It’s been a while since we’ve done one of these roundups, and a lot of good stuff has been posted in the Fatosphere and elsewhere about living larger than average. So here are some of the highlights.
First up, Adios Barbie has a great interview with the fabulous Marilyn Wann, pictured above. Wann has a lot of great things to say. Here’s just one example:
There is kind of an attitude that bullying or teasing is somehow a necessary or required part of growing up. And I think that it’s just adults being fearful and cowards because this is not necessary. This is something anyone can stand up to. There is even a wonderful book by an eight-year old girl in Chicago about how she didn’t choose to be fat and she shouldn’t be teased for it. I think it’s up to all of us as human beings to stand up against hurtfulness.
One of my personal favorite blogs, Family Feeding Dynamics, has a great two-part series on food insecurity and how it affects how people eat. The second part is mostly a link to Morgan Spurlock’s experiment on living on minimum wage for thirty days… but it’s worth clicking for Katja’s concept of a really compelling potential reality show. Seriously, Katja, I think you should shop that concept to the networks. I’d totally watch that show and laugh my well-padded posterior off. Heck, if I had the money, I’d produce the sucker!
The always amazing and glorious Sleepy Dumpling at Fat Heffalump has a great essay on how dieting really affects many people in terms of both physical and mental health. The essay itself is powerful, and the comments are quite interesting, too.
Ragen at Dances With Fat has an excellent article on David Letterman’s recent fat-joke attack on Chris Christie. If you don’t like a politician, fight the politics, not the waistline. It wasn’t right when people pulled that on Bill Clinton, and it isn’t right when they do the same to Chris Christie. Believe me, if you’re talking about someone who has ever held elected office, you can find something to disagree with and make it funny. The same subject is given another excellent dressing down by the ever-awesome Red No.3. I highly recommend reading both, because they have different points to make.
Happy reading, folks! There’s a lot of great fat to chew over.
Thanks for the shout-out! It was a fascinating comment series to my blog about buying and getting food… One comment about the book about the 8 year old who didn’t ask to be fat. I looked a little into it, and the claim is that she has a medical condition that makes her fat, so therefor don’t tease her. I think the unintentional message is, some people are fat because of a medical condition, so hey, it’s not their fault, don’t tease them… others though, whoa, they are fat because they want to be, because they choose to be. I was a little troubled by the message in the book. What do you think? When folks who support GLBT rights, teasing issues argue that FA is different, the argument seems to be, being gay isn’t a choice, but being fat is, so don’t equate them. Am I off base? I have reached out to some anti-bullying groups that really push their agenda and are very vocal, when I have approached them about bullying based on weight? crickets… (that is supposed to mean, no response, just the sound of crickets chirping…)
Comment by Katja Rowell — October 2, 2011 @ 10:31 am
You’re welcome! I love your blog and hope more people will come visit you soon.
I have to say, I haven’t read the book by the eight-year-old, so I had no idea what the specific content was. Even hearing about that, while I agree the message isn’t perfect, it’s still a pretty powerful thing that such a young child took the bull by the horns and fought back. I’m with you that choice isn’t the issue. The issue is that bullying people is Just. Plain. Wrong. no matter what the impetus, no matter whether the victim has any control over why they’re being mistreated or not. I got bullied all the time in school. Some of the things that got me bullied were beyond my control (seriously, how was I supposed to make my mother not be fat? what was I supposed to do about the fact that my brother made some less than typical wardrobe choices?) and some were in my control (I, too, made some less than standard wardrobe choices, and my reading materials were often very different from those of my peers). Not one of these reasons was a good one for bullying anyone.
Bullying is wrong. Period.
That’s my take on the issue, and I stand by it.
Comment by Twistie — October 2, 2011 @ 5:23 pm
Thank you so much for the link love Twistie!
Comment by Kath — October 3, 2011 @ 12:21 am
You’re so very welcome, Kath!
Comment by Twistie — October 3, 2011 @ 12:07 pm
Ugh, I’m a NJ resident and the constant jokes about Christie drive me nuts. It’s just so petty. If you disagree with his politics, there’s LOTS of material you could use instead!
Comment by Allura — October 8, 2011 @ 10:45 am