People love to talk. Blah, blah, blah. When it comes to body image, weight, size, obesity, waify models and women, everything gets lumped up together into a convenient black and white argument where fat is bad and thin is good. Ridiculous.
Thank you, Kyle Smith, of the New York Post, for writing another article to fuel the “fat is bad” argument that drives girls towards eating disorders and eating disordered behavior. Joining the ranks of stupid things people say within this realm, along with Louboutin, Karl Lagerfeld, etc, I find a number of things questionable:
“There are a lot more women “suffering from” obesity, which is prevalent in practically every demographic group, than anorexia, a scourge of school-aged upper-middle-class white girls”
Well, if that was the only comparison…
It’s not just about anorexia, is it? There are countless girls suffering from subclinical eating disorders, hating their bodies for betraying them—not conforming to the size 0 image depicted in fashion magazines. There are many girls from all different walks of life—of every size and color—thinking they aren’t thin enough, not good enough to be acceptable, to fit in, to be loved, to be worth something. It’s not just anorexia. It’s not just upper-middle-class white girls. It’s everyone.
“Tolerance is the enemy of shame. With more and more fat acceptance — like that encouraged by V — there will be more and more fat people.”
Interesting. Let’s change the argument from weight to race. Or gender. So by being tolerant of others who are different from ourselves, we sacrifice…shame? Well we certainly wouldn’t want to do THAT, would we? Shame is such a dishy commodity that allows for degradation and self loathing. So, we are again proposing to shame people into being thin? Lord in heaven, can anyone give a less overused and ugly solution?
And this morally bankrupt argument was punctuated by this self-righteous argument:
“If we can’t make them feel shame in this country, then maybe skinny models are our last resort.”
Look; I don’t much care what you weigh—or what the people in your family weigh. What I do care about is the blatant disregard for moral judgment of oneself in favor of wanton judgment of others. It’s so tiresome. I vote that we all get a grip and make a New Year’s Resolution to stop tearing down others and start working on repairing our own moral fibers. Can we commit? If so, perhaps we can leave a legacy that is less about finger pointing and shaming—and more about acceptance and…dare I say it…tolerance for differences.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Amen! I just blogged about how nice it was to watch Alec Baldwin’s face in It’s Complicated when he was looking at an older, not-size 0-Meryl Streep. As someone who has been there, done that with eating issues, I’d rather have a daughter who weighed more than “average” but truly loved herself and her body than a size 0 waif who hated her thighs.
Great post! Thanks again!
Ditto that. And Robyn, we need to chat this wkend, ‘k? Am prepping my resource guide/handout for my teen talk on 1-20 re: body image & want your ‘best of the best’ recos for ‘required reading’ & detox of this mindset for kids!
Call me when ya can…
Hold on now, someone will have to come in and refute your argument by saying that people who are of different races, genders, sexual orientations, etc. don’t choose to be that way and that fat people are all fat because they do nothing but sit around and eat. Still, people born with strong physical or mental disorders are commonly made fun of and/or pitied. Did they choose to be that way, then?
Recent studies, in fact, indicate that older patients are being seen in increasing numbers and eating disorders treatment centers have seen a significant increase in the number of patients over age 30.” One prominent treatment center, the Renfrew Center (with 11 locations across the country), reported in 2005 that as many as 20 percent of their adult eating disorder patients said they were age 30 or older when they first encountered symptoms.
Accepting each other as we are and stopping the categorizing of people because they are not exactly as others is just blame wrong. I find it interesting that in our society people feel it is ok to claim to your face “Wow, you are skinny” When never in a million years would I ever repeat those words to someone who was overweight. I have suffered with an eating disorder for 24 years, now 40, and deal with these statements regularly. It is just as shaming and degrading as it would be to someone who was overweight. There is strong scientific research showing a genetic link with eating disorders yet no one in our society, especially insurance companies, will admit it.
No one should be shamed because of their size, color, age, etc. It is a sad society we live in where young girls, as early as 5, hate their bodies. What kind of message are we sending our children?
Consider the source…The New York Post. Ranks up there in credibility with The Weekly World News and MAD Magazine. And by all means, bring on the humiliation. Perhaps we can bring back public stonings as well…