Demonizing Fat in the War on Weight

NY Times ^ | May 1, 2004 | DINITIA SMITH

[neverdem]

The health nazis have plenty of evidence against being obese.

[neverdem]

PING

[cyborg]

They always have their 'evidence' but they're the ones behind the homosexual dominated fashion industry promoting a culture of super thin models who subsist on cigarettes and coffee.

[explodingspleen]

It seems that there has arisen a division in the midst of the left between the health nazis and the diversity croud, who have taken obesity under their wing as an aberration.

[68skylark]

Insidious attitudes about politics, sex, race or class are at the heart of the frenzy over obesity.

The author left off aesthetics from this list.

In the part of rural Indiana where I live, obesity is just out of control -- it can't be a fun way to live, and it's even more distressing to see young kids who are overweight early in their lives.

[cyborg]

http://www.naafa.org/
the logical progression...
national association for the advancement of colored people
national association for the advancement of white people
national association for the advancement of white latinos

and...national association for the advancement of FAT people

[ladyinred]

McCarthy shouldn't be included in this because I have come to realize he was right. That said, I remember a few years ago when cigarettes were first being demonized, one of our local radio hosts said just wait, after they have done all they can with tobacco, they will go after fast food. He was right. What do you think will be next?

It is nobody's freaking business what I eat, when I eat it, or how much of it I eat. Leave me alone!!!!!

[prion]

No, missing the point. Something here is wierd. When I was a in elementary school, there was one kid in every class who was fat. And, then, by "fat" we meant "not skinny". Today, I see little kids on the street who are grotesquely obese. Not to mention their parents.

There's something new and strange going on. All's I'm saying.

[Cicero]

Titian's Venus, the Renaissance ideal of female beauty:

[umgud]

I saw a pic recently of a 500 lb man with a tee-shirt that said "I overcame anorexia."

[Mich0127]

Okay...what ever happened to a middle road? Don't pig out all of the time, but don't starve yourself. Personally, I am all about my elliptical, which makes me feel better after I eat cheesburgers and fries!

Oh, and there are other shows about this topic: MTV has I want a famous face, where normal looking people get tons of plastic surgery and lipo to look like their favorite anorexic star, and The Swan (forgot the network), where contestants have a complete plastic surgery makeover and diet to become "beautiful".

Funny fact-I am a huge fan of Newlyweds on MTV. Jessica Simpson has a gorgeous body, weighs 102 pounds, and her record label said she needed to drop some weight. COME ON!

[martin_fierro]

Always look on the bright side, I always say:

[Twinkie]

I'm sick and tired of the weight business, too. I
just want to eat what I want and shut up. I've had it
up to here with lectures from those who have been on the
latest weight loss guru's diet and maybe had a bit of
success, even in some cases managing to keep it off for
a year or two. Good for them. When age, life's stresses
and situations and having to take medications that cause
weight and fluid gain team up to make it just about
impossible to be the proper "image", it's a bummer.
I'm 57 and my 40th class reunion is coming up later in the
fall. I admit I would like to lose at the very least 15
lbs. before it rolls around, but I don't seem to be able
to make an ounce budge no matter what. . and don't say
Atkins . . my kidneys will not handle all the protein that
is inherent in that diet. . much less to stay on it from
now on! Even if you're 50 and your weight is pretty normal,
good for you. So was mine at 50, even at 55. 57 is a whole
new ballgame as you'll soon find out!

[FairOpinion]

I was just thinking about this the other day, when I read they passed a law in Santa Monica to ban smoking on the beach.

People are supposed to be "tolerant" and "understanding" about perverts, terrorists, durggies, every weirdo and criminal under the sun, but if you smoke or are overweight, you are "evil" and must be punished by being excluded from society. Even though I read that a large fraction of the population is indeed overweight.

[FairOpinion]

http://www.naafa.org/

national association for the advancement of FAT people


I thought you were joking.

Good for them.

You have all the organizations promoting everything else, including gay veterans, so why shouldn't there be one protecting fat people.

[cyborg]

hehehe sure what's one more advocacy group? LOL

[FairOpinion]

They want us to have compassion for those who got AIDS by having sex with 10 homosexuals every day, but at the same time show no compassion whatsoever for people who are overweight.

There is something wrong with this picture.

They hold people personally responsible for being fat, but do not hold others responsible for some really irresponsible behavior.

[neverdem]

There's something new and strange going on. All's I'm saying.

How many native born Americans make their living doing manual labor anymore? I think most operate automated equipment or are in some service industry. We lead very sedentary lives, and we eat excess calories loaded with sugar or corn syrup in processed foods.

[ccmay]

And whereas once the fat man was generally seen as hypersexual, like Falstaff, now he is seen as asexual, like Santa Claus.

Yes! I AM Falstaff!

-ccm

[68skylark]

This is a subject that stirs up strong feeling. In fact, it stirs up so many strong feeling that at first I overlooked a bunch of funny part to this article. It's like a parody of the liberal bias we all laugh at.

The author, like most of the liberal fringe, is obsessed with "discrimination" in America and makes every story fit that paradigm. ("Paul Campos . . . argues that obesity is used as a tool of discrimination.") So if someone has a concern about all the fat kids, or all the public health costs of obesity, he's really engaged in a vast conspiracy to discriminate! Only a wacko liberal intellectual could believe something so wrong.

And what liberal true-believer could write an article withoug telling about how great and wonderful France is?! ("He notes that the French have been more successful at weight loss than Americans.")