Fat-tastic

[sebastienne]

Dear BBC,

Do you know what, this might be the first time I've read an article about fat people on your website that hasn't made me spittingly angry. You present some actual fat lived experience, including a hint in the direction of Health at Every Size, and you do seem to talk about us as if we're human beings, rather than a statistical drain on the NHS.

However, it really isn't that big a step to realise that your own coverage of "the obesity epidemic" has lead to some of the hate your article talks about, now is it? Or, indeed, to mention the nonsense of BMI rather than to quote scare-statistics about how fat we'll all be if "no action is taken". It does somewhat implicitly undermine your point about equality and identity-politics.

And really, really, did you need to ask: "Can people control their dislike of fat people?", and talk about psychological studies like finding me disgusting is somehow innate rather than learned? (Anthropological citations available upon request.)

I was surprised by not hating Susie Orbach (author of Fat is a Feminist Issue AKA "How to diet more effectively through pseudo-feminist psychoanalysis") in this article at all. In fact I agreed with everything she was quoted as saying. Her main point, for those of you with short attention spans: I, as a fat person, am the ultimate bogeyman. Don't be naughty or you might turn into me! There's nothing worse!

Comments

[starstealingirl.livejournal.com]

It's a start, I suppose. But really, did they have to start their article with an archetypal Headless Fattie photo? In media terms, that's kind of the fatphobic move par excellence.

And while they picked a not-offensive Susie Orbach quote to outline the problem of fatphobia in this article, I'm left wondering why they neglected to contact any actual fat activists (hello, Charlotte Cooper) to make a statement. I sort of feel like trying to reframe attitudes toward fat people as a possible social issue, while failing to really show that there's, you know, a movement with activists and everything, only reinforces an image of fat people as powerless.

[lilka.livejournal.com]

You know, I've only ever seen Fat is a Feminist Issue as a spine on somebody's bookcase, and I assumed it would be about fat acceptance as a feminist issue. *sigh* Clearly this was naive of me.

And I'm glad the article's there, but I really wish that their only sidebar link wasn't to Weight Concern (http://www.weightconcern.org.uk/) ("dedicated
to fighting the UK's obesity epidemic").

[robot-mel.livejournal.com]

I thought it started quite well, until the whole "can people control their dislike of fat people" was appaling. If it had been an article on racism and they'd asked "Can people control their dislike of black people" and justified it with examples of "attractiveness" they'd be in SO much trouble.

[the-whybird.livejournal.com]

This comment has inspired me to consider a new Harry Potter reading game (it also works for New!Who, or more or less any series with significant amounts of size!fail), in which you take an episode / chapter / paragraph, replace all the body-size sterotypes/slurs with equivalent racial ones, and then gawp in shock because you're suddenly reading white supremacist propaganda from the 1950s.

[sugar-and-space.livejournal.com]

:)

[meadb.livejournal.com]

It's ridiculous that the BBC can run this article without a smidgen of self-criticism! As you say, the BBC is always squealing about Britain's Fat Epidemic and as a major news source they're definitely responsible for some of the country's fatphobia.

[anotherusedpage.livejournal.com]

Reading back issues of your journal in a fit of procrastination; commenting cos I'm interested.

I've never actually read Susie Orbach's Fat is a feminist issue, but have always vaguely assumed that her intentions were good and that it got taken over as 'just another way to diet' by, like, the media and diet industry. I had assumed that what she was trying to say was different to what people claim she said, in much the same way as Andrea Dworkin. I'm interested as to what she actually said, now, and why I was assuming that it must've been vaguely positive. If you've read her stuff, I'd love a sumary!

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

I'll admit, I gave it up after just one chapter because I was feeling so upset by it; but arguments that I recall include "secretly, you want to be fat, because it gives you an excuse for your failure" and "secretly, you want to be fat, because it means that people will judge you on your actions rather than your sexual attractiveness". I'll try to remember to dig the book out and give you some quotations tomorrow.