"Losing Weight Is Like Beating Cancer"
A socialite who was once chubby has lost some weight. And what perspective she has on the whole issue! So inspiring!
I do have a battle to fight every day I wake up, so sometimes I give off that impression. But guys, I’m at a normal, healthy weight. And If I don’t watch every piece of food (and drink) that goes into my mouth and keep up a vigorous cardio and strength training regimen, I will get fat again. This might sound controversial, but sometimes I do feel like a cancer survivor in the sense that every morning when I wake up, I know that there are forces fighting my body to get back to a state of existence that, for my purposes, might as well be death.
This comment says it all, really:
I know when my relative had cancer, she told me that living with her affliction was a challenge. As she sat exhausted by another round of chemotheraphy, she likened her battle to a “self-involved trust fund brat trying to avoid eating out of fear of being slightly overweight.”
“No wait,” she amended, “that is a ridiculous comparison.”
Thanks to Nonk for the heads up!
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Food, Gossip, Media, Weight Loss
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I’m guessing this post is going to garner a lot of angry comments, but personally, I just think it’s sad when I read things like this. Here is a woman who is probably pretty smart and has a top-notch education and every other advantage you can imagine and yet she pours all this energy into the pursuit of thinness. She must feel a tremendous amount of pressure to look the part of the socialite. But she’s also only 25, so maybe in a few years she’ll have a bit more perspective.
La Wade, you may enjoy the book “Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters” which talks a lot about how very smart, very dedicated young women (about 25) are wasting so much of their energy on being dangerously thin – or just avoiding that label of “fat”.
*sigh*
Our genetic predisposition to weight and weight gain is relative with the individual, but I feel that for most people, if they eat healthy and in moderation, combined with regular activity (note: not “vigorous” activity), their bodies will settle into a weight range normal and healthy for them. The fact that this woman struggles so much with weight on a daily basis indicates to me that she is trying to maintain a body weight that isn’t normal or healthy for her.
And I also find it sad that we have promoted the idea that obesity is unhealthy so strongly even when the evidence indicates otherwise, that a woman like this feels becoming fat is akin to a death sentence.
Rachel, I doubt that health is really this young woman’s primary concern. I think the health angle is being invoked here in an attempt to fend off criticism that her efforts are motivated by vanity.
Does anyone know where I’d be able to meet this woman and give her an enormous reality check. I’m 40 and 1 year in remission from breast cancer. I have a 7 year old and a 3 year old. I’ve always been overweight and while I certainly had to battel it, there is no way it can compare to having bilateral mastectomy, ovary removal, chemo therapy, radiation and nor hormonal therapy in the hope of staying alive long enough to raise my children. I’ll be posting to her highness site and am actually considering taking some snapshots of my scars to send to her with a hershey bar. WHat do you think?
http://www.aftercancernowwhat.wordpress.com
I read that article and was appalled. I know cancer survivors and have had people I know die of cancer. For someone to even attempt to equate being fat to having cancer is disgusting. Cancer is a disease, fat is not.
I tried to comment at gawker, but it didn’t show up. I wanted to say something to the asshat who commented that the cure for “obesity” was to put down the Twinkie and go for a walk. Uh-huh. It’s As Simple As That. http://www.thinspeak.org/good-facts/five-magic-words/
Plus most people seem to hate her because she was born into money, which seems a stupid reason. The comment was clueless (though she’s apologized and tried to explain what she means – including using the “obesity is a disease and I beat it meme) and dumb, but didn’t seem maliciously intended. I guess it ends up that she’s an asshat and the people who write nasty things about her are also asshats, so all in all I don’t much care about getting involved.
That is just.. sickening. Again, people don’t get that if you do the things you are SUPPOSED to, being nice to your body and staying relatively active and eating relatively well, you should pretty much be healthy.
And I agree with La Wade. I don’t think this woman is truly motivated by health- I’d go so far as to say she might have convinced herself she is, but I’m willing to be that it’s vanity.
I also thought her comparison was appallingly stupid and offensive. She has now apologized on her blog (if you go to the Gawker post, you can get to her own site), although she, of course, manages to say that she *did* “beat a disease.” Oh really? She seems horribly entrenched in body and fat hatred, and that does make me feel a bit sorry for her. Then I remember that she’s 25, and when I was 25, 2 of my friends had recently died of cancer.
I do wish someone who’s not too angry with her would be able to give her a sense of perspective about her weight, though.
Keep in mind, folks: I think this woman is to be pitied, not the subject of our anger. I know that it is incredibly offensive to cancer survivors or those who have family members or loved ones affected by cancer to become incensed by her ridiculous correlation between fat and cancer. But it sounds like this woman has definite psychological issues revolving around poor body image and self hatred. I see it much like I see those studies in which kindergarteners would rather be blind or have an arm amputated than become fat. So sad.
I most definitely feel sorry for her, Rachel. Yes, she’s clueless and thoughtless, but also pitiable. And I feel more sorry for her than I do annoyed. Yes I’ve lost many relatives to cancer, including the one person in the world I loved the most. But somehow it just didn’t seem a personal affront. Just cluelessness and a whole heaping helping of self-hatred.
Fat is not a disease, and it is so terrible that people treat it that way. What she said is so offensive. I feel sorry for her, spending all her time and energy focusing on staying thin; it sounds like a sad and fear-based existence.
Well, I didn’t think it was possible, but the nitwit actually managed to trivialize cancer survival. Surely she isn’t sufficiently clueless as to believe that losing weight is even kind of comparable to surviving cancer.
Her body may be healthier but her mind sure isn’t.
I just cannot fathom. Just. Can. Not.
Whatever, b****, comes to mind, but why waste my time? Really, she is clueless. Absolutely clueless.
Ha! Annie, apparently you are a “fat acceptance freak” o_O Looks like her commentators are as clueless as she is.
Wish, did my comment get published?? Did someone call me a FA freak? Hehe. There are worse things to be called ;)
I gotta go look now.
Annie – the fat acceptance freak.
I still don’t see my comment. Damnit!
Nope, Rachel.
I am a bitch, but until we each get our own personal trainer, nutritionist, and psychotherapist to deal with our body issues — with extra helpings to those of us who are not pale and blonde and therefore will still be “inferior” in this culture even if “skinny” — she gets no pity here.
*sry kthx*
Some of you are right, I really took this windbag somewhat seriously but she truly is one to be pitied. She is young and I need to remember that. Thanks for the reality check.
I know there are a lot of strong reactions to the “calling fat a disease” comparison but honestly I just think whether or not fat is a disease, there is no comparison. I feel deeply sad that this young woman has NO perspective on her life. I’m going to say for the sake of argument here that fat is a disease and attacks one just like cancer:
possible symptoms of battling fat:
emotional scars because people are A-holes
self esteem issues
food issues
clothes hatred
possible symptoms of battling cancer:
loss of hair
loss of appetite
loss of almost all energy
nausea
near constant vomiting
chemical burns from chemotherapy
scars from surgery
scars from ports
rash from surgery sites
The point I’m trying to make is that whether this woman has a negative view of fat or not, she is comparing two situations that (let’s face it) have NO comparison as far as suffering goes.
I stand by my mantra of “don’t negate my reality” I think everyone’s life and troubles are valid in their own moment, but please. Some perspective!
Yeah Annie, your comment is the first one on her “apology” entry: http://essentiallyemily.com/index.php?option=com_mojo&Itemid=64&p=204#comments
AnnieMcPhee: your comment is here: http://essentiallyemily.com/index.php?option=com_mojo&Itemid=64&p=204#comments …It’s on her apology page, not the original post.
ONE WORD: STUPID!
now I will add more words.. what a stupid little twit she is. Money must have rotted her brain cells because obviously no educated person would make such a comparison
Losing weight is hard work. But it’s pretty sick to compare it to battling cancer.
As someone in the process of losing weight as well as someone who has known cancer patients she offends me.
I hope everyone doesn’t think she’s representative of everyone who is losing weight, because she’s certainly not representative of me.
Obviously this woman has never had someone close to her fight cancer, or she would never make such an outrageous comparison. She sounds like a brainless little rich girl who has no concept of reality.
Losing weight is like beating cancer
Losing weight is beating cancer
Weight is beating cancer
Weight is cancer <– WUT?!
Thanks Madge! Unfortunately gawker never put up my post responding to the asshat who said the cure for cancer was simple – put down the twinkies and go for a walk. I had a few choice words for him, lemme tell you.
But this FA freak has now responded back on the thread you linked – I guess I shouldn’t have bothered, but it was too rich. What idiocy. She doesn’t know one person who is fat and comfortable with it? There are thousands on the fatosphere! Which I told her :) I said well now you know one, and if you want to know more go to the fatosphere. You’ll find them.
Yikes – I mean he said the cure for OBESITY was simple, not the cure for cancer. Sorry!
Fat people — and, really, women — can’t win.
We’re harrangued to be thin because it’s, you know, “healthy.” We owe it to so many people on this earth to be healthy. (Healthy means you can work longer hours, do two more loads of laundry at night, do more unpaid labor on nonprofit boards, etc.) And when we do what some of us *have* to do to achieve and maintain thinness — keeping up a diet and exercise diary that probably looks like that of a triathlete in its complexity — we’re self-absorbed. Vain. Silly.
The culture aches for us to be sick this way. As long as we’re going mad to make ourselves achieve a look that stiffens the dicks of *most* heterosexual males (yeah, what is THAT look?) we’ll buy this, buy that and never ever work on justice issues that make good, healthful food available to all. Or healthcare for all.
Wow. I’m really angry about this.
I’m a cancer survivor and someone who has lost 50+lbs and there is no comparison. Living in the shadow of cancer is physically and emotionally exhausting.
One of the reasons I needed to lose weight was to make sure the physical disability I have because of my cancer treatments doesn’t get worse. And losing weight was hard, but it was and continues to be a f’ing cakewalk compared to what I went through during cancer treatments and what I still deal with as a cancer survivor.
Wow. Just wow. I had a good friend die less than a week ago. She did not have cancer, but Primary Pulmonary Hypertension. It’s a rare lung disorder and quite serious. She was always in somewhat decent health considering the disease, but she got pneumonia and her heart just gave out. She was 22. I have another friend (she’s how I knew the girl who passed away) who has had PPH since she was a baby, had a lung transplant when she was 18, and now at 22 has been on the list for another transplant for quite a while. Both of them were/are quite thin though, so I suppose everything was alright? I know both of them would have easily traded their slim bodies for much heavier ones if they could be healthier. The girl who had the lung transplant actually was a bit chubby at one time because of one of her medications (a steroid). Did she dislike the weight gain? Yes, but it was that for her chance at life.
I actually have an eating disorder and have heard people liken EDs to cancer before. I always disagreed with that comparison, too. I firmly believe they are psychological disease and hate when people disregard them as “just wanting to be thin” and the like. But they are not cancer. With an eating disorder you do technically have the choice to eat more healthy and such. With cancer, you don’t have that choice. Beating obesity or an ED (which can coincide, of course) can be the hardest things in some peoples lives – but they are not the same thing as an extremely life-threating disease. Not in the least. My friend’s death has actually been making me think more about trying to recover, because she would have given anything for a healthy body. And although I don’t feel like my body is really being hurt most of the time, I’ve realized that I am slowly killing myself.
I’m sorry for the long, slightly OT ramble. This is also my first post on here, although I’ve been lurking for a few months. I just had to respond to this as it really hit close to home.
Just have to add that after I looked at the gawker post I was astonished and disgusted how many comments actually seemed to be not only deriding her for making a silly comment, but also for being a former fatty- as if the fact that she had been fat before is why she is saying such a ridiculous thing.
It was.. disturbing.
I personally like Emily Brill.
I’m disgusted. My mom had cancer and DIED from it!! Losing weight is NOTHING comparable to dealing with the body destroying itself from the inside-out. Crap like that makes me mad.