Fat hate and slut-shaming all in one day! (Part 1)

On Thursday, my respect for the Maroon Weekly and the Battalion took a nosedive. Not that these are particularly professional, tolerant, and journalistic publications. But they do occasionally get it right. And Maroon Weekly does employ my sarcastic partner, whose articles are consistently right on and hysterical. Oh man, that was a narcissistic link-fest. Feel free to ignore it.

Anyway, Thursday. I pick up both newspapers and read the Battalion first. And the FAT SHAMING COMMENCES.

Health care reform has been an issue at the forefront of many Americans’ minds for several months. With the recent passage of the health care reform bill, it seems now every American wants to join in on the conversation of what is best for the future of our health care system.

But the answer to our larger health problems cannot be fixed by a new system. America is land of the free and home of the all-you-can-eat buffet. Obesity, defined as a Body Mass Index above 30, is held responsible as a catalyst for a multitude of health problems ranging from cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancer, arthritis and Type 2 diabetes. In America, we are too fat for our own good.

I think it's really hilarious how articles like this one PRETEND that they want to talk about health care and the horrifying reality of our country, in which millions of Americans are too poor to afford health care, are being denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions (which now include being raped, being abused, and even just having been pregnant), or are becoming bankrupt over medical expenses, when what they REALLY want to talk about is OMG FATTIES. (Note, too, how the title of the article, "Swallowing the bill," and the picture included (above) dovetails neatly into the conservative rhetoric about this bill being shoved down their collective throats, making eating into a weird and disturbing rape metaphor.) What this author doesn't seem to understand is that the health care bill IS NOT JUST ABOUT FATTIES. No, really. It's not.

Still, public health is personal responsibility gone awry.

Instead of taking care of ourselves through nutritious diets and exercise like medical experts have recommended since the beginning of time, Americans are increasingly relying on the miracles of medicine to prolong our lifespan, Apparently that is a costly back-up plan.

Illnesses do happen to healthy people who eat correctly and exercise, and I’m positive enough goodwill exists in the world that many Americans would be willing to ensure these people have accessible health care. However, those who neglect to take care of themselves are becoming a burden on the rest of society, and many people are upset by this. Don’t blame the president or Congress, blame sedentary individuals who thrive on a McDonald’s diet.

WHAT. Did he just suggest that fat people don't deserve healthcare? You know when I said Toni Listi failed at humanity? Stephen Humeniuk also fails, friends. Let's do a little fat feminism 101:

1. BMI is literally the dumbest, most fucked-up way to measure health that has ever existed. And I'm considering phrenology and the humours when I say that. And I'm not the only one who thinks so. Not only does it not measure shit except your appearance, but it changes, and that change has literally created the so-called Obesity Crisis ^TM. From Feministe:

First, obesity is defined by an arbitrary measure. It changes. One reason for obesity’s increase is those changes: sometime in 1998, almost 30 million U.S. residents went to sleep chubby and woke up obese. Second, obesity itself is considered a medical condition, so it’s no surprise that fat people, whose physical being is seen as cause for treatment, incur more medical costs. But that’s not a problem with weight so much as a problem with logic.

2. Obesity is not an individual problem, it's a systemic one, but the rhetoric surrounding it is almost entirely focused on "personal responsibility." People like Hemeniuk don't want to talk about why so many Americans lead sedentary lifestyles* or eat processed crap food,** because fixing those things (making cities more walkable, reducing food advertisements to children, encouraging work places to allow their employees access to and time to use gym facilities, changing agricultural policies and helping get rid of "food deserts," etc.) is so much harder than just blaming lazy fatties.

3. The connection between mortality, disease, and obesity is tenuous at best. The lowest mortality rate is actually for folks in the "overweight" BMI range (Hey, that's mine!). Studies linking the health risks Humeniuk outlines, like heart disease and diabetes, with weight have been questioned by the most recent medical research. So the claim that fat people are a medical burden on society is bullshit.

Then Hemeniuk reaches a dangerous conclusion:

Drinking is legally deemed detrimental to the rest of society through laws penalizing drunk driving and public intoxication, so bars reserve the right not to serve those who have had too much to drink. If the same standard is applied, and unhealthy people are considered similarly detrimental to society, fast food restaurants would be cutting people off after they’ve had one cheeseburger too many. If health care is at the forefront of the American conversation, it is now an individual responsibility for each of us to take care of ourselves.

NO. This train of thought has nothing to do with "personal responsibility" or burdens on society, but with punishing fat people for the moral crime of being fat. And punishment doesn't work. From Amanda:

The notion that people are fat because we aren’t hard enough on them doesn’t gel with reality. In the real world, fat people are subject to so much social disapproval and punishment that it’s traumatizing for some. The high levels of punishment for fatness now haven’t done a damn thing to reverse the trend of growing waistlines for Americans.

Shaking your finger at people doesn't work, partly because losing weight isn't easy and simple (like Humeniuk suggests at the end of this article) and partly because shaking your finger at people has never really worked in changing their behavior, as Amanda points out:

I know I sound like a broken record on this, but the morality/disgust approach to public health issues has, so far, never worked, and so introducing it to discussions about diet, weight, and related health issues is likely to follow the pattern of history and fail miserably. Most thinking people finally figured this out with sex. Shaking a finger at people, calling their sexual desires disgusting, and telling them “just say no” hasn’t worked at all. People do much better when their desires are validated and brought out of the closet, where we can then have a non-shaming discussion about how to have both what you want sexually and be safe. It turns out that if you present it in this way, people are much more likely to feel positively about individual responsibility. We also needed to address systemic inequalities that make being safe harder to do. People who live in poverty, who have poor access to contraception and education---they subsequently have poorer health outcomes. Only be addressing the pressures on them will we get better results. This model strikes me as the only appropriate one to take when it comes to the issues of food, exercise, and related health issues.

Instead of just laying the blame uncomplicatedly on the door of fat people and demanding that they STOP BEING FAT (in a similar fashion to the "just say no" approach to sex), initiatives that actually expect to increase the health of American citizens need to address the complicated and systemic causes of obesity. Further, we need to address the fact that wanting to eat a hamburger does not make you disgusting. Eating is a morally neutral act. The sooner we become okay with that fact, the less toxic the entire conversation about health and obesity will become.

Humeniuk again:

Don’t get fit just because you want to look good in a swimsuit now. Do it so you can see your grandkids at Christmas 50 years down the road. Do it for me, do it for your neighbor and most importantly do it for America.

Again, WHAT. Does Humeniuk honestly think he has some sort of point with his high-flown rhetoric, and does he literally see no problem with arguing that dieting is a patriotic duty? For fuck's sake, it's none of your business what I do and don't eat, Stephen Humeniuk. It's also none of my neighbor's business. Or my government's. My body is not public property, and neither is anyone else's.

I was going to write about the bullshit slut-shaming I read in the Maroon Weekly on Thursday too, but this post is already long enough. I'm going to be slow about posting for the next few weeks, because I'm dangerously behind on research, but don't worry! I have all sorts of posts lined up, including slut-shaming, sexism and geekdom, and why I swear like a sailor.

*Most jobs held by Americans are necessarily sedentary, most American cities are not walkable, and thus people drive to their sedentary jobs. And after working all day, they're supposed to exercise, too? It's not impossible, of course, but we really shouldn't be blaming people who work all day for not wanting to come home and work more.

**In a discussion about Jamie Oliver's new fat-shaming show, Food Revolution, Melissa at Shakesville has this to say:

The premiere episode has absolutely zero structural critique, not even a passing comment about the reason that millions of mothers feed their kids processed foods is because it's cheap and fast, which is a pretty good solution for people who are short on money and time.

Oliver places the responsibility for unhealthful eating exclusively at the feet of the individual, seemingly without concern for the cultural dynamics that inform individual choices. The extent of the explanation provided for why someone might choose to stock their freezer with frozen pizzas is that they're lazy and/or don't know any better.

Remember those jobs I was talking about? Not only do we expect folks to go to work all day and then also go exercise, but cook real food, too. Because apparently not being fat is more important than ever fucking relaxing or having a fucking life.

UPDATE: Read part 2 here.