Well, THAT Didn't Work.

ATTENTION, Alabama Legislature! The Obesity Epidemic information you've based your discriminatory 'health initiatives' on, is false / faulty. No I'm not talking about the BMI. Although that, too, is pretty useless. I'm talking about the shining example of success you based your 'Fat people Fighting' healthcare 'Fat Tax' on. The ONE incidence where financially punishing people for the size of their bodies seemed to work, is based on a lie. A pretty, [perhaps for you] statistically pleasing, conventionally logical, lie but a lie none the less.

Perhaps you should have consulted with Gov. Joseph Manchin of W. Virginia before rushing ahead with an iffy program that's had ONE example of 'success' [Well, used  to have one anyway].

We know, it's scary. With all the big, bold, headlines in the non-biased media. All those 'experts', scientific sounding people, and infallible Doctors that are out there screaming about the End of Days Health. Good Folk who must have some reason for not liking fat people. And all those terrifying prophesies of the impending Fat Apocalypse? Something had to be done. Right?

Yeah, No. It's never a good idea to persecute or punish people for their own good. Doesn't work, isn't helpful, and makes you look, something of a, self-righteous, prig. Or was that more of a 'make them pay because their costing us money' kind of thing? Despite the fact that fat people are already paying their own way just like everybody else paying into healthcare at work? Oh. Right. They say Fat Offenders actually cost more than they pay in. And by 'they', you would mean those same 'experts' and statistically pleasing reports again. They sure do say a lot, them and those infallible medical people.

Wonder what ELSE they might have glossed over missed?

via; Living400  Big Liberty & Unapologetically Fat

Muzak Therapy:

B-52's / Private Idaho

Spin, Spin Doctor

Ah, so now that CNN has discovered [uncovered / decided to get around to] weight discrimination in medicine, we should get a bold, slant free, investigation of The Truth [<--Note Caps], right? Actually, no. What we get is yet another spin job from the press.

What 'spin job' you ask? Well, we get details on studies that have shown overweight patients are more likely to be misdiagnosed, under dosed when being prescribed meds, and have a harder time even GETTING healthcare coverage [Hmmm, this wouldn't have any effect on all those 'Fat People Die Sooner/More Frequently' studies would it? Naah]. It tells us how fat people are ignored, dismissed and even refused necessary medical treatment because that treatment might be more difficult or more risky and Dr's don't want to take the chance to treat us or just couldn't be bothered with the extra work [Wonder how many employers would be happy with this attitude in their office/plant/business? Oh, wait! Different context. We're only talking about peoples lives. Fat peoples lives. Nevermind].

What's the underlying message we're getting here? Where is this article going as far as pointing in the direction of a possible solution to this mess? 'Lets work toward ending discriminatory practices'? Ummm, not quite. What we get is More of the Same; Lose the weight Fatty.

"There's an even bigger problem, though: when heavy women are ignored, the obesity epidemic is ignored, too -- and that has to stop, experts say. "Being mistreated or dismissed by your doctor because of your weight is unacceptable. But what's just as important is that doctors are missing an opportunity to help their patients lose weight and improve their health," says Huizinga of Johns Hopkins.

"Doctors and patients need to be able to speak openly about weight-related issues, whether it's the diseases caused by excess weight or the reasons why a patient overeats. That level of conversation requires a certain degree of comfort, and the basis for that is mutual respect, plain and simple," she says. "That's how we can help all women get healthier."

[emphasis mine]

There's that Spin again. The classic Obesity Catch-22 -You can Win but only if you lose weight. If you can't lose weight [Read; Don't want to lose weight. Because it's impossible to NOT lose if you just try] then, guess what? No Cookie for you. 'But why? Why is this SO important?' you might ask. Because Health is Weight. Losing weight is The Answer to being healthy. It's the ONLY answer. If your not trying to lose weight then your not trying to be Healthy and that isn't, morally, ok. This would be The Morality of Being Fat. One more turn on the Obesity [Panic] Epidemic Merry Go-round. 

But what if you ARE trying to lose weight? What if you've been trying your entire life? 

Well, if your not thin by now then your not doing it right. Or your lying to us & yourself, a LOT! 

Either way, your fat and that's not, morally, ok. What's more, it's also your fault. 

All of it. 

Even how the Dr's treat you.

Because, if you would just stop being fat, people would treat you better. 

Of course, if one is foolish enough to ask how that might be done [stop being fat], the Answers one tends to get range from flat out folk lore [I have a friend, who has a cousin, who has a dog that lost weight by...], to 'science' as interpreted by cargo-cultists [Calories in = Calories out, full stop. Metabolism doesn't exist. Genetic inheritance doesn't count. Physics trumps Microbiology because we know everything there is to know about both. . . . And that's that, Fatty!], with a little political conspiracy thrown in for good measure [Can you say 'High Fructose Corn Syrup'? I knew you could]. It's enough to make one start thinking that NOBODY has any idea what, the fuck, their talking about. Except, of course, that it's all our fault. That they know.

Whoop! Here comes that brass ring again. Do I try for it One More Time or just decide to get off this stupid, pointless, ridiculous ride and go see what the unpopular kids are up to? Hmmmm. . . .    

Muzak Therapy:

Vangelis / Other Side of Antarctica

Not Having to Justifying Our Existence? Also Not an Option.

In relation to my last post; This, and this. More peripherally, as an illustration of what being part of a community means as opposed to just hanging around one, this. 

Happiness is NOT an Option

Lesley Kinzel of Fashionista just did an interview for an upbeat article on what acceptance of herself and her body means to her over at The Boston Globe. Apparently this was unacceptable to the general mob in comments.

*WARNING*

Comments in any fat-realted article tend to be unreasonable at best. If viewing comments

contained within this article, a surplus of Sanity Watchers Points or a strong stomach is advised.

*WARNING*

We've seen this. . . Well, so many times, it's starting to feel like some kind of twisted cliche.

People who are certain that Lesley cannot be happy. Obviously, because she's fat and fat people are incapable of being happy. This they know because, well, they know so much about being fat. And since they know what being fat is like, of course it would follow that she must be lying when she says that she's happy. 'But why would she lie about something like that?' you might ask, 'What would be the point?' *Whispers* The Fat Acceptance Conspiracy, of course!

See, because, in the eyes of some, we here in the Fatosphere are analogous to terrorist led by some kind of ethereally slippery-

-bearded fanatic. We are out to ruin the environment, waste resources, destroy the economy [via healthcare depletion. Diabolical indeed.], and make the future just, suck, with our mass non-bystander-involved suicide/martyrdom tactics. And that's before we finish shutting down world travel by blocking all forms of public transportation and air travel with our fat.  Is it any wonder why they hate us so virulently? Fat people like Lesley Kinzel are obviously a menace to society.

Oddly enough, the tactics they seem so eager to use in order to. . . Change (Pursued? Outlaw? Eliminate?) us are more reminiscent of the Taliban than anyone else I can think of.  

Goes towards my current theory (Which I'm sure has already been better conceived, thoroughly examined, and completely dissected by wiser heads elsewhere) that unreasoned, fanatical, righteousness conforms to reoccurring patterns. As does the fanatics desire to completely control all things in and outside their cultural confines or even the realms of their existence.

Lesley, like anyone over the agreed conceivable limit of human fatness (that would be 300lbs) is simply wrong. At over 300 pounds her refusal to be disabled is wrong, her experiences are wrong, everything she says is wrong, her life is wrong, her beliefs concerning how she should live her own life are wrong, so obviously her entire existence must be wrong. Because these things would be in direct contravention of everything they believe. She is living in denial of the prevailing dogma and must be chastised soundly. But the most heinous, the most depraved and evil, crime that she and fat people like her have committed. The infidel atrocity that those who speak of this 'Fat Acceptance' are guilty of, is the irresponsible example they set for those who would, should, MUST diet or they will, surely, die themselves. Fat Acceptance people who refuse to keep trying to become un-fat are forcing their ideals on those pathetic creatures who keep trying. . . And failing, but only because they haven't tried hard enough yet. Or their not doing it right. Or whatever. The important thing is that these scholars of conventional wisdom are aware of what really is. They know these things because the knowledge has been handed down to them, personally, by higher authorities. And like any good Teacher of unquestionable faith, they will make us learn what we obviously do not know by rote and cane.

The ignorance of it is almost as staggering as the assumption of it's righteous superiority. But that would be the point, wouldn't it? Why else go out of your way to categorically deny what someone else has conveyed as their own experience? Because it's dangerous?

To whom?

Because it's unbelievable?

Why?

Because it makes you feel better?

Hmm. . . Well, that kinda makes it seem like Lesley isn't really the one with a problem.

Doesn't it.    

Muzak Therapy:

Art of Noise / Peter Gunn

Of Fat Surveillance and Profiling St. Nick

It's been a while since my last rant. Sometimes it seems as if Life is out to make sure that the things we want to do get back-burnered for the rest of eternity. Well, I'm not willing to wait that long. HA! [This is me, laughing in Life's face. Then hitting the deck. Fast.]

Some interesting things have been happening since I was last able to get in here. Apparently we have, yet another self-obsorbed well, nobody really, who has managed to get his name plastered all over the news for dissing Santa Claus about his weight. Ah, self-righteousness. It's amazing how, every year, some neurotic, health obsessed, asshat feels he or she MUST proclaim to the world how dangerous Santa Claus is. As if he were real (But he isn't. That's why he's so dangerous). As if he represents some kind of evil agenda (Ethnocentric, Non-PC, Theocentric, and commercially exploitive. That would be; Christmas), and as if they where the first ones to think of it. Why, we've even had a Surgeon General comment on the dangers of a fat St Nick. 'Cause, yah know, the Surgeon General really didn't have anything better to do that year.

This year, however, there seems to be a certain amount of push-back for this facile waste of time. A good thing considering the horrific levels to which fat-hate has gone in past years. It's enough to make a person wonder; How obsessed with Obesity Epipanic rhetoric / overcome with the need to admonish the 'wicked' does someone have to be to actively try and edit or delete an enduring icon of human good-will? An intervention may be required.

Wait a minute. Why are those people over there following us? Why do I feel like we're being watched? Perhaps because we are. I've been noticing a certain trend in and around the Fatosphere. A slogan becomes popular in the 'sphere, 'Diets don't work' for example, and suddenly a major diet concern is using it as a tag line. A ridiculous and offensive hypothesis like 'There weren't any fat people in concentration camps' gets called-out as the stupidity it actually is and the ridiculous argument seems to pop up a little less.

Well, now it seems there's suddenly a campaign against HAES or exercise practices that emphasizes health rather than virtually unsustainable weight loss. Obviously, since it's absolutely unacceptable impossible for fat people to be both fat and healthy. Some argument had to be found that would refute a non-weight loss philosophy. After all weight loss is the ONLY way to perfect health. Any hint to the contrary would be little more than heresy of the most blasphemous kind. 

So it would seem there are a few pertinent questions that might present themselves here; Is this Paris study a legitimate study that just happened to come along at precisely the right time after thirty years of observation? Or is it just another data dredge of some passingly related work who's numbers seem close enough to massage into a reasonable interpretation? I guess we'll just have to wait and see about that. However, if it does turn out to be the latter, then the next most obvious questions would be; Who could invest the most resources and has the greatest interest in having such a report published? Well, who might benefit most from keeping watchful eye on Fat Acceptance itself? Heard any good diet tag lines lately?

 

Muzak Therapy:

Wang Chung / Black-Blue-White

But What About the Children?!

Well, apparently there's a reason (besides 'child abuse') that some extremely obese children become so fat. Turns out it's probably their genes predisposing them to weight gain and causing them to not recognize satiety signals from their brain (Translation: they can't stop eating). Hmm. Yah know, I think I've heard that before somewhere. But whatever. Two questions I've got now are; What does this mean for Alexander Draper and his mother? As well as; what have we learned, if anything, from all this?  

Muzak Therapy:

Stone Roses / Fools Gold

Back of the Bus

This was inevitable. Lets not get into the headless fatty phenomena. How it's ok to pick out a person because of their size or appearance, take pictures of them while their unaware, and disseminate that picture to maximize humiliation. Their fat, they won't mind / privacy doesn't exist / it's funny / It's for their own good and . . . D00d, they're fat! But no, let's not go there.

Instead, lets get into the Flying While Fat thing. We've already had instances of fat people being denied  travel despite failing health. We've had multiple instances of people being stranded after getting to their destination without trouble and then being denied travel while trying to get home. People trying to comply with the 'two seat rule' have been set up to fail and then denied the right to travel. Many of these situations would commonly be called extortion or fraud. Paying for goods or services and then being told you need to pay more to actually GET them. Actually getting some of the goods or services and then being told to pay more to get the rest. Paying for more than the goods or services are worth and then getting something completely useless. But, since it's Fat People being extorted and defrauded, it's just 'The right thing to do'.

Of course embarrassment, extortion, and added inconvenience, are not enough. The question now is; should fat people be allowed to fly at all? The NYPost seems to indicate that the answer should be 'no'. But then the Post has always been about a half step above such tabloid intellectual exercises as the National Enquirer and the Weekly World News in it's editorial accuracy as well as it ethics. So, you'll excuse me for taking their report with a bucket of salt (Thank goodness my BP is good. Oh, wait! I'm fat! That's just not possible. My bad.). I'll believe their report that an investigation was done by the American Airlines or what the ultimate outcome of this particular incident was when I see it somewhere else, thanks. What can be taken from the Post's questionable coverage? Pretty much what can be taken from the reporting done by almost any other publication covering any other 'Obesity Epipanic' story; Fat people aren't human and need to be humiliated / punished for being fat.

As always with this particular issue it comes down to the obvious assumption that fat people like to be shoehorned into tiny seats for hours. That we enjoy being ostracized and publicly shamed since that's how you successfully lose weight. We're just looking for motivation, that's all. Unfortunately the rest society is also made uncomfortable so, no matter how embarrassed or degraded fatty also feels after having to stuff him/her self into a too small chair, we need the extra hardship of paying more AND possibly not even being able to get where we're going. Oh! And lets not forget how dangerous fatty is. Now, it seems, we're also a safety hazard. Apparently the 200 / 300 / 400 pounds of body weight some people are so brazen as to carry around in public might cause the plane to run out of fuel, or crash, or something. Trapping all the other innocent, unoffending, passengers onboard a burning / sinking / falling plane by clogging up the emergency exits with their fat. Not that the several tons of normal weight passengers, their thousands of pounds of luggage, or the underweight passengers who lack the bulk or strength to even OPEN those emergency exits. No, just the Fat passengers. They're going to crash my plane with their fat! Oh, the horror!! Which, of course, leads to, 'I don't care how they get to where they need to go. Make 'um walk. It's good for 'um! Hur-hur-hur!' If we must fly, then the obvious solution is to treat us as cargo or livestock. We're not human, remember? Besides, It's all our fault, since we should know better than to show up at an airport fat anyway.

This we get from one picture of a man sitting on a seat armrest, either before the plane has taken off, or after it's already landed (Please note the open luggage racks and other passengers standing further down the isle) with a pair of empty seats in the row behind him (His? Naah, Fat people don't buy extra seats before hand, that's why they should be banned), and leaning towards the person in the seat next to him. A person who is leaning towards him as well (Couldn't be talking to someone he knows. Fat people don't know anybody). Nope. He's too fat for the seat + the guy next to him is going to get crushed + He's fat. It's dangerous + I HATE sitting next to fat people but they LOVE sitting next to me = Kick Fatty off the plane.

No Fat Hatred going on here. 

Muzak Therapy:

Devo / Gates of Steel

Fat Man on the Field

Fat panic effects every race, creed, color, religion and gender. But the general consensus is that it's just the whining complaints of women, primarily on the internet, who 'just don't want to lose weight'. Who's leading this consensus? Usually men. Not necessarily on the internet but those that are, rigorously carry the banner for the 'courageous speakers of the truth' who showcase their disdain and outright hatred IRL. Why? Because, classically, men aren't subject to the same kind of physical scrutiny. Or, at least, people feel less free to publicly comment on the state of mens bodies. The Obesity Epipanic is changing all this as it's changing mens own attitudes about their bodies.

We've long enjoyed the freedom to be, look, or act any way we wanted to (With the exception of appearing 'too feminine'. Hooray homophobia. Not) but that is changing. Traditionally for us guys, being fat has been just another possible aspect of being male and, patently, nobody else's business. Now, male or female, it's everybody's.

Case in Point? The NFL.   

Several diet companies are specifically targeting men through big name  / big pay endorsements with prominent sports figures. Of course. As a virtually untapped market, we represent a massive pool of new business that the diet industry is drooling to get their teeth into. And with the 40 - 60 million dollars earned in previous markets (Women / young girls), paying those big names almost anything they ask for is little more than an investment in future business. If they can succeed in replicating the body insecurities that drive the current, almost overexploited, income pool (again; women / young girls) then this Brand New Market could break wide open. The Diet Industry could double, or possibly triple, the profits they currently enjoy. Nothing but Net. And it's working.

Imagine an NFL coach, ANY NFL coach, being pressured into going on a diet. In the past, any questions asked of a hard-core NFL Coach about his own weight would have been met with, out-of-hand dismissals and more likely than not, referrals to more important matters. Like, yah know, which players are starting and game strategy.            

Well, these days we can only hope that Rex Ryan of the NY Jets doesn't seriously damage his health trying to stave off the commentary on something that's got nothing to do with his abilities as a coach. But such is the state of the world that it should be necessary to use dangerous methods to change ones self in order to satisfy some nebulous ideal of what we 'should' look like. Don't let the arguments of 'Health' distract you. It isn't, and never was about 'health'. If it was, carny freak show style torturetainment like 'The Biggest Loser', wouldn't even exist.

Muzak Therapy:

SoundGarden / Mailman

Fear The Bird

Once again it 'tis the season. Obviously for obsessing over every morsel / unholy calorie of food you put in your mouth. At no other time during the year is the fear of fat (aka; the Obesity Epidemic or Obesity EpiPanic) more patently evident. All we hear about in the news is how bad, bad, bad it is to overeat during the holidays. A lose of control or a complete failure of will. A moral defect that proves weakness of character. If you can't or don't want to push the plate away before your done then you are Less Than, in danger of becoming Other (read; fat), and will suffer all the 'obvious' consequences. Ho-Ho-HO!! The fear and loathing is almost palpable. But don't be overly alarmed, Pilgrim. Pious superiority requires that you be told how it should be done. Just as fat people must be constantly reminded that we're fat, consistently advised over and over of the potentially inevitable health risks (Um...Huh?) 'lest we somehow forget or delude ourselves. Just like we need to have hundreds of useless diets, methods, plans, lifestyle changes, food recommendations (Food, like moral standing, can only be 'good' or 'bad'. This is well known) and every manner of folk remedy pushed at us as if those 'recommending' this 'helpful advise' were getting paid, cash money, by the diet industry. Just as there is always 'help' for us poor misinformed and ignorant fatties, there are plenty of tips and tricks that you can use to avoid damnation temptation. So these two family events -two days in as many months- these celebrations that are supposed to be about joy, togetherness, family, and gratitude for that with which we have been blessed, are not completely guilt free. Because, yah know, if the writers of these holiday self-flagellation guides are too neurotic and eating disordered or their familial dysfunction has them too skewed / screwed to actually enjoy the holidays? Well, then why should anyone else?

 

Muzak Therapy:

The Ramones / We're a Happy Family

Gravity

There's a conversation that goes around every now and again in the Fatosphere. It usually starts with the question of the other F/A; Fat Admirers. Unfortunately, it also tends to swerve into one of the other contentious regions of Fat Acceptance; Fat as a Gendered Issue and things usually get pretty messy from there. Still, the conversation has merit and a little mess never hurt anybody.

Fat Admirers have been around for a long time. Probably longer than either Fat Acceptance or Fat Activism and, thought it's not generally acknowledged, there are also women who prefer there partners fat. FFA or Female Fat Admirers is the generally accepted term but, again, we don't seem to ever hear too much about them. At most, if a woman fits a more mainstream archetype of what's considered 'beautiful' and her male partner is fat, we'll often hear 'What's she doing with him?' But if the man looks like Brad Pitt and his partner is fat? Well, he's a freak. Both are ridiculous conceits and, unfortunately, common ones as far as mainstream sensibilities are concerned. After all, every important avenue of information that we rely on to tell us how we should live our lives, the fashion and beauty industries, television, movies -hell, media in general- inform us that fat people are undesirable, unhealthy, and flat-out disgusting. So, of course, anyone who would choose them over 'beautiful' people are strange at best or just plain defective. What tends to smack my gob pretty silly is realizing that this might actually be an improvement over the previous school of thought. At one time Fat Admirers where equated with feeders and gainers. And, since these previously unheard of fetishes where so way-out, so off-the-charts weird, it had to be the only reason a man would be attracted to a fat woman. It's taken quite some time to dissuade people of this ludicrous assumption but, considering the cyclic nature of stupid folk lore, it may end up rearing it's knotted head again.

Are there any answers? It's a complicated issue with quite a few significant mitigating factors. Fetish Trolls exist, they're rampant, and they don't have hazard strips tattooed on their foreheads. Like the opportunistic predators they most resemble they stalk social gatherings, dances, and dating networks looking for the inexperienced, the trusting, wounded individuals, or anyone they feel they can exploit and then use all manner of strategy to influence, manipulate, and use people to get what they want. Walking or slithering away after completely destroying what should be an affirming or at the very least, hopeful, experience for the people they exploit. Or making, even those who DO manage to connect later on in their lives, suspicious or uneasy in relationships that should be supporting and happy. But then concern for others is not really the point for a predator. That has nothing to do with what they want and is therefore irrelevant.  

Maybe there won't be any answers until the world changes how it sees, or is persuaded to see better. However, we should know better. We constantly talk about being stereotyped as binge eating couch potato's and yet unattached men who profess an attraction to fat women are often assumed to be weird. It is EXTREMELY frustrating to know that Fat Admirers, people with a preference, are still sometimes viewed by 'our own' as vaguely creepy.

Muzak Therapy:

Radio Head / Packt Like Sardines in A Crushd Tin Box