Utne Reader: Fat's Not a Moral Failing
Elena pointed me to a darned good piece by Hannah Lobel in the Utne Reader about our obsession with fat and poor treatment of fat people. As Elena says, "[The article's presence in Utne] is more incredible because they have in the past included articles that filled us with fear over the global epidemic." This is true and I've cringed at such articles.
I disagree with Lobel about the Ad Council's TV spots - you know, the ones where people find fat body parts lying about (!) - but on balance she cuts through a lot of the BS.
We continue to treat obesity as if it’s either an original sin we’re born with and must repent or a cardinal sin we choose to commit.
Happy Holidays! | Finally, a song about what really matters!
Posted by paul on December 22, 2007
This is great! A lot of healthist yuppies read this magazine (it's prominently displaced at my local food co-op), and like you said, Paul, they haven't exactly had a great track record on size friendliness in the past. Like you, though, I'm not sure where the Ad Council ads don't contribute to the lipophobia problem. They still promote the mythos of "if you're active, you'll slim down," which of course is a huge oversimplification.
That was awesome!!!
I remember that AP story, too, the one where our hysterical health nannies were blasting the cutesy "Small Steps" ads because they didn't think they shamed people ENOUGH. I don't mind those ads, honestly, but it is unfortunate they are promoting more activity simply as a remedy for being fat, rather than as something that will benefit you anyway. (Plus, some of the suggestions just fall under my list of "annoying weight-loss tips," and I do many of them as a matter of course, thank you very much.) Anyway, I became incensed when reading the AP story referred to in the Utne. A dramatized death from Type II diabetes? What, like only fat people get diabetes? Like everyone with diabetes is fat? Like fat causes diabetes? All these things are provably false, yet the AP giddily repeats them as fact. Plus, the whole article was laden with moralistic language (the government's not wagging the finger of shame, the AP wrote), and no one even noticed it. The AP also seemed under the impression that the nightly newscasts were being respectful of fatties by not showing their faces; in fact, this is gutless cowardice that further dehumanizes fat people. Yet the AP is convinced that TV treats fat people with kid gloves. Ugh.
Still, I was delighted to read what the Utne had to say, and so succinctly!
Utne often does several articles on one topic in an issue. Last issue was giving birth. This issue's cover is about nuclear energy, but there are two other articles, in addition to Shame On Us, about fat.
Right after Shame On Us is Love Your Fat Self (http://www.utne.com/2008-01-01/Politics/Love-Your-Fat-Self.aspx) which I found a little confused (it implies that fat people are fat for the usual reasons in addition to genetics, and mentions and then repudiates WHO and NIH opinions of fat) but is also sensitive when the author is talking about her fat friend, Gareth.
"...sizeism is not about the drunken man who screams 'fat bitch' at Gareth on the subway as much as it is about the march of hateful inner monologues: That girl would be so pretty if she would just lose some weight. I wonder what’s wrong with her, must be lazy. This fat bitch is taking up more than her share of the bus seat."
And then there is The Food Police (http://www.utne.com/2008-01-01/Politics/The-Food-Police.aspx) about the book The Omnivore's Dilemma and how its author, and the author of books like it, makes fat a moral issue.
"There is much to criticize in the public conversation about obesity. The evidentiary basis of an 'epidemic' is weak, as it relies on changes in average body mass index, a contested way to measure obesity. Moreover, the relationship between food intake, exercise, and growing obesity is poorly understood. Michael Gard and Jan Wright’s exhaustive review of research shows that the notion that weight gain results from a surplus of calories has not been borne out; at best, caloric metabolism appears to explain less than half of body size variation. Finally, claims that obesity is a primary cause of disease are filled with logical flaws, chief among them that obesity may be symptomatic of diseases such as type 2 diabetes. Gard and Wright argue that obesity research itself has become so entangled with moral discourses and aesthetic values that the 'science of obesity' can no longer speak for itself."
Edited to add: check out the pictures in the Love Your Fat Self article (click on "Image Gallery" in the Article Tools box).
I have to say, these articles were more fair than just about anything I've seen outside the fatosphere. Despite the presence of some of the usual (not-so-accurate) rhetoric, they were thought-provoking and actually treated fat people like, er, people. That's a hopeful sign. I have to wonder what motivated Utne to take that on.