do not wish your children to die.

Living in a world of hyper-health consciousness as a large person is a constant rebellion against society. I have never thought it was right to be told if I didn't want to be teased I should lose weight. No ma'am, if I didn't want to be teased the person doing the teasing should be taught to behave properly. At 6 and 7 years old, unfortunately, I thought teaching was best done with my fists. It is a fight, though, to live in this world as something other than "normal" size. It's a fight I'm willing to take on and have since that first kindly old lady said "what a pretty face... if only you'd lose weight." Those double edged compliments were killers.

However, I do believe Ms. Weston was correct in saying it isn't something we should stop talking about. The fact is people are large and it should not matter. My daughter is large and beautiful and I have taught her to tare up the BMI letter sent home from her school that informs us in a institutionalized way that she is obese. The hatred and discrimination against large people is one of the most cherished of isms it seems.... racism, sexism, anti-semitism, none seem right but size-ism is the butt of a joke. Everyone can get behind that. Most especially the diet industry, which has reaped millions if not billions and cost far more lives, though no one likes to talk about the impact self-loathing has on a person.

Ms. Weston's well meaning advice to eat right and move more needs to be replaced with a far more aggressive response to negativity toward body size and shape. So what if someone is large. Everyone dies, stop with the double edged compliments and the careful advice that kills the soul long before the body expires. Offer ways to rejoice in life, to feel the power of our bodies, large or small, to dance, to sing, to laugh, to eat and to love. Self-love is the only remedy to body image issues, and the awareness of what makes us unique.

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