Oh, I guess our work is done.
Did you hear? It's socially acceptable to be fat in the US now. I guess I didn't get the memo.
Economic researchers from Florida State University and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston found the weight of the average woman rose by 20 pounds (9.2 kilograms) or 13.5 percent between 1976 and 2000 -- but their ideal weight also edged up.
In 1994 the average woman tipped the scales at 147 pounds but she wanted to weigh only 132 pounds -- but less than a decade later the average woman weighed 153 pounds but said her desired weight was 135 pounds.
Good thing all of the social problems with being fat are solved. I mean, look at all the pro-fat comments on digg! Glad it's socially acceptable now.
I guess we'll just forget the whole paycheck docking thing. And the adoption rights being revoked thing. And the fired for being fat thing. And the unequal access to public universities and places thing. Yeah, everything's just fine now.
Clarian Health, Others Will Dock Your Paycheck If You're Fat | Next Big Fat Carnival: September 19th
Posted by paul on August 8, 2007
Those Digg comments are absolutely disgusting and sad.
Another way of reporting those results would be to say that in 1994, the average woman wanted to lose 15 lbs. Today, the average woman wants to lose 18 pounds.
But that doesn't sell well, Kate.
What especially pissed me off about this story is its snide tone, filled with weight puns and hardly-veiled contempt. I think this article shows that the most important size-message to communicate is that fat, in and of itself, is not necessarily unhealthy and that health-at-every-size is an achievable goal. But bucking the tide in our image-based culture is a challenge. The photo illustrating this story is of a fat person, viewed from behind, spilling over the edges of a small folding chair. We may look at that picture and think "Once again, diversity in size is not being accommodated," but most people will view this picture with disgust. Alas, our work has just begun...
I swear, Kate, you and your Radical Leftist Reporting. *snicker*
You know, I'm awfully glad these researchers have let us know this. I mean, my 300-lb self was worried about the responses I've been getting and I was all sorts of ready to be upset that this guy in a friends journal said all fat people are liars about exercise. He must be an anomaly!
Except, wait, what's this? 150 pounds is the standard they are using to just fat and obesity? And being fat causes cancer? Forgive me, Reuters Life!, for thinking you may be full of shit.
Onre of the many things that strikes me as odd in this article is why these economists decided to study women's weight. Can't they get published or funded in their own field?
I think, Alyssa, that the message found in economists studying weight is that it's not about "health" at all - or even aesthetics....it's about money.
i absolutely LOVE the OMG TIPPING THE SCALES AT 147 POUNDS! remark at the very beginning. i don't ever remember seeing 147 on the scale in my LIFE!
i absolutely LOVE the OMG TIPPING THE SCALES AT 147 POUNDS! remark at the very beginning. i don't ever remember seeing 147 on the scale in my LIFE!
I remember being about that much. I was 19 yrs old, newly married and *skinny.* I was also about 5'5" back then (I've lost almost an inch over the years), so it's not like my height made me look thin.
Paul, don't you just feel like a frigging superhero now? I mean, one little blog, and now we're all big fat demigods! Be sure to watch for my fat ass on next year's Grammys!
Or, to put it another way: Women's desired weight today is all of three pounds heavier than women's desired weight in 1994. Gasp! Call out the cavalry! Fat has become acceptable! Because the ideal has gained a whopping three pounds!!!
I too noticed the negative language used throughout the article. But what annoyed me the most was how the photo accompanying the article was clearly of a woman well over 160lbs and yet the article was only discussing the weights of women between 150-160lbs. So the're trying to..I know there's a word for this but I just can't think of it now... it's about negative propaganda..nope, can't think of the correct term. Anyway, they're trying to put in the readers minds that THAT is what someone who is 160lbs looks like. And it's that misrepresentation that they're using to play upon the fears of people. Trying to associate the size of the person in that photo with the weights they're discussing in the article. Otherwise why not just show people who are the sizes they're discussing in the article? My guess is because that wouldn't generate the fear they're trying to instill.
According to the article, the average U.S. woman weighs somewhere around 150#. The woman in the photo probably weighed about twice that. Very disingenuous.
I don't think I'll be returning to Digg anytime soon, either. The ratio of even vaguely rational posts to outright trolls was pathetic.
I'm amazed that no one pointed out the height differential between now and 13 years ago. I graduated high school in 1994 and at almost 6' tall I was by far the tallest girl in the school, almost freakishly tall for that time.
Now, I have noticed that numerous girls of high school age are around that height. Can this not account for the weight fluctuation? As height goes up, so should weight.
Funny, I actually had a similar "there were no fat people 30 years ago" conversation with my grandma that a poster on Digg alluded to. I asked her how often her and her friends dieted in the 1950's and she couldn't recall that it was a widespread practice like it is today.
If you look at classic TV shows like "I Love Lucy" or even "Gidget" the women are not rail thin like the movie stars of today. I bet if you adjusted for height, a womans' socially acceptable weight has plummeted. Increase in the prevalence of fat just a coincidence? Probably not.
I remember watching an old movie about the Rockettes (or some other drone-woman dance troupe) and the requirements for the "girls" were: 5'-3" to 5'-5" and somewhere in the neighborhood of 125 lbs, or, as they said in the movie, "a strict size 12." Size TWELVE??? And these were healthy looking gals - narrow waist, flat belly sure, but round breasts and hips - definitely not the adolescent boy look of today. So is that, like, overweight now?? Is it still a size 12? I thought that by today's standards, a size 12 was pushing into "women's sizes" territory. (Which begs the question: if sizes 14 and over are "women's sizes," what are the sizes less than that? Girls' sizes? Willowy lass sizes???)
Depending on how old the movie was, that "size 12" could well be as small as a 6 today, if the height/weight standard was 5'5" and 125 pounds. But even if so, that's heavier than dancers are expected to be now, that's for sure.
The person I always think of is Mae West, she saved her studio from bankruptcy, would that be possible for a fat actress today? I'm not saying it is or should be impossible, it's just that I'm laughing right now.
MW
I've never been to sit idely by while someone insults me or those I care about. Needless to say, I was enraged with the comments on Digg. In fact - I did a quick search for similar threads and decided to go to the mats!
If you want to see my comments check out http://digg.com/health/Fat_Prejudice
It's time for these louses to put up or shut up!
(Normally I'm much friendlier, but this has pissed me off to no end!)
Marita aka Fat Traveler
"Don't be a tourist, be a traveler" - Anthony Bourdain
I checked out your DIGG page, and I see what the typical answer is going to be - fat people can change! It's not natural to be so fat!
First off, why do these people assume that I WANT - or better yet - SHOULD change my weight? Who are they to assume that I don't eat healthy or exercise because I have an extra few pounds on me? Furthermore, why is it any of their business if I CHOOSE to eat a donut that day?
Heck, I work at a doctor's office, and I'm healthier that half of the thin people who come in for appointments. And the fat patients who come in usually get treated for illnesses that have absolutely NOTHING to do with their weight.
I'm having to sit on my hands to keep from asking the self-hating fat person "Oh really? Every day huh? And how much weight have you lost and kept off for at least 5 years?" and then pointing out they're a self-hating fat person.
*rolls eyes*
It's like freakin' battered woman's syndrome. I swear.
"My fat is -bad- so I am bad and deserve what ever bad thing "they" tell me I have to do to myself, no matter what it is."
And there seems to be -nothing- you can tell these people to change their minds. Oh my -Gods- how frustrating!
Yes, and fat prejudice isn't truthfully about whether a person "can" change or "should" change, anyway. It's simply about the fact that some people who are not fat (as well as some who are) find fat repellent and need a politically correct smokescreen behind which to hide. Thus: "Fat is a matter of willpower!" "If they just ate less..." "If they weren't lazy..." "They brought it on themselves!" *(So that makes it OK for me to hate them and treat them in a way I wouldn't want to be treated...) Oh, and "They're unhealthy! Look at how their lifestyle costs me money!" Never mind that if people were REALLY concerned about fat people's health, they would ask about it, instead of simply assuming.
Case in point: pictures from a family reunion. A relative of mine, unsolicited, started going off about one of the men in the picture, who was fat, assuring me (as though it should make me proud!) that I was nowhere near "that fat." I tried to keep it neutral, so I asked him: "Well, was he HEALTHY?" And the relative said: "Well, I don't see how he could be!" But, of course, he didn't ask the guy how he was feeling, so he has no reliable way of knowing. Then another relative began making some comment about him--almost as if she was apologizing for even showing me a photo of someone "that fat." I'd had enough, so I just cut to the chase: "Yes, that guy is fat, that kid has red hair and that lady is wearing a blue shirt. Anything else?" Seemed to take care of it.
But, when this is what your own family will say, once they're sure it's "safe" (the fat guy couldn't hear them from 15 states away, after all), to your face, then it's hardly any wonder the mentally stunted cretins on Digg are talking trash. Prejudice is pervasive. But I'm not changing my body so others won't have to change their minds.
That is just one of the many reasons I stay away from my family (except for my son, he's the only one who doesn't give me grief about my weight). All the rest of them, it's always about my weight and how unhealthy I am (like they know or care) and how I need to quit eating and get off my fat lazy ass and work out a couple of hours a day. I finally told them my fat ass wasn't lazy, and that what I ate, when I ate, how much I ate, and how much or how little I exercised was none of their freaking business and if they weren't going to STFU, that's the last they'd be seeing of me. And I've stuck to it, so far. If they call and start in, I hang up on them. I don't even tell them anymore that I'm done listening to their crap, I just hang up the phone. Maybe one day they'll get it, but I kinda doubt it since they are convinced my fat is going to kill me at a young age (and I've been fat for the last 35 of my 53 years...lol). Hasn't killed me yet, don't think it's going to kill me anytime soon.
it's all right to be crazy, just don't let it drive ya nuts!