Each time I read another article or hear a "talking head" discuss dieting I cringe again. Along with me so do thousands of other fellow Americans. Our adverse environment towards fat people makes it harder for us to live, starting with the childrean who taunt a larger child's attempt to exercise to the 85 year old woman (a stranger) who comes up to a fat person and tells that person, "You will die young and never get to my age because you're fat." You can be hurt and damaged to death "for your own good!"
Fat people have been maltreated over the past years, as never before, by a medical establishment that seeks to eliminate "the obese" and proudly declares a "war on fat," and our society, including loved ones, follow their guidelines as if they were gospel. They are not. Some activists, responding to the biological and genetic root causes of fat, liken such efforts to genocide. People who advocate "war on fat" should have their backgrounds checked on carefully. They are usually funded or looking for funds, by the diet-industry or drug companies. Or they could be on a diet-I've heard misery loves company.
You can NOT tell what or how much a person eats by the "look" of the body. This is a lie. To presume you can and act upon that presumption is a travesty and does much damage to people's lives and spirits. That's like saying all "beautiful" people are good and all "ugly" people are bad. This view is judgmental and prejudicial.
Fat people suffer negative economic and social consequences due to the way they are treated in our society. The only thing fat indicates is a person who has experienced life as a fat person (Solovay). They just "look-like" someone you have been taught to hate.
Reputable medical, legal and lay people, after studying the facts, will state diets do NOT work, except on a short term basis, and diets do much physical and psychological damage to everyone. A person being a size that you do not believe fits some made-up goal, a goal that has been "dreamed up" by those making millions off others' bodies, still does not give people the right to discriminate and "hate" another segment of "other."
Medical people know diets for children are damaging and they still advocate diets. They are part of our society and our society says loud and frequently that they would have you damaged in mind and body as long as you "look" the way they think you "should." If the medical and parental force upon a fat child does not damage them, their peers will, given the acknowledged acceptance of constant discrimination in school and play. Weight loss at any cost in today's social climate is dangerous and killing and perpetuates discrimination against fat people. You are not "doing right" by the child.
The acceptability of fat prejudice and much of the hostility directed toward fat people is supported by the widespread belief that fat people can become thin forever. Hello-wake up! Contrary to popular opinion-which has been fueled by the diet money used for extensive advertising-scientific evidence over the past 20 years continues to point out that, for the most part, weight is not within the control of the individual except on a short term basis. If that is not enough, people spend $30 BILLION a year striving for weight loss because the vast majority of weight is regained (NAAFA).
Obviously fat is a completely visible condition, so is "learned" hatred for that fat. Given the overwhelming failure of weight loss efforts, the dangers of weight loss drugs and dieting, and the lack of any scientific justification for the continued use of dietary treatments of obesity, this discrimination is unjustified.
It is important to teach children and adults good nutrition, but the majority of people do NOT teach nutrition, they teach hatred of fat and fat people, which causes life long damage (Have I said that enough?). It is most important to teach children the love of movement and the enjoyment of activity. Weighing, charting, and comparing children by weight is NOT a benign procedure. We want to teach children to continue using their bodies actively for the rest of their lives-no matter what their size! Not contribute to self-esteem damage or yo-yo dieting. There should be a demand from all of us for compassion and training in those who teach our children, not judgmental prejudice. Prolonged name-calling (encouraged by our society), teasing and verbal harassment at school or home, affects thousands of children. No one has the right to make "victims" of others due to a physical characteristic.
GET OFF MY BODY! Becoming the locus for all your misinformation and self-hatred is too heavy!
Sources Used:
Big Fat Lies, The Truth About Your Weight and Health Glenn Gaesser, Ph.D., Fawcett Columbine, 1996
Body Image Task Force, P.O. Box 360196, Melbourne, FL 32936-0196 BITF
Council on Size & Weight Discrimination, Inc., P.O. Box 305, Mt. Marion, NY 12456 contact: cswd@ulster.net
Life experience-Mary E. Atkins
National Association To Advance Fat Acceptance, P.O. Box 188620, Sacramento, CA 95818 (916) 558-6880 http://naafa.org
Rump Parliament Magazine P.O. Box 865137, Plano, TX 75086 http://web2airmail.net/lmartin
Tipping the Scales of Justice, Fighting Weight-Based Discrimination by Sondra Solovay, J.D., Prometheus Books, 2000
Weight-Related Legal Issues, PMB 261, Berkeley, CA 94705 contact: solo@sirius.com
Mary E. Atkins is a founding member of the Body Image Task Force, and is also a member of NAAFA and NOW. You can contact her in care of the Body Image Task Force, address shown above.
SINCE June 3, 2001 YOU ARE UPPITY VISITOR NUMBER 7614