the worst article ever written
Jun. 28th, 2004 11:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
keryxA cross-post from my blog, because I couldn't decide where it belonged.
If you're on any size acceptance lists or boards (on a side note, it's remarkable how all these sites focus their discussion on more or less the same things, and just have different approaches to the same issues), you've probably seen the worst article ever written.
The author says a lot of unfounded, rather mean things about fat people. And poor people. And southerners. It would be funny if it weren't clear she thought these things were true.
I think the point she started out wanting to make was this: poorer folk really are getting fatter and possibly less healthy, and we fail to recognize the class issues in this; also, the people who are most concerned with dieting these days seem to be wealthier people who have been duped into believing they're fat when they're not. I think she's actually wrong on the latter point, but if she'd actually written an article about these two competing trends instead of trying to be as clever as possible in her "editorializing", it might have been an interesting read.
And yet, what is the point she actually makes? That poor people are icky and slaggardly, and fat people don't read.
I find this interesting, because the source is a Charleston, WVA resident. Charleston is a coal town, a town with an overwhelming feeling of industry and poverty and at least one giant Wal-Mart. Experientially, it seems like the people of Charleston are fatter than average. It also feels like they're a lot poorer than average, and that the rest of the world ought to be paying attention to this.
Maybe we should be doing some more research.
Like, what are the statistics on people in industrial towns getting on weight loss drugs like Metabolife and such? It seems like my midwestern fat relatives have done that, and weightloss surgery and fad diets a hundred times. The influx of the South Beach and Atkins diets into my "higher class" professional workplace is relatively recent, but my aunts were on Scarsdale decades ago. Is it possible that diet marketing has a class consciousness? I don't know, because I tend to tune it out. But I wouldn't be surprised.
Like, how much do wages affect health or weight gain? I don't know how many of the fat folk in Charleston work more than one job, or weird hours, or whatever. I don't know how changes in the energy market around America impact their coal and manufacturing jobs and pensions and the care they get to give their kids. And I don't know if they're just fat, or if they're also unhealthy.
I don't know if it even matters that poor people are getting fat and rich people are getting more diet-obsessed (if that's even true). But if you're going to talk about it, you ought to present some information or at least ask some questions.
Cause otherwise, you're just rewriting the worst article ever written.
If you're on any size acceptance lists or boards (on a side note, it's remarkable how all these sites focus their discussion on more or less the same things, and just have different approaches to the same issues), you've probably seen the worst article ever written.
The author says a lot of unfounded, rather mean things about fat people. And poor people. And southerners. It would be funny if it weren't clear she thought these things were true.
I think the point she started out wanting to make was this: poorer folk really are getting fatter and possibly less healthy, and we fail to recognize the class issues in this; also, the people who are most concerned with dieting these days seem to be wealthier people who have been duped into believing they're fat when they're not. I think she's actually wrong on the latter point, but if she'd actually written an article about these two competing trends instead of trying to be as clever as possible in her "editorializing", it might have been an interesting read.
And yet, what is the point she actually makes? That poor people are icky and slaggardly, and fat people don't read.
I find this interesting, because the source is a Charleston, WVA resident. Charleston is a coal town, a town with an overwhelming feeling of industry and poverty and at least one giant Wal-Mart. Experientially, it seems like the people of Charleston are fatter than average. It also feels like they're a lot poorer than average, and that the rest of the world ought to be paying attention to this.
Maybe we should be doing some more research.
Like, what are the statistics on people in industrial towns getting on weight loss drugs like Metabolife and such? It seems like my midwestern fat relatives have done that, and weightloss surgery and fad diets a hundred times. The influx of the South Beach and Atkins diets into my "higher class" professional workplace is relatively recent, but my aunts were on Scarsdale decades ago. Is it possible that diet marketing has a class consciousness? I don't know, because I tend to tune it out. But I wouldn't be surprised.
Like, how much do wages affect health or weight gain? I don't know how many of the fat folk in Charleston work more than one job, or weird hours, or whatever. I don't know how changes in the energy market around America impact their coal and manufacturing jobs and pensions and the care they get to give their kids. And I don't know if they're just fat, or if they're also unhealthy.
I don't know if it even matters that poor people are getting fat and rich people are getting more diet-obsessed (if that's even true). But if you're going to talk about it, you ought to present some information or at least ask some questions.
Cause otherwise, you're just rewriting the worst article ever written.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-06-28 04:51 pm (UTC)The first thing that screams out at me is she doesn't have any awareness or acknowledgment of discrimination based on size -- it's been well documented for fat women in employment (although, in one study I know, it doesn't show up for women of color, who already face very substantial wage discrimination because of racism, but white women lose the equivalent of -- I believe it is a year of college -- in wage discrimination, just for being fat.) It shows up in studies of college admissions. It shows up in studies of hiring practices. And it's certainly something to consider if you're going to try to talk about relationships between economic class and body size.
But if you'd rather get voyeuristic jollies spying on what other people put in their shopping carts, dang, and, please talk to me about universal health care before you start talking about poor people choosing their own deaths. Okay, enough ranting in your journal, but that really is QUITE a hideous article.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-06-29 02:51 pm (UTC)My theory is that people who make less money are frequently MORE vulnerable to diet gimmicks and such, just because my experience bears that out. I wonder why that would be, though?
(no subject)
Date: 2004-06-28 05:18 pm (UTC)I note her email is at the bottom of the article, maybe you could organise a mass email protest or something?
(no subject)
Date: 2004-06-29 02:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-06-28 05:41 pm (UTC)Thank you for posting this.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-06-28 09:59 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-06-28 07:58 pm (UTC)Ok, the bookstore thing: Assuming her assertion that the majority of people over 300lbs (I love how this number is always like the sacred marker of really really fat. Like 299lb? Well, you might be salvageable, but anything over 300 and suddenly people are surprised if you can walk.) are from the lower income brackets, then wouldn't it make perfect fucking sense that she doesn't see them in bookstores? Hello? When you're struggling to pay your rent, you're not going to go about paying $30 for some book to tell you that you need to go on a meat-only diet. In fact you're probably not going to have the leisure time to go strolling through a bookstore regardless of weight.
I love love love the fact that she begins to explore possible economic reasons for poorer people being fat (of course, fat=unhealthy here) but then turns around and puts the blame on them for buying unhealthy food. Ummmmmm, has she ever been to a grocery store? White bread is like 99cents a loaf. Things like cheetos and all the rest of the overprocessed snack foods are always the most economical things in stores. Poor people are unhealthy, they should stop buying cheetos! Well how about you give them some damn money, then.
re: WVA. I live in Wheeling, WV now and I have noticed that there are a lot more fat people than where I used to live. There are also a lot more people who have to make their living from awful minimum wage jobs and who have to buy whatever is most affordable (see: fast food and wonderbread) to feed their families. These are all my observations though, I would like to see some actual numbers on these things.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-06-29 02:48 pm (UTC)I'd also like to see some numbers, or even people asking these questions in the media, instead of treating these kinds of issues so stupidly. GRRR. Hey, as a WVA resident, you should write to her (her email addy is at the end of the article) and ask her to dig into the issue more. I get the feeling she got too caught up in trying to be clever and might actually be interested in the ironies of dieting and economics - but I may be too forgiving.