new fat controversy
Sep. 11th, 2007 11:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
keryxHave y'all heard about the latest exciting fat controversy?
The fabulous Hanne Blank is coming out as a dieter. And fattivists are thinking a lot about that [if by "thinking about" you mean "actively and articulately pissed"].
I think I've drunk the wrong Kool-Aid or something, because I believe her new blog could be a pretty good thing. Not! Because I think Blank is unhealthy and morally bankrupt and her life will just be so so so much better if she diets. Or, for that matter, that I think weightloss diets work. Especially for women. But there's this enormous pressure on people to shrink. Most people feel it. And someone significant in the fat movement admitting to this, caving to it, is really thought-provoking.
I used to have a huge problem with weightloss / diet talk. I still think it's a dumb idea, though it's a really common dumb idea. I just. I get it more. I get it more having shrunk a little and mostly grown back (or sorta grown back - I dunno, my body is really different) and feeling how weird my body is to me. Having a Body versus a Me, for instance. That's freaky. Yet. I suspect it's how lots of people feel. I know a big response to it is weightloss dieting, or as Pinky would have it a Whole New Way of Eating, and there are assloads of people dieting.
When I found the fat movement, all the Yay, Fatness! fatties were this beacon of light for me. Here were all these people who apparently just unconditionally loved themselves. I wanted that! I wanted my fatness to be great, or even just a simple, no-value-attached fact. And now, most of the time, it's just a fact. I'm fairly convinced my life wouldn't be any better if I were thinner. I'm positive it wouldn't be any better if I were dieting. I suppose if I'd never found the fat movement, I'd be less flummoxed when I, say, found myself attracted to people who later decided to diet or called their smaller-than-me selves fat - but I could be a lot sadder, too. That, by the way, is another story, kids. Remind me to tell you that one.
You know how I got there? I went on a Whole New Way of Eating. I was eating crap and not moving, and I started eating less crappily and became a dance teacher. I lost a little weight, regained a bunch of it (this is, by the way, over a period of 3-4 years now), and I came out of it with a less fucked up relationship with myself, and as it turns out, a slightly less self-righteous relationship with everyone else.
I said most of the time about that body image thing. You caught that, right? At my best, I wonder once a day whether I could or should try to make myself thinner. At my worst, I feel like a failed Official Fat Person for not feeling the love 100%. So few of those fat icons cop to anything less than 100%. Of course, some of those fat icons probably don't even consider me big enough to be an Official Fat Person. My angst feels invalidated, dammit! It really did feel like the movement didn't have anything to offer on that count - which would be okay if the movement were purely political (it's not a political action group's responsibility to give me tools to feel better about being progressive, for instance). This movement is not purely political, though. It's social and cultural and sciencey, too.
Yeah. So. No, choosing a Whole New Way of Eating if you're an icon of the fat movement is NOT a "personal choice". It contradicts a lot of the premises of the movement. It is also, however, a choice that brings at least one fat icon a little closer to what most people feel about their size. Dieting is part of the journey for a lot of people, and if the great mass of fattivists are all "but Diets Don't Work!" that makes it a lot harder for individual fatties to work through their own contradictions. Nowhere does it say that a slightly less fat person can't be a fattivist, that I suddenly must become anti-fat if I shrink some. I also don't need to become a self-righteous pro-diet shit, which frankly many fatties have done with their "OMG my whole life is soooooo much better" rhetoric about losing weight. Tell you what, dieting fatties: I won't demand that you explain yourself constantly, and you can work on a schtick that sounds a little less like an add for weight loss surgery. Sound like a deal? [It's the pro-diet asshat comments on Blank's blog that really get me. Can you tell? I think anyone who has to proclaim loudly that they have no regrets must have some. Something about protesting too much...]
Further. What if Hanne Blank is right? What if she will feel better still fat but slightly less so? What if she'll sustain fewer injuries? What if she'll be more mobile, have more time or energy? Hell, what if she'll even be a better fattivist slightly less fat? Should we kick her out of the movement anyhow?
I am not suggesting that the fat movement alter its political stance about weightloss dieting, medical weightloss, or the aggregated science around weight and health. The political aspect of the movement is right about those things, and right to say that one's life should not & must not be more or less affected by discrimination based on size (a lot of where the "my whole life is better" rhetoric seems to come from). But. The personal aspect of the movement can afford to allow that individual results vary and that in the real world today being fat can kinda suck - and that some people want to & are able to be less fat.
People get a lot of different results when they undertake a change in their lifestyle with a weightloss motivation. Some get smaller, some don't. Some get happier (often without shrinking a bit), some don't. I think it's entirely possible to set out on a weightloss plan and come back a healthier, more fat-loving person - regardless of size.
The fabulous Hanne Blank is coming out as a dieter. And fattivists are thinking a lot about that [if by "thinking about" you mean "actively and articulately pissed"].
I think I've drunk the wrong Kool-Aid or something, because I believe her new blog could be a pretty good thing. Not! Because I think Blank is unhealthy and morally bankrupt and her life will just be so so so much better if she diets. Or, for that matter, that I think weightloss diets work. Especially for women. But there's this enormous pressure on people to shrink. Most people feel it. And someone significant in the fat movement admitting to this, caving to it, is really thought-provoking.
I used to have a huge problem with weightloss / diet talk. I still think it's a dumb idea, though it's a really common dumb idea. I just. I get it more. I get it more having shrunk a little and mostly grown back (or sorta grown back - I dunno, my body is really different) and feeling how weird my body is to me. Having a Body versus a Me, for instance. That's freaky. Yet. I suspect it's how lots of people feel. I know a big response to it is weightloss dieting, or as Pinky would have it a Whole New Way of Eating, and there are assloads of people dieting.
When I found the fat movement, all the Yay, Fatness! fatties were this beacon of light for me. Here were all these people who apparently just unconditionally loved themselves. I wanted that! I wanted my fatness to be great, or even just a simple, no-value-attached fact. And now, most of the time, it's just a fact. I'm fairly convinced my life wouldn't be any better if I were thinner. I'm positive it wouldn't be any better if I were dieting. I suppose if I'd never found the fat movement, I'd be less flummoxed when I, say, found myself attracted to people who later decided to diet or called their smaller-than-me selves fat - but I could be a lot sadder, too. That, by the way, is another story, kids. Remind me to tell you that one.
You know how I got there? I went on a Whole New Way of Eating. I was eating crap and not moving, and I started eating less crappily and became a dance teacher. I lost a little weight, regained a bunch of it (this is, by the way, over a period of 3-4 years now), and I came out of it with a less fucked up relationship with myself, and as it turns out, a slightly less self-righteous relationship with everyone else.
I said most of the time about that body image thing. You caught that, right? At my best, I wonder once a day whether I could or should try to make myself thinner. At my worst, I feel like a failed Official Fat Person for not feeling the love 100%. So few of those fat icons cop to anything less than 100%. Of course, some of those fat icons probably don't even consider me big enough to be an Official Fat Person. My angst feels invalidated, dammit! It really did feel like the movement didn't have anything to offer on that count - which would be okay if the movement were purely political (it's not a political action group's responsibility to give me tools to feel better about being progressive, for instance). This movement is not purely political, though. It's social and cultural and sciencey, too.
Yeah. So. No, choosing a Whole New Way of Eating if you're an icon of the fat movement is NOT a "personal choice". It contradicts a lot of the premises of the movement. It is also, however, a choice that brings at least one fat icon a little closer to what most people feel about their size. Dieting is part of the journey for a lot of people, and if the great mass of fattivists are all "but Diets Don't Work!" that makes it a lot harder for individual fatties to work through their own contradictions. Nowhere does it say that a slightly less fat person can't be a fattivist, that I suddenly must become anti-fat if I shrink some. I also don't need to become a self-righteous pro-diet shit, which frankly many fatties have done with their "OMG my whole life is soooooo much better" rhetoric about losing weight. Tell you what, dieting fatties: I won't demand that you explain yourself constantly, and you can work on a schtick that sounds a little less like an add for weight loss surgery. Sound like a deal? [It's the pro-diet asshat comments on Blank's blog that really get me. Can you tell? I think anyone who has to proclaim loudly that they have no regrets must have some. Something about protesting too much...]
Further. What if Hanne Blank is right? What if she will feel better still fat but slightly less so? What if she'll sustain fewer injuries? What if she'll be more mobile, have more time or energy? Hell, what if she'll even be a better fattivist slightly less fat? Should we kick her out of the movement anyhow?
I am not suggesting that the fat movement alter its political stance about weightloss dieting, medical weightloss, or the aggregated science around weight and health. The political aspect of the movement is right about those things, and right to say that one's life should not & must not be more or less affected by discrimination based on size (a lot of where the "my whole life is better" rhetoric seems to come from). But. The personal aspect of the movement can afford to allow that individual results vary and that in the real world today being fat can kinda suck - and that some people want to & are able to be less fat.
People get a lot of different results when they undertake a change in their lifestyle with a weightloss motivation. Some get smaller, some don't. Some get happier (often without shrinking a bit), some don't. I think it's entirely possible to set out on a weightloss plan and come back a healthier, more fat-loving person - regardless of size.
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Date: 2007-09-12 03:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-12 03:20 pm (UTC)