"You Do Not See Fat People In Concentration Camps"
We’ve all read ridiculous examples of hate towards fat people, and I know I shouldn’t be surprised or indignant at this incredibly stupid argument, but OH MY GOD, YOU GUYS. This woman, Deborah Coddington, actually comes out and agrees that anyone can be thin, because people in Nazi concentration camps were thin. I know we’ve heard this before, but, it hit me anew: are you fucking kidding me?
You do not see fat people in concentration camps. Why? Because they get hardly anything to eat and they have to do a lot of work.
Yes, people in concentration camps were thin. Because they were being starved and worked TO DEATH. That is not hyperbole. THEY FUCKING DIED. I mean, why don’t we just look at this (NSFW) picture of concentration camp survivors or go to Auschwitz and then go ahead and glibly use the holocaust as an analogy for fat people! Yeah, great idea! That is totally not tacky and gross at all!
And of course it is possible for we fat people to be thin if we starve ourselves to the point of malnutrition and death. This of course runs counter to every biological imperative, every shred of human decency, and every iota of self-preservation we might have. Because, uh, we are not prisoners of the fucking Nazis. And yet according to Coddington, this self-starvation is desirable because she finds fat people in need of “tough love.” That is GROSS. And she’s not even DONE TALKING YET.
Over-fat people eat too much for numerous reasons. They’re unhappy, unloved, lazy, don’t care, love food, are weak-willed, can’t cook properly, but they’re not obese for cultural reasons, or because they’re big-boned, have hormone problems, or other “it’s not my fault” excuses. Thankfully, we all come in different sizes – large, petite, slim, solid – but basically obesity is caused by eating too much food. As Birkbeck stated, our society is in danger of accepting over-fatness as the norm.
I love that little bolded bit thrown in there. In the middle of telling us we’re “unhappy, unloved, lazy, don’t care, love food, are weak-willed, [and/or] can’t cook properly” she throws in a little “yay, size diversity!” Oh my god, fuck you, lady.
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Filed under: Fatism, International, NSFW, Science
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It’s a horrible comparison, and I wish idiotic commentators would stop using it. And given general tendencies towards regaining weight, I also dislike the hidden implication that such a state of affairs would need to continue indefinitely to keep everyone looking “nice and thin.”
Incidentally, there are Holocaust survivors and refugees from Nazi Germany in my family. All of them were undoubtedly thin at some point, given what they endured. When they were in a position to live and eat normally again, they stopped being so. (And strangely, didn’t seem to find it something to complain about…)
And for those who didn’t survive, I’m sure they were delighted to escape the family curse of being chubby and go to the gas chambers looking svelte. (Yes, that is sarcasm.)
So there is much to get through, and this will be my last post for the day.
Let’s be clear here, it’s not an “I can do it, so can you” deal. It’s a look at the mounds of evidence that you can forcibly control your weight, citing everything from the holocaust to the biggest loser if you are so P.C. inclined. In fact, just sub in the biggest loser whenever the holocaust is mentioned because it skewers the position I came to assault just as forcefully and doesn’t offer a strawman target with all the baggage about race and torture and dying, etc.
Good job spinning Rachel. Fact is, you accused me of doing something that I didn’t do, according to any english definition of interrogate. As to why others interrogated me, I really don’t care, or even mind. I’m not playing a martyr and I made a post on a clearly hostile board so why would I expect any less? I only mention the fact I was interrogated to highlight your own double standard. I’m responsible for my actions and my words, not what you believe them to be “in essence” outside of objective, agreed upon definitions.
As far as why I’m here, remember that I used to be fat, so this is not entirely outside of my realm. Honestly, motivations are complex and there’s probably a little bit of everything mixed into them.
Also I do give credit to this particular site for letting a dissenting opinion through.
Bastards…
I’m almost in tears right now.
I’m EXTREMELY “ovwerweight” due to endocrine problems and completely hate myself for it, even though I read FA blogs all the time to try to overcome my self-hate and accept myself. I’ve failed entirely at it though, and currently am on a diet so strict I am wondering if I’m going to die from it. It started out as a “normal” diet over 2 months ago and progressed lower and lower until now I’m eating less than 500 calories a day, and exercising. I’m losing weight – although not as much as “Tom”, because even at the extremities to which I am going I only lose about 3 pounds a week. I nearly collapsed today and my heart races constantly, but I’m so afraid to eat, because I know I will gain weight back.
And people like this just show that no one cares about fat people’s well being. All that matters to them is that we get thinner and stop making them feel disgusted. If I die after starving myself to a more acceptable appearance these fuckers will just use it as “proof” that weight is in my control.
When I start crying and shaking looking at food and feel like I’m going to pass out and yet can’t bring myself to eat a bite because of fear I will instantly gain back the 35 pounds I’ve lost, I am NOT in control of ANYTHING. 800 calories seems like a huge amount of food right now. On 2000 calories a day I will steadily gain a pound a month even if I exercise.
I’M LIVING IN HELL. How DARE anyone tell me this is what I deserve for not being thin?
@JenRave: I don’t know what to say, but what you wrote makes me feel like I should say something. Your comment is so full of sadness and anger, totally justified IMHO. You do *not* “deserve” bad things. You deserve to be happy and healthy and loved, and to love yourself. I don’t know you, but I can say one admirable thing about you just from reading your comment: you are a very honest and clear writer. I hope you keep struggling — not to be thin, but to be happy, and to love yourself, because you are totally worth loving.
JenRave, please talk to a doctor, both about your endocrine situation and your feelings. I don’t know if your problem is with your thyroid (mine was), but regardless, please get it checked out. If you aren’t able to do that, please stop being so hard on yourself. By eating so little, and exercising so much on top of that, you’re hurting yourself more. If you can’t get to a doctor, please talk to a trusted person about your feelings.
You’re worth taking care of. You deserve to be happy. You deserve to eat wholesome, delicious food. You deserve to move your body in ways that make it feel good. Your body deserves tender loving care. So do your feelings.
I had my thyroid removed three years ago because of Graves’ disease, and it took a while to get my Synthroid dosage sorted out. Before that, it was ten years of emotional and physical misery until I got a correct diagnosis. Whatever your situation is, don’t give up. I’m rooting for you. :-)
This may be too late to bother saying, but if my father had not been a husky teenager, he would not have survived Dachau. As it was, when the camp was liberated he weighed 70 pounds. Surely, nobody is going to claim that this is at all a desirable weight for a 5’11 man.
But I am sure there are people who will assert that it was the 180 or so pounds he gained afterwards that was why he only lived to 56 and ignore the aftereffects of typhus and malaria (the latter contracted in a DP camp in Italy after the war).
One could argue the logic that led this person to use NAZI concentration camps as examples of weight loss wonderlands, or at least a place where thin people were not being persecuted for being thin (as thin people are today. No, those lucky souls were just persecuted for being born), but there is a very interesting point made here, in a scientific point of view: people become thin, then really thin, then wonderfully thin (then dead) if they are not given anything to eat. Human beings actually must have food to sustain themselves – so, duh! just take away the food! Amazing idea.
I get that the point being made here is that ‘fatness’ is mostly or partially a product of enviroment, but the use of the holocaust as an example is so enraging, i just can’t get past it.
Well, damn.
I exercise every day. I pass by bakeries every day without pulling over, buying dozens of pastries and gorging on them — every day.
You know what? I’m still fat.
Yes, most of us have some modicum of control over our weight. But that doesn’t mean that we are all morally obligated to make it either a part time or full time job to count calories and exercise so that we make some standard measuring tape or fat calipers happy.
The Cooper Institute in Dallas, home to the father of aerobics (Dr. Kenneth Cooper) published a research-based book either last year or in 2007 that indicated that it is fitness, rather than fatness, that is a greater predictor of longterm, overall health.
And can we finally agree — regardless of what side of this argument that we fall on — that using the body mass of Holocaust prisoners as an example of weight control is just about as gauche as it gets? Because it just is.
Really tom? REALLY?
So, what your saying is that this is only an argument used by people (supposedly those who are thin / made the right ‘choice’) who are tired of hearing fatties whine about how hard it is being fat, yes? These would be people who have made whatever choices they felt they needed to and where not harangued, goaded, taxed, systematically denied medical care, fired from their jobs, or denied employment in the first place and practically banned from air travel. Following your argument, it is possible to choose to be / stay fat and people who make the ‘right’ choice are left alone to enjoy their lives. In the context of this argument, those who make the ‘wrong’ choice (being / staying fat) might face the possibility of, well. . . What besides the things I’ve already listed? Hmm the argument DOES mention Concentration Camps. . . . Or perhaps Fat people should be shot, as Dr. Birkbeck implies. See tom, that’s what this argument IMPLIES. Which is why people should consider their words carefully. Especially, supposedly intelligent people. And that pre-supposes that they don’t, in fact, already KNOW exactly what they are implying.
Human beings can’t live without air.; This is False. Step into a vacuum chamber and you can prove it to yourself. Humans can survive in an oxygen free environment, if you have enough desire you can make it work.
Sound familiar? Sound stupid? Why so?
Repeated exposure might encourage the ability to hold your breath for long periods and decrease your oxygen requirements. HOWEVER, 1) You won’t survive for TOO long in such an environment. 2) extended exposures could do serious damage to your body. Now, THIS sounds familier.
Ridiculous analogy you say? Who would want to do this? VERY good questions; Ever heard of erotic asphyxia? Many aficionados of the fetish have demonstrated such a strong desire to ‘make it work’, that they are now dead.
The Concentration Camp Analogy, is repugnant, ignorant, offensive, and hateful. It IMPLIES that segregation and imprisonment of people for a trait they possess might be an acceptable solution to a manufactured ‘problem’ with society. It suggests that this MIGHT happen AGAIN. And if people can bandy it about so casually as a good comparison to ANYTHING, then there’s a good possibility that it will.
Tom, you keep saying you’re a dissenting voice, but I just don’t see it…clearly, you disagree with FA, but as far as this post goes, you are only dissenting with an opinion that NO ONE HAS.
It’s kind of Don Quixote-esque of you, really.
We are not blind, Tom. We know that fat people can lose weight in concentration camps, or on the Biggest Loser, if you prefer.
In fact, as far as fat people losing weight goes, I’d be willing to bet that, to a (wo)man, everyone here has been there, done that.
People get so upset about the concentration camp thing because of all the baggage it brings along with it (and it really, really does–please tell me you don’t deny that), not because we can’t face the fact that fat people, under extreme starvation conditions, will lose weight.
It’s three great tastes that taste great together:
1) Saying that all fat people have to do to get thin is “try hard enough” even if that means an ACTUAL STARVATION DIET, complete with possible death.
2) Implying that this is something fat people should pursue. So, the “reasonable diet and exercise” weren’t enough to slenderize you? Don’t worry about it! People CAN get thin–just eat whatever tiny amount it is that starves you and you’ll be fine.
and not least, 3) Throwing around the suffering and deaths of millions to crassly further a personal agenda.
If you want to talk about The Biggest Loser, fine (and, I’m just saying, dismissing unhappiness about throwing around the Holocaust as “PC” is pretty hostile and thoughtless). You do us the favor of elimating point 3, which is not nothing, but you leave 1 and 2.
So it absolutely begs the question.
I don’t know how many times I have to say this, my friend:
WE KNOW THAT FAT PEOPLE CAN LOSE WEIGHT–TEMPORARILY. NO ONE here is denying that. We got the memo from the two or twelve or twenty times we’ve done it ourselves.
It’s the long term we’re talking about here, Tom. The long term impossibility of keeping weight off in a “reasonable” manner (or even a semi-crazy manner, actually).
In general (I don’t forget about our 1 in a million Lotto winner), the only way to make naturally fat people thin over the haul is starvation over the long haul. Not “reasonable eating,” not “light dieting,” not any other crap. Only this : oh, my God, my brain isn’t working, my systems are failing, my hair is falling out, I can’t reproduce, pretty soon I’ll be dead, STARVATION.
Unless the ACTUAL STARVATION continues, people who are genetically programmed to be fat will be fat. Concentration camp victims AND biggest loser victims are cases in point, by the way.
And I hope you know, Tom, that real starvation has real, VERY real, very severe consequences. Death not least among them.
So, when you want to present a dissenting opinion, it helps to disagree with things we ACTUALLY believe. Here are three:
We are fighting against the widespread attitude that all we have to do is eat “reasonable” portions and get “moderate” exercise and we’ll look just like everyone else.
We are fighting against the idea that we SHOULD willingly suffer starvation, with all its consequences, when the above doesn’t work.
We are fighting against the belief that said starvation would make us healthier or more valuable as human beings
Do you disagree with that?
Oh, Tom, you cleverboots, you have completely called us out! Yes, because we choose not to subject ourselves to starvation, torture, and forced labor, we have TOTALLY CHOSEN to be fat and deserve whatever humiliation and rejection society sees fit to dish out! Yessir, all must bow before the force of your logic!
By the way, I’ve lost 70 lbs. Three or four times.
Elizabeth, look at you being all rational and reasonable and eloquent while I was just impatient and snarky. I bow to you.
You conveniently miss the point. People bring up the concentration camp thing as a rebuttal to fat people who claim being fat is entirely out of their control.
And you miss the point that people in concentration camps were not fat because they were DYING. Obviously, if you starve, you will become thin. You will not be HEALTHY, which should be more important than being thin to any sane person.
I read a post in another blog about that particular quote and had the same thought. Sure, people in concentrations camps were thin… BECAUSE THEY WERE DYING FROM LACK OF FOOD. Holy fricken duh!
OK, the haters need to get it straight: is the Holocaust the latest diet craze, or did it never even happen?!?!?!
I can only agree with Madame Suggia: one day Karma is going to catch up with these folks and bite them in the ass.
And you miss the point that people in concentration camps were not fat because they were DYING. Obviously, if you starve, you will become thin. You will not be HEALTHY, which should be more important than being thin to any sane person.
As someone mentioned upthread, it’s really pretty revealing when people bring this up and have absolutely NO response to the health aspect of starvation. If the whole purpose of being thin is to “get healthy” then why the insisting that the naturally fat must achieve thinness by any means possible (read, unhealthy means)?
Because. Looks are more important than health in our twisted society.
You know, even though I have issues with the blatant sexism and ageism in wrinkle cream commercials and the like, I have to say, at least they’re honest for the most part and you know it’s completely vanity based on society’s fucked up obsession with youth and thinness rather than some weight loss surgery commercial proclaiming how much better your life will be after you mutilate perfectly healthy organs.
Yes, I *might* actually be suggesting it’s more important to be healthy and happy than thin. Earth shattering, isn’t it?
BTW, many Holocaust survivors became obese in later years. Because, having been starved and tortured, their bodies could not adjust to a healthy, reasonable caloric intake and stored fat as if they were still being starved. Sound familiar?
I have to delurk just to add my 2cents.
Tom, you are defending the indefensible. Stop trying because there are no words or thoughts that will ever make the holocaust analogy okay.
Good luck with the weight loss. You will need it. I like so many others have lost and gained inumerable pounds in my life. After many years of dieting, I wound up at the same exact weight (to the pound) as I was before my very first diet.
Popping pills, smoking to lose weight, eating 900 k a day and excercising 1-2 hours a day messed up my body so badly. I lost my hair; didn’t get my period; was always cold; couldn’t sit for long periods of time. BUT I WAS a size 2! Who could keep that up without doing serious harm to themselves? Who would want to? It’s exhausting and boring.
Now that I eat sensibly and excercise daily, I am as my Doctor says “Disgustingly healthy” and several pounds shy of obese!
I don’t want to be picky here, because I do like this blog, but Coddington didn’t make the comment about concentration camp prisoners, a John Birbeck (Massey University) did and this should be corrected in the blog post otherwise it’s misleading. It’s obvious from the link to Coddington’s article that she doesn’t make the observation.
That being said, this is just more newspaper fodder. Is it serious? No. Will forcing people to lose weight, by briefly breezing through the psychological triggers to eat compulsively, work? No.
I forgot.
This starvation thing. Concentration camp prisoners didn’t have a choice about losing weight and being emaciated. Today’s celebrities, unfortunately all are female, are known to starve themselves, and I’m goddamn tired of reading interviews with Hollywood starlets and models saying they have fast metabolisms. It’s more like cocaine/heroine/cigarettes, and they then present themselves as ‘babes’, but not only this, our entire western culture (film, TV, magazine, print) presents these women as attractive human beings. What bullshit is that?
In two decades, the current lot of emaciated female celebrities are going to be (most likely) receiving treatment for kidney failure and osteoporosis.
The idea of tough love, to me though, and many may disagree, but the arrival of Reality TV, namely The Biggest Loser, is partially to blame as it televises this ‘tough’ approach, when really, this show is about losing weight the unhealthy way. The two trainers on that show should hang their heads in shame.
Tom Brokaw – Are you suggesting that the people in concentration camps ultimately could decide wether or not they wanted to be fat? Because from my learning of the Holocaust I think it was a lot less “hmm, I think I’ll have the salad today and work a lot.” and a lot more “here’s your cup of water, your bread, now shut the fuck up and get out there and literally dig your own grave.”
How can you say that people ultimately have control over thier weight while drawing a parrallell to people that HAD NO CONTROL! And that were beaten and starved to death!
And why the hell am I even fighting in the comments anway, good lords, damn trolls.
What a tacky bitch to say such a thing.
” I’m goddamn tired of reading interviews with Hollywood starlets and models saying they have fast metabolisms. It’s more like cocaine/heroine/cigarettes, and they then present themselves as ‘babes’,”
Oh my Gods Ana, I lol’ed so hard at this. XD
Addish, I can’t contain stuff like that anymore, lol. If I read about the Anistonjoliebeckhamlohan diet of the week, I’ll scream. Each week, some mag somewhere in the world will publish an article about diet tips and then have the audacity to show us a starlet with a complete rib cage poking through her skin.
Hey y’all,
So, am I the only one seeing the next big hit show here? “The Biggest Loser: Auschwitz”, anyone? I mean come on, as long as we’re disrespecting Holocaust survivors, their families, and indeed an entire race of people–we may as well get some Neilsen ratings out of it, right? Right?
Do people HEAR themselves when they say shit like this? Do they actually have a mental image of concentration camp detainees walking around saying “Well, my family is seperated, I am being tortured to the point of death and could be brutally slaughtered any day now…but HOT DAMN look how skinny I am!”?
I realize that people like Ms. Coddington find great personal comfort in the notion that all fat people are useless, life-wasting blobs who hate ourselves and sit on the couch night after night demolishing pints of Ben and Jerry’s while watching Julia Roberts movies and sobbing “WHYYYYYYY?!?!?!?!?” I also realize (as if anyone here needed this article to remind them) that these people also like to think that we got this way because we just couldn’t stop pulling over at every single pastry shop we pass on the road (dammit–is there NO safe route to take to work anymore?). However, I would now like to point out for the record, that this is no longer why I’m fat. That’s right–I am now officially fat for no other reason than to personally spite Deborah Coddington.
Are you out there, Deb? Cuz I’m here, doing the “Jello Ass” dance, naked with a giant cake on my head. And I’m doing it just for you. TAKE IT ALL, BITCH!
Oh, and Tom? Darling?
While I respect that you consider yourself to be living proof that “weight can be controlled by choice”, please consider that you are also living proof of the following:
“Diet” and “exercise” might fix “fat”…but it clearly still doesn’t fix “self-righteous prick.”
But who knows? Maybe if you did some extra crunches or something?
wildcatjen:
This quote is fabulous:
“That’s right–I am now officially fat for no other reason than to personally spite Deborah Coddington.”
You are my hero. I too am now fat to spite Deborah Coddington AND MeMe Roth.
I love you wildcatjen for that comment.
So losing a bunch of weight makes someone an authority on this?
If that’s the case, I guess “tom brokaw” will recognize my credibility when I tell him he’s full of shit. (I have to put the name in quotes out of respect to the REAL Tom Brokaw)
Two years ago I moved from Georgia (where I drove everywhere) to New York City (where I walk or take public transportation). I also finally addressed my binge eating disorder. So yeah, I lost weight. A fair bit. I haven’t weighed myself in awhile but last time I checked it was in the 60-70 pound range. So I suppose that means I could go onto these forums and spout off about how much I “know” about weight loss.
Or not, because I’m not a self-righteous douchenozzle.
See, I know how *my* body reacted to the changes that I made in my life. They worked out well for me and I’m pretty happy about it. But here’s the kicker: what worked well in my life is not necessarily for someone else. And I would *never* come on to a site and pretend otherwise. Plus, I acknowledge that I could have made all these changes in my life and not lost an ounce, but still be happier and healthier than I was. Because how you live is more important to your health than what size you wear. Oh, and that whole, it’s no one else’s goddamned business thing.
Again, though, I’m not a self-righteous douchenozzle.
The methods that I used to get past the BED would seem like a very extreme dieting measure, but that’s what needed to happen to break the cycle (I equate it to an addict in detox). I don’t practice that anymore because it would not be satisfying or healthy to do so long term. Now I practice more of a Health at Every Size lifestyle. And I may have gained back a few pounds, but who cares?
I don’t pretend it was EVER as simple as “calories in, calories out.” Because it fucking isn’t.
I also recognize how, even if you set all of that aside, it is offensive and hurtful to use a genocide as an example for something as cosmetic and trivial as weight loss. Like when someone looks down at the number tattooed on their arm the first thing they think about is how bikini-ready they were?
Wow, what a wonderful discussion. I really think tom and his like should be allowed into more arguments in the fat acceptance movement.
Let me just say where I’ve come from in all of this. I was born of one fat parent and one skinny (underweight, really) parent. They had me, the fat shorter daughter, and my sister, the taller, skinnier daughter. So it was much clearer to me from my household that there was a diversity of sizes. And I saw how people reacted to obese individuals and underweight individuals.
I grew up fat. I’ve been on diets. I’ve lost weight. I’ve kept the weight off for sometime. Then I’ve regained it, plus some. I don’t binge. In fact, I have a food allergy to gluten, so a lot of carbs are out of the question for me.
I come to FA as a person who understands that I could be, at least intermittently, thin. But as I edge closer to 40, I wonder why I care. It is my underweight mother who has heart disease. My obese father didn’t start having health problems until he was in his 60’s…my mother’s started in her 40’s. I’m going to go through menopause in not too long and I just find that I want to concentrate on what feels good to me and my body.
What feels good to me is civil rights for me and others. There is a huge trend to deprive fat people of their rights precisely because they can “change.” This is wrong-minded. We should never deny people their rights unless they actually commit a crime.
The reality is that most people think that being fat is a sort of crime. This is what FA is fighting against. It’s especially criminal because of the “control” aspect that people believe we lack.
I was the one that raised the idea that the concentration camp analogy is a not-so-subtle reference to wanting to put fat people in camps. I was, perhaps, heavy-handed in that…I believe it was a subconcious reference. Being a therapist, I recognize that when such extremes are being presented in reference to a person or a group of people that it often indicates the level of hatred or disgust that the speaker has toward its subject. This isn’t logical in any way, but then our emotions are not logical….they are produced in a different part of our brains from that which makes logic.
To tom, and anyone else who has a hard time with the FA movement, I would ask you to examine (as was asked before) why you care about what the FA movement does or doesn’t do. Are you angry that someone is asking for rights you didn’t get when you were larger? Is there some level of disgust for your former self that you are trying to work out? Are you attaching anger to this perceived sense that fat people are infringing on you now that you are thin (or because you are thin)?
wildcatjen, you rock.
This is completely beside the point, but now I really want to make “we welcome you with open chubby arms†a site tagline.
Haha, glad to be of service!
@JenRave, I’m not sure which endocrine disorder you have, but I posted a series on hypothyroidism on my site recently with some advice and information I’ve discovered that has been of great help. Case in point: I insisted on being prescribed Cytomel and many of my symptoms have disappeared. Maybe the series will have something that might help you, too. Just search for “hypothyroidism” on my blog linked to in my name.
I vote for wildcatjen’s quote to be added to the site’s taglines.
I just had to leave a note saying how much I loved your comment wildcatjen. I especially like the last paragraph: “Are you out there, Deb? Cuz I’m here, doing the “Jello Ass†dance, naked with a giant cake on my head. And I’m doing it just for you. TAKE IT ALL, BITCH!” I laughed for at least 5 mins from that paragraph alone. Thanks for brightening my day.
Oh and I’m definitely using the “I am now officially fat for no other reason than to personally spite…” the next time someone asks me why I can’t lose those extra 40 pounds.
Haha, I’m glad y’all liked my little sleep-deprived rant last night! Thanks for the props! :)
@Teri: Definitely can’t forget about MeMe Roth–her royal darlingness is definitely welcome to some of my SpiteFat as well!
@katarie: That is a great idea! Just thinking of all the people in this world whom we could spite with our collective fatness…it’s like a big, fat Hallmark card, really. ;)
I don’t think anyone brought this up, but I definitely remember learning in my college Holocaust classes that there were no fat people in concentration camps because those were usually the first to die because they already had metabolic and other medical issues.
Just putting it out there <3
I should probably add to my long-winded rant that I discovered FA during that whole process and part of what did it is that it pissed me off when I realized how much better people treated me as I got smaller.
And that the only reason I even brought it up was to turn that whole “I’ve lost weight and therefore have some sort of authority/knowledge that no one else does” attitude over. One person’s body isn’t an indicator of anyone else’s.
Trar,
It’s nonsense that fat people died of medical issues before being put in concentration camps.
Ever hear of little things like the Warsaw Ghetto? Jews were consistently starved before the concentration camps. My father was effectively imprisoned (in Ghetto Slobodka-Williampole, a.k.a. the Kovno Ghetto) for well over a year before Dachau. It’s not like there were supermarkets operating within the ghetto walls.
Trar, evidence please? What college textbook had this information? Will you please supply?
“Tom Brokaw” – pathetic loser who is trying to validate his existence by bashing others and playing the “I’m a politically incorrect martyr!” card. No Tom, you are just plain incorrect. You have an eating disorder, and I’m willing to bet my life saving that you will REGAIN all of the weight you have lost.
Oh, and I would like to know why so many FA blogs are letting rude trolls into their comments? I get dissenting opinion – being an asshole does not count.
I’ve yet to find one person with a “dissenting” opinion on a FA who is polite, knowledgeable, and willing to provide their real name and blog/website.
I’m tired of this shit, because I have to put up with people like Tom and his ilk every single day of my life.
Anyone I ever knew who lost 70 pounds in 3 months either had a medical problem, or was on the White Line Diet. Tom’s entitled to his opinion, as is everyone else. That doesn’t mean I’ll read it, it’s a waste of my time, which I could be spending picking up dog crap in the yard, or cleaning the catboxes, all things I’d rather do than read anything that someone like that spews forth. Can you say “Veiled bigotry”? I knew you could.
@Liza writes:
“I don’t pretend it was EVER as simple as “calories in, calories out.†Because it fucking isn’t.”
See, this is exactly where the confusion with people like “tom brokaw” comes from (and yes, his comments were needlessly inflammatory, but you have just validated one of his key points)…
It fucking is. But let me explain a little.
If you take in more calories than you put out, you will store energy as fat and gain wait. Vice versa and you lose weight. This isn’t opinion, its thermodynamics.
What makes it hard to figure is that while “calories in” are generally completely within our control, we (as a society) often misjudge what they are. And “calories out” depends not only on our measured exercise, but on the energy that we expend at rest, which varies wildly from person to person. Even diets like Atkins rely on strange behavior to throw our bodies into ketosis and change “calories out” – not cast a magic spell to make the calories go away.
Anyone claiming that “calories in – calories out” doesn’t apply to them is basically insisting that they’re a living perpetual motion machine, capable of doing more work than its energy input, which is just plain impossible – which goes back to “tom”‘s initial comment, “They are suggesting that in the end, your weight is your CHOICE and a thing that is ultimately within your control.” He doesn’t say that its easy (although he certainly implies it), just that its possible.
/ relurks
As Birkbeck stated, our society is in danger of accepting over-fatness as the norm. These days, it’s the skinny, flat-chested girls who are shamed on television modelling competitions. She must be anorexic, we gasp, if we see a hip bone or a rib.
I don’t get any discount on my ACC levies or my medical insurance despite my BMI being 22.
OH HELL YES. The problem is that thin people are not being rewarded, and fat people are not being shamed ENOUGH.
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You also don’t see disabled people, because the Nazis went ahead and just shot them before they even got assigned bunks. It’s likely the same thing happened to obese prisoners as well. So, aside from the mention being insulting and pointless, it also doesn’t prove anything at all, other than thin people who are also starving are thin.
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Instead of using concentration camps perhaps she should have use the show “The biggest loser.”
All the contestants on the show manage to loose weight. While I might not agree with their nutrition and exercise regimen, they still lost weight. If there was a thing of being naturally fat, “The biggest Loser” would have meet that contestant by now. As being naturally fat would prohibit them from losing weight regardless of how little they ate and exercised.
Point being, large amounts of fat people don’t exist in the poor populations of Africa, India, and even the US doing the Great Depression. They didn’t exist on a large scale in China until their recent economy prosperity. Chinese people only have one child and tend to spoil that child rotten if they can afford too. A lot of rich Chinese spoil their children with daily McDonalds trips and cars. So now they have over 200 million obese people in China. Check it out here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB5sz576cnM
China is proof that its our access to food and lack of exercise is what causes fatness (on epidemic levels) not our genetics. As many people will swear up and down that Asians are naturally thin. This isn’t true. Anybody who adopts the “American lifestyle” of fast food and mobile convenience, will become fatter no matter what race they are.
Personally, I don’t believe there is a such thing as being naturally fat (being 50+ lbs overweight). Although, I do think there is a thing as being naturally chubby (see Snooki from The Jersey Shore). But then again, just because someone is genetically disposed to being one way doesn’t mean they have to be. Some people have naturally addictive personalities. But society that doesn’t excuse them nor are they condemn to being drug addicts, food addicts, or alcoholics. People still have free will. We are not slaves to our DNA.
I eat tons of unhealthy things at unhealthy times, and i am a thin fit person. and even as a very fit active young woman, i hesitate and refrain from eating what i want/sweets in public, because people would shocked/disgusted/make comments about weight that will surely come if they saw what i supplement my normally healthy regiment with. so i dont think that “fat people” should have to only eat healthy things, and be expected to be thin. i dont know why certain people are fat if they truly eat normal amounts/exercise hard to keep a healthy cardiovascular system, but they definitely should not be derided for it, nor told that they should lose weight purely because it “is possible”.
Evevn though I am of normal weight I still dont understand ignorant and poking fun at fat people coments. This lady makes herself sound dumb, idiotic, and a total witch. if people are going to back talk, poke fun, or play the blame game they need to get their facts right. Do research, read a book for goodness sake. If you just throw out offensive things and on top of that make yourself sound dumb then of course you”re gunna get lash back. Ugh people bother me
Hm, funny, but I’m fairly sure my overweight self is quite a bit *healthier* than a concentration camp victim, even if some people consider me less attractive than one.