Fat Cells: A Links Roundup
Trabb’s Boy suggested this title in our previous links roundup. I can’t decide if it’s cute, scientific, or terroristy! In the meantime, here are some links for you, and a picture of cute animals, after the jump.
1. Also recommended by Trabb’s Boy in the previous link roundup is this terrific essay from Shakesville: it’s okay to choose to be fat.
Because it really is a radical notion, and, like other radical notions, it is both has the capacity and is likely to evoke visceral reactions of protest. Like: “But being fat is (potentially) unhealthy! And that’s not okay!” But, if you give yourself a moment or two, you’ll probably realize there are other potentially unhealthy things that people do, which you would probably argue in favor of allowing them to continue doing…
It can be a hatred that’s hard to let go of, even for fat people, because letting go of that hatred, and replacing it with acceptance, can feel akin to giving fat people permission to be fat.
But being in the position of feeling like permission is yours to give is a manifestation of privilege. And maybe it’s all right to let that privilege go.
2. A great post from The Rotund about food politics:
This keeps coming up and I will keep bringing it up – if we’re so concerned about health then why are we framing the discussion as being about weight?
I know the answer – it’s that we aren’t really interested in health so much as using health to bludgeon fat people. But I’ve yet to get a satisfactory answer on that one out of anyone. If high fructose corn syrup is so bad for us (and I do believe that, in quantity, it isn’t the best thing for us by any means), then why are we focusing solely on “it makes you fat” and not on “it is harming your overall healthfulness”?
3. In Defense of Bad Prom Dresses at Manolo for the Big Girl:
The trend these days seems to be for hyper-ruched dresses with bubble hems or those horrible pick-ups or the same bodice ruching with a mermaid skirt, and Lord knows they’d probably want to wear it with shiny spandex opera length gloves that flatter precisely no one in the universe.
And you know, fine. I don’t care. Would I wear it? No, but I’m not a 17 year old girl whose entire world is about to change in a few weeks.
If I had to do it all over again –and thank God I don’t– knowing what I know now about how my life has turned out, I’d actually go for a big goofy dress on purpose.
4. A scholarship is being offered for people who design plus-sized clothing. Awesome.
[Application includes] an essay (750 words or less) outlining why your fashion entries are unique/innovative and explaining your interest and motivation for a career in the plus-size fashion industry.
5. And now for something completely different: a picture of a chihuahua on a Leonberger, originally posted at Cute Overload.
Because we have a Leonberger (a small one). And he just turned nine.
I invite you to respond to any of the posts above, and/or post or link to your own pet pictures in the comments. Why? Why not! It’s Tuesday! Join the party!
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Advocacy, Fashion, Fat Positive, Food, Links, Meta
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Great links, thanks for posting!
Since the comments area is closed on Shakesville, I’d like to comment on the “radical” notion that it’s ok to choose to be fat.
Here’s the great point that Melissa makes in her blog: When anti-fat or “health advocates” talk about the dangers of the “high-risk” overeating behavior, the sad fallout is the demonization of fat people. There are MANY high-risk activities people engage in, some of them far more immediately deadly than eating a whole pizza in one sitting.
The burden we fat people bear is that our addiction/choice/problem, etc. is VISIBLE. It opens us up to a daily ridicule, judgement, and discrimination that people engaging in other high-risk beahviors and addictions don’t face, at least not initially. You may feel good about yourself (as I do) but you must realize that you’re not going to change the overwhelming societal bias against the obese because we are an easy target for their fears and insecurities.
The question of “choosing to be fat” reminds me of an issue very prevalent to the gay community. The issue of whether or not homosexuality is a choice. Some people see it as thus, meanwhile others believe it is genetic–aka the way you were born. And hopefully avoiding this can of worms I will say that it may be both. I do see it as more of a difference of birth and development, but I’m not blind to the fact that there may be members of the gay community who may have simply chosen to live their life this way.
And thus, it reminds me of the fat issue somewhat. We all have different body types, that’s no secret. And even maintaining a nutritional diet and exercise regime, some people will still be what the BMI chart considers “overweight”. The news, some doctors, and certainly Hollywood would call these people fat. But really their genetics just so happened to make their healthy weight higher. On the other hand, there are some people who are fat because of their diet and exercise (or lack thereof). Or are fatter than they should be. But instead of shaming them into “shaping up”, we should encourage them to have healthier habits.
To sum it up, it’s not ALL about what you eat and how much/often you break a sweat… but neither is it all genetics.
Folks,
I’m sorry but if you’re healthy and fat now – you’re still asking for trouble down the road. As you get older, assuming you manage to avoid diabetes, heart disease, etc., mobility will become a real issue. You’re not going to feel as good as you would if you lose weight. And it can be done – I know quite a few people who have done it (and kept if off). And while it’s certainly unfair that for some people it’s much harder to lose weight, keep it off (and easier to gain it), the fact of the matter is that if you are fat, you are EATING TOO MUCH. There are a vanishingly small number of people who will be fat if they don’t eat too much. It doesn’t help when people are rude, etc., but that doesn’t take away from the fact that if you’re fat you have a real health problem. (Pretty much on a par with smoking.) If you think it’s just other people’s problem, you’re kidding yourself. (The “other” people – the rude and nasty ones – won’t be the ones in a wheel chair when they’re 70 years old, or the ones with arthritic knees, or type 2 diabetes.) You can lose weight – and the person you should do it for is – you.
FMS,
Losing weight doesn’t always make people healthy, in fact, losing weight has made my health worse. It was impossible for me to lose weight by eating healthy, lowering calories, and exercise. At what would be considered double my “healthy” weight, I was able to be active, I rode my bike or walked 3 miles nearly every day, and I loved to swim. I didn’t eat only healthy foods, but I wasn’t eating too much.
All this stuff about anyone being able to lose weight and keep it off… it isn’t always possible. That way of thinking made me push myself, and now I may have heart problems, I have trouble breathing for no reason, and I have panic attacks about food. To maintain a “healthy” weight, I would have to eat less than a one year old child, as I gain at even the minimum suggested calories for a woman.
Your health has to do with how you care for yourself, not your size. Fat, healthy, and happy is much better than having to avoid life and food and hating yourself to lose weight.
RMS – how do you know that the nasty, rude ones don’t have diabetes? or will end up in a wheel chair? or have arthritic knees? Just curious. Because as a health care worker I have seen people of all sizes in wheel chairs, have diabetes and have arthritic knees. And the really shocking news – not all thin people are healthy.
Hi FMS:
I kind of don’t care.
Love,
Tigi.
Ok, there’s more to it than that. I could go into the blah blah blah I’m healthy spiel but I don’t need to justify my healthy habits or no to anyone. I take care of myself as well as I can with the means I have, and sometimes, I fall short. I’m human. I don’t have to justify my presence anymore because I did it for twenty years and it got me nowhere except going up and down the scale.
When I switched my focus from weight to health, all this miraculous stuff started happening. I found I could enjoy food and I could enjoy exercise. My body settled in a weight range that worked and I stopped gaining or losing thirty to fifty pounds every six months. I found energy, I found time, I found that I could just start enjoying life and stop putting things off until I was the right weight.
Right now, I can still run with my dogs and bike for hours. I can still lift my niece and my nephew, chase them and play with them. I can still work on my feet for twelve hours at a stretch. I can still swim in my family’s lake and not care if my thighs look fat. If in twenty more years, my body gives out, I would rather have spent those years LIVING than trying to whip my body into an unachievable shape.
Soooo, I guess what I’m saying, sir or madame, is that this tree, up which you are barking, it be the wrong one.
As they say, de-nile [sic] is not just a river in Egypt….
Hey y’all, we have ourselves a bona fide troll. Oh happy happy joy joy.
I wish the trolls would learn some new tunes. Their old ones are getting boring.
What’s really funny to me about warnings like “IF YOU ARE FAT YOUR BODY WILL BREAK DOWN AND YOU WILL DIIIIIIIIIE” is that the things that have already gone wrong with me have nothing to do with being fat. Unless being fat causes extreme near-sightedness and TMJ. Oh, and nearly pathological clumsiness.
I think the fundamental problem with the whole lose weight for your health thing is that there’s not one ideal body size for someone’s health, despite the fact that’s there’s a very narrow range of acceptable body types according to societal norms.
My mom has a super tiny frame and I have a large frame and even though we’re the same height, at any given “healthy” bmi range, she’s going to look heavy (by societal norms, not mine) and I’m going to look skelatal.
TWO WHOLE CAKES update! I’m going to put it here – Storm of “Paul and Storm” is going to eat a whole Fudgie the Whale cake tomorrow. At first he promised to do it if they got 10,000 followers, now he’s doing it to raise money for local foodshelters. Read about it on twitter @paulandstorm. It totally reminded me of two whole cakes.
The “your excess weight is going to kill you” dialogue is just another bullshit excuse for name-calling under the guise of empathy. If a person feels the need to bring up someone else’s weight, but couches their remarks with suggestions of a healthier lifestyle, it’s not any better than sticking with,”Man, you are so fat!”
Actually, RMS, I agree with you…to a point. The fact is that if you are obese, you are more likely to have health problems as you age, and maybe even earlier than you would have otherwise. And I also agree that most (not all) obese people have food issues.
BUT – and this is as big a BUT as the one I’m sitting on – if you smoke, sleep around, do drugs, bungee-jump,drink, whatever…you’re risking more and earlier health problems as you age. In fact, even if you DON’T do any of those things, you’re going to have more health problems as you age. That’s just LIFE.
What breaks down and how fast is multifactorial in origin and includes genetics and lifestyle and a host of other things we may not know about yet.
My 74-year-old mother-in-law ate well and exercised her whole life, maintaining a very slender, healthy physique. Now in her 70s, she is wheelchair-bound, in constant low-grade joint and muscle pain, and can barely remember the names of her own children. Meanwhile, my obese father of the same age who chain-smoked for most of his life still mows his own lawn and is a card shark.
My point in my first post was that fat people bear a disproportionate share of societal disapproval and intolerance because our particular weakness or genetic bequest or whatever you want to call it is VISIBLE. Your post was simply proof of that assertion.