Welfare Warriors
Winter 2006
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Winter
2006
Mama's Health News
Fight Against Fat Prejudice
People often hide their fat prejudice under the guise of a concern for health. Yet anorexia is a far more dangerous disease than obesity! It is certainly a more risky and immediate danger.
10 suggestions for people suffering from fat phobia
1. Turn off “Oprah” and go to the library.
2. Check out the following books: Shadow on a Tightrope, edited by Lisa Schoenfelder and Barb Weiser (Aunt Lute, 1983); Losing It: False Hopes and Fat Profits in the Diet Industry by Laura Fraser (Dutton, 1997; Big Fat Lies by Glen Gaesser, Ph.D (Ballantine, 1996); Fat!So? by Marilyn Wann (Ten Speed, 1998). If your library doesn’t have them, request them, or order them from a women’s bookstore.
3. Read these books.
4. Also read the 1/1/1998 editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine: “Losing Weight: An Ill-Fated New Year’s Resolution” by Jerome Kassirer and Marcia Angell.
5. In light of what you’ve learned, rethink your beliefs about the “intelligent discussion of obesity.”
6. Never, ever use the word “obese” again.
7. Stop feeling superior (or inferior!) to other women based on your body size.
8. Meditate on the fact that a woman’s body size tells you absolutely nothing about her physical, emotional, intellectual, or psychological condition.
9. Work to understand that a great deal of money is made by frightening women about our health. Work to understand that comparatively little money changes hands when women love and nourish our-selves, feel secure in our bodies, and resist scare tactics commonly employed. Work to understand that these facts have a great deal to do with the widespread promotion of the beliefs and attitudes many of us currently hold.
10. Join me in anticipating the day when a fat woman on the cover of a publication does not generate even one fat-hating letter in response.
Amy
Winter
Gardiner, ME