Al has ham. Al is a fat cat. As is a sad fat cat.

Thanks to blog reader Joan M. for sending me the following:
I have a 5 year old and I am teaching her to read. I have a program made by a company called Frontline Phonics. They have a book called "Ham and Jam": Al is a cat (happy smiling cat), Al has ham (happy cat eating), Al has jam (happy cat eating), Al has ham and jam, Al is a fat cat (cat now has distended belly and is frowning), Al is a sad fat cat, Al ran. Al ran and ran. (cat on the treadmill) Al is a cat. (happy thin cat again)

And the questions that the parents are suppossed to ask after they have read the book are: What made Al so fat? What did Al eat first? What did Al do to become thin again? Why is Al smiling?

Talk about teaching kids while they are young to associate fat and sadness and thin with being happy.

Let's tell the story another way:

Harriet is a blogger. Harriet reads about books like this. Harriet feels sad. Harriet feels mad! Harriet's head feels like it might explode. Harriet swears at the screen. Bad screen. Bad books. Bad thinking.

Any of you come across similarly egregious books aimed at early readers? Inquiring minds want to know.

This is the way we legitimize fat prejudice

My local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, is really pretty good, especially for a small city paper. Like many small papers these days, it picks up a lot of stories from wire services. Today's post concerns one of those wire stories,which ran in the feature section as "10 simple things you can do today to improve your life."

Number 3 on the list is "Put one foot in front of the other." It's a plug for exercise, specifically for walking, which I am in favor of, and advocates getting a pedometer to measure your steps. We're all supposed to walk 10,000 steps a day. I'm good with that. But halfway through the item I came to this sentence:

Those in the obese range usually take between 4,600 and 6,000 steps a day, overweight people walk 6,000 to 7,000 steps a day, and those of normal weight tally 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day.

Where to begin: With the idea that anyone who's not overweight is "of normal weight"? (Since when is being underweight normal?) Or with the random declaration that obese people walk no more than 6,000 steps a day?

I've worn a pedometer, and I've typically taken between 7500 and 9,000 steps a day. I have to make a conscious effort to reach 10,000 steps a day, it's true, but according to this article, since my BMI is in the obese category, I should be more of a couch potato.

It's just another example of how silly these kinds of "health" stories can be. And as a member of the media myself, I really shouldn't get exercised (pun intended) about ridiculous things like this. But I do. Because every one of these stories underlines, subtly or overtly, our cultural attitudes and assumptions about fat people, and so leads to more fat prejudice and stereotyping.

And there's already plenty of that to go around.

Anti-fatism up close and personal

My experience last night with the shock jock from Philly reminded me of an experience I had as a child. I went to an elementary school where we spoke English in the morning and Hebrew in the afternoon, and where pretty much everyone I knew was Jewish. My parents talked a lot about anti-Semitism, but I never encountered it.

Until I entered 7th grade at the local junior high, and one day, as I walked down the hall, a group of laughing 8th graders showered me with pennies and shouted, "Run for the pennies, kike!"

I was so naive I was more puzzled than upset. What was a kike? I didn't even know.

Once I found out, the waves of shame and humiliation took a long time to diminish.

That's how last night's radio show was for me--really the first time I've encountered fatism in such a virulent form, especially as followed up by a commenter this morning. (Alex from Philly, don't even bother. You'll be deleted and go straight to troll hell.) It's hard to take it in when you meet up with such hatred, whether it's based on the color of your skin, your religion, or the size of your waist.

Years after that day in junior high, I realized what's at the heart of all such prejudice and hatred: self-loathing.

If I were a more generous person, I'd feel compassion for all those who spew mindless hatred because they're secretly afraid they themselves don't measure up, because they hate themselves. But you know what? I'm not feeling particularly generous today, so I'll leave it at "I hope you get yourself some help."

Please tell me this isn't happening . . .

At least one health insurer (and probably others) will actually be docking your paycheck if your BMI is over 30, starting in 2009.

The article's headline reads "Being Unhealthy Could Cost You--Money," but of course it should have read "Being Fat Can Cost You--Money." And that's on top of it costing you so many other things--the right to adopt a child, a seat on an airplane, a job. . . .

I wish I were a lawyer so I could start researching all the ways in which this is illegal. A nice big lawsuit--maybe a class action suit--might nip this repulsive idea in the bud.




**Thanks to BFB for posting on this first.

The fat wars and eating disorders

I was going to post this as a comment to the last post, but I feel it needs its own thread here.

I'm so sick of hearing that "eating disorders affect a tiny percentage of the population, but obesity kills thousands."

There is ample evidence that obesity does not kill anywhere near the numbers originally released by the CDC. But that's not where I want to go with this today. Even if it were true, this attitude makes me sick. It's like saying, "Losing a few people to e.d.s is worth it, if the rest of the fatties shape up and lose weight."

As some of you know, my daughter almost died of anorexia, an eating disorder that has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric illness--up to 20%. It's true that diagnosed eating disorders affect only a small percentage of the population—but they are a very real and very significant problem. Especially if it's your child, your niece, your best friend's daughter.

The argument over whether fat is unhealthy or not is not merely an exercise in fat-bashing and prejudice. If it were, well, as someone said earlier, we could indulge in it until the amusement factor wore off and then be done with it. But there are real, heart-breaking consequences to this. And one is that we are now seeing an unbelievably rabid set of anti-fat messages directed at a vulnerable population: kids ages 8-15. Middle school is a time when just about every kid is horribly self-conscious about bodies to begin with. It's also the average age of onset for eating disorders--in the 13 to 15 range. I think we're going to see a rise in anorexia and bulimia as a direct consequence of this messaging. Anecdotally, I know of many families (including my own) whose eager-to-please children started trying to "eat healthy" in middle school and for a variety of reasons (including genetics) went too far and wound up with AN or BN. For those who are susceptible, this kind of pressure will certainly trigger eating disorders.

So this isn't an academic exercise. There is and will continue to be a very real fallout from the "just eat healthy" messaging. Children, families, and adults will suffer. If you've never really known someone with an eating disorder, let me say that you have NO IDEA how much that person suffers. And not just that person, but their family, and friends. Having anorexia is like living with a demon inside you that torments you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There is no vacation from e.d.s. They take over your life. You have no life outside them.

And too many of these sufferers will die. Yes, die from eating disorders. And these young women and men are not negligible. They're not collateral damage in (yet another) stupid, ill-advised, mismanaged war. They are our daughters and sons. And I say, enough.

The war on fat, in someone else's words

I won't say where I found this, but this post was written in response to someone raising the question of whether, perhaps, obesity might not be a completely evil phenomenon:

"Obesity is unhealthy. There is no doubt about it. It increases the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes (and subsequent problems with high blood pressure, kidney disease, and major foot problems, including multiple surgeries and amputations), stroke (partly secondary to the high blood pressure), arthritis (from the sheer weight on the joints), plus other medical and psychological problems. When it is also combined with smoking, which it often is, there is even more disaster.

It is a huge expense to society to have so many obese people with their medical problems. It is a preventable disease. People just need to eat less and exercise. They need more self-control.

To flaunt it as a nonpreventable problem is just not true. What has changed during the past 50 years is that people eat more and move less. Obese people want respect for their eating problems and acceptance. I think that as long as other people are able to control themselves and discipline themselves to exercise, then there will be contempt for those that cannot.

Also, I think that a lot of people resent the high cost of obesity. Health care would be a lot less if people just didn't eat double bacon cheeseburgers, fries and a Coke, then go out for ice cream or beer, and then sit and watch TV (or drink more beer, which has a lot of calories.)

Personally, I resent so much money being spent for accomodations and gastric stapling/bypass surgery because people want to gorge themselves constantly with fatty food!"

It's rare to see so many misconceptions and such hatred right out there in the open. Next you'll be telling us that fat people are responsible for global warming.

Personally, I resent the millions of dollars being wasted on ill-directed and ineffective "wellness" campaigns in schools and offices. And I resent the hell out of the ignorant assumptions behind your words.

So I'm going to exercise tremendous self-restraint (and you know how hard self-restraint is for a fat person!) and recommend that you educate yourself rather than simply parrot the anti-obesity rhetoric of our time. Start by reading Gina Kolata's new book, Rethinking Thin. Kolata is a well-respected New York Times science writer. She is also, if it matters to you--and I think it does--a thin person.

Then I'd suggest reading a little Paul Campos--he's also a thin person, though formerly fat. Then read this post at Kate Harding's fantastic blog.

Then come back and tell me how you feel about fat.

PETA's fat-hating frenzy

The folks over at PETA have a gripe with filmmaker Michael Moore: they want him to make a documentary about animal rights.

That's cool. But the way they go about airing their gripe--very uncool.

The president of PETA, Ingrid Newkirk, wrote an open letter to Moore last week, which was publicized on PETA's blog. In it, Newkirk urges Moore to go vegetarian:

"Although we think that your film could actually help reform America’s sorely inadequate health care system, there’s an elephant in the room, and it is you. With all due respect, no one can help but notice that a weighty health issue is affecting you personally. We’d like to help you fix that. Going vegetarian is an easy and life-saving step that people of all economic backgrounds can take in order to become less reliant on the government’s shoddy healthcare system, and it’s something that you and all Americans can benefit from personally.”

PETA's blog goes on to say, "The idea is that if people didn't make themselves unhealthy in the first place by eating meat products that are known to cause heart disease, high blood pressure, and strokes, the situation would easier for everyone. As Ingrid puts it, 'Yes, America’s health care system needs to be fixed, but personal responsibility is a big part of why people look and feel as ill as they do.'"

Take that, Michael Moore! It's YOUR fault if you get sick—and so is the whole crappy health care system in America!

Hoo-wee! It's great to feel powerful, isn't it?

Note to Ingrid Newkirk: Go have a doughnut or something.

How cliches hurt us

What do the obesity epidemic, anorexia nation, and healthy eating all have in common?

They're all cliches, code phrases created by the media. And by "the media" I mean not only the Gray Lady and the Sly Network but small local newspapers, big national magazines, and--oh, yeah--those of us who write and blog about these subjects.

Each of these code phrases contains layers and levels of meaning that never get unpacked. They're like cue balls careening around a pool table, knocking all the other balls out of their way.

When you read the words "the obesity epidemic," you are, in essence, being told what to think and how to think it when it comes to the issue of overweight in America. The phrase itself shapes the way you think about it. If the language were different--if the issue was framed in another way--you might think about it differently.

And this is where I hold the media, and all of us, accountable for the superficial and slick way these deeply important subjects are framed and discarded. Each time yo say the words "the obesity epidemic," you're validating the notion that the nation is in the grip of a contagious pandemic of overweight. If that's what you truly think, you're all set. (I'd like to argue the point. But that's another post.)

But chances are it's not really what you think or what you mean to say. But each time you use that code phrase, you're buying in to someone else's conception of the dialogue. You're letting yourself be co-opted.

It's hard to unpack these code phrases. It's even harder to go against the mainstream, to question the conventional wisdom, to challenge the status quo. But more and more, I think it's crucial that we do exactly that. So next time you find one of these cliches or code phrases flying out of your mouth or tripping off your fingers, take a minute, or five, to consider what you really think. Then say it in your own words.

I'll start: I think the idea of an obesity epidemic is a sadly unimaginative construct that has little or nothing to do with reality. It's a cover for institutionalized prejudice against overweight people, a trigger for eating disorders, and a big waste of our collective time and energy.

Your turn.