Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Shopping for ice cream in a fatphobic world

Whether you're in recovery from an eating disorder, or just have your head on straight when it comes to food and eating, I hope you'll enjoy this piece in today's New York Times.

16 comments:

Kate Harding said...

Loved it! Great work, Harriet!

If not a mother... said...

Excellent!

LavaLady said...

My favourite is the locally produced Chocolate Shoppe stuff! I won't even look at other ice cream anymore I'm so loyal! And now I'm regretting I don't have a pint in the freezer right now. It would hit the spot for breakfast. That was a lovely piece.

I work hard to keep all food "in play" for myself and my my kids. It can be a struggle, I admit. But real Ice Cream has Most Favoured Food status, always!

Harriet said...

Lavalady,
We must live in the same area--we've got Chocolate Shoppe too. It's good, but maybe not as good as the UW Ag School stuff. :-)

Rachel said...

Congrats Harriet! Is this your first piece in the NY Times?

Maggie Ginsberg-Schutz said...

FANTASTIC, Harriet!! You are so famous (and therefore, by default, so am I for knowing you.) ;)

Wonderful piece, wonderful sentiment, and I just linked you like mad over in my blog.

Kudos!

Anonymous said...

Oh, Harriet, that is so awesome, that you got the NYT to publish something like that! I suppose it helped that readers were already familiar with "Kitty," so you had an "in." I'm sure there are still lots of people who will read this and go, "Well, duh, of course the recovering anorexic should have her ice cream, but that doesn't mean any of you fatasses should have any." But anything that chips away at those attitudes rocks, far as I'm concerned. Keep it up!

Harriet said...

Rachel,
I've been lucky enough to do quite a few pieces for the Times, including one about my daughter's illness and recovery, which appeared in the magazine. I agree--they're the gold standard. More people see a piece in the Times than in any other venue, bar none.

Maggie, aw shucks. That's very sweet of you. :-)

Meowser, you are so right. That's the next step in my personal campaign to Eddicate John Q. Public. :-)

vesta44 said...

Your daughter is totally awesome, but that is a given with you for a mother. Keep on educating all of us, please.

Anonymous said...

I would *love* for someone to make a remark to me in the store ... ; ) (Fat woman buying ice cream, you know.) But nobody ever does...

mary said...

I'm having my bowl of ice cream to celebrate your article Harriet! Vanilla with a splash of almond extract...mmmmmmm
It is wonderful that your girl is enjoying the absurd twist and can laugh at how silly it may seem to be searching for the highest calories. You've done well!

Anonymous said...

Hi Harriet,

I love how you say in the article that there are no "good" or "bad" foods for anyone - including those who, unlike your daughter (kudos to her for successfully fighting the anorexia) would like to lose some weight. I am one of those, but I also love food and eat as I please (which means eating food that is pleasing to me for both nutritional and pleasurable reasons). I also love how you and your daughter laughed in the face of all those scowlers and whisperers. Judge Not. Such people should all make this their life's motto. It's a great bit of wisdom. You never know someone else's situation, only your own. Whether someone wants to lose or gain weight, is fat or thin or in-between, keep your judgements to yourself, people. I hate how women judge each other. And I must say: Fat Acceptance people can be just as judgemental as those who expressed scorn to you and your daughter, Harriet. The judgements come in reverse but they can cut just as deeply.
-Mara

Harriet said...

I hear you, Mara. Judgment stings no matter who it comes from.

tori_927 said...

Hi!

Working on the weight thing, and it was going up, but then finals happened, and the stress and everything caused it to go down...you know how that goes...but now I'm done for the semester, so I'll be working on it again!

Thanks! :-)

Tori

Anonymous said...

Harriet, I love you. Congratulations and thank you so much for writing this and getting it in THE NYT. We need more stuff like this in major media outlets, and I am grateful for your contribution.

Harriet said...

Tori, I'll be rooting for you!

Withoutscene, thanks for the kind words. Tell the story, is my motto. We all need to keep telling it.