why was I optimistic?

[sebastienne]

Headline on the BBC website: "NHS should use term fat instead of obese, says minister"
sebastienne: Yay! Recognition that pathologising our bodies based only on their appearance is damaging! Maybe now we can get back to "evidence-based medicine" that's based on decent science, rather than prejudice?
Article on the BBC website: "Anne Milton told the BBC the term fat was more likely to motivate them into losing weight."
sebastienne: Huh?
Article on the BBC website:"She said too many staff working in the NHS were worried about using the term, but suggested it could help encourage "personal responsibility". "At the end of the day, you cannot do it for them. People have to have the information," she added."
sebastienne: So not only are fat people inherently unhealthy (correlation is not causation, people), we're all so stupid that we don't know that we're fat?
Article on the BBC website:"Professor Lindsey Davies, president of the UK Faculty of Public Health, warned against using 'fat' when dealing with patients. "People don't want to be offensive. There is a lot of stigma to being a fat person.""
sebastienne: There is also a lot of stigma to being a gay person. Gay is frequently used as an insult. So I guess we should call them all "homosexuals" to avoid offense, huh? Because medicalising people without their consent is so much better than allowing them to self-identify.

I feel stupid now. Not as stupid as Anne Milton apparently thinks I am - I do know that I am fat, after all, a lifetime of bullying, street heckling, government misinformation and inability to buy nice clothes have not passed me by - but I have no idea why I was optimistic when I saw a headline with the word "obese" in it. Or, for that matter, "minister".

Comments

[steerpikelet.livejournal.com]

Oh my god - I interviewed Anne Milton last year, she's awful. Not only awful but clearly seriously underweight - suspect a diet fascist and/or actually eating disordered. Which is sad for her, but, you know, NO.

[grignoter.livejournal.com]

I'd go with ED if this quote has not been out-of-contexted by the Beeb: Ms Milton, who stressed she was speaking in a personal capacity, said: "If I look in the mirror and think I am obese I think I am less worried [than] if I think I am fat."

I'm also kind of bemused that she doesn't think there's that much stigma attached to the term "obese"

[ayaron.livejournal.com]

:O(

[foreverdirt.livejournal.com]

I had exactly the same reaction as you to that headline. :( I hate that the truth did not live up to that shining moment of hope.

[threadbarewolf.livejournal.com]

http://bitchmagazine.org/post/size-matters-im-not-fat-im-big-boned