dieting = connecting?

[keryx]

This piece on Shapely Prose about some dude who honestly believes diet talk can forge peace in the Middle East is fascinating. The feminist implications! The propaganda! Just, wow. Seriously.

A guy visits Weight Watchers and recognizes the way dieting connects women, that the groups automatically create social networks among otherwise different people. Where he goes wrong is in thinking that dieters likely have the political clout to bring about world peace by connecting with their enemies. Because dedicated dieters? Are totally absorbed in dieting. And dieting in groups is a "womanish" sort of activity, so I suspect dieters are assumed to not have that much political power to begin with - if a group of Israeli and Palestinian Weight Watchers folk started proselytising about how the other people really aren't that different, I imagine they would not be taken seriously.

There is a serious side to this, which is that I think it's true - people do connect over dieting. If you work in an office where women are present, you likely know this; it's a more intimate connection than what happens between two random dog lovers, for instance. It is extremely common for women to network around their diets, so much so that you can feel shut out if you're in a small office and you don't diet.

Comments

[peregrin8.livejournal.com]

Good grief!

And I agree with you that, on top of everything else wrong with this idea, dieters are too diet-absorbed to be political. It reminds me of those folks who suggest that if we all just turned off the TVs, we'd have hours of free time that we would naturally spend writing novels or changing the world. No, we'd find some other relaxing and superficial pursuit to spend that time on. And the dieters would drop out of the political group and find a different way to be shallow and self-absorbed!

[scarletts-momma.livejournal.com]

I'm going to make a sweeping generalization here: if you're dieting than you tend to more complacent in other areas like politics. I'd like to know your thoughts.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

I know that has tended to be true for me, but I'm not sure it's true for other people. I certainly know political, involved people who also diet, but there's a strange selfishness about dieting.

[snidegrrl.livejournal.com]

dieters are too diet-absorbed to be political

I'd say that's not necessarily true. It's like saying "football fans are too football-absorbed to be political". Women do tend to focus on their appearance but I think plenty of women do that and still spend time on other things, even political or community-changing things.

OTOH your comment was probably hyperbole and I should stop being so picky!!

[peregrin8.livejournal.com]

Football fans likewise. I expressed it badly but what I meant was, they are intense about that activity but not in a way that would transfer to political activism. Football fans are also engaged in a massive bonding activity that uses a lot of time and energy, none of which I can envision being channeled into political action. I think if the diet groups or the football stadiums became political forums, they'd just lose most of their attendance to something else apolitical.

[snidegrrl.livejournal.com]

AH! I get it now! I thought you were saying basically what is being said in the thread below. I think it's slightly different.

[peregrin8.livejournal.com]

I've never really been a dieter, so I wouldn't presume to critique on that level. Also there is a difference between full-blown political activism, which interests me, and simply acknowledging that one's enemies are humans and may have similar interests, which is nice but may not always lead to change.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

That's true - we're not going to replace one activity with a totally different one; we'll replace it with a like activity. I didn't take up running when I quit watching teevee, I just used the internets more.