New University, Old Stereotypes

"It may not be easy, but if a blind man were told he would no longer be blind if he ate his fruits and vegetables while exercising four times a week, he would do it."

Actually, if someone told me that (I am blind) I would inform them to mind their own fucking business since they obviously have no clue what they're talking about. I eat lots of produce and I exercise daily anyway--I'm still blind and I'm still a size 18. Armchair ophthalmologists piss me off.

It may not be easy, but if a blind man were told he would no longer be blind if he ate his fruits and vegetables while exercising four times a week, he would do it.

Gaaah. Where do people get the idea that this is "all it takes" to get and stay thin? Where? Where??? Has he actually ever even TALKED to a fat person? Oh, wait, he can't. We all have Cheetoes in our ears and can't hear anything. **headdesk**

"It may not be easy, but if a blind man were told he would no longer be blind if he ate nothing but non-starchy fruits and vegetables and worked out hard for 3 hours every single day without fail for the rest of his life...uh..."

Fixed that for him.

Why are any of our regular commenters not getting published, again?

Some of them are, Paul. Kate Harding and OnceUpon have a book coming out next year, remember? And I'm working on it.

I think someone who is blind and fat would make the article author's head explode. (Imagine if that person was a black woman, too! KABLOOEY)

I think I'll sic my mother -- fat, black, female, not-young, and significantly sight-impaired -- on him.

Has he actually ever even TALKED to a fat person? Oh, wait, he can't. We all have Cheetoes in our ears and can't hear anything.

I thought it was that we couldn't hear anything over the lip-smacking, snarfing sounds and intense chomping as we nom-nom-nommed on our baby flavored doughnuts?

Pease's Fat is fixable if one exercises 4 times per week and eats fruits and vegetables...

Assumption 1: Fat is a problem(/causes problems/causes health problems/whatever)
Assumption 2: Fat is "fixable" (Actually "true" for a given value of true. Some people CAN lose weight without starving themselves but see 3.)
Assumption 3: People want to "fix" it if they can. Because, of course, Assumption 1.

Jerks like this set me back all the time.

People can get any form of crap published as an editorial, that sure seems to be true. I remember some of the stuff my university news papers printed 20 years ago. It's just gotten worse with the Internet age. Newspapers want to publish this stuff so that they anger people and get them to write in in response. Sensationalism in journalism is nothing new, but so much of it is like the shock jock thing in radio.

That said, wow, what a load of tripe. First of all, he comes up with a euphemism for fat mob so that he can then refer to said people by this derogatory term. He talks about fat and fat prejudice as viewed through the lens of racial prejudice, and he might actually have a good jumping off point there, except he basically says that people are comparing their experiences as fat people to the brutal form of slavery to which African peoples were subjected. Except I've never once heard this claim made, and following his logic, any group who lobbies for protections or against discrimination could be said to be comparing themselves to slaves in their treatment. Now that he's made this suggestion, he's basically tarring fat people with yet another stroke from the brush of immorality. Although he doesn't come right out and say this, his editorial implies that fat people are more guilty of unexamined privilege and racism than non-fat people. Usually fat people are accused of being more wasteful, greedy, lazy and out of control than some people because of their size, regardless of the facts that you can be guilty of all of these things without being fat as they can manifest in other ways. This guy had to take this idea even further. And then he comes right out and says that fat people have a health problem, and are discriminated against their health problem, but it's necessary.

And never once does he supply any proof that what he claims is true--that fat people would no longer be fat if they ate fruit and vegetables along with exercising 4 times a week. Not to mention that he really doesn't know what the typical blind person might do to acquire sight. He just assumes that all blind people would do what it took to be normal, but this may not necessarily be true either.

And never once does he supply any proof that what he claims is true--that fat people would no longer be fat if they ate fruit and vegetables along with exercising 4 times a week. Not to mention that he really doesn't know what the typical blind person might do to acquire sight. He just assumes that all blind people would do what it took to be normal, but this may not necessarily be true either.

Indeed. Many disabled people choose NOT to do extreme things (e.g., cochlear implants for deafness) to 'fix' their 'problems', and for a variety of reasons. Not everyone wants to dedicate every spare moment of their lives to promoting ablism by trying to 'fit in'; lots of disabled people would prefer to focus their efforts on changing the oppressive structures of society.

And I eat fruits and vegetables, and exercise frequently. I'm still Superfat (tm). Oh darn, there I go, not existing again.

"The truth is that if you are fat, you must be told that you are fat so that you will do something to change it."

The truth is that if you are an ignorant fuckwit who can't write well, you must be told that you are an ignorant fuckwit who can't write well so that you will do something to change it.

He's angry because they're changing Small World, and that's a sacred memory to him. He asks what if the Lincoln Memorial (not comparable to the Small World ride, I might add) were "given a gut and a box of nachos." This makes a lot of sense. If the Small World were a national monument, if Lincoln had been fat, and if all the characters you view when you ride the Small World ride had also been made fat and been given boxes of nachos. The guy is quite obviously stupid.

Zero isn't a size, it's a warning sign. - Carson Kressley

Yeah, I had to double-check that you said this was PUBLISHED when I read the "fixable" remark. Was it published in a scholarly journal? UC Irvine must not be known for its psychology program. Yikes.

By keeping the ride boats slim, they could serve as a harsh reminder that obesity is a problem.

Yes, because similar tactics have worked so well in the past! That is why I'm thin today. Wait a sec! Nope, still fat. Heh.

Eat fruits and veggies and exercise? Why the hell didn't I ever think of that? :eyeroll:

*THIS* is a Psych / Soc Major? Dude. . . . . You might wanna look into finding another calling before you start diddling with other peoples heads. Seriously.

FIrst we get intellectually challenged pieheads wandering the campuses and posting preschool level, nobody likz U cuz ur fat, Top 10 lists. Now we have Psych students who are obviously having trouble processing the curriculum. Has developing the ability to reason, somehow, fallen out of fashion? Is Stupid the new Kewl?

Is anyone else frightened for higher education in this country?

>>DAILY AFFIRMATION:
- As I let go of my feelings of guilt, I find
I can get in touch with my Inner Sociopath.<<

No way would this idiot ever make a good psychologist. He would tell all fat people that came to see him that any issue they had would go away if they lost weight. If he had his way, he'd probably make his office furniture small on purpose.

"Rarely is the question asked, is our children learning?" - President Bush

Apparently, not.

Yeah, I don't exercise daily - unless you count running up and down the stairs frequently a legitimate activity. And I eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. Still fat. So, what does this genius suggest for me now? Starvation?

I don't care for amusement parks anymore and I never could tolerate many rides because I was scared of 'em. But why are bigger seats such a moral crisis? Thin people with big bottoms will appreciate it too.

Being fat isn't a health problem. That has to be the largest crock ever created by the medical industry. I don't have any physical health problems, despite being OMG OBESE!

I'm not disabled - just bigger. Common sense would dictate that a bigger person would need - gasp - a larger seat! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.....................

Thanks to people like Kevin, the American educational system continues to take a beating.

To summarize Kev's argument:

"Let's punish the fatties until they conform — and let's call this 'incentive.' 'Cause we're doing them a favor, yo?"

Wow. I've NEVER heard that argument before! But, give him credit: He somehow heroically resisted making a crack about how "It's a Small World" should be renamed "It's a Supersized World!"

And, as I've said before, and will apparently have to keep saying, with bigger and bigger megaphones: "Just because the prejudice someone else has suffered is clearly greater than that which I have suffered does NOT mean I have not suffered, or that I should just shut up."

Know what really troubles me about the people who whine when fat bigotry is compared to racism? This: "Well Race Blank can't HELP but be Race Blank." Excuse me?!? Why is being Race Blank something to BE helped? Sorry, but if you advance that argument, the unspoken assumption upon which it rests goes right along with it. Racists actually don't give a fig whether their targets can "help" be a certain race. Their hatred is based on the irrational belief that there is something INHERENTLY wrong, evil, stupid, inhuman, etc. about being that race. Thus, the fundamentals of weight prejudice and racism are very similar, even if the manners by which one or the other are expressed are drastically different.

The racists don't care whether Race Blank can change race, just like you don't care whether I "can" lose weight or "should" lose weight. And let's be honest: It's not your call to make, anyway, so zip it, Skippy. (And please, do me a favor? Stop pretending to be concerned with my health. If you were *really* concerned, after all, you'd *ask* me how my health was, then you'd believe my answer due to the fact that I am in the best position to know!)

Guess what Kevvy, baby? Yeah, fat people are pissed off about the hatred and the propaganda that gets spewed right along with it by the likes of little wannabe hacks like yourself. Yeah, we're sick of internalizing YOUR hatred. Seriously, dude. *You're getting all bent over a frickin' theme park ride!* A theme park ride! It ain't the end of civilization as we know it. Hell, it's not even comparable to desegregating water fountains down South. It's that the marketplace, at least, is starting to listen to us. If for some reason you feel my accommodation takes something away from you, well, employ your superior psychoanalytical skills and come to grips with the fact that, hello, IT'S YOUR PROBLEM!

Also, memo: Not all of us think of ourselves as "disabled." Shockingly, we just want to be treated equally and be judged by the content of our character, not the size of the pants whose "structuring" we are apparently straining so terribly that it offends you.

No, not all of us eat and eat and eat and sit and sit and sit. And, guess what? There are, among the people who can slip into pants whose size you find socially acceptable, junkfood gobbling couch potatoes.

You might also be shocked to realize that there is little proven relation between dietary fat and bodily fat; that the charming Ms. Powter was, er, dead wrong, when she proclaimed : Fat makes you fat! So knock it off with all the "cheesy" references.

Now, I'd show you the studies that demonstrate the genetic link to body weight is pretty damn strong, except I think it'd fry whatever was left of your pathetic clutch of brain cells.

It's too bad. I always find that facts are facts, while the conventional wisdom upon which you uncritically rely is only about a generation removed from being deemed an old wife's tale.

The asshole from the University of Toronto (article below this one) is earning a minor in psychology.

I'm beginning to see a pattern here....

The asshole from the University of Toronto (article below this one) is earning a minor in psychology.

I'm beginning to see a pattern here....

Don't. I am working on a master's degree in social psych and I swear at least social psychologists are on average very aware of fat prejudice and its negative consequences (I don't know about clinical psych, though). In fact, particularly in my current program I have had professors frequently refer to studies documenting fat prejudice without being promted - during my undergraduate studies they usually needed to be asked about it to mention this topic, but still, up to this moment they all agreed with me that it is a well documented phenomenon and that it is a problem. (Of course, there are also people around who believe that being fat is a major health risk, but frankly, in which field isn't that the case nowadays?)

I can't decide if I should bother to send him a comment, though. With a mind that closed, I don't think that the most reasonable objection possible would get through.

I need to know WHY ON EARTH DO PEOPLE GET SO BENT OUT OF SHAPE OVER LARGER SEATS?!?!? Does this hurt or inconvenience anyone? For example, airplane seats, I haven't met a single person who's flown, regardless of weight, who hasn't thought the seats were tiny. I fit fine in an airplane seat, I can put the arm rest down, I do not have to buy two tickets, but honestly, I wish the seats were bigger, because it's really cramped. Bigger seats equal more comfort for everyone, because seriously, have you met anyone who prefers smaller seats?

For that matter, do I want special treatment, as implied by compairing fat to being disabled? No. Do I want a little thing to hang from my rear view mirror, so I can park in handicapped parking? Of course not. I am not disabled, claiming that just because I'm fat is abhorrent to me. I don't want special treatment, and I am perfectly capable of walking to the store, be it from my house or from the far end of the parking lot, depending on which store I'm going to.

"The average person’s consumption of high-fat foods, such as meats and cheeses, is incredible."

Dammit! Now CHEESE is a sin??!! I LOVE CHEESE! (Well, some kinds...) Heck, we are going to get a milk cow so I can make cheese here on the farm! Damn you Fat Phobes!!! May God smite you!! First they make it illegal for people to enjoy sweets and now we'll soon be persecuted for eating cheese!! The "Food Tetrahedron" is quickly turning into the "Food Twig."

Yeah, yeah, I'm being a total drama queen. But I'm just so sick and tired of food being turned into a sin and then we are judged by the food we eat (or don't eat but it's assumed we eat it anyway.) !!

DaniFae I'm with you on the larger seats thing. SO WHAT?? The only reason fat people "don't fit in" to every day things like theaters, planes, medical equipment is because our bone-headed society refuses to accept that fat people will always exist!! (Or will we? At the rate things are going...)

"If you judge people, you have no time to love them." ~Mother Teresa

FatSheperdess, in the UK cheese is now categorised as 'junk food', and hence is now banned from children's lunchboxes and falls foul of various advertising bans.

DaniFae, I suspect that of the fat-hating 95% of the general public, most would welcome larger seats on planes / public transport / amusement park rides etc were it marketed / spun as being to improve THEIR comfort levels. However suggesting that fat folk might benefit from it piques their sense of moral outrage, particularly if they can allude to the possibility that Mr & Mrs Normal might have to pay extra to fund it, rather than financial penalties being limited to the undeserving fatties as at present. It's the same reason I've never found anyone outside the SA community who disagrees with Southwest-style 'customers of size' policies.

And the reason none of our people are getting published is that the vast majority of gatekeepers, ie editors and advertisers, are as fat-phobic as the populations they claim to serve (indoctrinate is probably more like it). Those who aren't can do immense good (such as the recent positive New York Times articles about fat acceptance); however a far greater proportion of the media seem to focus on sensationalism and shallow celeb / beauty culture than on serious journalism and investigative pieces, not only because that's what sells products (and ergo, sells ad space) but also because it sells papers. Look at the popularity of so-called 'Belly Telly' - reality TV shows about fat people - when asked everyone condemns it as trash but someone somewhere must be watching it or it wouldn't keep being made. Increasingly I think people pick up newspapers and magazines not to have their conceptions and prejudices challenged, but to have them confirmed and reinforced.

Does this qualify as hate speech? I sure think it does. Replace any mention of obese person with ethnic minority here person and it's hate speech. Most, if not all, universities have a strict no-tolerance policy for hate speech. Oh, but fat is "fixable" so it's not hateful... duh...

Does this qualify as hate speech?

From Wikipedia:

Hate speech is a term for speech intended to degrade, intimidate, or incite violence or prejudicial action against a person or group of people based on their race, gender, age, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, language ability, moral or political views, socioeconomic class, occupation or appearance (such as height, weight, and hair color), mental capacity and any other distinction-liability.

Based on these criteria I think it qualifies. Of course, there are difficulties in conceptualising hate speech and reconciling it with free speech laws (though as this is in Canada, the First Amendment doesn't apply, though similarly, fat people aren't a protected class under Canadian law). However, it's interesting to consider the implications of the free publication of this type of article in terms of Allport's Scale of Prejudice, a method of determining the level of prejudice in a society referenced in the article. I don't think we've quite reached Scale 4 yet, but it will be the constant repetition of this type of thing which will facilitate it.

Not to go too off topic, but the cheese being labeled as junk food made me think of a story I read on Yahoo, another fat-phobic site, about New Zealand schools banning birthday cake. According to the school reps, they felt it was too much sugar for the kids when a class had four kids with birthdays in the same month, which meant there would be four times when kids would eat cake. Now unless the kids were eating cake four days in a row, I could see the concern over too much sugar, but not if the birthdays were staggered. It's interesting, because when I was in school, we never had cakes for every kid that had a birthday. Junkfood was rarely brought in because we didn't have a lot of in-class celebrations for special occasions. When did this so-called trend of bringing outside sweets to school start anyway?

Although fat-haters think degrading fat people is not hate speech and discrimination because according to them, "they're concerned about our health" and that's why they're saying what they say, maybe the time will come when fat hate has to be classified as such because they don't freaking shut up about it, despite not harming their quality of life at all.

Bree, on a similiarly off-topic note, the NZ government is notoriously fat-phobic, particularly in terms of their immigration policy. Though I've heard it argued that this may be more to do with covert racism against groups who are genetically inclined to be larger (Maoris and Pacific Islanders) than it is about hatred of fat people or 'concern' about the healthcare budget.

Who is this "obese community" he speaks of? I'm seriously so angry at the use of "obese" lately, especially in reference to OUR community that I'm about to be sick. I swear I'm going to create a shirt with the word FAT all over it and wear it for a week straight to protest the word obese. Why do people think fat is an ugly word, but obese (which dehumanizes us and medicalizes our bodies) is the proper signifier.

I'VE HAD IT. AHHHHHHHHH!

And I had a colleague tell me this week that he didn't like the term "fat studies". I DON'T CARE. If it bothers you so much, you might think about WHY. AHHHHHHH!

I think his use of the word obese in this case was *deliberately* extra-derogatory. He wasn't averse to using the word "fat" or his made-up "flob." You could almost hear the sneer when he switched to "obese." Like he was adding an extra layer of shame - since we're fat and must be TOLD we are fat. I can't imagine why anyone would think obese is better than fat, but most fat-haters avoid the word fat like the plague - this guy didn't.

Zero isn't a size, it's a warning sign. - Carson Kressley

I don't think people mean to use the word "obese" as an extra-derogatory term; they just think that because it's a medical term, it's the PC term for us. That is, maybe they think that "fat" is the more derogatory word because it was one of the first words we used to mock people when we were kids. We've reclaimed the word, and that confuses them. I can't really find fault in him for that.

Hell, I don't have a problem with either word - I'm fat, and in medical terms, obese. I called myself that last night, asking if there were hospital scrubs for obese people like me. Either way, I am what I am. There are worse slurs.

One thing's for sure, this guy's a prick, and I can't wait for him to realize how much money he wasted on his education.

I don't think *most* people use it to be extra-derogatory, laura, but in this case I do. Most people are just afraid to offend someone by calling them fat and think saying "obese" makes it better...or the word obese gives them license to call people fat fat fatty mcfatty's with impunity. With this guy, I sensed it as especially derogatory - of course I could be wrong. But they guy's a big fat ball of prick all around, so it's hard to tell.

Zero isn't a size, it's a warning sign. - Carson Kressley

Also, when most of the fat people keep telling the world they would prefer to just be called fat and people insist on using other terms? Wrong. Midgets and dwarves want to be called "Little People" so we do. Native Americans will prefer to be called Iroquois or Lakota and so we do. Many if not most homosexuals would rather be called gay or lesbian, so most of us do. It's not that hard to call people by the names they prefer.

Zero isn't a size, it's a warning sign. - Carson Kressley

Wow, that sounds pretty hateful to me. I'm just as flabbergasted with him as he is with me. They all seem to have a simplistic approach. I would really love to send a PI around to have them dissect their lives. Must be nice to be so perfect.

*

"They say that time changes things but you actually have to change them yourself." ~Andy Warhol

Ok, so, cheese is "junkfood" in Britain?? And here we are getting a milk cow so I can make cheese here on the farm and my own kid won't be able to take it in their school lunch?????!!!!!! Since WHEN did schools have that kind of power????? The *only* job for the school is to teach kids to read, write and do math!! The school admin should keep their politics and their opinions and their prejudices OFF our kids! Schools and doctors have been given farrrrr too much power and it's getting scary!

Sevendayswonder, I know how you feel! I'm so sick and tired of being refered to as a disease! You don't see people with cancer being called, "The Cancer." You don't see people with Clamydia beng called, "The Clamydia." While those are *genuine* diseases I totally do not believe for a second that fat = a disease so that's an extra burr that chaps my hide!!

"If you judge people, you have no time to love them." ~Mother Teresa

I cannot believe that the land of Wensleydale, Double Gloucester, and Stilton will take this affront. Rise up Cheese Lovers of Britain!

Will Ardman Studies have to change Wallace?

Schools and doctors have been given farrrrr too much power and it's getting scary!

I keep saying how at the next election the BMA should field a few candidates; seeing how doctors and their various nasty, illiberal little spin-off groups like Consensus Action on Salt and Health, Weight Concern and the National Obesity Forum (run by the odious Tam Fry, who recently stated he'd have no problem with every fat kid in the UK being taken from their 'abusive' parents and put into fat camps) already seem to be dictating Government policy they might as well go the whole hog and try to grab some seats at Westminster.

The 'junkfood ban' in schools still depends very much on the individual schools and what extent your local one has jumped on the bandwagon. Most unfortunately seem very determined as fighting obesity is seen as a very right-on, progressive cause at the moment - up there with climate change in the exaggerated-to-make-a-point stakes and one that produces similar levels of blind zeal in its 'crusaders'. In any case they'll soon lose that autonomy; as this page from my city shows the Government is determined to apply the same nutritional standards to packed lunches as to those supplied by the schools, along with bans on visits to nearby fast food shops (and eventually even using planners like me to ban the food shops from operating near schools) in order to deny students the option of choosing an 'unhealthy' meal altogether.

The first sentence scares me more than anything--this person is a THIRD year psychology and social behavior major. Aren't you supposed to ignore pre-conceived notions and abandon your judgemental attitudes when treating people? What about compassion? Look out world, another Phd (Piled High & Deep) is on the way.

The first sentence scares me more than anything--this person is a THIRD year psychology and social behavior major.

No offense meant to undergraduates (once was one myself...) or psych majors, but that really doesn't mean much. I've met my fair share of idiots even in grad school, but third-year psych? Those kids still believe they have been given the magic key to an omniscient understanding of all human behaviour.

Aren't you supposed to ignore pre-conceived notions and abandon your judgemental attitudes when treating people?

And as an add-on to what vidyapriya said, having an undergraduate degree in psychology does not mean you are a certified therapist. Hell, finishing my graduate degree in social psychology will not make me therapist, and asfar as I know neither would a graduate degree in clinical psych - I am not exactly sure how it works in the US, but here you have to undergo therapy training for that. (Which is not to say that there are no psychologists who are certified therapists and at the same time absolute idiots.)

We have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, etc etc ~ but we don't have freedom of food !!!

"If you judge people, you have no time to love them." ~Mother Teresa

It is so sad to see how ignorant someone so "educated" can be. What a pitiful world we would live in if we all looked the same, were the same size, etc.? With so much going on in the world, I can't believe Kevin Pease is putting time and energy into downing us. I'm fat (I hope I'm not offending anyone by using this word) and I'm proud of who I am. A person's size doesn't make up who they are. Our bodies are just an outer shell. I'm proud to be me regardless of what my body looks like. I'm the same person whether my body is this way or what Kevin Pease finds "socially acceptable." I can't believe his mindset.

You don't see people with cancer being called, "The Cancer." You don't see people with Clamydia beng called, "The Clamydia."

LOL! The Chlamydia sounds like an awesome comic book villain name "Look out Superman! It's...THE CHLAMYDIA!" Dun dun dun!

The obese thing drives me crazy too. I would never ever use obese as a descriptor for myself because it kind of has this hidden footnote of "and that's not okay" attached to it. Hmmm...maybe I should do some work to reclaim obese. Like fat, it only has that negative connotation if I let it, right?

Like fat, it only has that negative connotation if I let it, right?

In this case, reclaiming that word would be a lot harder, I think. While 'fat' is historically not a uniformly negative term, I don't think the same can be said for 'obese'.
Calling someone 'obese' is like calling a gay/queer person an 'invert' -- the term embodies a deeply-entrenched history of pathologization and other forms of medicalized oppression.