oldie, but holy shit

[donnaidh_sidhe]

Fat Hatred Kills.During her last year of life, my mom had given up most of the healthy physical activities she had enjoyed, because her “asthma” was so bad. I’m sure some of those attacks were indeed asthma, but other times she’d wind up out-of-breath from doing hardly anything at all, and I know it mystified all of us

Comments

[donnaidh_sidhe]

I KNEW you were giving the secretary the eye in the office! :P

And yeah...that site was hard to read through, but I read it through to the very first entry. It's upsetting to see how much hatred and blindness the people we trust to take care of us can have.

[lemur_cat]

I've been reading that blog since its inception, and it's horrifying. I am lucky enough to have a decent non-fat-phobic doctor in the States (although my mother got a little of it from one of the nurses), but in Japan I don't get any choice who does my job- and school-required checkups*. At least the school ones seem to have a slightly less ZOMGSTOPBEINGFAT attitude than the work ones, but not by much. (I must give kudos where they are due to the guys I saw for things like telling me whether I had a cold or the flu, because they didn't mention weight at all.) Also, they just recently decided to fine companies if their employees over 40 have too large waistlines! (Regardless of overall body size/height, too.) Because you know what helps people lose weight? Unemployment.

Anyway, good luck with doctor hunting!

*Okay technically I could choose my own doctor but there aren't any doctors I know to be good about it and I would have to pay extra.

[donnaidh_sidhe]

You know what else helps people lose weight? Stress and sleepless nights.

There's also a Philadephia college -- and I use that term loosely -- that's forcing anyone with a 30+ BMI to take a physical education course or risk not graduating. And see, here's the thing; besides the paternalism and fatphobia of this decision, there's another flaw in that most schools' mandatory PE classes are dead boring and unpleasant.

I refused to take PE after it stopped being mandatory because the classes were boring and stupid, and because it was all team sports I learned to hate exercise because, well, I don't like most people. It took a few years before I entered a ballroom dance class and realized that physical activity was a lot of fun when I got to choose a) the activity, b) my terms for participation, and c) my activity partners (or lack thereof).

I also remember being quite aggravated when I realized that grade 11 and 12 PE classes included archery, ballroom dancing and judo. Why couldn't they do that kind of stuff in the mandatory classes?

[donnaidh_sidhe]

s/Philadelphia/Pennsylvania

[lemur_cat]

I loathed P.E. If I start on the details it will turn into a long rant that I don't have time to do justice to tonight. But the real reason I took band and learned to play the trombone was because if you were in band you didn't have to take P.E. anymore.

[koalabeat]

That blog is really upsetting. I am so glad that my family doctor has always been understanding and not fat phobic.

Side note: I too have a nuns having fun calendar, and I love it.

[donnaidh_sidhe]

The blog's made me even more paranoid about the medical establishment than I already was, and it's also really got me thinking about the cult of thinness and the Fantasy of Being Thin.

And re the calendar, I decided to buy myself a Nuns Having Fun calendar after I decided that it was about time I bought one for a worthwhile human being. :)

[ill_esha]

You are beautiful!

[donnaidh_sidhe]

Thanks. :)

You're not looking bad yourself -- I could stand to have a more recent look!