Fat People Exercising (In Newsweek)
In case you missed it, Rachel had a fabulous overview of the recent coverage of fat discrimination at Newsweek, including an article called America’s War on the Overweight:
The bubbling rage against fat people in America has put researchers like Levine in a difficult position. On the one hand, she says, she wants to ensure that obesity is taken seriously as a medical problem, and pointing out the costs associated with obesity-related illnesses helps illustrate the severity of the situation. On the other hand, she says, doing so could increase the animosity people have toward the overweight, many of whom may already live healthy lives or may be working hard to make heathier choices.
“The idea is to fight obesity and not obese people,” she says, and then pauses. “But it’s very hard for many people to disentangle the two.”
Now Newsweek has an amazing gallery of fat people exercising, along with their stories. Don’t miss it, it’s completely 100% awesome.
(Via Big Fat Blog.)
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Advocacy, Exercise, Fat Positive, Fatism, Health, Magazines, Media
Sadly, the comments are still along the same old lines “They’re not really exercising at all”. One person said, that “sitting on a bike” doesn’t equal healthy and is basically not exercise. Talk about blinding hate and pure nonsense…
And I bet that woman diver didn’t REALLY do it, she just donned the gear for the photo shoot. I remember going somewhere with a guy who was in the Army with my ex, and there was a large woman jogging, and sweating her ass off, really working, and this jerk makes a comment about how she really shouldn’t be doing it in public because it was gross. I found out that day that no matter how big a guy is, they tend to get alot smaller when slugged in the balls. ;) He just couldn’t understand why I was so upset.
I don’t think you can fight obesity without it turning into a fight against obese people.
Any time you are fighting against a group I am part of, or a characteristic that describes me, I will take it as a fight against me.
I actually wrote a long blog post about this the other day (inspired by the NY Times piece from Michael Pollan) if anyone is interested: http://www.lizaeckert.com/2009/09/what-exactly-is-obesity.html
I know that may get caught up in link spam limbo, hopefully it makes it out OK. :)
I followed the link to the _Newsweek_ article and was surprised to discover that Healthy at Every Size is essentially Weight Watchers without the weight loss goal: Don’t diet; change your lifestyle instead. Learn to tell when you are hungry; find other cures for boredom, depression, stress, etc., besides food; practice healthy habits; find an exercise program that works for you and stick to it; don’t obsess about losing weight. (In my local WW group, at least, you’re cautioned against losing weight too quickly and applauded just as much for avoiding stress eating or accomplishing a physical task you couldn’t do before as you are for losing weight.)
I _am_ trying to lose weight. I know that if I lose some of my extra fat, I will be less tired as I go about my day. But I am never, not ever, going to look like the current ideal. My sister, who has the exact same frame as me except taller, once dieted down to her so-called ideal weight. Her pelvis and cheekbones stuck out so far that people who hadn’t seen her in a while asked her if she had some terrible disease! This is what the medical community calls healthy? I would rather be zaftig, just less zaftig than at present and with more muscles. Picture Marilyn Monroe if she had lived to retire and started climbing mountains as a second career.