Fat Pride comes before the Fat Fall

I'm not a fan of the fat-pride movement; should we accept the world as it is, or strive to make it better? However, I recently read a piece in the NYT that gives a more nuanced approach to the issue. It made me think: have I internalized fat-hatred from our culture at the expense of my own health and sanity?

The author of the piece is a novelist who put a central character in her fictional story who is a stand in for herself, but unlike Woody Allen swapping himself out for a younger, more handsome movie star, her heroine is unvarnished: an unapologetic fat woman. She's been called upon in her promotional duties to become the defacto spokesperson for being in defense of being a fat, happy woman who is not afraid to speak of it in pubic.

Talking with people about my book taught me that we might think we live in an age when we can’t be shocked, but a novel about a 300-pound woman who learns to love her body as it is — without losing weight — is a major taboo. Since I dared not only to write this story, but also to appear in public as a fat woman myself, refusing to apologize for my existence or to hide my body in a burlap sack, I became an unwitting ambassador for the revolutionary idea that there’s nothing wrong with being fat and female. I get asked questions more appropriate for a therapist or a nutritionist than a novelist. I get asked about my history of dieting and body image struggles. I am harassed by a mob of online trolls dedicated to bullying fat women.
A few months after the book was published in the United States, I went on a book tour in Australia. During a live radio interview on my first day there, another novelist, Will Self, hijacked the discussion of my book to lecture me about how unhealthy and ugly fat people are; to cite the Holocaust to make a point about the correlation between body size, exercise and food consumption (“You never saw anybody fat come out of Auschwitz,” he said, quoting a drug counselor); and to spread fear about a looming fat apocalypse, claiming that, among other things, “statistically, where I live in England, by 2030 nobody will walk.” 

God damn! Doesn't that guy know the truism that if your argument involves invoking Hitler and the Holocaust, you've lost?

It's easy for me to shove this issue to the back of my brain, excusing myself with "live and let live." However, I know if I care about the world, it's not as simple as those libertarian imbeciles would like you to believe. I know rationally that the evidence is in: obesity is NOT equal to ill health. Obesity is a symptom of ill health, but obesity is also a symptom of eating more than you exert and/or a symptom of a slower metabolism for reasons nefarious or natural.

What this poor woman is coming up against is a whole system that profits (yep, in my view, it comes down to economics when dealing with broader social issues) from making obesity a personal failure. You're fat because of a lack of self control; it's all very Christian in the worst sense of the word. There is a huge diet industry dedicated to profiting from individuals just trying harder, and it doesn't help the bottom line by actually resolving the issue, only promising to. On the other side is an army of corporate sponsored food scientists designing cheap food to be addicting, and marketeers who sell this stuff without consequence, protected by "small government" zealot politicians who are happy to take money to do less.

Of course, it's not just economics -- there is misogyny in there, too. It's not a far leap to propose that certain aspects of our culture values women by their desirability to men, and how a woman who is happy to be fat is repudiation of the power of patriarchy. This ain't that kind of blog, but I do have a daughter and other women in my life who I love dearly. I don't have the solution but hopefully by acknowledgment, I'm less a part of the problem.

In a culture where most fat people in the media have missing heads — the anonymous, decapitated, interchangeable blobs whose photos accompany scary news stories about obesity — a fat woman with a voice can be threatening, not just to bullies, misogynists and anti-obesity crusaders, but to many of those who consider themselves to be enlightened, too. I sometimes think it would be easier to be one of those anonymous, headless fat people. But if you’re missing a head, you can’t speak up.

My own personal preferences (prejudices?) say no one in their right mind should be prideful to be fat, but no one should be ashamed or belittled for being fat, either. When you get to the root of it, most people are good, not stupid and lazy and and poor and selfish. Really, it's about a betrayal of the individual by a lack of protection from the "free" market. I've been struggling with getting my head around my own weight gain over the last year. I don't think I'm lazy, stupid or selfish, and by most standards I'm not poor. My weight gain, the abuse this poor woman has suffered, the world of shit my daughter & son are entering: I wouldn't say it's my fault, but I do have prejudices that need to be checked. One thing I can say with certainty: it's my responsibility.

You don't have to go back as far as Botticelli to find a time when fat chicks were all the rage. It's more about social values then actual health concerns...

WEEKLY AVERAGE:2610

Better, but I suspect it would be better to have all 5 days closer to the average rather than +3k days and sub 2.3k days...

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MONDAY COUNT: 2410

SLEPT: 8:30am - 5am, 8.5 hrs

AM SNACK: 5:30am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST 1 : 10:45am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: noon, steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal

LUNCH: 3:45pm, beef patty, momma salad, pickles, 450 cal

PM SNACK: 5pm, cashews, 250 cal

DINNER: 7pm, lemon sole, aspargus, poppa salad with dressing, 600 cal

EVENING SNACKS: 8pm, kind bar, handful of animal crackers, small bowl of cereal and whole milk, +/- 500 cal

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BIKE CREDIT: 570
TUESDAY COUNT: 2290

SLEPT: 9pm-5am,  8 hrs

AM SNACK: 5:30am,  iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 10:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11:45am, fage with honey, vanilla, almonds, 450 cal

BIKE SNACK: 4:15pm, homemade granola bar, 300 cal

PM SNACK: 6pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal

DINNER: 6:30pm, Stouffers French Bread Pizzas, poppa salad with dressing, 1040 cal

EVENING SNACKS: 7:30pm, kind bar, pirate booty, peanut putter pretzels, 600 cal
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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 3100

SLEPT: 8:30pm-4:30am, 8 hrs

AM SNACK: 5am, iced green tea

AM SNACK: 8:30am, turkey sausage patty, +/- 100 cal

BREAKFAST 1: 10:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11:45, fruit smoothie,  450 cal

LUNCH: 2:30pm, chicken meatballs, steamed string beans, mushroom masala, pickles 640 cal

PM SNACK: 5pm, momma salad, cashews, 350 cal

DINNER: 8;15pm, burrito, poppa salad with dressing, 1120 cal

EVENING SNACK: 9:15pm, peanut butter pretzels, 280 cal
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THURSDAY COUNT:3020

SLEPT: 10pm-3am, 4:30am-6:30am, 7hrs

AM SNACK: 6:30am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST 1: 11:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal


BREAKFAST 2: noon, steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal

LUNCH: 1:30pm, poppa salad with dressing and cheezits, 410 cal

DINNER: 6pm, onion soup, stuffed rice balls, sautéed broccoli, lemon tart, white wine, +/- 2000 cal
This was an extensive few hours of cooking, not a restaurant meal.
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FRIDAY COUNT: 2240

SLEPT: 10:30pm-5am, 6.5hrs

AM SNACK: 5:45am, iced black tea

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: noon, fage with honey, vanilla, almonds, 450 cal

LUNCH: 1pm, almond butter and grape jelly on whole wheat, pickles, momma salad, cheezits, 730 cal

DINNER:5pm, 2 slices of pizza, small amount of ice cream, a few chips, +/- 900 cal