This week in class we discussed some
very uncomfortable topics. Being overweight or being called “fat”
in our society is something very common that a lot of people
experience. However, we do not go about the issue in a positive way.
We belittle people and make them feel bad about themselves to the
point that they become sick. Either they begin a diet that consumes
their life and may be unhealthy or they go onto bigger “solutions”
such as eating disorders. We read about anorexia and some of the
reasons people go to it. These individuals experience negative life
experiences that cause them to hate their image and look for
unhealthy solutions.
I was watching a show on MTV that is
very popular called True Life. This show brings light to problems
every-day human beings experience and have to deal with. In this
episode two young women experience an addiction to food. They are of
course seen as overweight and their friends are constantly calling
them fat. Throughout the show these women look for therapy and for
other solutions that will help them overcome this addiction. What I
found interesting in this episode is that they were both female. As
we mentioned in class, females experience eating disorders more often
than males. Females are also a bigger target for this “fat-hate”
we read about. In one of the scenes of this show, a male friend of
the girl was eating McDonalds and bought a salad for the girl. She
gets mad because while he is eating a hamburger with fries, she is
left with a simple salad.
I agree that every person should be
entitled to their own body and the way they want to treat it. Yes, we
have seen how bad anorexia is and other similar eating disorders. We
have also talked about the negative aspects of using the word fat.
And we even talked about the poor, unrealistic image media has made
us believe to be beauty. Most women are not skinny or thin. That does
not mean that we should not be healthy. Like this show portrayed, not
being skinny is not bad but there is a point to where it becomes a
health issue. We should not belittle women with extra on their body
but we should also look into health risks. As it was mentioned in one
of the readings in class, we should not ignore the “fat” talk. We
should look into it and make sure that we approach it in a safe and
caring way.
As Nomy Lamm writes in her article,
It's a Big Fat Revolution, “It doesn't help much when my friends
and family...continue to make anti-fat statements and bitch about how
fat they feel and mention new diets they've heard about and are just
dying to try.” Ignoring the problem is just as bad as the above
statement. That is why as we go through this feminist movement, we
should be careful of how we treat these sensitive topics.
Links:
I think you're correct that health, rather than any one particular body ideal, is a much better and holistic goal for people to have when it comes to our self-image and our lifestyle. However, it's my opinion that underlying the obsession with food and size, further underlying the devastating consequences of impossible ideals, and even underlying the issue of how we define health, is the fact that we feel like it is our right and sometimes our responsibility to tell others what's best for them.
ReplyDeleteI've heard a lot of people talk about weight— usually, the weight of others— under the umbrella of "it's a health issue;" that angle is a dangerous one because it so easily rationalizes an underlying misplaced fear that leads to caustic judgment. Basically, if I've devoted so much of my lifestyle and energy and emotion to the idea that I have to be thin in order to be confident, desirable, healthy, and whole, then I feel intensely threatened by anyone who contradicts that belief. So if a conventionally overweight person looks happy, confident, and successful, I need to find a way to still say that they are still not as good as I am. This means that I either lump them in with the spectrum extreme of morbid obesity by assuming they can't possibly be healthy or I hastily assign the label of "not actually fat, but rather normal" so that they still fit my paradigm. I'll ignore the issue that we as a society have a tremendously hard time seeing "fat" and "normal" as anything other than mutually exclusive. I feel the urge to categorize others like this not because I am a bad person; it actually has little to nothing to do with the subject of my “concern” (judgment). But something as simple as accepting their very existence as a healthy, whole, responsible, valuable person who has no need to be ashamed of who they are would require me to do some deeply terrifying things. I would have to confront the reasons behind my need to look a certain way, examine my prejudice and the fear that led to it, and realize that my measures of health, beauty, and success (which largely end up defining my self-worth or lack thereof) are arbitrary and superficial. It is so much easier to focus on extremes like morbid obesity to affirm my discomfort with fatness and its connotations.
We like to believe that science is purely objective, immune to pop culture trends or prejudice or ulterior motive, but that’s not at all true. Health as a concept is so highly political (and personal) and defined by social norms, and yet we often exclude science from critical analysis under the impression that it is above the ignorance of the humans who practice it.
The day we can truly approach body weight with a genuinely health-oriented mindset is the day that weight is no longer tied to morality. Until that happens on a widespread level, I struggle with how justified we feel in opining about others’ health, which is a very personal topic. It carries with it the assumption that they are not capable of making their own decisions, that they are uneducated or ignorant, and/or it undermines the idea that a person’s health is defined by how they themselves feel and operate as opposed to how much they fit how others think they ought to feel and operate. Of course we care about our friends and loved ones, and we worry if they aren’t doing well. But I’ve heard too many people criticizing strangers with the excuse of being concerned for their well-being, and I don’t remember the last time someone told me they felt guilty for drinking too much water or brushing their teeth more than usual. Maybe I simply haven’t found a good source yet, but as far as I can tell, food and fat are too tied up with sin and shame for me to believe that a conversation about being overweight is derived exclusively from a desire for well-being.