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| | Subject: New York times article - "Fatosphere" Blogs | Posted: January 22, 2008 @ 10:36 AM | | Thoughts, ladies?
January 22, 2008 - New York Times
In the Fatosphere, Big Is in, or at Least Accepted
By RONI CARYN RABIN
For years, health experts have been warning that Americans are too fat, that we exercise too little and eat too much, that our health is in jeopardy.
Some fat people beg to differ.
Blogs written by fat people — and it’s fine to use the word, they say — have multiplied in recent months, filling a virtual soapbox known as the fatosphere, where bloggers calling for fat acceptance challenge just about everything conventional medical wisdom has to say about obesity.
Smart, sassy and irreverent, bloggers with names like Big Fat Deal, FatChicksRule and Fatgrrl (“Now with 50 percent more fat!”) buck anti-obesity sentiment. They celebrate their full figures and call on readers to accept their bodies, quit dieting and get on with life.
The message from the fatosphere is not just that big is beautiful. Many of the bloggers dismiss the “obesity epidemic” as hysteria. They argue that Americans are not that much larger than they used to be and that being fat in and of itself is not necessarily bad for you.
And they reject a core belief that many Americans, including overweight ones, hold dear: that all a fat person needs to do to be thin is exercise more and eat less.
“One of the first obstacles to fat acceptance is breaking down the question of whether being fat is a choice,” Kate Harding, founder of the blog Shapely Prose, said in an interview. “No fat acceptance advocate is saying you should sit around and wildly overeat. What we’re saying is that exercise and a balanced diet do not make everyone thin.”
Ms. Harding, a 33-year-old yoga enthusiast from Chicago, promotes the idea of health at any size (she is a 16). She started Shapely Prose (kateharding.net) last April, after noticing that posts about fat in her personal blog hit a nerve. Since then, it has quickly become one of the most popular fat acceptance blogs, with an average of 3,710 page views per day, according to Sitemeter, a Web statistics program.
People come in different shapes and sizes, bloggers like Ms. Harding say, and for those who come extra-large, dieting is futile. Many of the bloggers label their sites “no-diet zones.” (Don’t even mention weight-loss surgery.)
“You relapse, and then you go on a diet again, and this time you’re going to do it, it’s really going to be it this time,” Marianne Kirby, a 30-year-old blogger from Orlando, Fla., who writes The Rotund (therotund.com), said in an interview. “And it still doesn’t work, not long-term — you end up heavier than before. And you say to yourself: Why did I fall for this again?’ ”
The blogs have drawn their share of negative, even vicious comments. But for overweight readers, the messages are empowering — and liberating.
“Girlfriend, let me tell you, I am finally coming to grips with myself,” one fan commented on Ms. Harding’s site. “I will always be fat. I accept that now.”
Harriet Brown, a 49-year-old blogger in Wisconsin and an occasional contributor to The New York Times, encourages readers to take her “I Love My Body Pledge” (at harrietbrown.com), in which they promise not to talk “trash” about “how fat my thighs or stomach” are, and not “call myself a fat pig.”
Fat Fu’s anonymous blog (fatfu.wordpress.com) has a ruthless deconstruction of recent research like the “fat friends” study, as well as one of the most comprehensive lists of links to the fatosphere, including online communities, fashions and health sites for fat people. The Big Fat Deal blog (bfdblog.com) suggests 10 ways to be a “body positivity activist,” including “Be yourself,” “Understand that a lot of people are hateful morons” and “Don’t be afraid to order the cheesecake.”
Many of the bloggers are women whose writing has a distinctly feminist flavor, but there are male fat-acceptance bloggers like Red No. 3 (red3.blogspot.com), who says: “See, I don’t have a problem with fat. My body is simply adorned, and I’ll take that.”
But some experts say this sort of message is dangerous and undermines public health efforts to rein in obesity. “We do have to be careful not to put all the blame on the individual,” said Dr. Walter C. Willett, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. But he added, “The large majority of people who are overweight are overweight because of lifestyle.”
The bloggers argue that changes in definitions over time, along with flaws in the body mass index formula, have pushed more Americans into the “fat” and “obese” categories, and they point to provocative studies suggesting that there may be benefits to being overweight, including a large study that found that underweight Americans are more likely to die than those who are moderately overweight.
Several other recent studies on heart patients and dialysis patients have also reported higher survival rates among heavier patients, suggesting that the link between body size and health may be more complex than generally acknowledged. Another study of people over 60 found that being fit has more bearing on longevity than simply being thin.
The bloggers’ main contention is that being fat is not a result of moral failure or a character flaw, or of gluttony, sloth or a lack of willpower. Diets often boomerang, they say; indeed, numerous long-term studies have found that even though dieters are often able to lose weight in the short term, they almost always regain the lost pounds over the next few years.
Ultimately, these bloggers argue, being skinny may have far more to do with the luck of the genetic draw than with lifestyle choices.
“We accept that some people are tall and some people are short,” said Rachel Richardson, 28, of Cincinnati, who writes a blog called The F-Word (the-f-word.org). “Yet we seem to think all people should be thin — it just doesn’t make sense.”
Fat acceptance bloggers contend that the war on obesity has given people an excuse to wage war on fat people and that health concerns — coupled with the belief that fat people have only themselves to blame for being fat — are being used to justify discrimination that would not be tolerated toward just about any other group of people.
“I’m not surprised there are so many of these blogs now,” Ms. Richardson said. “Anti-obesity hysteria has reached a boiling point. Blogging is a way for people to fight back.”
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| | | | | | Subject: New York times article - "Fatosphere" Blogs | Posted: January 22, 2008 @ 10:44 AM | | | interesting....I am fine with the fat acceptance movement.....but I have issues with the militant fat acceptance folks..... |
| | | | | | Subject: New York times article - "Fatosphere" Blogs | Posted: January 22, 2008 @ 11:01 AM | |
Quoting: hobbyt
interesting....I am fine with the fat acceptance movement.....but I have issues with the militant fat acceptance folks.....
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I agree, although I like this part a lot...
"the link between body size and health may be more complex than generally acknowledged"
I think if it helps the medical community treat people more individually rather than just categorizing people it'll be beneficial. |
| | | | | | Subject: New York times article - "Fatosphere" Blogs | Posted: January 22, 2008 @ 11:06 AM | |
Quoting: Farfalla
Quoting: hobbyt
interesting....I am fine with the fat acceptance movement.....but I have issues with the militant fat acceptance folks.....
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I agree, although I like this part a lot...
"the link between body size and health may be more complex than generally acknowledged"
I think if it helps the medical community treat people more individually rather than just categorizing people it'll be beneficial.
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true, but you know a lot of that mind set that doctors have comes from their medical training. My doctor knows better than to bring it up, unless I want to discuss it.....I am cool with that....
I have to say, because I forgot to in my first post....that I am like this about feminism too....I am not going to burn my bra.....but I believe women (and everyone else) should be treated equally and get the same pay as a man....I also think that the feminist movement did more than give us the option of wearing pants to work and the right to vote. Otherwise we would all be sitting in typing pools in the work place instead of taking on roles that were traditionally male - medicine, engineering, computer science.... |
| | | | | | Subject: New York times article - "Fatosphere" Blogs | Posted: January 22, 2008 @ 11:21 AM | |
IMHO there is a good deal more to the obesity issue than food which is how it is consistently over-simplified in our culture, and the Size Acceptance movement is very good about highlighting that problem. One of these days, we Americans might learn a lesson or two about balance and moderation in all things - food, exercise, sleep, outlook on life, instead of one extreme or the other.
I don't think this article spent enough time on the Health at Every Size philosophy which is diametrically opposed to the Lookism philosphy that drives most women to diet. Even though most will say that they are trying to lose weight "for their health" which is the latest socially acceptable vocabulary, most women are doing so to "look better" in their clothes when they are being truthful - hence the lure and popularity of all the diet drugs, crash yo-yo diets, and quick fixes which are really, really bad for folks health in the long run.
Unfortunately, on the other side of it, I've seen too frequently Size Acceptance folks lambast other women when they do make healthy lifestyle changes like eating better and exercising more who have the gall to lose any pounds when doing so, as if they've turned traitor. Fact of the matter is, if an individuals obesity is indeed food or lack of exercise caused - some are some aren't - they will probably lose weight or inches when eating and exercise patterns are corrected in a long term, permanenet lifestyle sort of way. This can be anything from switching from a mostly processed food diet to a whole foods diet, to cutting back on sugars, to just getting out for a walk every day. But the point is - the measuring stick of health should not be visual and pound related - for EITHER side of the aisle, and unfortunately, too often it is for both.
The other issue that gets conflated - and this is where feminist thought gets mixed in- is the social reality that many women base their sense of self-worth on their appearance and how they think others see them. Until you genuinely like youself for who you are, not what you look like, it's very hard to get a healthy perspective on your body and yourself which then often leads down a road of all kinds of self-abuse and torture. That part I think the Size Acceptance folks have 100% right.
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Internet Guide to Stylish Curves Sizes 12-34W |
| | | | | | Subject: New York times article - "Fatosphere" Blogs | Posted: January 22, 2008 @ 2:08 PM | | I'm all for the fat acceptance movement; I think though, recently, my feelings have been in a state of flux. While there is nothing wrong, in fact, I think it's healthy to love your bod...it's sort of disheartening when you walk away from the computer -- the comfy, cushy bubble of online blogs, groups, etc. The truth is, we live in the world, which wholly is a fat hating place, and sometimes it's alot to swallow. Reality sort of b**ch slaps you in a way...so I find myself asking, how does one mesh body love/acceptance with the awful truths of the world in which we live? Or is it even possible?
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| | | | | | Subject: New York times article - "Fatosphere" Blogs | Posted: January 23, 2008 @ 2:24 AM | | Iam a big supporter of size acceptance as part of an overall healthy life style. At the end of the day it is all about your health. I do have a problem with those who say I'm fat and there’s nothing wrong with it when they are 400lb and 5'2". It is a health issue but society views it from the ascetic point of view. It’s unsightly, it's disgusting and oh yeah it's unhealthy. A lot of the blame for this perception falls on the media.
I hate that media portrays over weight people as lazy with a lack of self control and will power. I think that being overweight just as with most things is not a one size fits all designation. There are people who are fat and fit, there are those who are struggling with bulimia and eating disorder, and there are those who do are in fact fat and lazy . The point is you cannot lump everyone together. I stay in the gym 5 days week and watch what I eat and yes I am losing weight but I know I will never be smaller than a size 10. I will always be curvy. If my blood pressure and cholesterol is fine, my risk for diabetes is kept at bay and I keep up good overall level of fitness then I am fine. People don’t know or see my struggles they just see a fat chick and you know what at this point I'm over it. I'm like yeah I'm fat  so what. I’m also healthy, fit, cute and smart and I have a scorching hot man in my life. I’m ahead of the game.
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| | | | | | Subject: New York times article - "Fatosphere" Blogs | Posted: January 23, 2008 @ 5:10 AM | |
Quoting: Shero
Iam a big supporter of size acceptance as part of an overall healthy life style. At the end of the day it is all about your health. I do have a problem with those who say I'm fat and there’s nothing wrong with it when they are 400lb and 5'2". It is a health issue but society views it from the ascetic point of view. It’s unsightly, it's disgusting and oh yeah it's unhealthy. A lot of the blame for this perception falls on the media.
I hate that media portrays over weight people as lazy with a lack of self control and will power. I think that being overweight just as with most things is not a one size fits all designation. There are people who are fat and fit, there are those who are struggling with bulimia and eating disorder, and there are those who do are in fact fat and lazy . The point is you cannot lump everyone together. I stay in the gym 5 days week and watch what I eat and yes I am losing weight but I know I will never be smaller than a size 10. I will always be curvy. If my blood pressure and cholesterol is fine, my risk for diabetes is kept at bay and I keep up good overall level of fitness then I am fine. People don’t know or see my struggles they just see a fat chick and you know what at this point I'm over it. I'm like yeah I'm fat so what. I’m also healthy, fit, cute and smart and I have a scorching hot man in my life. I’m ahead of the game.
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excellent points.........I mean they have kind of put larger folks into the same category with shunned celebs - ex Britney and her issues - since they are currently portraying her as lacking self control.
hmmmmmmm why is lack of self control a bad thing? |
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