Thursday, April 09, 2009
Christina Patterson, presumably desperate to fill out her column for a week, launches a vile and unprovoked attack on NHS nurses for their all being huge overweight trolls in the Indy.
I'm sitting reading a book when a gargantuan creature comes lumbering over, and marches me to what might or might not be a scaffold. After a few adjustments... the creature nods.
The creature is, of course, a nurse and yes, my BMI is OK. Hers, however, is not. But we are not here to measure her BMI...
Other normal-sized friends have been told by giant doctors that they are fat... Because it is surreal, I'm afraid, to be lectured on your weight by someone whose mass of accumulated adipose tissue is considerably greater than yours.
No one expects nurses to look like supermodels, or lap dancers, or air hostesses, or even like anything that might ever have inspired an erotic fantasy... but you don't expect them all to look like Hattie Jacques either. And at least Hattie Jacques knew how to smile. You might, however, reasonably expect the custodians of the nation's health not to look as though they were about to consume the GDP of Iceland in medication for diabetes, and you might expect the custodians of the nation's health to at least have glanced at some of the leaflets on obesity they so lugubriously hand out.
Between this, their hysterical about-face on the legalisation of Cannabis and their continued employment of Deborah 'immigrant homosexuals follow me around to have gay sex in front of my children' Orr it does seem this once great paper is now slowly trying to position itself as the broadsheet Daily Mail.
I'm sitting reading a book when a gargantuan creature comes lumbering over, and marches me to what might or might not be a scaffold. After a few adjustments... the creature nods.
The creature is, of course, a nurse and yes, my BMI is OK. Hers, however, is not. But we are not here to measure her BMI...
Other normal-sized friends have been told by giant doctors that they are fat... Because it is surreal, I'm afraid, to be lectured on your weight by someone whose mass of accumulated adipose tissue is considerably greater than yours.
No one expects nurses to look like supermodels, or lap dancers, or air hostesses, or even like anything that might ever have inspired an erotic fantasy... but you don't expect them all to look like Hattie Jacques either. And at least Hattie Jacques knew how to smile. You might, however, reasonably expect the custodians of the nation's health not to look as though they were about to consume the GDP of Iceland in medication for diabetes, and you might expect the custodians of the nation's health to at least have glanced at some of the leaflets on obesity they so lugubriously hand out.
Between this, their hysterical about-face on the legalisation of Cannabis and their continued employment of Deborah 'immigrant homosexuals follow me around to have gay sex in front of my children' Orr it does seem this once great paper is now slowly trying to position itself as the broadsheet Daily Mail.
Labels: fat, fatism, journalists, NHS, The Independent
Monday, October 13, 2008
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Mississippi is considering banning restaurants from serving fat people.
I called lead author, Rep[resentative W.T. Mayhall Junior], and asked if this was serious legislation or tongue-in-cheek to make a point. He kindly took a moment to answer my question while the legislature was in session. He said that while, regrettably, he doesn’t believe his bill will pass, this is serious.
[via Shapely Prose]
I called lead author, Rep[resentative W.T. Mayhall Junior], and asked if this was serious legislation or tongue-in-cheek to make a point. He kindly took a moment to answer my question while the legislature was in session. He said that while, regrettably, he doesn’t believe his bill will pass, this is serious.
[via Shapely Prose]
Labels: fat, fatism, health, United States
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Obesity might not be as bad for our health as assumed.
Only this month a study, led by Katherine Flegal of the USA Centre for Disease Control, reported that those who are overweight had no higher risk dying of cancer or heart disease and overall lived longer than those of "normal" weight. You might be surprised at her finding but she was not. "There is actually a large amount of evidence that suggests that the overweight live the longest," she says... a recent study by Cancer Research UK reported that 6,000 women a year get cancer because of obesity. But look closer at the detail of the report and you find an unreported story. This research also found the overweight are no more likely to die of cancer than the slim. "Overall there is no evidence of a strong increase in risk in being overweight, but there is evidence of a significant increase for people who are obese," says Doctor Gillian Reeves, who led the study.
I'd also draw your attention to this post by Lord Stephen of Fryingtonshire. Patrick and Kevin, as my only United Statesian readers, is Stephen right when he describes the difference between British and American debate styles, at least the USian side of it? It would certainly explain half of the arguments I've had with Americans in the past. The other half were due to being drunk.
Only this month a study, led by Katherine Flegal of the USA Centre for Disease Control, reported that those who are overweight had no higher risk dying of cancer or heart disease and overall lived longer than those of "normal" weight. You might be surprised at her finding but she was not. "There is actually a large amount of evidence that suggests that the overweight live the longest," she says... a recent study by Cancer Research UK reported that 6,000 women a year get cancer because of obesity. But look closer at the detail of the report and you find an unreported story. This research also found the overweight are no more likely to die of cancer than the slim. "Overall there is no evidence of a strong increase in risk in being overweight, but there is evidence of a significant increase for people who are obese," says Doctor Gillian Reeves, who led the study.
I'd also draw your attention to this post by Lord Stephen of Fryingtonshire. Patrick and Kevin, as my only United Statesian readers, is Stephen right when he describes the difference between British and American debate styles, at least the USian side of it? It would certainly explain half of the arguments I've had with Americans in the past. The other half were due to being drunk.
Labels: fat, fatism, health, Stephen Fry, United Kingdom, United States
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Does exercise really make you thin? Admittedly, I'm putting on weight because, while I've cut out snaking on sweets and sugary drinks, I'm probably having bigger meals to compensate. Oh well, you win some...
Friday, October 05, 2007
Kate Harding has organised a Flickr set to show that the BMI standards aren't really that useful.
Labels: fat
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Maybe Patrick can't help being prejudiced against the overweight, it may be a malfunctioning immune response.
However, at least Patrick is not as bad as my mother, who feeds me lots of delicious food and then complains about how fat I am. Going to the wedding helped, as we met up with some of my cousins, one of whom is reaching James Galdofini proportions, while apparently having no links with the South London mafia.
However, at least Patrick is not as bad as my mother, who feeds me lots of delicious food and then complains about how fat I am. Going to the wedding helped, as we met up with some of my cousins, one of whom is reaching James Galdofini proportions, while apparently having no links with the South London mafia.
Labels: fat, fatism, health, personal history
Monday, July 23, 2007
Subconsciously or not, it's easier for the audience to laugh at the fat person if they know that the actor underneath is actually trim. Eddie Murphy in "The Nutty Professor" remakes; Julia Roberts in "America's Sweetheart"; Martin Lawrence in "Big Momma's House"... But to the overweight person sitting in the audience, the experience must be similar to a black person watching an old blackface minstrel show. When the character is presented as mean-spiritedly as Mike Myers' Fat Bastard character from the "Austin Powers" movies or scary-thin Courteney Cox-Arquette's Fat Monica from flashback episodes of "Friends," it becomes outright torture.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Big Links/ I for one welcome our chubby overlords...
From the comments to this entry (reposted here before they drop off the bottom of my Haloscan account):
Patrick: Please God, no.
Me: Body fascist!
Patrick: Look, I don't make the rules. I just enforce them.
Jon B: No: You reinforce what society preaches by giving in to what they tell you is attractive, even though through history, the larger figure has been known to be attracted and desired. It's not a rule: It's fascism.
Of course why would anyone expect a skinny fuck like myself to know such a thing?
Dylan: I'm with you JonB. I think most men would admit to wanting a softer woman with more jiggle, if their mates weren't listening. You can't tell me this photograph isn't dead sexy. http://adipositivity.my-expressions.com/archives/9478_1745602162/237191
Patrick: Actually, that picture is hideous and I do not think I'd say otherwise if I were straight. Beyond its mere unattractiveness there is the issue of health.
You reinforce what society preaches by giving in to what they tell you is attractive
Why waste so much energy on trying to distinguish yourself physically from the masses? Just eat well and exercise regularly and worry about your insides a little (the mind and the soul). You'll find that that it was really throws people off; someone who looks like they "fit in" but as soon as they express an opinion they are immediately found to be truly different than the crowd. It's like clobbering them over the head and it is great fun.
Jon B: Actually, that picture is hideous and I do not think I'd say otherwise if I were straight. Beyond its mere unattractiveness there is the issue of health.
-Giving into society once again. You fail to realize that:
A. Obesity is not synonymous with being unhealthy. It's a risk factor, and it can worsen certain conditions. It's also been proven in many studies that while the obese have a higher risk factor, they are less likely to die from certain diseaes (As in getting Diabetes, but having a lower fatality rate while getting it).
B. If you sit around eating shit, refusing to exercise, and you're still thin, you will die before someone who is large that has a better lifestyle. Science has proven that notion on many occasions. It's what you do, not how much you weigh. What a concept. I'm so glad I don't misinterpret what the data says.
-I like distingushing myself from society. Society doesn't tell me what I find attractive, and I am not going to let it. It's amazing what you can achieve when the picture of beauty on a magazine isn't something that defines what you find alluring. You, however, proudly display your prejudice ways, and insinuate that because you find it unattractive, you can speak for the human race. Thank god that's inaccurate on your part.
I'm sorry I find curves or more attractive. Most men would agree that they are attractive, and some would also agree with me that not liking curves is closer to being less straight than liking them. I don't hate thin women, but do you honestly think everyone likes a woman like... ohh...Nicole Richie?
Why waste so much energy on trying to distinguish yourself physically from the masses? Just eat well and exercise regularly and worry about your insides a little (the mind and the soul). You'll find that that it was really throws people off; someone who looks like they "fit in" but as soon as they express an opinion they are immediately found to be truly different than the crowd. It's like clobbering them over the head and it is great fun.
- The movements aligned to this aren't demanding people eat unhealthy and not exercise. They actually ADVOCATE a healthy lifestyle.
I think you tried pulling that weight card on me when I gladly said I was a skinny fuck. Are you running out of attack points Mr. Weight Bigot?
I don't know what Patrick's issues are, quite why he's so vehement that being fat is bad or why he seems determined to sit in the corner that people are fat only because they eat too much and exercise too little and that overweight equals unhealthy, I hope he doesn't expound on that in the hearing of any rugby players or Olympic hammer-throwers.
I've been meaning to link to this post I found via the Big Fat Deal blog, which talks about how a sizeable proportion of post-teen Americans think obesity is a greater threat to public health than drink or drugs. I suspect that this is really about the perception of the plump, fat kids getting bullied at school, the cool kids smoking behind the bike sheds.
Hey there, mainstream media? JOKE’S OVER. Young people believe inhaling poison causes fewer problems than being fat. THIS IS NOT OKAY.
Then there's an article from yesterday's Times, Why I love getting to grips with a fat man. It's especially nice to see a woman talking about her love of Big Handsome Men, as on the few occasions that the mainstream media go anywhere near this area it's all about weedy men and Big Beautiful Women.
Working through comics-related links I find the Fat Wonder Woman blog, dedicated to artist's renditions of a plus-sized Wonder Woman. Some are nicer than others, and the specificity of Wonder Woman over other super-heroines seems a little odd but it's all part of the wonderful tapestry of life.
Then, finally, there's an article I came across from the Village Voice about big lesbians. A study has just been released saying that lesbians are more likely to be overweight than straight women, but as yet no-one can explain why that might be.
What I do wonder about is how, if supposedly the western world is slowly getting fatter, it's taking so long for our media to catch up. Sure, there are exceptions, from what I've heard The Gossip are are a depressingly average, almost mediocre, band, but would I even know they existed if not for their plus-sized front woman Beth Ditto, having a great year after the NME threw aside their fear of girls to make her their coolest person in rock? But the faces we see on the small and large screens are mostly gamine, is Norbit bad because it relies on the idea that a woman being fat is automatically hilarious? When are we going to have a thriller where it's the fat bloke who saves the world? When are we going to see our culture reflecting our own jowly faces and jiggling bellies back at us, rather than frantically going further in the opposite direction, if size 0 is unattainable for most people when are people going to start feeling comfortable in the bodies they're in?
Patrick: Please God, no.
Me: Body fascist!
Patrick: Look, I don't make the rules. I just enforce them.
Jon B: No: You reinforce what society preaches by giving in to what they tell you is attractive, even though through history, the larger figure has been known to be attracted and desired. It's not a rule: It's fascism.
Of course why would anyone expect a skinny fuck like myself to know such a thing?
Dylan: I'm with you JonB. I think most men would admit to wanting a softer woman with more jiggle, if their mates weren't listening. You can't tell me this photograph isn't dead sexy. http://adipositivity.my-expressions.com/archives/9478_1745602162/237191
Patrick: Actually, that picture is hideous and I do not think I'd say otherwise if I were straight. Beyond its mere unattractiveness there is the issue of health.
You reinforce what society preaches by giving in to what they tell you is attractive
Why waste so much energy on trying to distinguish yourself physically from the masses? Just eat well and exercise regularly and worry about your insides a little (the mind and the soul). You'll find that that it was really throws people off; someone who looks like they "fit in" but as soon as they express an opinion they are immediately found to be truly different than the crowd. It's like clobbering them over the head and it is great fun.
Jon B: Actually, that picture is hideous and I do not think I'd say otherwise if I were straight. Beyond its mere unattractiveness there is the issue of health.
-Giving into society once again. You fail to realize that:
A. Obesity is not synonymous with being unhealthy. It's a risk factor, and it can worsen certain conditions. It's also been proven in many studies that while the obese have a higher risk factor, they are less likely to die from certain diseaes (As in getting Diabetes, but having a lower fatality rate while getting it).
B. If you sit around eating shit, refusing to exercise, and you're still thin, you will die before someone who is large that has a better lifestyle. Science has proven that notion on many occasions. It's what you do, not how much you weigh. What a concept. I'm so glad I don't misinterpret what the data says.
-I like distingushing myself from society. Society doesn't tell me what I find attractive, and I am not going to let it. It's amazing what you can achieve when the picture of beauty on a magazine isn't something that defines what you find alluring. You, however, proudly display your prejudice ways, and insinuate that because you find it unattractive, you can speak for the human race. Thank god that's inaccurate on your part.
I'm sorry I find curves or more attractive. Most men would agree that they are attractive, and some would also agree with me that not liking curves is closer to being less straight than liking them. I don't hate thin women, but do you honestly think everyone likes a woman like... ohh...Nicole Richie?
Why waste so much energy on trying to distinguish yourself physically from the masses? Just eat well and exercise regularly and worry about your insides a little (the mind and the soul). You'll find that that it was really throws people off; someone who looks like they "fit in" but as soon as they express an opinion they are immediately found to be truly different than the crowd. It's like clobbering them over the head and it is great fun.
- The movements aligned to this aren't demanding people eat unhealthy and not exercise. They actually ADVOCATE a healthy lifestyle.
I think you tried pulling that weight card on me when I gladly said I was a skinny fuck. Are you running out of attack points Mr. Weight Bigot?
I don't know what Patrick's issues are, quite why he's so vehement that being fat is bad or why he seems determined to sit in the corner that people are fat only because they eat too much and exercise too little and that overweight equals unhealthy, I hope he doesn't expound on that in the hearing of any rugby players or Olympic hammer-throwers.
I've been meaning to link to this post I found via the Big Fat Deal blog, which talks about how a sizeable proportion of post-teen Americans think obesity is a greater threat to public health than drink or drugs. I suspect that this is really about the perception of the plump, fat kids getting bullied at school, the cool kids smoking behind the bike sheds.
Hey there, mainstream media? JOKE’S OVER. Young people believe inhaling poison causes fewer problems than being fat. THIS IS NOT OKAY.
Then there's an article from yesterday's Times, Why I love getting to grips with a fat man. It's especially nice to see a woman talking about her love of Big Handsome Men, as on the few occasions that the mainstream media go anywhere near this area it's all about weedy men and Big Beautiful Women.
Working through comics-related links I find the Fat Wonder Woman blog, dedicated to artist's renditions of a plus-sized Wonder Woman. Some are nicer than others, and the specificity of Wonder Woman over other super-heroines seems a little odd but it's all part of the wonderful tapestry of life.
Then, finally, there's an article I came across from the Village Voice about big lesbians. A study has just been released saying that lesbians are more likely to be overweight than straight women, but as yet no-one can explain why that might be.
What I do wonder about is how, if supposedly the western world is slowly getting fatter, it's taking so long for our media to catch up. Sure, there are exceptions, from what I've heard The Gossip are are a depressingly average, almost mediocre, band, but would I even know they existed if not for their plus-sized front woman Beth Ditto, having a great year after the NME threw aside their fear of girls to make her their coolest person in rock? But the faces we see on the small and large screens are mostly gamine, is Norbit bad because it relies on the idea that a woman being fat is automatically hilarious? When are we going to have a thriller where it's the fat bloke who saves the world? When are we going to see our culture reflecting our own jowly faces and jiggling bellies back at us, rather than frantically going further in the opposite direction, if size 0 is unattainable for most people when are people going to start feeling comfortable in the bodies they're in?
Labels: BBW (Big Beautiful Women), BHM (Big Handsome Men), blogs, comics, fat, fatism, health, lesbian
Sunday, June 24, 2007
The Adipositivity Project aims to promote size acceptance, not by listing the merits of big people, or detailing examples of excellence (these things are easily seen all around us), but rather, through a visual display of fat physicality. The sort that's normally unseen. The hope is to widen definitions of physical beauty. Literally.
I'm torn whether to continue Nirpal Dhaliwal watch now he and Liz Jones have split up. I'm way behind in my keeping up anyway, but in the meantime another outing for that photo of Liz Jones with a horse and the news that she will now refer to Nirps as 'the Fat Sportswear-Clad Nobody'.
I'm torn whether to continue Nirpal Dhaliwal watch now he and Liz Jones have split up. I'm way behind in my keeping up anyway, but in the meantime another outing for that photo of Liz Jones with a horse and the news that she will now refer to Nirps as 'the Fat Sportswear-Clad Nobody'.
Labels: fat, journalists, Liz Jones, Nirpal Dhaliwal
Thursday, March 08, 2007
AMERICA IS DEAD! Don't worry, he'll probably walk out of the shower before the story ends.
The Daily Mail has been reading Isaac Asimov, Robots to be programmed with 'code of morals' so they won't attack humans, and 'prominent off/on switches' that will be all that stand between us and horrible T2-style destruction.
The Guardian has an interview with the Modified Toy Orchestra. The album is worth getting and can be ordered here.
The news of a woman being repeatedly punched while being subdued by police is worrying, though if the woman does have epilepsy and did have an attack right after drunk and disorderly with police then it's understandable that they might not have realised, but surely 'punching someone in the head or neck until they stop struggling' isn't in the police manual as an acceptable method of getting someone to stop struggling, especially when she's one woman and there are three men sitting on you?
Lord Levy has only five hours to live! Well all right, the Government are worried that he's going to implode, which I presume means they are worried that he's going to tell police stuff that he hasn't told them in two interviews under caution. What's rather annoying is that there's now a strand of the story starting to come out that this has nothing to do with whether he did anything illegal but because he's Jewish. I could have some sympathy for Levy if it wasn't for the fact that since his first interview last year his every utterance upon the subject has given the impression that he feels that now he's a lord he should have immunity from prosecution whether he committed any crimes or not. And to suggest that the party fundraiser shouldn't be closely scrutinised in an investigation into party fundraising seems crazier than Tony Blair telling me that ID Cards will help fight terrorism.
The Scum and Mirror have also run a number of small stories on Beth Ditto in the last few days. Her lesbianism has been overlooked, probably on the grounds that she's a fat lass, which has been what they've concentrated on. One of the last acceptable prejudices?
The Daily Mail has been reading Isaac Asimov, Robots to be programmed with 'code of morals' so they won't attack humans, and 'prominent off/on switches' that will be all that stand between us and horrible T2-style destruction.
The Guardian has an interview with the Modified Toy Orchestra. The album is worth getting and can be ordered here.
The news of a woman being repeatedly punched while being subdued by police is worrying, though if the woman does have epilepsy and did have an attack right after drunk and disorderly with police then it's understandable that they might not have realised, but surely 'punching someone in the head or neck until they stop struggling' isn't in the police manual as an acceptable method of getting someone to stop struggling, especially when she's one woman and there are three men sitting on you?
Lord Levy has only five hours to live! Well all right, the Government are worried that he's going to implode, which I presume means they are worried that he's going to tell police stuff that he hasn't told them in two interviews under caution. What's rather annoying is that there's now a strand of the story starting to come out that this has nothing to do with whether he did anything illegal but because he's Jewish. I could have some sympathy for Levy if it wasn't for the fact that since his first interview last year his every utterance upon the subject has given the impression that he feels that now he's a lord he should have immunity from prosecution whether he committed any crimes or not. And to suggest that the party fundraiser shouldn't be closely scrutinised in an investigation into party fundraising seems crazier than Tony Blair telling me that ID Cards will help fight terrorism.
The Scum and Mirror have also run a number of small stories on Beth Ditto in the last few days. Her lesbianism has been overlooked, probably on the grounds that she's a fat lass, which has been what they've concentrated on. One of the last acceptable prejudices?
Labels: cash for peerages, comics, ethics, fat, Labour, music, news, police, politics, robots
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Hot Fuzz is chuffing excellent . I went and saw it this afternoon and I've still got a silly grin on my face. It takes the buddy-cop movie and twists it around nicely to fit into a parochial village setting, as supercop Nick Angel is sent to a small village just before a series of murders occur. It improves on the mighty Shaun of the Dead as it's less Spaced with zombies and tries to spread it's wings a bit further. Simon Pegg is great as Angel and Nick Frost shows excellent comic timing as his sweet bumbling sidekick PC Butterman, while the great and good of British cinema (Timothy Dalton, Billie Whitelaw, Jim Broadbent, Bill Nighy) play a variety of small village characters. It has loads of little jokes and sight gags, before the inevitable "fuck yeah!" high-octane climax. Like Shaun of the Dead it's a humorous film that's not directly parodying it's genre but playing it relatively straight.
The only unfortunate thing about going to see the film was that first I had to sit through an advert for Norbit which, if there is any justice in the world, will continue the long line of stinkers that Eddie Murphy has spent the last decade or so producing. He plays both a nerdy black man and his fiance and all of the comedy in the film looks like it's going to come from the fact that she's a sexually assertive woman who is also fat. < gasp! > Norbet has to work out how to get rid of the monster so to be with the thin and beautiful woman instead. You have to wonder why, when obesity levels in the US and UK are rising, these fat-phobic films get made, and what appear to be openly misogynistic ones too. Obviously the film makers are disconnected from reality but where do the viewers come from, people in denial, or is it a nation of fatties able to completely disconnect what is said on screen from what it says about them?
The only unfortunate thing about going to see the film was that first I had to sit through an advert for Norbit which, if there is any justice in the world, will continue the long line of stinkers that Eddie Murphy has spent the last decade or so producing. He plays both a nerdy black man and his fiance and all of the comedy in the film looks like it's going to come from the fact that she's a sexually assertive woman who is also fat. < gasp! > Norbet has to work out how to get rid of the monster so to be with the thin and beautiful woman instead. You have to wonder why, when obesity levels in the US and UK are rising, these fat-phobic films get made, and what appear to be openly misogynistic ones too. Obviously the film makers are disconnected from reality but where do the viewers come from, people in denial, or is it a nation of fatties able to completely disconnect what is said on screen from what it says about them?
Labels: actors, Eddie Murphy, fat, Hot Fuzz, movies, Nick Frost, Shaun of the Dead, Simon Pegg, Spaced
Friday, September 22, 2006
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Grrrr...
They say cameras add ten pounds, but HP digital cameras can help reverse that effect. The slimming feature, available on select HP digital camera models, is a subtle effect that can instantly trim off pounds from the subjects in your photos!
Why not be honest?
God, our customers make us sick! You think anyone wants to see your blubbery belly on Flickr? For fucks sake, here's a widget to help encourage you to an eating disorder if you haven't had the common decency to get one already!
[via Feministing]
Why not be honest?
God, our customers make us sick! You think anyone wants to see your blubbery belly on Flickr? For fucks sake, here's a widget to help encourage you to an eating disorder if you haven't had the common decency to get one already!
[via Feministing]
Labels: fat, fatism, Hewlett Packard
