(no subject)
Hmm.
What I find interesting in this article is that no one talked about esteem.
The thing is, people are still talking about the fat like it's the be-all/end-all of this movement. But it's not. Not even close.
The reason I am an activist in this realm is because I believe that ALL WOMEN (and yes, all men) deserve:
* fair and equitable treatment in the workplace
* proper and reasonable access to quality medical care
* freedom from harassment and prejudice
* equal access to pain-free travel and public accommodations (comfortable seats, etc.)
* and most of all, a sense of self that is empowered, and loving, and strong and vibrant.
There are *some* people who, if they're not already eating healthfully and exercising, when they being, will lose all of their "excess" weight and become traditionally thin. There are some people who will lose most of their 'excess' weight and plateau. There are some who will lose just a bit and plateau, there are some who won't lose any at all but will simply get stronger/healthier, and there are some who will actually gain weight in terms of muscle mass and see only a slight shift in their bodies overall presentation. There *is* no simple black and white formula that will apply to ever body, save for "stop breathing = die."
To me, fitness and fatness is not even a question. It is absolutely possible, and I'm not sure why it's a concept that hasn't been considered "proven" yet. I've seen it "proven" several times by watching my friends. I've experienced the beginnings of it myself, though I let a hard time in my life stop me from pushing forward. Who is doing this science? Who is researching this? And if not, why not? Oh right - it's not lucrative. It's much harder to sell something to someone who is satisfied.
People over-simplify - activists and non-activists (??) alike.
The truth is always in the goddamn middle.
Not all fat people are slovenly, lazy, over-indulging, weakly-constituted, unclean, unmotivated, lower class, unintelligent, wallowing in self-pity, incredibly unhealthy, blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda.
And not all fat people are fit and fat, genetically predispositioned, unable to lose weight, happy, healthy and confident.
We *do* have a sedentary lifestyle in most western-ish cultures, made possible by more technology, by car commutes instead of walking 4 miles to school, and desk jobs instead of sweat labor, and our insane dedication to 'progress' which has us all living so far above our means in terms of time/energy expenditure that 'fast food' isn't even fast enough anymore.
This lifestyle is, overall, contributing to a less healthy western culture. But fat folks are not the only ones with health problems related to this. There are PLENTY of 'thin' people with diabetes, with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, who can't run a flight of stairs without getting winded, whose higher metabolism don't make obvious their poor eating habits, excessive liquor consumption or penchant for late night TV. And there are plenty of fat people who are more healthy, vital, outdoorsy and active than most of their thinner counterparts.
The problem is not with the actual fat itself. Or with the people that carry the lion's share of it.
The problem lies within three key words that all add up to the same thing:
Progress
Value
Consumerism
The truth of the matter is, there are plenty of people, fat and thin alike, who don't do the right things for themselves and/or their bodies. The truth of the matter is, there are plenty of people, fat and thin alike, who do. The truth is -- as I've said and will continue to say -- always in the middle. And the extremism on both sides, while understandable, is polarizing the issue right into a standstill.
The problem is -- the medical establishment and society in general, having been spoonfed their entire lives, don't believe that it's possible to be fat and fit at the same time, don't believe that it's acceptable for a body to bear more than the BMI states it should, can't step away from its blatant stereotyping, and is now feeling deliciously righteous in its indignation by having the flag of the "War on Obesity" waving high above its pious head.
This forces us as activists to often take the "We can *TOO* be fat and fit! LOOK!" track. And the "We're NOT lazy, and we're NOT dirty and we're NOT smelly and we ARE human beings and we DO deserve equal treatment!" defensive. And while this work absolutely needs to be done - and while there is other work being done more quietly behind the scenes -- Sondra Solovay's push to end size discrimination legally, and Lynn McAfee's amazing medical lobbying work, and Marilyn Wann's exuberant foray into the mainstream and her continued daily work, and so many folks I don't even know yet who are doing such incredibly valid and hard work, bucking the system and working to make change from the inside -- I still see too much focus on the health debate.
Oh, I know I'm probably making some heinous and egregious errors and oversights in terms of my thinking around this. I'm dancing around a concept I've not yet been able to find the perfect words to describe - it's still foggy and ethereal, floating right above my head in a thick, bulky mass with sharp pokey words that don't exactly mean what I mean poking out now and then. A near-mist if you will. ;) But I'm trying to make words for it as I go:
Progress = ever-larger, ever-more-profitable, ever-faster, ever-stronger, ever-more more more more more. Big, Bigger, Biggest. Good, Better, Best! Car, Yacht, Private Jet! Apartment, Condo, Mansion! It's not enough to have a cell phone, it has to be decorated in $3,000 worth of stick-on crystals a'la Paris Hilton. It's not enough to have a roof over your head, it has to have imported marble from the roman empire and closets full of $800 shoes. blah blah blah.
The concept of progress is troublesome to me. The next new thing.
The fact that they're building planned obsolescence into technology now - and not even hiding it - and the fact that this is acceptable and not creating some kind of general uproar.
The fact that we've bought into the concept of "NEW and IMPROVED" so fully and completely that we forget to stop and look at something and think "Hey, is it working? am I happy with this? can I do what I need to do with what I've got? Do I really *need* that?" It's more, and faster. And it's part of the problem with these instant gratification body modifications with no long-term data on their overall effects on health -- incredibly dangerous surgeries, ridiculous diet plans, so much disordered eating, so much desperation to be BETTER, FASTER, NOW! Better, of course, being determined by whatever the public decides is best at the moment.
Or does the public decide? And that's the sinister thing about --
Consumerism: (I'm doing this out of order, we'll get to value in a second.) -- Trends are the non-tech-sector version of planned obsolescence. Society doesn't decide what's cool. Retail stores do. Of course, society has to buy into a trend for it to catch on, but it's like a police line-up with every change of season. Stores put out their "ideas" of what might catch on by confidently strutting around declaring that their style is 'the new black', the media buys in and runs their latest "Fashion Alert" spread and the approval-hungry public runs out and spends $42 on a pair of sunglasses that make them look like an extra on the set of "The Fly" and $74 on a pair of thrift store legwarmers with itchy plastic sparkle-threads from 1984.
And this shit is just plain ridiculous. Wtf? Please spend $40,000 to look like bad retro 70's fiber optic lamp. Please? PLEASE?!?!?!
haute couture = hate culture
I know. I know. I'm probably not the first to think of that. But come ON.
We're the manufacture "missing" -- blindly taking our place on the assembly lines, emblazoned with self-perpetuating logos - Wear this, 'cuz he's wearing this, which you realized by seeing the label, which you're now putting on yourself, so the next person who thinks you're even a tiny bit cooler than they are will attempt to emulate you by doing the same. So on. So forth. So. Gross.
You're not good enough until your size zero is baggy. But when you're a double-zero, then you're TOO thin and you need to check into an eating disorder clinic because your bones are showing *too* much.
So. Wrong.
Value:
This word is troublesome on so many levels.
Lets take the tired old supersize me argument. More for the buck. This is where classism comes into play.
Personal anecdote: One day, I was so broke. I had $1.32 in my bank account to last me for an entire month. My choices were to go to the grocery store and get 2 packages of Top Ramen, to go to McDonald's and do their 3 cheeseburgers for a buck special, or to get an orange. My access to healthy food as a poor person was so limited. I could not afford fresh fruit, vegetables, organic meat, healthy dairy, etc... The only thing I could afford that would have actually filled my belly to satisfaction was ridiculously unhealthy to me. Obviously, I went with McDonald's.
Look around "lower class" neighborhoods -- are there grocery stores? Independent co-ops with locally grown produce, meat/dairy/etc? No - but there are 'quicky marts' on every single corner with 2 corndogs for a dollar and all the deep fried crap, soda, chips, candy bars, etc you could care to have. All cheap. All doing the job of filling the stomachs of folks in need, but ultimately destroying health and well-being of their consumers. And it's great that some option exists for those who have no alternative, but WHY is there no alternative?
So here we have the term VALUE being placed on more CRAP available for the dollar.
And then we have the concept of value as your rank in society. And value in this society is directly entwined in your ability to be a 'good' consumer. In your ability to present the aesthetic of someone with 'value' - your body type, your clothing, your living situation, your car, your education, your lifestyle accessories, your club memberships, your ability to keep up with pop culture (buy music, see movies, read books, have time to peruse magazines, watch cable, etc.) etc etc etc.
Your "value" to society is directly tied to your class background. How much you are able to achieve. And you can't achieve shit without money, and you can't get money unless you have perceived value. A ridiculous catch 22 that keeps the lower class unhealthy, unsupported, unrepresented and, ultimately, perceived as unworthy.
Racism, classism, ableism, all of these are directly related to the fat experience, and I do not see people discussing this, EVER.
Fuck the 'war on obesity' -- What our culture, as a whole, needs to focus on to fix the HEALTH crisis we're facing is access to healthy foods, access to jobs, to health care and ultimately, to our own sense of selves. To our individual levels of empowerment, independent of aesthetic, independent of size, independent of race, class, ability and gender.
And there's so much unsaid here, but it's late and I need to leave work, and I've been working on this rant for a week without finishing it enough to post it. So I'm posting it as-is.
What I find interesting in this article is that no one talked about esteem.
The thing is, people are still talking about the fat like it's the be-all/end-all of this movement. But it's not. Not even close.
The reason I am an activist in this realm is because I believe that ALL WOMEN (and yes, all men) deserve:
* fair and equitable treatment in the workplace
* proper and reasonable access to quality medical care
* freedom from harassment and prejudice
* equal access to pain-free travel and public accommodations (comfortable seats, etc.)
* and most of all, a sense of self that is empowered, and loving, and strong and vibrant.
There are *some* people who, if they're not already eating healthfully and exercising, when they being, will lose all of their "excess" weight and become traditionally thin. There are some people who will lose most of their 'excess' weight and plateau. There are some who will lose just a bit and plateau, there are some who won't lose any at all but will simply get stronger/healthier, and there are some who will actually gain weight in terms of muscle mass and see only a slight shift in their bodies overall presentation. There *is* no simple black and white formula that will apply to ever body, save for "stop breathing = die."
To me, fitness and fatness is not even a question. It is absolutely possible, and I'm not sure why it's a concept that hasn't been considered "proven" yet. I've seen it "proven" several times by watching my friends. I've experienced the beginnings of it myself, though I let a hard time in my life stop me from pushing forward. Who is doing this science? Who is researching this? And if not, why not? Oh right - it's not lucrative. It's much harder to sell something to someone who is satisfied.
People over-simplify - activists and non-activists (??) alike.
The truth is always in the goddamn middle.
Not all fat people are slovenly, lazy, over-indulging, weakly-constituted, unclean, unmotivated, lower class, unintelligent, wallowing in self-pity, incredibly unhealthy, blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda.
And not all fat people are fit and fat, genetically predispositioned, unable to lose weight, happy, healthy and confident.
We *do* have a sedentary lifestyle in most western-ish cultures, made possible by more technology, by car commutes instead of walking 4 miles to school, and desk jobs instead of sweat labor, and our insane dedication to 'progress' which has us all living so far above our means in terms of time/energy expenditure that 'fast food' isn't even fast enough anymore.
This lifestyle is, overall, contributing to a less healthy western culture. But fat folks are not the only ones with health problems related to this. There are PLENTY of 'thin' people with diabetes, with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, who can't run a flight of stairs without getting winded, whose higher metabolism don't make obvious their poor eating habits, excessive liquor consumption or penchant for late night TV. And there are plenty of fat people who are more healthy, vital, outdoorsy and active than most of their thinner counterparts.
The problem is not with the actual fat itself. Or with the people that carry the lion's share of it.
The problem lies within three key words that all add up to the same thing:
Progress
Value
Consumerism
The truth of the matter is, there are plenty of people, fat and thin alike, who don't do the right things for themselves and/or their bodies. The truth of the matter is, there are plenty of people, fat and thin alike, who do. The truth is -- as I've said and will continue to say -- always in the middle. And the extremism on both sides, while understandable, is polarizing the issue right into a standstill.
The problem is -- the medical establishment and society in general, having been spoonfed their entire lives, don't believe that it's possible to be fat and fit at the same time, don't believe that it's acceptable for a body to bear more than the BMI states it should, can't step away from its blatant stereotyping, and is now feeling deliciously righteous in its indignation by having the flag of the "War on Obesity" waving high above its pious head.
This forces us as activists to often take the "We can *TOO* be fat and fit! LOOK!" track. And the "We're NOT lazy, and we're NOT dirty and we're NOT smelly and we ARE human beings and we DO deserve equal treatment!" defensive. And while this work absolutely needs to be done - and while there is other work being done more quietly behind the scenes -- Sondra Solovay's push to end size discrimination legally, and Lynn McAfee's amazing medical lobbying work, and Marilyn Wann's exuberant foray into the mainstream and her continued daily work, and so many folks I don't even know yet who are doing such incredibly valid and hard work, bucking the system and working to make change from the inside -- I still see too much focus on the health debate.
Oh, I know I'm probably making some heinous and egregious errors and oversights in terms of my thinking around this. I'm dancing around a concept I've not yet been able to find the perfect words to describe - it's still foggy and ethereal, floating right above my head in a thick, bulky mass with sharp pokey words that don't exactly mean what I mean poking out now and then. A near-mist if you will. ;) But I'm trying to make words for it as I go:
Progress = ever-larger, ever-more-profitable, ever-faster, ever-stronger, ever-more more more more more. Big, Bigger, Biggest. Good, Better, Best! Car, Yacht, Private Jet! Apartment, Condo, Mansion! It's not enough to have a cell phone, it has to be decorated in $3,000 worth of stick-on crystals a'la Paris Hilton. It's not enough to have a roof over your head, it has to have imported marble from the roman empire and closets full of $800 shoes. blah blah blah.
The concept of progress is troublesome to me. The next new thing.
The fact that they're building planned obsolescence into technology now - and not even hiding it - and the fact that this is acceptable and not creating some kind of general uproar.
The fact that we've bought into the concept of "NEW and IMPROVED" so fully and completely that we forget to stop and look at something and think "Hey, is it working? am I happy with this? can I do what I need to do with what I've got? Do I really *need* that?" It's more, and faster. And it's part of the problem with these instant gratification body modifications with no long-term data on their overall effects on health -- incredibly dangerous surgeries, ridiculous diet plans, so much disordered eating, so much desperation to be BETTER, FASTER, NOW! Better, of course, being determined by whatever the public decides is best at the moment.
Or does the public decide? And that's the sinister thing about --
Consumerism: (I'm doing this out of order, we'll get to value in a second.) -- Trends are the non-tech-sector version of planned obsolescence. Society doesn't decide what's cool. Retail stores do. Of course, society has to buy into a trend for it to catch on, but it's like a police line-up with every change of season. Stores put out their "ideas" of what might catch on by confidently strutting around declaring that their style is 'the new black', the media buys in and runs their latest "Fashion Alert" spread and the approval-hungry public runs out and spends $42 on a pair of sunglasses that make them look like an extra on the set of "The Fly" and $74 on a pair of thrift store legwarmers with itchy plastic sparkle-threads from 1984.
And this shit is just plain ridiculous. Wtf? Please spend $40,000 to look like bad retro 70's fiber optic lamp. Please? PLEASE?!?!?!
haute couture = hate culture
I know. I know. I'm probably not the first to think of that. But come ON.
We're the manufacture "missing" -- blindly taking our place on the assembly lines, emblazoned with self-perpetuating logos - Wear this, 'cuz he's wearing this, which you realized by seeing the label, which you're now putting on yourself, so the next person who thinks you're even a tiny bit cooler than they are will attempt to emulate you by doing the same. So on. So forth. So. Gross.
You're not good enough until your size zero is baggy. But when you're a double-zero, then you're TOO thin and you need to check into an eating disorder clinic because your bones are showing *too* much.
So. Wrong.
Value:
This word is troublesome on so many levels.
Lets take the tired old supersize me argument. More for the buck. This is where classism comes into play.
Personal anecdote: One day, I was so broke. I had $1.32 in my bank account to last me for an entire month. My choices were to go to the grocery store and get 2 packages of Top Ramen, to go to McDonald's and do their 3 cheeseburgers for a buck special, or to get an orange. My access to healthy food as a poor person was so limited. I could not afford fresh fruit, vegetables, organic meat, healthy dairy, etc... The only thing I could afford that would have actually filled my belly to satisfaction was ridiculously unhealthy to me. Obviously, I went with McDonald's.
Look around "lower class" neighborhoods -- are there grocery stores? Independent co-ops with locally grown produce, meat/dairy/etc? No - but there are 'quicky marts' on every single corner with 2 corndogs for a dollar and all the deep fried crap, soda, chips, candy bars, etc you could care to have. All cheap. All doing the job of filling the stomachs of folks in need, but ultimately destroying health and well-being of their consumers. And it's great that some option exists for those who have no alternative, but WHY is there no alternative?
So here we have the term VALUE being placed on more CRAP available for the dollar.
And then we have the concept of value as your rank in society. And value in this society is directly entwined in your ability to be a 'good' consumer. In your ability to present the aesthetic of someone with 'value' - your body type, your clothing, your living situation, your car, your education, your lifestyle accessories, your club memberships, your ability to keep up with pop culture (buy music, see movies, read books, have time to peruse magazines, watch cable, etc.) etc etc etc.
Your "value" to society is directly tied to your class background. How much you are able to achieve. And you can't achieve shit without money, and you can't get money unless you have perceived value. A ridiculous catch 22 that keeps the lower class unhealthy, unsupported, unrepresented and, ultimately, perceived as unworthy.
Racism, classism, ableism, all of these are directly related to the fat experience, and I do not see people discussing this, EVER.
Fuck the 'war on obesity' -- What our culture, as a whole, needs to focus on to fix the HEALTH crisis we're facing is access to healthy foods, access to jobs, to health care and ultimately, to our own sense of selves. To our individual levels of empowerment, independent of aesthetic, independent of size, independent of race, class, ability and gender.
And there's so much unsaid here, but it's late and I need to leave work, and I've been working on this rant for a week without finishing it enough to post it. So I'm posting it as-is.