Note

Let's have some facts:

• Fatness can be caused by disease.
• Fatness can be caused by medication.
• Genetic predisposition can cause fatness and disease at the same time.
• Fatness is an indirect cause of stress (due to discrimination) and stress can lead to disease as well.

Therefore, if it seems that fat people get certain diseases more often than thin people, it does NOT logically follow that every single fat person's individual risk for getting those diseases is higher than that of every single thin person. What actually follows is this:

• If you gain or lose weight suddenly and for no apparent reason, it could be a symptom.
• If you start taking certain types of medication, you're healthier but also at risk for weight gain.
• If a diseases runs in the family, your risk for getting it is higher than that of most people, completely unrelated to whether or not fatness runs in the family as well.
• People who experience a high level of stress are at risk for getting ill.

That. Is. All.

Insecurity

A short note to anyone who assumes that if you're happy with your own body, you don't care what others think of it: Hello? Are you and I the same species?

Epidemic? So what?

I think that there is one thing that we who are used to discussing Fat Acceptance on the internet tend to overlook from time to time, or maybe that's just me. In any case, trying to bring up the topic in casual conversation has taught me the following:

Nobody cares if there's an "obesity epidemic" or not.

Pointing out that levels have stopped rising is all nice and well, but few people are actually interested in that because it really doesn't matter. The numbers could have been decreasing for decades and you'd still see diet ads everywhere. Especially individuals with a so-called "weight problem" are unlikely to pay attention since they're unhappy with their bodies anyway and that's completely unrelated to the total amount of fat people in the country. Furthermore, radical diet gurus want every single person on this planet to be thin, so the last three to go would receive just as much attention as those oh-so-scary 65% of Americans "overweight" right now.

Seriously, no one cares how many overweight, obese or morbidly obese people exist or have existed in the past. All that scare talk of an epidemic is no more than a tool to demonstrate why our weights are supposedly a problem. Eradicating the tool would stop no one from continuing to obsess over adipose tissue.

However, if through some miracle we could make the population realize that being fat is not an unhealthy act, but usually no act at all and mostly not even unhealthy ... Well, then we'd have accomplished a lot. Special emphasis on "no act at all." Just like we don't blame pale redheads for their increased risk of getting sunburn and skin cancer, people would finally stop blaming fat people for their possible increased risk of getting diabetes or whichever disease comes to mind.

I have no idea where "We'd still deserve equal rights even if we were doing this to ourselves" is supposed to lead, either. It's true, I get that, but who else will? In short, I'm now convinced that our only key to success is making the general public aware of the real science about weight and health. All else is little more than additional information for insiders.

Off topic: What with the recent events, I'm wondering if I should mention Johnny Depp or Keira Knightley on my blog to get more hits. ;)

Haha

I've been reading this enormously long thread at Shakesville that someone at Shapely Prose had linked to ... and in the midst of all the madness, I discovered the following gem:

(b) googling 'fat acceptance' and 'genetic influence weight' taught me stuff i didn't know; thanks

WAIT. :O That actually happens?????

Trolls, plz to be following this person's example.

Just A Thought

Isn't it annoying if an unexpected event leaves you at a loss for words, but many months later you discover this whole movement dealing with just that and you suddenly find yourself wading through endless amounts of possible arguments that you could have used to speak up??

Okay, that was long. :D

Two years ago someone asked me if I had gained weight. I hadn't, in fact, which I knew since I still had regular access to my mother's scale back then, but that's not the point. The point is that I wouldn't have minded. This guy, however, had phrased his question in a way that seemed to imply the following:

1. Weight gain is an inherently bad thing that only ever occurs as a result of other bad things.
2. Anyone, including myself, should - and would - be ashamed if they let this happen to them.
3. Therefore it is completely okay to tease anyone about it.

I suspect that it was not intended as actual criticism, more like a friendly little reminder that we're all human:

"Got wasted again last night, eh?"
"I see you haven't done your homework, either!"
"Could it be that you've gained a little weight here and there?" *WINK*

Urgh. Never mind my thoughts on that mindset as a whole or the fact that he shouldn't have commented on my body in the first place; we're talking about two years ago here and I can't say I was even aware of anything being wrong with those things at the time.

I got upset because he assumed that I must share his attitude. You know, I think that he imagined those nonexistent extra pounds on me because I'd stopped exercising regularly, and as a fat person with an interest in sports he naturally thought that this needed to be fixed. However, and here's where it gets interesting: I had been exercising partly due to an unhealthy obsession with a subject that I don't want to discuss here, and partly to deal with a whole lot of negative feelings. As soon as those negative feelings wore off, I could finally stop. It was one of the biggest effing improvements in terms of my well-being EVER, and just because it made me exercise less, nobody acknowledged it. Ye gods, this world is truly fucked up.

So now I wish I could go back in time and react accordingly. What I did was insist that I still weighed the same as before and that I really didn't care much. I think I sort of failed to get my point across, though ... it was all very embarrassing.

Back?

I don't really feel obliged to update this blog on a regular basis because, well, it's mine and I never promised anything. However ... I do wish that I will start posting regularly one day. It just doesn't seem possible yet.

As of today ...

... I am in love with Sandy Szwarc. ;)

Some Silliness

Obesity fearmongers, beware! I have discovered the secret motivation behind your antics. You're scared, and this is why:

A heffalump or woozle
is very confuzle
a heffalump or woozle's very sly
They come in ones and twoozles
but if they so choozles
before your eyes you'll see them multiply [OMG!]

They're extraordinary, so better be wary
because they come in every shape and size [Oh noes!!]
If honey's what you covet
you'll find that they love it
because they'll guzzle up the thing you prize! [:O!]

There you have it. For those not in the know, this is part of a song from Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day. But seriously, who hasn't heard of heffalumps and woozles? :D They actually scared the shit out of me when I was a child. It's what they do. By now I have grown up and forgiven them, and apparently it turns out that I am a woozle myself! Who knew?

ETA: Oh my. This very happy woozle has just found a video of the scene.

Announcement

In case someone's reading this, don't be confused. I have indeed changed my name. It's a security/privacy/paranoia thing. ;) I wanted to be able to give out my name and publish my picture without having to worry that people who know me from real life will be able to track down all of my accounts on other sites ... so this is my "official" nickname now while the other one's private. Got that? Good. :)

Incident #31279

"He wants to feed the poor baby all the time," I said, "even if he doesn't seem to be hungry."

"Is that so? But he's not a very chubby baby, is he."

"Oh, no. But from what I've heard, you can't overfeed them at such a young age, anyway. They wouldn't be able to keep it down. If they eat, it means they really are hungry."

Our visitor frowned. "No, that can't be right, I've seen a lot of very fat babies in my life."

"Yeah, well. Sometimes they do grow to the sides before they shoot up."


There it is again. Even I, as a normal-sized woman with a normal-sized baby, when talking to a normal-sized man, cannot avoid fatness as a topic of conversation.