Paul Campos Examines The Fear of Fat
One of the most respected people in the fat acceptance movement, Paul Campos, has written another stellar article for the Rocky Mountain News, this time examining what the fear of fat does to young girls. In referencing a letter written by a 14-year-old girl that Monique at Big Fat Deal received, Campos says that the girl has already learned some hard, sad lessons:
That, as a woman, nothing she accomplishes will ever be considered as important as how she looks, and that the conventional definition of feminine beauty in our culture is both extraordinarily narrow and radically different from what most women look like.
This is another fine, fine piece.
Think Tank II Mini-Recap | Faith-Based Dieting
Posted by paul on February 27, 2008
Yes, that is wonderful. And this time, most of the comments are positive. (Here in Colorado, he usually gets flamed as a crazy liberal, no matter what he writes).
Of course, there are the usual trolls, like the moron who wrote that Campos' friend who died of complications associated with anorexia, should have "put down her knife and fork." Umm, HELLO, she had anorexia? (First of all). And of course, as we all know, overeating is not usually the cause of overweight and fat people eat no differently than thin people.
There is one post by a person who does not seem to be familiar with Paul C's book, "The Obesity Myth," but that person's question did not strike me as particularly hateful.
On a related note, Sandy also has a column about eating disorders today, which is just fantastic. (Hope it's OK/not too distracting to put the link here).
http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2008/02/national-eating-disorder-awareness-week.html
The quote you used was the exact same one that especially caught my attention. True stories are sad.